Goodbye 2014... Hello 2015

Just a short post to wish you all a Happy new year and to say goodbye to 2014. We have put quite a few things off recently due to a death in the family, blogging has been one of those things but we have still been muddling through in a quiet way and we are now very much looking forward to 2015 and all the new challenges it may bring.

We still made some Christmas decorations for our home, but this year things seem to have taken a simple, more natural approach. Both my husband and I have made some Christmas baubles, complete with pyrography, from a section of an old branch.

I made this pine cone garland, another very simple, natural craft that looked so beautiful on the fireplace. I am definitely thinking of making some more of these next year.

Another one of my favourite additions this year was the snowflake mobile. My husband hung a twisted willow branch, that had been sprayed slightly with silver glitter to give it a frosty feel, in the window. We then hung snowflake decorations and crystals from it to give a feel of snow. It was very difficult to get good photos of this but it looked amazingly magical.

My husband helped the children to make these wooden snowmen using offcuts of wood, which they chose to paint. So most of the decorations we made this year had a wooden feel to them.

Well that's some of the things we have been doing at this very busy time, all that's left to do is wish you all a very Happy new year!

The 5th Anniversary is Wood!

A few days ago my wonderful husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, although we have been together much longer. If you follow us you will know that we made the decision when we first married to hand make each other a present based on the traditional gift guide each year.

This year it's wood....yes wood!... definitely a challenge for me. As my husband works with wood he had a slight advantage but I was determined to at least make something slightly presentable.

This is what I came up with, it may be very simple in construction but remember this is the first time I've worked with wood. The board is an old weather worn piece I chose for the beautiful grey colours that came through after sanding.

I fixed natural branches to the board to act as little hooks for his keys or tools and tried my hand at pyrography to get the words 'love hanging with you' along the top.

I am quite pleased with the results and quite enjoyed working with wood, I'm even thinking of some more projects.

My husband made a box frame for me to hold a very romantic piece of branch he found, which contained a heart naturally formed within the wood and added a few words of his own.

Would like to wish my husband a happy anniversary and I look forward to spending many more years together.