Growing Spaces

Simple tissue paper bag DIY advent calendar

Simple tissue paper bag DIY advent calendar

Usually I’m to be found on the night of the 30 November desperately pulling together our DIY advent calendar. I had a couple of days off work last week – the kids were at school, I had no grand plans, I was just in need of some down time – and so I made us a new advent calendar for this year. I’m not going to write lots of instructions because it’s a really simple make. I cut 15cm (ish) squares out of white tissue paper. I planned out our daily advent activities (based on these from a few years…

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How to plant up a closed carboy bottle terrarium

How to plant up a closed carboy bottle terrarium

Way back when, my mother-in-law gave me a beautiful glass carboy that had used to belong to her mother with the challenge to plant it up as a terrarium. Not quite sure how to go about it, I put it off for years, happy just to have the empty carboy out on display instead, but after attending a terrarium workshop, I finally felt brave enough to give it a go and over a year on (sealed the whole time), it’s still alive! Here’s how I went about planting up my closed bottle terrarium… What you’ll need Glass carboy or demijohn…

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Quick and easy t-shirt hacks for kids (and grown-ups!)

Quick and easy t-shirt hacks for kids (and grown-ups!)

I decided to customise a multipack of plain white t-shirts rather than buying individual designs – not only was it cheaper but it’s also fun to personalise a t-shirt so you know you’ve got something completely unique. Embroidered rainbow I am not a great sewer, but I can manage the basics and as Ez had recently been doing some sewing projects that used back stitch, I thought I’d show her how she could use that stitch on a t-shirt. She’s a big fan of rainbows and unicorns, so we just used six colours of embroidery thread to sew a rainbow…

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The Fibre Co. issue me with a knitting challenge

The Fibre Co. issue me with a knitting challenge

Happy new year! I finally took the Christmas tree down today, but as usual, I’ve left most of the fairy lights up around the house to cheer me up through the depths of winter. Now, I’m not a big one for resolutions (although I do wonder if I need to give myself a bit of a kick up the bum this year, so I have a few things I’m mulling over), but if there’s one thing to get me feeling positive about a new year, it’s the start of a new project. Since I re-learned to knit, I’ve been knitting…

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DIY Advent Calendars – there’s still time!

DIY Advent Calendars – there’s still time!

Due to the recent arrival of a puppy (sooo exciting, will share pictures very soon), I’ve had to put aside any ideas of making a DIY advent calendar this year. Luckily I have plenty stored away from previous years to fall back on as there’s no way I’m going to give up our family tradition of daily Christmas advent activities (and the kids wouldn’t let me, even if I wanted to!). I’m going to re-use the DIY copper advent calendar that I originally made in 2014 (pictured above). It’s my favourite of all the advent calendars I’ve made, and luckily…

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