A riot of colour at the London Graphic Centre

I've been busy lately and have been to some great blogging events. Recently I was invited to the London Graphic Centre in Covent Garden for a "Wrap Battle" - but don't worry it was wrapping presents, rather than anything musical. It was held in the store at Covent Garden and I was like a kid in a sweet shop.  

It was exactly the kind of place - and may well have been the very same place - that I used to spend my Saturday afternoons in as a teenager.  It was dangerous then, but even more dangerous now armed with a credit card.  I know that I'll be going back to the London Graphic Centre to buy some materials, but I just have to work out what first.  

As soon as I arrived I was drawn towards the Caran D'Ache display, these were the pencils I coveted most in years gone by, and their attraction was still as strong today. It seemed that everywhere I looked was swathed in colour, and I naturally felt at home.

Christmas Fair - Saturday 10 December

This Saturday the London Graphic Centre are hosting their Christmas Fair in their flagship store and as well as the usual supplies, this year's highlights include:

• Personalising your Leuchhturm notebooks with free embossing on A5 notebooks
• Build your own pop-up keyring workshop hosted by Frietag
• The POSCA wall doodling - this is great fun, it's a glass wall and you get to doodle all over it, my contribution is at the bottom of this post!
• A gift wrap station with MT Masking, who have a glorious array of washi tape to try
• A calligraphy demo, where you could get some great gift tags

And if that isn't enough, for all purchases over £25 there'll be a goody bag. I expect it'll be busy, and if you go let me know how you get on.

And if you're looking for a different Christmas tree, then here's one for you. 

It's great fun isn't it?

And still everywhere I looked as I wandered around the store was colour. Maybe this is where my love of colour comes from, who knows. It's the type of place that I'd be in my element doing a trolley dash in, now could you imagine that...

It was these Lego markers that came closest to breaking my resolve on the evening. I've not seen anything like them before and even I was tempted, I wouldn't count myself as an active Lego fan, but these, well I'd make an exception...

And while I enjoyed the walk around the store, reminiscing about my teenage years, the real reason I was there was to wrap a present. And the present I wrapped was for week 3 of the London Graphic Centre's Christmas Wrap battle and that's now available to win on the London Graphic Centre's blog. Do pop over and enter, it'd be great to see someone I know win!

This week's blogger-wrapped prize giveaway is from Stephanie of Life at 139a. 🎄🎁 Enter and WIN here https://t.co/TO8VedOKF3 🎄🎁

— London Graphics (@LondonGraphics) December 6, 2016

And remember that POSCA doodling I mentioned above, what do you think of my tree?

* This is a collaborative post with the London Graphic Centre, all views are as usual my own and with thanks for a great evening

An early family Christmas

This weekend we've had an early family Christmas. And right from the off it was more like Christmas, than I thought it might be. On Friday I realised that Friday was my Christmas Eve Eve, if that's such a thing, and I needed to finish my shopping. So off I went, returning relatively quickly with a present against all the names on my list.

The plan was to have Christmas lunch on Sunday with my family, but in another parallel to Christmas a few weeks later, we also met up with MOH's family the day before. And of course I left it until the last minute to wrap those presents I'd bought too, but some pretty paper and some festive washi tape came to the rescue there.

Food-wise we were much more organised. We were in charge of pudding, and on our menu was MOH's speciality lighter Christmas pudding and a baked lemon cheesecake for the non-dried-fruit-eating-contingent. And for those that like two puddings. In fact making puddings are MOH's thing, so he made the lemon cheesecake too.

And while he did I set about collecting a few parcels from both the local sorting office and a bit further afield in Walthamstow - more on that to come soon. It was Small Business Saturday and my plan to do both chores in the same hit was scuppered by traffic, as the King's Troop were parading through the village. I missed them as I'd aborted my attempt in the car and headed back to the post office on foot. It was a lovely day, and I was glad of the walk, especially when met with a view like this.

Usually with baked cheesecake there's a bit of leakage during cooking, so it's a case of remembering to place a baking sheet on the shelf below to catch that. Or to clean the oven. Yes exactly. This time though I got MOH to test a new tin from PushPan I'd been sent, which claims to be leak-proof and watertight.

It's made from heavy gauge carbon steel and has a patented silicone seal base. My other quick release tin has a spring catch, which if I'm honest I'm never sure if it's done up or not, which probably doesn't help the leakage. But no more. This has a silicon seal - the red bit - on the base and it seems to work.

It did need a bit of an extra push to get the cheesecake out, but then again it was completely cold as we left it in the tin to travel. It seemed the safest place for it to be. And it arrived in one piece, although I added the sour cream and lemon curd topping at the table. I also left it on the base, which I probably wouldn't have done at home, but plates were at a premium with eight of us for dinner.

And it seemed to work. No baking tray underneath it and no mess in the oven. MOH is a perfectionist baker and didn't approve of the plain chocolate digestives I bought for the base. I rather liked them though.  And the cheesecake was good.

