Reindeer Take 5

The Christmas making season seemed to start with robins and is now ending with a flurry of reindeer creativity...

1) It all started when the girls had a charity 'Wear a Christmas Jumper' day at school near the end of term. Unfortunately, although Maria is the proud owner of a sparkly penguin jumper (present!), Venetia is Christmas jumperless. I know, I know, tis a deprived childhood we're providing for her! But since I had no desire to go out and buy one we decided to improvise and make a little brooch to go on a plain jumper. I did suggest a robin, but, like Maria, I think Venetia had had enough of the little birdies and firmly requested a reindeer. So this is what I came up with for starters...

Which I do really like. But then I wondered why I hadn't gone down the Rudolf route since it was for a child not an adult, so I had to make another...

Just several layers of wool stitched together, with brooch backs sewn on to them.

2) After that it was a short hop and a skip to a reindeer head cushion from recycled wools...

3) And some reindeer and pompom bunting to accompany it...





But I do have to say that, although I love this in theory, in practice it keeps getting tangled, is a nightmare to photograph, and I think possibly the antlers may droop when it's hanging!

4) Those of you who know me, and therefore know how completely rubbish I am with any kind of hair 'styling', will realise how impressive this next one was...

Idea spotted on Pinterest and pinched - find it here.

Please ignore Theo's pallet building site off to the right!

5) And the last one is a bit of a cheat because they're still under construction, but I'm fast running out of posting time here so it can't wait any longer. Sam and I managed to go off for a lovely, long walk last week, along a beautiful river to the sea (Watersmeet to Lynmouth for anyone in N Devon).

Don't be fooled by the shorts, it was pretty cold!

 And as well as enjoying some fresh air and gorgeous scenery...

We were rewarded, when we reached our end destination, by a beach full of amazing driftwood.

So, of course, we gathered up as much as we possibly could to take home with us! And it seemed perfect to try and recreate these deer that we spotted, scattered around the woods in the Forest School group Maria and I went to last year.

So this is the plan. They're started, but I'm not entirely sure they'll be finished! Not necessarily for this Christmas anyway. Since, despite all my best intentions, we are still not wonderfully organised! There's crazy pompom making going on, by all of us, for a decoration I really want to get finished, gingerbread house pieces are cooked but awaiting assembly tomorrow, there might even be a couple of presents nearly but not completely finished, plenty of cooking still on the 'to do' list, and the house is looking far more chaotic than Christmassy! Maybe one year I'll manage it! Hope you're all more on track than I am.

Sally.

PS Nearly forgot, still got half the wrapping to do too - but, looking at the positive, that's half less than this time last year!