Christmas at Calke Abbey.

Ed and I had a little Christmas adventure to Calke Abbey this afternoon. We went to go and have a peruse around the craft fair originally but nothing really tickled our fancy there. But fortunately parts of the house were decorated all ready for Christmas so we couldn't resist going to have a look around to warm up the festive cockles. 

The Christmas tree was absolutely beautiful, it was decorated with ornaments that have been handed down the Harpur-Crewe family for many generations. There were some vintage ornaments from the 40s to die for! And the fairy on top of the tree was over 100 years old, she wasn't looking too bad for her age either.

Calke Abbey is probably my favourite National Trust property (that I have been to so far), and one of the reasons for this is the sheer amount of taxidermy that is crammed into this property. There is so many unusual, exotic creatures, bones, shells, oddities. I could easily spend all day here just looking in awe at the eccentric collection. 

All the Christmas decorations made Calke really atmospheric today, it was almost eerie in places. You could imagine all the Christmas' that this property would have seen and the plethora of emotions that would have been housed within these walls. It was really nice to go to a place that nudged you to think about Christmas in a way that wasn't all about present buying and hectic panic.   

If you get a little spare time over the coming Christmas weekends I would highly recommend going to Calke Abbey for a festive experience that with warm up the heart of the most ardent bah humbug.

Hope you have had lots of festive fun this weekend <3

Much Love.

Kirst xXx

Holidaying with Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest.

A few months ago Ed and I went to visit a friend in Sherwood Forest in these beautiful, modernistic log cabins. I totally fell in love with this place and it was top of my list when Ed and I decided we needed to get away from the city for a few days. The first image below is the view out of our cabin's living room, I could look at this view every morning for the rest of my life and I would never get tired of it. It is so beautiful and peaceful here that it is the perfect break to recharge our batteries before the manic Christmas season kicks off.  

We rented some mountain bikes today, this is the first time I have ever been mountain biking. The first bike I was given was a unisex one, it was huge, scary and the breaks were a long way from the handle bars! This bike hated me and I hated it, so I was very pleased to swap it for a ladies mountain bike. I had such a wicked day (once I got the right sized bike) in the gorgeous, sunny, crisp, autumnal air. Now all that is left is to have dinner and lounge in the hot tub with a beer.

Hope you are having an autumnal wonderland <3

Much Love

Kirst xXx 

Frasier is Decorated!

Ed just kept pestering yesterday until I gave in and said that we would go and get some Christmas lights and some decorations for the tree (a.k.a Frasier). We wanted to acquire decorations that would last many years and would be little capsules for lovely memories of our first Christmas at our first home. And this is what we ended up with...

We bought this cute little toadstool from a gorgeous little boutique in Hay on Wye, I think Ed secretly fancied the owner of the shop as she had a rather lovely Welsh accent, but he also couldn't understand a word she was saying. Which made me giggle, poor Ed. The angel is made by the very talented hands of my dear mother, I love the fact that she has a slight 30s look about her.  

These baubles were a bit of a last minute make, Ed found them in the cellar. I bought them early on in the year in the sales and loved the idea that they were plain, clear baubles waiting to be made exciting. I scoured the house trying to find some pretty things to put in them and I found some sugared violet petals and salt that had edible petals and herbs in. My mum and dad bought me these last year when we went on a little outing. The jars were so pretty I didn't have the heart to use the contents so I am really happy that they have made some special little decorations.

Ed was delighted when I found some robot decorations and I decided to have some glitter skulls to add a bit of sparkle, as I don't truly appreciate tinsel if I am honest. We love our tree so much, its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hope you are getting all set for the big day and keeping nice and snug <3 

My Mum's Christmas Magic Knitting Needles.

My wonderful mother has been extremely busy knitting away at some beautiful Christmas decorations this year! She knitted a Santa and friends to raffle at the charity that I volunteer for and I feel in love with his little friends so much I persuaded her to make some and turn them into Christmas decorations. They are just so adorable! She knitted a whole bunch so I could put some on Etsy for her (but I think I will steal a few to put up on Frasier the Christmas Tree as well hehe).

I can't actually choose a favourite out of this delightful trio and I can't wait to see what they look like on the tree. There are also some little angels waiting patiently to be photographed so I better get round to it in the next few days as Christmas is fast approaching. 

If you have fallen in love with these little guys as much as I have then there are a select few for sale on my Etsy shop Craft Cacophony. Snap them up quick so they can spread their Christmas cheer into your household <3

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

I woke up late today, because we had a VERY hectic busy day in London yesterday, and one of the first things Ed had to say to me was "When can we go and get a Christmas tree?".  Ed loves having a Christmas tree soooo much, we didn't bother last year as we were in the process of buying our flat and we weren't sure when our moving date was going to be. So this year Ed wanted to have a Christmas tree early in December to make up for it.  

This was the tree that Ed fell in love with, it is a Fraser Fir so we named it Frasier. It is a lovely, little compact tree grown in a pot which means that we can put it on the allotment after the festive season is over and hopefully Frasier will be with us for next Christmas as well.  

We managed to get it into the car without making too much of a mess by removing the parcel shelf.

Ed managed to find some of our decorations from two years ago. We thought we had more! We only had one tiny strip of lights and a few baubles. 

Here he is in pride of place in the window, ready to be decorated properly so all the other Christmas trees don't laugh at him! 

Hope you have had a great (slightly festive) weekend <3