Ragley Hall Christmas Fayre

Today we went along to Ragley Hall to browse the lovely stalls and see Santa.

We haven't been to Ragley Hall for quite some time, and we've never been to the Craft and Gift Fayre.

When we arrived the choir were performing on the staircase with the large trompe l'oeil mural in the background. They were fantastic and despite the large cramped crowd, the feeling was very festive.

We went through to the Great Hall to visit Santa who was sitting by a large real Christmas Tree decorated with paper chains and Christmas card pictures. The Small Person sat and coloured Santa a picture whilst I kept our place in line.

Zachary was absolutely fascinated by the high ceiling covered in plaster moulds.

He was not however a huge fan of Santa agiain. When it got to be our turn, he cried and cried and cried! Poor little man. He did like the slinky that Santa gave him though.

Alexandra said "Santa's got grey eyebrows. Is he the real Santa?"
"Ofcourse he's the real Santa. There's only one Santa".
"Well Santa hasn't got grey eyebrows. His eyebrows are white."
Ooops. We may have to explain about how at this time of year, often they are santa's helpers and messengers 'cos Santa's so busy getting ready, and that all of these helpers pass all of the information on to Santa.

We went back downstairs and followed the stalls around. Oh there was such lovliness! I didn't take any pictures of the stalls because I didn't want to appear nosey/rude/weird (delete as you find appropriate) and there really wasn't enough space in the crowds anyway.

There was a lovely salt dough stall (Handmade Saltdough by Bev Wareing) with all sorts of lovely decorations, models, lettering and decorated spoons and rolling pins. The small people each had a gingerbread tree decoration from this stall. Unfortunately there is no web site listed on the business card.

There was Mostly Hearts teamed with Bical Socks on a stall. I would have liked to have bought some of these little sock/shoes as gifts (I love the giraffe and frog ones). They also sell cute hats and organic cotton babygrows.

Pretty Beautiful gifts and cards and also PB Dried Fruit had some lovely festive gifts ideas. There were some pretty tea cup candles and dried fruit wreathes and tree decorations.

We had a little food break in the catering marquee before moving on. We had bacon butties and hot sweet tea, whilst the Small Person chose a salad batch and water. Zacky decided he wasn't hungry because he was far too busy playing with his slinky.

Aneata Boote had some beautiful jewelry. There was an absolutely lovely turquoise ring. Just lovely.

Bluebell Cottage Gifts had ladies accessories and gifts. I was especially attracted to their collection of scarves.

The Sheppard's Flock had the most adorable soft dolls. My favourites were the angels, the Small Person was desperate for a mermaid, and they really were lovely. We'd already bought quite a few things though and I thought, well at least they have a web site.

The stalls that we bought from didn't seem to have any business cards or company name signs. It was pretty much now or never, which is a shame because now I'll never be able to find them again. Alexandra bought some charity colouring sheets, I bought myself a lovely bookmark and some packets of buttons. I saw so many things that I would have loved to buy, especially as gifts for other people for Christmas.

We went past a homemade fudge stall and Mr Bogert said that he wouldn't try any. I moved on to a jewelry stall, and when I went back to show him 'the' perfect gift for me for Christmas, he was in the process of buying 2 bags of fudge! Amazing willpower there! It's very yummy though.

We went across to the jewelry stall where I had seen a pendant watch. I mentioned just a few weeks ago how much I would like one and had added it to my list. I just needed to find the right one. And there it was sitting on the stall. Mr Bogert was not overly impressed. Not because he didn't want to buy it for me, he just hates me to know what any of my gifts are. It's all about surprises. He has threatened in the past to return gifts where I have guessed what they are. He did however relent, and I have promised to try as hard as possible to forget what it looks like before December 25th!

There was also a lovely little stall that had all different sorts of bears including some Steiff ones. Oh I fell in love with nearly every one of those little furry faces! So did the small person. She took a particular fancy to the tiny bears in boxes. She had already spent all of her spending money, so I sent Mr Bogert back to the stall when she wasn't looking to get one to keep for Christmas. It's so sweet with a bow on top of it's head.

(must remember to take things out of my hoodie pocket when having pictures taken. It really isn't very flattering!)

I really could have spent a fortune, and a great deal more time there. We will definitely be returning next year (with more money!) I will try and remember to include some pics of our goodies in a future post.

