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… View Post

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 I’m going to re-use the DIY copper advent calendar that I originally made in 2014 (pictured above).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… View Post

I have no idea how I managed to squeeze in doing these Christmas decoration Ikea hacks this week – work has been properly crazy – but I’d had the ideas in my head for so long, that I couldn’t bear the thought that I wouldn’t have time to actually share them. And so I had some much-needed crafting time-out earlier this week to turn a few bits and bobs I picked up in Ikea into Christmas tree and table decorations. DIY mini table crackers made from a SÄLLSKAP placemat, £1 Take a toilet roll and cut all the way down it… View Post

I’ve had a few unusual work commissions in the last few weeks, and making ten festive headbands for B&Q out of B&Q Christmas decorations was definitely one of them! The finished headbands were sent out to journalists as part of B&Q’s #XmasHumans campaign. We also filmed a tutorial (see below) so that you can make one yourself if you fancy an alternative to wear during Christmas lunch, rather than the classic paper crown that comes out of a cracker! Want to look your #festive best, subtle #xmashumans style? Try this #DIY festive head band! Here’s one by @HeatherYoungUk pic.twitter.com/yFmWhfIEGV — B&Q (@BandQ) December 16, 2016

When Lynne from Papermash told me kids were welcome at the Make Wrap Mingle Christmas craft workshop she was hosting with Zeena from Heart Zeena and Geraldine from Little Big Bell, I immediately thought how much Ez would love it. At age seven, she is a keen crafter and loves to copy everything I do. She’s endlessly fascinated by my job, my blog, my Instagram, so I knew that taking her along to an event full of other bloggers would make her day. Plus it’s not often we get to have some quality one-on-one time, and this seemed the perfect opportunity. And I was absolutely… View Post