December | 2018 | The Contented Crafter

Last year my ‘Secret Santa’ pal from South Africa, the lovely Joey, included in her present to me two of the cutest little gnomes I have ever seen. Here’s a glimpse of one of them, nestled in this years table wreath created by the talented Danella

XmasGnome detail Isn’t he cute! They are very tiny, being about 7cm high (2 3/4″) I love them.

ChristmasWreath 2018 Then my friend Sue arrived for her annual visit and with her arrived two more gnomes -even tinier and every bit as enchanting.

dav And here’s the entire family

dav At the time I was putting together a Christmas bag for Siddy’s favourite courier which included a bottle of wine. The bottle was taller than the bag it was destined for and I hit on the idea of making a bottle topper – so a gnome was created that fit just right and peaked out of the top of the bag. Of course I forgot to take a photo of it, but the courier was delighted. Luckily my first attempt at a bottle topper gnome was too big and he has been photographed

dav He is with a friendly pukeko who also lives in my house. This gnome was made for grander things than being a leaning post for an affectionate swamp hen however and soon took up residence in The Green Room

Christmas tree 2018 While all this collecting, creating and curating of Gnomes was going on there was also an excess of cards being made. Some have been squirreled away for later, some have been sent out already. dav These are ‘S’ Fold cards. My friend Alys gave me the pattern a while back and I had fun playing around with the idea. The first card is a simplified version.

Above card closed, below opened

dav And this one features the extra component, partially open ……..

Gnome gift card ………. almost open ……..

dav …………fully open

dav Crafting fun!

Then of course many more gnomes were called into service – this is just a few of them

dav These were a conveyor belt, multi step process that was both time consuming and daunting – but thoroughly worthwhile. It produced cards that are sparkly, texture rich and fun.

dav And of course we must finish with Siddy. Not quite a gnome, but trying very hard to be a good reindeer. Here he is, trying on his antlers, ready to help Santa if required

dav Thank you for coming by today, have a happy and blessed Christmas, Mid-Summer. Mid-Winter, Hanukkah and or Kwanzaa. Wherever you are in the world and however you spend this season, be happy, make someone else happy and remember you have the power to change the world with a smile. With love and thanks for all the times you have made me think, made me feel, made me smile.

Hello there my lovely friends! I thought I’d pop in briefly to say ‘Hi!’ before I disappear for a summer break – like I haven’t been taking a break from blogging already. But you know, I’ve been busy making stuff, and keeping up with all of you regular bloggers and getting on with life and of course coping with the most dismal spring weather EVER!!

The really good news though is I finally managed to get my green room made. What you may ask is a green room – no, it’s not the place I keep all my celebrity friends waiting. I don’t have any celebrity friends…… maybe its a ‘garden room’ but that’s not quite right either. If you get to the end and have a suggestion feel free to let me know what it should be called.

Here’s the back story:

My tiny house has the most inconveniently placed and useless ‘conservatory’ attached to it that you can imagine. I have no clue what anyone was thinking when someone thought it would be a really good idea to attach a single thickness glass and metal corridor to the side of this tiny house. But they did and I have inherited it. It scorches in the summer and freezes in the winter and, at 150cm wide by 200cm long, is good for nothing much more than hanging coats and storing containers of tools, dog gear and shoes and that’s about it. It also serves as an entry foyer when you enter by the front door. It is fully visible from the sofa in my sitting room and from the dining table as the long wall of the living space is all ranch slider. Talk about living in a gold fish bowl! As said ‘conservatory’ looks directly at a 2m high corrugated iron fence and the white stucco wall of the cottage next door I have always kept it curtained. The curtains take up space visually and are difficult to keep clean and tidy. It may be a utilitarian area, but it is visible and I needed for it to look vaguely attractive.

You all know by now I don’t have a garden to speak of here, and what I do have can’t be viewed from inside. I miss trees terribly, so an idea starting fermenting a year ago from conversations with my friend Alys. Then my daughter Danella added her ideas and it took shape and form and eventually all the necessary bits were gathered and voila – just in time for Christmas we have a fabulous green room.

Have a look, and then I’ll tell you how I made it.

dav

I applied an opaque window film to the glass wall. Over that two bamboo garden trellises were stretched and wired together. The existing curtain rod was handy for attaching and tying and hanging all the separate components. Fabric ivy in three different varieties was threaded through the trellis and the back wall was ready to go.

The open shelving unit that holds my box of tools, another of gardening equipment, Siddy’s not unextensive wardrobe and shoes for walking in all weathers was given a fabric curtain in keeping with the green theme and various faux plants tastefully scattered about. The green cat has been a friend for at least 20 years and now has a lovely new resting place

dav

As it is Christmas, a small tree and lights were gifted to me by Danella and suddenly it is magical

dav

That’s a gnome resting on top of that tree. I don’t have a star of the right size and he had been made and had nothing to do so I popped him on top and he seems quite happy. Christmas gnomes are a bit of a theme here at the moment. Maybe I’ll tell you more about that in my next post………

Here’s Siddy posing for you in his lovely new collar and kerchief all the way from Le Belle France and the very kind and lovely Tialys who also made me a rather fabulous pinny for my art room…….

dav