And after dinner of turkey, ham and all the trimmings - including rationed pigs in blankets - and then christmas pudding and/or baked lemon cheesecake, we did the other Christmas thing, and opened our presents. And like many families, that brought the usual chaos and mess. 

So quite a weekend, and for us Christmas really has come early this year.  And it'll be coming again at the more usual time of year! It was great to spend time together and the Family Fortunes board game was great fun too, although Vernon Kay has nothing to be afraid of. How do you celebrate Christmas with your family?

* With thanks to PushPan who sent me their new tin to try, as usual all views are my own. That mess above though, I had very little to do with that.

Getting to grips with Christmas

I don't know about you but since the weather has turned that bit colder and now that the calendar has moved into December, but I feel ready to get to grips with Christmas. As ever I've grand plans, which I'll no doubt review as it looms towards us.

Today I'm joining up with some lovely bloggers as we share our tips, and favourite crafts so we can all get to grips with Christmas. Or at least try...  

I'm sharing some Christmas crafts as I always have craft aspirations at this time of year.  You'll find much more inspiration and Christmassy-ness at the bottom of this post, below my pictures.

1. How to bleach pine cones

This is an easy craft to do, but you need some patience, and time. Last year I started this on December 18 and that was way too late as the pine cones needed longer than I anticipated to dry out. You might be wondering why you should bleach pine cones, but let me tell you they'll look as if they have a frosting of snow on them, and in which case, why wouldn't you?

You'll probably know this, but it's worth mentioning, when pine cones are wet they close up so it isn't immediately apparent if they've lightened. To dry the pine cones I placed them on lots of newspaper, but the process was speeded up by placing them on a shelf above a radiator. The results were some pretty and lighter pine cones.

My tips are:

• Start earlier than you think you'll need to
• Choose the more open sort of pine cones as these will give you the best results (see the bottom right picture below)

2. How to make a homemade Christmas wreath

Making wreaths aren't as hard as you'd think. Florists sell the wire rings to use as the base, and for securing greenery too, but you can also make your own by shaping a wire coat hanger. I discovered that the key to making a wreath is to make up bunches of greenery and to attach those to the wire ring starting on the sides. Once you've mastered attaching the bunches of greenery you're ready to tackle how to approach the top and bottom sections. And remember it's your design so you can make it up as you go along, no one will know.

It's rewarding to see it take shape, especially for someone who was a complete novice tackling the wreath in the photos, and to be honest I still am.  Once the base evergreens are covering the ring, you can start to decorate. I found ivy hard to use so discarded that idea and instead used holly, bay leaves and rosemary, all of which I have growing plentiful in the garden. 

With all the greenery in place, I added small silver baubles - which I bought already wired - by poking them through the evergreens and securing them on the reverse. And I'm still rather pleased with how it turned out.

3. Inspiration for some gorgeous gift tags

This is another craft that looks more complicated than it really is, and that's perfectly fine with me!  Here I've folded squares of material to create some Kanzashi flowers which I've used to embellish plain cardboard gift tags, you know that craft stores sell in packets of 100s. Each two inch square you cut, is folded to make a single petal, which are then joined together. 

My previous post on this gives a step-by-step guide on the folding needed and how to assemble the flowers. How you embellish them is entirely up to you, but as you can see with trimmings and buttons they can become something very special. And not something to be thrown out with the rubbish, or at least I hope not anyway!

But that's not all, here's more Christmassy ideas and tips

Catherine at Growing Family is sharing her tips for bringing the outside indoors this Christmas. Find out how to make easy pine cone tree decorations, how to use Spring flowering bulbs to create lovely homemade gifts, and how to choose the perfect real Christmas tree.

After inviting family for Christmas Lunch, Morgan at Morgan's Milieu shares her tips and advice for planning Christmas Lunch for a large number of guests.

Jingle Bells, Christmas smells - it really does.  Nicky at Not Just The 3 of Us is talking about the memories and smells that Christmas decorations evoke.

Jane at Maflingo has great ideas for festive treats to make with the kids this Christmas. Find out how to make Santa Fruit Skewers and Festive Chocolate Pretzels.

Jocelyn at The Reading Residence is sharing some fun and easy Christmas crafts for children. Find out how to create a Christmas centrepiece, a festive arty keepsake and make kids placemats.

Kirsty from Hijacked By Twins is planning every meal including how to use up those precious leftovers. Find out how to make a delicious toppings for the perfect leftover Christmas dinner soup. This recipe will make you want to cook extra just for the leftovers.

Caro from The Twinkle Diaries shares a simple idea for creating edible Christmas tree decorations.

If you're anywhere near the UK capital this Winter, Nell from the Pigeon Pair and Me tells you how to enjoy the festive fun of London - for free. She also gives her top picks of Winter family shows, and explains why Christmas with kids is a magical time of the year.

Have we inspired your Christmas preparations?  Let me know what you get up to!