It’s that time of year again, already! The house is decorated and the Christmas cards (just a few) are made and send. I’m feeling festive and ready to enjoy a few quiet days.
Christmas Crafting
We don’t send out a whole bunch of Christmas cards, so making them myself doesn’t have to take long. It’s the kind of crafting that I really like to do: not too complicated, but pleasing. Usually, I am a bit of a last-minute crafter. I am definitely not the person who starts planning the seasonal crafting in the middle of summer. I simply don’t feel inspired to think about it then. If I stumble upon the occasional inspiration on social media throughout the year, then I’ll save in on Pinterest. But really planning and starting… no.
But now that lights are appearing everywhere and social media is starting to be filled with seasonal posts, I’m starting to feel inspired!
I was browsing Pinterest for something (a stitch pattern I think it was) and it suggested me all kinds of seasonal ideas in my main feed. One that I liked, in particular, was a crochet star. Unfortunately, it was just a photo. I couldn’t find the corresponding pattern. So I started experimenting with yarn scraps and a hook and a few attempts and some tweaking later a little star was born!
The Little Star is fun and quick to make and you can use it for cards, to decorate your gifts, tree or table or make a whole bunch and join them into a garland! I wrote down the crochet pattern (including a chart) and it’s available here on the website for free! My little Christmas gift for you!
Decorating
So, when the crafting was done, it was time to set up the tree. We always have a real, living tree so we can’t put it up too early (and risk that most of the needles are on the floor by the time it’s Christmas). We found it locally and cut it ourselves. That adds to the joy!
I’m very happy with our tree this year! And the best thing is: my comfy chair is right next to it so I can enjoy it while knitting! Yay! (The dog is less amused though because the tree blocks one of his favourite sleeping spots… luckily, there are enough alternatives available. Sorry Bono!)
The kitchen and the dining table got their own little bits of decoration too. How cute is this gingerbread man cooking timer???
Making Jam
One of the things I really like to do is to make jam. Homemade jam is a lovely little gift too!
I have shared a recipe for my Cranberry Christmas Jam here on the blog about two years ago. For this year’s version, I altered the recipe a little bit because I used some different ingredients. Here is the list of ingredients for the 2019 version:
• 350 g fresh cranberries
• 750 g blueberries
• 500 g apples peeled and chopped
• 3 clementines both the zest and the juice
• 750 ml red wine
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 500 g jam sugar
I did use exactly the same method as described in the recipe. Now, the taste of jam does get better if you wait a few weeks before opening a freshly made jar. I have made these jars earlier this week, so that means that Christmas is long gone already when you wait for the taste to develop. Therefore I named this one Winter Jam. That’s appropriate too, haha!
So, now that almost everything is done it is time to relax. And think about what to cook. And do some gift wrapping.
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