Post Comment Love and Blogger Showcase 2-4 December 2016

Hello and welcome to Post Comment Love.  If you were here last week, thank you it was great to see you and sorry - it seems my winter picture from last week was a bit of a forecast for the weather here this week! If you're new here this week, welcome!  Morgan and I hope you find our growing #PoCoLo community friendly and supportive, and we know you're going to find some great posts to read.

My photo this week is from Greenwich Park, it really is a magical place and I make no apology for including yet another photo from there. We've had a couple of heavy frosts, but as that's coincided with the start of December, it's helped me start to feel Christmassy much earlier than usual. I've already posted a couple of Christmas posts, and I've a few more yet to come. 

The post I've linked this week is a competition to win a book that's made it onto Richard & Judy's Autumn picks, so no mean feat, and it's a book that when I read it in September when it was released, I couldn't put down. It's a simple competition, all you need to do is leave a comment on the blog post to enter, don't miss out on this great read. 

A frosty morning in Greenwich Park, London

Blogger Showcase: Lucy from Lucy's Locket

1. Who are you? 

Lucy's locket blog

Hi! I’m Lucy from Lucy’s Locket.  I have an 8 month old daughter, Lilly. I use my blog as a space to reflect on life, motherhood and the quest for balance as a working mum.  Aside from my blog, I work part-time as a lawyer for a small law firm in Perth, Australia.

2. Why did you start blogging?

I explain why I started blogging in my very first post.

In short, I feel like I have a lot to say and no one to say it to. I don’t have close friends and family that are in the midst of this work/life juggle and those that are think very differently about it to me. I have a positive mindset and I want to interact with like-minded people.

In addition to this, I want to tell other parents about my experience in taking my baby to work with me. I am yet to meet another person who does this, but I know they must be out there! There are so many benefits to taking your baby to work. I’d love to see this become more common.

3. What do you find most challenging?

I have always struggled to articulate how I feel. I am hoping that blogging will help me to improve on this.  Many of my posts end up being quick thoughts rather than well thought out posts. I usually have much more to say on a particular topic, but I struggle to get the words out so I just post it as is.

4. What is your favourite topic to write about?

At the moment my favourite topic is about work/life balance. I know it’s overdone, but I am really passionate about it. I think many people are too quick to focus on the difficulties of balancing paid work and parenting.

5. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?

Just for fun. I don’t expect to make any money from my blog, but I do hope that blogging will help me to improve my writing skills.

6. What is your favourite thing about blogging?

The community. I wanted to meet people with similar values and interests and I’ve done just that!

7. What are your three best posts?

8. Describe yourself in three words!

Positive, independent, kind.

9. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?

Can I be both? I enjoy a good tea, but since I started taking my daughter to work when she was a newborn I have been treating myself to a coffee each morning and have become a bit of an addict!

10. Your perfect night in?

Not long after having my daughter we were sat on the sofa on a Friday night. My husband was watching a film, I was drinking tea, reading a book and breastfeeding our new baby girl and our dog was curled up at my feet. That was perfect to me.

11. What would your best friend/OH/mum or kids say is your best quality?

I asked my husband a similar question a few weeks ago. He said I was dedicated. I liked that and I think he is right. If I am passionate about something I will give it my all. 

 

Thanks Lucy, it's great to learn more about you - thanks for joining in.  Please do pop over and connect with Lucy on her social channels here: Twitter  -  Facebook  -  Pinterest 

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)
Place the pine cones in a bucket with bleach and stir with a stick
leave the wet pine cones to dry and watch them dry lighter from the effects of the  bleach
Pine cones float so weigh them down with bricks

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.

I bought some christmas tree offcuts and supplemented this with evergreens and ivy from the garden and had way too much for one wreath
continue securing greenery to the wire ring using florist wire
Florists sell the wire rings, but you can always make your own with a wire coathanger
decorate the wreath with baubles, holly, and herbs

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!

starting to fold material squares to make some gorgeous gift tags
Threading the material petals onto cotton to make the flowers
Creating material petals for the flowers on my christmas gift tags
the completed christmas gift tags, gorgeous aren't they

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!

 

Dad's garden one month on

Last week I shared pictures from dad's garden from a month ago and it was still full of colour. I was curious to see how much it had changed in a month, and how the dahlias, roses and fuchsias had fared. And the short answer is relatively well. The dahlias were still flowering but were in that faded beauty stage, which can be equally pretty.

Dahlia's in dad's garden are at the faded beauty stage
A real faded beauty of a dahlia in dad's norfolk garden
faded dahlias, just as beautiful or scruffy

The fuchsias were still going strong, although I suspect there won't be too many more of those bulbous buds opening, but I could be wrong.  It seems slightly strange to see them so late in the year, don't you think?

Fuchsias still in flower in dad's norfolk garden at the end of november
A bulbous bud of a fuchsia in november

The roses had fared least well, and although there were many, many less flowers there were still a few buds, and some that won't make it.

Some roses were still flowering but there were decidedly less flowers
Roses had fared less well in the past month but not unsurprisingly so

In the greenhouse, the giant aloe veras still seem to be thriving and I'm sure, just like me, they were enjoying the warmth of the sun when it was out. The oxalis and the heucheras actually seemed to have deepened their colour.

Aloes glowing in the November Norfolk sun
The oxalis in the greenhouse is going from strength to strength
the colours on the heucheras seem to be deepening

But it goes to show that although there have been changes in a month, there hasn't been a dramatic change and there is still colour in dad's garden. And there was a new colour addition in the greenhouse too, these look to me to be begonias, I'm hesitating because it is November and they're flowering, so I could be wrong. Do you know?

These look to me to be begonais, except it's November and they're flowering

Either way, I'm loving the colour against the terracotta pot.