My Handmade Christmas (pt 1) The Tree!!

So I have been a naughty blogger... I have completey failed to post anything since November 1st but I do have an excuse. To be fair I have a number of them but among the more relevent ones are 'I have been really busy making things and attending craft fairs and Christmas Shopping events (as a seller and shopper both)', 'I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on...', 'I'm soooo tired...' and 'I've been gearing up for my own handmade Christmas...'

Actually it's the first and the last one that have taken up the most of my time. My plush scented decorations have sold really well and kept me busy since the end of August - there are only a few left now (I don't want to think how many of them I actually made...) and they have ended up on my own tree :) The Christmas Fayre Frenzy has more or less finished and most of my Christmas stock has been sold (for the few remaining things check out my Folky shop and if you are on Twitter search #handmadechristmas for loads of other fabulous present and decoration ideas.)

And now on to my own Handmade Christmas...

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know that this has been my project for the second part of 2010 - promoting the idea of a Handmade Christmas to the world and encouraging you all to ditch some of the more commercial trappings of the festive season in favour of a more homespun approach. So have I been doing my bit? You betcha!!!

So first up is the tree...

Now I will confess that not all the decorations are handmade - I have been collecting baubles, stars, garlands, lights and tinsel for some years now and it would be a shame to waste them...

I love my red mirror baubles...

...and my glittery snowflakes. (The snowman was bought for Riley's 1st Christmas)

And I can't get enough of fairy lights!

But nestled in amongst the regular decorations are a few of my handmade scented ones, adding their festive fragrance to the room...

There are also a number of pine cones that I have collected with Riley over the past few months. Last week we had great fun painting them with glue and dipping them in silver glitter. I think you'll agree, the effect is lovely :)

and here's how it looks altogether...

So how many of you have your tree up now? I hope you had as much fun decorating it as we did!