A member of staff (in Victorian dress) offered to take our photo as a family outside afterwards. It's not often we all get to be in a picture. I love how they've dressed the stairway with foliage and berries. It makes me wish we had railings at our house.

We finished with Sunday lunch at Mr Bogert's mum's house.

This is going to be an incredibly busy week. Tomorrow is Alexandra's school trip followed by dancing, toddler group and the Small Person's birthday on Tuesday, finished off with her birthday dinner on Tuesday evening. Mr Bogert is off on a business trip on Wednesday and the school is closed because of strike, Thursday my next assignment is due in at midday (on the subject of boyhood in some nineteenth century children's novels. I haven't even finished all of the reading, have no essay plan and am nowhere near a starting point for the assignment), Mr Bogert returns on Friday and then it is the Wonderland party on Saturday. Somewhere inbetween all of that, I need to finish our costumes for Saturday, the goody bags, the cake, the games etc and sort out all of our Advent Activity Countdown things.

You will forgive me if I don't get chance to stop by? (but you can look forward to a full account with many photos as soon as I get a minute to breathe!)

A Christmas Countdown

December is almost here and I've been losing time finding inspiration on Pinterest!

Mr Bogert and I had already decided we wanted to watch a Christmas movie every day with the small people in the run up to Christmas. We made a list of our favourite Christmas movies (young child friendly ones - No Gremlins or Bad Santa in this list!) and each has been written on a card. Every day we pull a card from the bag, and that's the movie we watch! The rules are though, that if we pull out a movie that is part of a series, we watch the series in a row on the following nights.

So, we already had the movie countdown planned, but then I came across this on Pinterest: Activity Advent Countdown with The Activity Mom.

So now we have our own Wishes activity countdown using quite a few suggestions from Activity Mom, and a few others thrown in of our own or seen in other places. The Small person gets to open an envelope each day which has her activity in. After the activity, we finish off with the movie. (There maybe popcorn and hot chocolate involved - preparing for Christmas is a serious business!)

I hope you'll join us through December as we blog our countdown!

(We're actually starting the movies a few days early because we liked so many, we didn't have enough days!)

Village Christmas Fayre

Today was the annual Village Christmas Fayre held in the Village Hall.

We didn't have a stall and we wren't signed up for anything during the day. For once we were just going to look around the stall, buy raffle tickets and have turns on the Tombola.

The Small Person on the other hand had been asked to be Santa's helper this year. I reused her red deer Christmas skirt from when she was an Elf at nursery (a while ago), her red and white striped pirate tights from her 4th birthday party, her red net pom pom petticoat from Children in Need a week or so ago, a plain white t-shirt, green cardigan and a santa hat. I centre parted her hair and plaited each half then tied it in a loop low just below her ear. I put a little flick at the corner of each eye with a black liquid liner, then used pink face paint for her nose and rosy circle cheeks. She looked very sweet.

She was excited all day, and getting ready, then she couldn't wait for Santa to arrive at the hall, then when he got there, she just stood really quietly with a very serious face. (we had warned her she had better be on her very best behaviour so as not to go on the naughty list). Santa said it was OK because she was obviously taking her job very seriously.

Later, when her duty was done, she said her legs were very tired (she had to stand) and she said she thought next time she wouldn't want to help Santa. I think being so good and quiet for so long really took it out of her!

As for no jobs for me and Mr Bogert? Well, when I took the Small Person to Santa's grotto (cupboard), one of the committee members said to me "Oh, you're collecting tickets, OK, good" and that was that. I was collecting tickets. (each child is given a ticket to visit santa as they arrive at the hall).

Santa Arrives

We took the camera to snap a few pics of Alexandra and Zack with Santa, and then in the end took photos for the village web site for "village events".

Zack met Santa and cried. Santa gave Zack chocolates - the crying stopped!

Santa and his serious helper

Nan stocking up on raffle tickets

We still had chance to see the stalls. The gardening stall (gardening club is new this year) was very impressive and were raffling off a real Christmas tree. The regulars were there (alzheimers society, WI, Aromatherapy, Asda bus tombola, church tombola, woodwork man, friendly club, art club etc etc.)

Gardening Club stall and the prize tree

Zack and Alex each had a turn on the lucky dip and bought a knitted duck from the Alzheimers Stall (£2.25 the lady charged for these - bargain! They're lovely). Alex won quite a few things on the tombola, Rob bought 2 cakes from the WI, and Alexandra spent her last bit of cash on a wooden Teddy Bear for the Chrismas tree.

