Call me cheap...

I put my hands up, I will admit it... I often don't see the point of spending money on things which will end up virtually unused in the bin or things that I can make myself. Take for example, Christmas present wrapping. I went to the supermarket the other day to buy a couple of rolls of Christmas wrapping paper and I almost had to be given CPR in the middle of the shop... 7CHF for 3m of wrapping paper???Are you kidding me??Not that we have hundreds of presents to wrap but I would still probably need to buy 2 or 3 of these rolls to do the job at hand. And then I remembered that I had bought a 50m roll of brown paper at the Post Office for a few francs to wrap parcels with a while back. This would very well do the job of covering the presents for a few days before ending up virtually unusued in the bin on Christmas day. All is needed is some ribbon to cheer the whole thing up a bit, and I can always recycle ribbon in crafty projects after Christmas.

Than, came the question of the Christmas tags... They cost a small fortune here, no one ever bothers reading them before chucking them in the bin so what is the point of buying them when you can make them for free?

Take some pictures from the December edition of one of your favourite magasines...

Cut and glue onto a piece of paper or thing cardboard

Press in a book for an hour or so to make sure they dry flat, et voilà!

Call me cheap but I have probably saved well over 30 CHF here (the equivalent price of 3 chickens in la Suisse!) and it does not look bad at all:

Not to everyone's taste but my purse is satisfied!

Green craft

The other day, Hunter & Gatherer (Alf & I...) went for a walk in the woods just up the hill from our house on a mission... we were foraging for material to help me recreate some of the beautiful Christmas decorations you see in florist shops at this time of the year. Christmas wreaths and Christmas plants are expensive everywhere but even more so in la Suisse and I am not the only one on blogland trying to make do with what's at hand (my friend Petit Filoux is an example).

So off we went on our morning walk, and one hour later we came home with some ...

Holly...

Mistletoe...

and pine branches...

It then only took an extra 10 minutes and some pretty ribbon to create these hanging green bunches for my house:

Total cost = 0 francs .

Thank you Mother Nature!

"Hunter" exhausted after all the morning's work!

Silent Sunday

Christmas stocking swap

Happy Saturday everyone,

A couple of months ago, I entered a Christmas stocking swap that was hosted by a fellow crafty scientist blogger The Undomesticated Scientist. The swap rules were:

- It must include a stocking

- A christmas decoration

- Nibbles

- Something useful

- Smellies

- Something to playwith

- a tangerine - or something that represents it

I was actually paired up with the host herself and received my parel at work on Friday which cheered me endlessly on a rather grey and busy Friday. So here it is then:

My adorable stocking!! The Undomesticated Scientist had blogged about this stocking back in November when the stocking came second in the sewing directories christmas creativity competition... how amazing is that? The stocking has fairy lights all over it, I love it!

The stocking included...

Chocolates and a Terry's "tangerine"

Lovely hand-made decorations, some funky fabric to play with, a little game and some sweet strawberry clips

Smellies including those awesome button-shaped soaps!

This was my first swap ever on blogland and I am so chiffed with me and thankful for the time and care spent by the Undomesticated Scientist putting this stocking together. I can't show you what I included in mine yet as the parcel hasn't arrived just yet but I'll let you know when my partner blogs about it.

Right, we have visitors coming from Germany this weekend, I'd better go and get that coconut cake out of the oven.

Have a lovely weekend :-)

Another Swiss christmas market, another disappointment

Not defeated by our first experience of a Swiss Christmas market in Zürich main train station, we set off on Sunday to Basel to check out one of the biggest Christmas market in la Suisse. Not wanting to put a downer on the whole Christmas market spirit, but I must admit that once again we were disappointed by our day trip...

Granted, (some of) the stalls there had a more Christmassy feel and theme to them, a few of them even sold decorations, but we still found that many stalls sold the exact same products, there wasn't a great deal of variety on offer and the prices were often a rip-off. You really had the feeling that this market was geared towards tourists (and there seems to be plenty around) and people just charged over the odds because of that. We once again came home empty-handed with only a few pictures to share with you.

We had never been to Basel before though and found the old city to be very nice so we'd like to go back next year to explore it a bit more. And we shall not give up our quest for a magical Christmas market in la Suisse!

Christmas-themed baking

As you may remember reading, our trip last Sunday to the Zürich Christmas market was a bit disappointing...However, while searching for some items to include in my Christmas stocking swap, Mr T and I ended up checking out some big department stores in Zürich and ended up finding other ways of spending money!!

I love Villeroy & Bosch, I can't help it... already back in the UK I had bought a couple of pieces from their dining sets because they were available at a reduced price. I am hoping to build a set of non-Ikea dining ware that I can use when we have people over for dinner (admitedly it does not happen very often...), that's my fault for liking expensive things!! Anyhow, we came across this 50% off cutlery box for 6 people from Villeroy & Bosch and I snatched it alongside these really cute biscuit shapes which were also a (Villeroy & Bosch) bargain...Mr T could not complain, I made some biscuits that Sunday afternoon so everyone was happy!

Don't you just love eating baking?

A disappointing start to Christmas shopping

It was with a great deal of exciting that we set off to the Zürich Christmas market on Sunday. Excited because we were about to experience the privilege of  being able to go somewhere on a Sunday and find shops open; and excited because our last experience of Christmas markets four years ago was a very pleasant one. In 2007, Mr T and I spent a long weekend in Alsace (Eastern France) to stay with my sister and visit some of the local Christmas markets in Mulhouse and Strasbourg. I remember pretty city centres...

...quaint little stalls...

... and above all lots of Christmas decorations for sale!

Although I did buy some Christmas decorations at the time, I was hoping to be able to add to my collection this year now that we were in the centre of the Christmas Market world.

The Zürich Christmas market isn't the biggest of its kind in Switzerland but with 160 stalls, it is still a decent market. Maybe because it had only been opened for a few days, but I felt that the market lacked the special Christmas/winter atmosphere I was looking for (this may also be because the market is located in the middle of the train station...).

Too few stalls were selling actual Christmas craft or things you would want to buy people for Christmas...

A lot of the stalls were selling everyday items, some of it plastic tat. I was thinking I would be able to do my Christmas shopping there...it was not to be. :-(

The main attraction remains the gigantic Christmas tree covered in 5000 glittering Swarovski crystal ornaments..you have to remember that this is Zürich after all! Very bling bling!

Swaroski jewels at the bottom of the tree

So, I will not bother going back to this Christmas market but shall patiently await for the other Zürich Christmas market in the old town to open to check it out... I may also be tempted to travel to Basel to see what's going on there... watch this space!

Handmade Monday: getting into the spirit

I can't believe I have almost missed Wendy's Handmade Monday...it is 9.30pm and I am quickly taking 5 minutes to post a picture from my crafty weekend. I went to the annual Zibelemärit (onion market) in Bern after work today and came home later than usual, but more on this weird Swiss tradition later this week.

My inspiration for this week's Handmade Monday came from a book I shamelessly stole from my mother-in-law which is full of clever ideas for Christmas:

I decided to make some felt ornaments for my Christmas tree using felt bought from the fabulous Lupin (check out her blog Bugs and Fishes for loads of tutorials for felt accessories or her shops for felt supplies and felt badges...I love it all!).

There is still plenty of sewing to be done as I am going to need more ornaments than this but it is a start! The Christmas puddings and the gingerbread house were made by following the super easy tutorials by Lupin (available here). Templates and inspirations for the other ornaments came from the book I have just showed you.

In order to get even more into the Christmas spirit, we went to our first Christmas market of the year on Sunday in Zürich but more on that later too...

Do drop by again this week to hear about it all!