Sneak peak: Christmas stocking and advent calendar

This week I'm trying madly to find time to sew Christmas stockings, including mini ones that I hope to use as an advent calendar. That means sewing 25 by December 1! Pictured here are my first attempts with fabric from Spotlight. I grabbed a few Christmas prints from the 'Scandi' range that they have in stock this year and have been excited to get started for weeks now.

I have made a couple more tonight in the other patterns and they are sooo cute. I'll take photos and reveal them, perhaps on December 1 when I have set them out with little treats inside. 

Last year, I made my advent calendar from red and white noodle boxes. Each day there was a different note (mainly things to do to get into the festive spirit, IOU vouchers and notes on the meaning of Christmas including Bible verses!) and 1-2 little treats (mostly Christmas chocolates and lollies or silly things like new socks). The lucky Mister and I had great fun opening them each day.

I was really keen to make a rusty bucket advent calendar last year (like this one below from Ornamenta) but I didn't have any luck finding tiny tin buckets in a short period of time. 

I didn't have a sewing machine either last Christmas so I couldn't make the stocking advent calendar I really liked (see it in an old post here) but this year I have no such obstactle. Yippee.

I love Christmas for all the traditions and the effort we put in to show our family and friends that we love them. We do this in many ways - spending time visiting or inviting loved ones to our homes, making and sharing food, and giving gifts. I love all of these things but in the lead up to Christmas it is the decorating that I love most. Traditions are so important to Christmas decorating as what we do at this time of year is often very much related to what we've done in years gone by, and the special ornaments and rituals are intrinsically attached to our memories. Christmas stockings hung on the mantle for Santa to fill were an important part of my childhood Christmas and each year we used the same ones. Even now, my mum gets out our Christmas stockings and fills them with tiny gifts and chocolates or lollies for us. Seeing them takes me back to the magic of Christmas when I was little and I just loving seeing them each year. For my own stockings, I had my mum trace the shapes of our childhood stockings (we had multiple stockings in two styles) and mail them to me so mine will have a hint of nostalgia in the familar shape.

Now that we have finished re-doing our fireplace and mantle, I am even more excited to make stockings to hang along here and decorate for Christmas (I am such a nerd now and have stashed a few decorations away from the January sales and more recent early season finds). Plus advent calendars are so fun to put together. Collecting little surprises and then having someone else excitedly open them each day makes for a very festive December. Is anyone else doing a DIY advent calendar? I would love to hear about it.

Bonne anniversaire Charles Whyte

 

It's a special day at Charles Whyte HQ as we hit the one year blog anniversary. To celebrate we admired the advent calendar strung on the mantle and the Mister got to check out his treats and notes for Day 1. He even asked if he could shine a torch on the other boxes so he could guess what else he has in store! Oh what fun it is to...

To see how I came to have little noodles boxes as an advent calendar, see my previous blog here.  

A very big merci beaucoup to my small but loyal group of followers and subscribers for joining the hunt for all the things that make our heart sing in Charles Whyte's first year. I've loved getting all your help and suggestions on my odd quests - even if most have come to me via email or verbally. I will convert you all to bloggers yet!

Charles Whyte has, in some ways, been about remembering all the things I love in life, all the things that make me happy. After a difficult year or two, this past one has been very positive and I do believe that writing these posts a couple of times a week is one of the reasons for that. A year ago today I wrote about being on the cusp, a place where we aren't quite content and we're out there searching for an elusive, mythical, magical thing that will make us instantly happy. Even though I know there is no such thing, that first post remains this blog's raison d'être. These days though, I feel so much more able to "enjoy the rush as my head hits the water" and I feel much more part of those dreamy images I wrote about. 

This blog only exists because I'm still enjoying the hunt for all the things that make my heart sing. I might be more content this year but I still have to agree with my former words that "the search is like a heartbeat, a rush of adrenaline, my lifeblood." So Charles Whyte lives on and I hope you'll be part of the hunt.

The countdown to the perfect advent calendar

The latest hunt in the land of Charles Whyte revolves around Christmas decorations. The theme usually starts with red, white and a touch of vintage. Rustic wooden touches, brown paper and linen usually grab me, as do birds, doves, angels and glimpses of typography (especially of the French variety). Lucky I enjoy making things as I don't find much in my style in the stores and, as I found out on the weekend while on the decoration hunt, the shops are already horribly busy.

Last year it was a wreath I was struggling with but now that I've found what I was looking for in that department (blog post to come), the hunt has moved on to an advent calendar. What better way to enjoy the lead up to Christmas than a beautiful calendar? The little treats inside are just a bonus, but who doesn't like a daily gift?!

The advent calendar yearning all started with this Inside Out cover in 2008. Sadly, there was no stockist information for the perfect stocking advent calendar picured above. Some clever stylist (ggrrr) is probably responsible. Sooo need to get a sewing machine and learn to sew to make all these things I like.

Then in last year's December Home Beautiful magazine there was this printed advent calendar. Almost perfect, but it is from the wholesaler Mediterranean Markets. Poor little 'general public' me has had to write an email to them to see if there is any way to get it.

 I quickly perked up when I saw a few rusty bucket advent calendars online as I thought I could make these easily myself.

 Aspen & Brown rusty bucket advent calendar (around 30 pounds but delivery within UK only)

 Image from Boxwood (supplier not specified)

 Pottery Barn Bucket and branch advent calendar ($299, no shipping outside US)

After visiting Lincraft, KMart, the Reject Shop, the $2 Shop and various other discount variety stores, I am at a loss as to where to find mini tin buckets. This is the only one I found and its got too much going on for this project.

$3.95 from a $2 shop in Highpoint

To rub salt into the wound, I saw mini white tin buckets being used to display stock in a shop over the weekend but they didn't know where they had been purchased. There are lots online, like this beauty, but all overseas as far as I can see. I only have a day left!

On the upside, I found these Morgan and Finch star pegs for advent calendars in Bed, Bath and Table for $14.95.

The ever-smart Mrs Tee suggested I try mini noodle boxes so now I have an interim solution while the rusty pails come my way (or I learn to sew).

Tomorrow they will be stuffed with little treats and strung up somewhere. Let the countdown begin.

Update: The advent calendar is now in place and helping us enjoy the Christmas spirit. What do you think?

Full blog post here.