Growing Spaces

A gingerbread house decorated by 6-year-olds

A gingerbread house decorated by 6-year-olds

My 6yo daughter Ez was insistent that I share the pictures of our gingerbread house here on the blog. Making one has become an annual tradition, and it’s one of the advent calendar activities that the twins really look forward to. We cheat and get our house from Ikea, so all we have to do is assemble and decorate it. Last year we discovered Sarah from Taming Twins’ absolutely brilliant ‘how to decorate your Ikea gingerbread house‘ video tutorial and following that makes life so much easier. This year, I assembled the house, and then the twins were in charge…

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Christmas with Thornback and Peel

Christmas with Thornback and Peel

I’ve loved the quirky designs from Thornback & Peel since they launched the business back in 2007. With their fun Victoriana-inspired prints and a focus on the natural world, what’s not to enjoy? They really come into their own at Christmas, and have launched a beautiful Christmas collection of screen-printed homeware – from trays to oven mits. I got my hands on a few products to style up for Christmas (check out the #TandPXmas hashtag). I found it too hard to choose between the Christmas designs, so I picked out a set of Christmas cards instead. The cards are litho…

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Styling the Seasons: December

Styling the Seasons: December

: Styling the Seasons, by Apartment Apothecary and Lotts and Lots : “Reflect the change of seasons and show those changes in your own home, by styling any surface (shelf, dining table, mantelpiece) with something you like to reflect the new month and what it means to you” Well December is certainly whizzing by, isn’t it? This week we got our tree (it’s a real beauty), and I got as far as putting the fairy lights on it before I stalled. The boxes of decorations, brought down from the loft, then sat there untouched as I totally lost interest in…

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6 fun gift wrap ideas for Christmas

6 fun gift wrap ideas for Christmas

My post featuring 5 easy gift wrap ideas for kids’ presents is one of my most popular, so I thought it would be fun to do a Christmas gift wrap version for the holidays. If, like us, you have a habit of finding yourself doing lastminute wrapping on Christmas Eve, and you run out of decent wrapping paper.. don’t panic! All you really need for these Christmas gift wrap ideas is a roll of brown paper, some white paper or card, some string and a black Sharpie. Simple, and inexpensive! 1. Car and tree A present version of the old…

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5 festive parcel tag ideas

5 festive parcel tag ideas

Yesterday I shared my Christmas crafting table top for Teri from The Lovely Drawer’s 12 Styled Days of Christmas series, and I promised you’d be able to see the results of my crafternoon. This crafting session was all about giving the humble parcel tag a makeover, and I’ve come up with five different ways you can spruce up your tags using really simple materials. [Blanket stitched edging] I’ve given the tag on the top left an update with blanket stitching all around the edge using black embroidery thread (here’s a tutorial I recommend if you don’t know how to do…

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