Knitted ducks (Mr and Mrs)

Auntie Heather and Uncle Andy stopped by and we sat having a chat, hot drink a piece of cake.

Auntie Heather and Uncle Andy

Finally, 4pm came, the raffle tickets were drawn. We didn't win the tree much to Mr Bogert's disapointment and we didn' win the art club painting donated by one of the members, much to my disapointment. The painting was by my favourite of the art clubs members. I would have gladly hung that picture straight on our wall, but it was not to be. We did win a prize though, we won the fruit basket which is piled with yummy fruits, and the basket is rather nice too! The Small Person wanted to know if we had to finish the fruit and give the basket back!

As we walked home, the Small Person had obviously been thinking about things: "Why didn't Santa just bring one of his elves with him? Why did he need me?"
"Well at this time of year the elves are busy finishing presents and wrapping them in time for Christmas. Santa can't spare them, that's why he needed your help."
"Oh."

New Shoes!

I can walk like a big boy now.

Mama, Dada and A, put these things on me called slippers. I don't like them. I take them off. But then they use the No word, so I think I'm supposed to leave them on my feet.

One day, Mama, Dada and A took me to a place with lots of strange things stuck to the walls.

A man brought some boxes but,they didn't have toys in, they had these other things that looked like slippers.

The man put some on my feet. They feel funny.

Mama and Dada call them "New Shoes".

I think I like them because now I can walk outside! Free! Yay!

It only took us 2 months.

Toddler Group Tuesday - Paper Plate Angels

It's getting closer and closer to the 'C' word. Some people really dislike the 'C' word before December actually hits. Not here at the Wishes house: Christmas! Christmas! CHRISTMAS! We love it!

Our decorations would be up before the end of November if it wasn't for a certain Small Person being born on 29th November. The rule is: Decorations can't go up for Christmas until she has celebrated her birthday, so the Sunday after her party is always the day to Deck the Halls!

Anyway, Christmas fast approaching, we have started the festive crafts at toddler group.

To make a paper plate angel you will need:

• a paper plate
• glue
• a doily
• glitter
• various bits of silver/white/gold collage pieces (we have used lace, foil including a foil milk bottle cap, doily, sweet wrappers and wrapping)
• pens/pencils
• scissors
• sellotape

First take your paper plate and on the food side of it, find the centre and mark with a dot. Draw a line from the centre dot to the edge of the plate.

Next, drawn a circle about 2" in diameter over the centre dot. This is easiest to do with a compass, but if you dont have one to hand (like me) just find something round to draw around about the right size and guage roughly where to place it so it is central. It will not matter if you are off by a little bit.

Cut along your straight line from the edge of the plate up to the edge of the drawn circle.

Cut around the centre circle from the line leaving a small piece (about 1cm) uncut directly opposite your straight line.

Turn the plate over so that the base is facing up. Draw your angels face, using the pens or pencils, on the centre circle. The bottom of the face is the part that was left uncut.

Pull the edges of the straight line cut across each other to form a cone shape with the centre circle (face) sticking up. Tape to hold. (I did trim some of the excess overlap off mine, but it really doesn't matter if you do or not).

Now for the fun part - decorate with all of your collage bits and pieces and glitter. We used a foil milk bottle lid for a halo, and lace as a sort of shawl.

Now take your doily and cut a section of it to create the wings. This really depends on the kid of look you want and the size of the doilies you are using. Our doily was small, so we cut it in half.

Down the centre back put a line of glue to stick your doily wings to.

All finished!

This will fit on top of the tree, can stand alone, or if you like, you can thread a loop through the top of the head of the angel so that you can hang it. Another idea would be to have each halo or a scroll label in front with people's names for fun place settings on Christmas day

You could use other things like feathers (these would be great for wings) tissue paper, wool (great for hair) and all sorts. Perhaps you would like to make a rustic angel? Use parcel paper, string, raffia, hessian, scraps of calico and maybe even a few sticks for arms. Skeleton leaves would make a great substitute for the doily wings (but would be very delicate!). Please leave a comment if you have made or would like to make one of these, especially if you have any extra ideas for variations.

You might also be interested in the Pine Cone Angels tree decorations from a past year. Happy crafting!

Wonderland Invitations

I am really late getting these made and sent out. Luckily I had ordered the large playing cards months ago, and the idea I had was simple. The party is 2 weeks away, the Small Person has a school trip tomorrow, so the invites wont go out until Tuesday, and I've asked everyone to reply by Friday! Ooops!

