What I'm Loving: December 2014

Photos from my Instagram account

I hope you've all had a lovely week surrounded by friends and family, regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not. It's come to that time again where I share my favourites from the past month, but this one's special - it's the last one of 2014! I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions, but at this time of year I can't help but think about the year ahead. Hopefully 2015 treats you all good too!

Knitting Pattern: Arachne Cabled Fingerless Gloves

Okay, confession time - in my three to four years of knitting, I've only ever knit cables once. It was in my early days of knitting, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it (I still wear my finished cable beanie), at the time I didn't like the fact that I didn't really fully understand the mechanics behind it. I suppose I'm finickity like that. But I've recently had the desire to become reacquainted with cables for some reason, and I've been loving it. The chunkiness means that they work up really quickly, and once you know the pattern, you get into a rhythm.

Mid-Week Treat: Stocking Filler Special

Although it sometimes can get a little stressful, I absolutely love shopping for Christmas presents - it really gets me in the festive spirit. My favourite part of Christmas shopping has to be stocking fillers; I usually buy people one main present and add in a few mini extras. There's no rule when it comes to stocking fillers, except they have to be fun, and not too expensive. Which is where this guide to stocking fillers comes in - in true Mid-Week Treat style, everything here costs under £5! Purses at the ready, let's go Christmas shopping...

3 Ways to Wrap and Package Handmade Gifts

If you've got any handmaking of gifts to do, hopefully you're well on your way. I've still got a couple I need to finish off, but fingers crossed, it should be all under control. One thing I always find tricky about giving handmade gifts, is knowing how to package and wrap them. Shop bought items only require wrapping paper at the most (hurrah for in store gift wrapping services!), so when faced with something you've created yourself, packaging can be puzzling to say the least. Today I'm sharing three different ways I wrap or package handmade gifts, to hopefully give you some inspiration.

How to: Cut Out Jeans

Hello, cold knees!

At the moment, it seems that any crafting time I have is being taken up with a certain project involving crochet flowers. It was therefore very nice to become reacquainted with the sewing machine this week, as I ticked off a project I've been meaning to complete for a while now - a pair of cut out jeans. I'm glad I got around to making these now, as I don't think my knees would be able to survive any cooler temperatures!

Read on for the instructions...