Christmas Preparations

There are luckily a few preparations for the Christmas, which are OK to show now. We baked some gingerbread biscuits with Elf son on one Sunday morning. As usual he was eager to help, see the grin:

This is the reason.

Honestly, it's a time honoured tradition that at least 1/5 of the dough ends up eaten before its baked. It is unusually delicious and both young and old keep snatching bits from it.

I did not take any pictures of the result as my mojo left me after decorating only three biscuits. And guess what? We have already eaten all the ones we baked. There just might be more baking in the cards.

This December I have had red, polka dots and hearts on my brain, so I made these for our tree. I love how they feel in my hand. The felt was really nice to work with in this type of project as it doesn't unravel and  is easy to make to relatively small and tight forms.I found some vintage cloth covered buttons for these, which pleases me to no end.

Elf Husband gives little gifts to the ladies who work under him every Christmas. It tends to be my job to put the gift together after he has decided what type of present he would like to give. As there are 10+ people, they cannot be expensive. This year I put this together: (Angel not included)

You probably don't need any explanations really, but here are the few technical bits, which are worth sharing: The candle is raised a bit and blocked to the position with florist's oasis, which also holds the greenery. Should you use satin ribbon like me, it has tendency to slip off the pot. I solved this by rolling a bit of masking tape under the ribbon in the back and on both sides of the bow, as I didn't have any double sided tape. I tried earlier with a hemp string and that sat without help. The pine cones are held in place with a bit of steel wire stuck into them. The hearts are cotton glued on felt, edges cut with pinking scissors and the ribbon sits in between them.
I like this type of things where I can use few simple ingredients to make something nice, but not too elaborate. At Christmas time I especially love the greenery with some colour. Have you made any nice Christmas things?