Each invitation is made using one oversized traditional style playing card.

Front and back of playing card with pound coin to show size.

The pictures are part of the collection of illustrations created by John Tenniel for the first editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There in 1871. They are available here.

The actual printed part of the invitation was created in Photoshop by Mr Bogert according to my detailed (and apparantly illegible) instructions. It is printed as a mini bi-fold so that the main party details are on the front, and the fancy dress instructions and character list are inside. They were printed to a size that fits neatly in the centre of the card.

The outside front of the printed design.

We used Times New Roman font for most of the text (as it resembles a book), and for a few choice parts we used an Alice in Wonderland font available here.

The inside double page detailing the fancy dress part of the party.

Once printed, I cut them using the guillotine, then folded each down the centre.

Printed and cut. Left - inside double page (unfolded). Right - front of folded invites.

Using a glue stick, the printed part was glued to the back of the playing card although had I have had some, I would have used double sided tape (less messy, doesn't wrinkle the paper and is easy to line up).

Finished invitations.

Being short on time, I really have kept this simple. If I had more time, I would have tea stained the paper first for an aged effect then matted it on black paper. Then I would have added a thin red satin ribbon tied around the centre of the whole card (and holding the printed flap closed), possibly with a card cut-out of the one of the suit symbols (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades) threaded on with a couple of black and white beads.


These will be sent to school, dancing and various other places frequented by the Small Person this tomorrow and Tuesday in plain 6x4 envelopes *EDIT - We have actually sent them into school in the playing card box they came in, with a label asking the teacher to please hand them out*. Again, having more time, I would have printed another Tenniel illustration on the front bottom corner of the envelope, and used a red heart sticker as an envelope seal. Fingers crossed we get the replies back in time!

I must admit, I'm loving this party theme. I'm kind of hoping we can re-visit wonderland when she's older, a "Alex Through the Looking Glass" kind of party (giant chess pieces, big mirrors, chequerboard dancefloor, my imagination is running away...). Just for me you understand. I'm kind of Mummy-selfish like that!

You can see last year's Superhero invitations here, and the previous year's Pirate invitations here.

Spotty Dotty for Pudsey

Tonight is BBC Children in Need and people have been fund raising all over the country. The Small Person's school had take a bear to school day (50p), Pennies for Pudsey (taking in spare 1p coins to stick to a giant picture of Pudsey Bear) and Wear What You Like Day, but with a spotty theme (£1).

They did this last year (if you've been reading for a while you may remember last year where I discovered the Small Person doesn't really own any spotty clothes), but this year there was a competition for the best spotty outfit per class.

To be honest, I haven't been feeling very wonderful, and it wasn't really until last night that I felt able to address the spot issue for this year, so last night, I made this:

I used a pair of the Small Person's leggings and sewed some craft pom poms to the cuffs.

I used a bright pink t-shirt and sewed some larger craft pom poms at the neck.

I turned the red net left over from the halloween costume into a net petticoat by folding in half lengthways and sewing a channel along the fold. I threaded elastic through the channel for the waistband, then a sewed 48 craft pom poms to the bottom edge of the top layer of net skirt (it has 2 layers because it is folded in half).

The skirt is a cricular skirt made from cheap white satin with a 4" deep waist band in the same satin. It has a velcro fastening. The hem is done very quickly (and roughly) because I was so short on time. The spots are cut in various sizes from craft felt. I played around with the arrangement and once I was happy, pinned them all in place. Each is stitched in place with a running stitch using matching embroidery floss.

For her hair, after tying 2 high ponytails, I cut a small circular template from paper and used blue, yellow and pink hair spray to spray spots over the hair on her scalp (not the ponytails). To finish it off, we bought a pair of Pudsey ears from the bakery :)

She didn't win best spots in the class and was a bit upset (she said they voted for the other boy because he was funny and she wasn't!) but we talked about how much fun she had and how that's what counts the most.

In other news, she got a treat at home because she got 10 out of 10 on her spelling test (again).

We're now watching the fundraising on TV and we've let the Small Person stay up to watch. She is now watching the Strictly Come Dancing newsreaders and telling them "it's not all about winning"! Something got through :)

The pom pom petticoat and spotty skirt have been added to the fancy dress box :)

Sorry the pictures aren't great, but the light this morning as we were getting ready for school was not wonderful for photograph taking.