The "C" word - Christmas

Today, I've been thinking about (I'm going to say it, I'm going to say the "C" word...) Christmas.

I reminded myself sternly that it's only August, and that sort of nonsense wouldn't be tolerated until at least 30th November, but my little brain wouldn't give in and occupy itself with anything more useful.

This Christmas is lining up to be the first one I will have ever spent away from my immediate family. I've spent a few years where I've only been with a few members of the clan, but generally it has been a home affair. Some years we join forces with another branch of the family, other years we keep it small. This year, I will be elsewhere (or so we hope, visas permitting...).

The reason it stuck in my mind so insistently was the realisation that I am poorly equipped for Christmas. My parents have been collecting Christmas decorations for decades, and have ample supplies of fairy lights, ancient tinsel, fibre optics, baubles and bells and whistles. Every year, the attic vomits forth a mountain of boxes of decorations, and we spend a couple of days decking the halls with boughs of holly - literally.

This year I have no holly (and no hall to deck, so never mind). No fairy lights. No baubles, no bells, no whistles. Not even a sad strand of tinsel. I am at square one for Christmas.

The good news is that we found a Christmas tree stand under the weeds in our back yard, so we at least have that.

Naturally, faced with a Christmas vacuum, I turned to the only place I could: Pinterest.

There is an abundance of ideas. Some are marvellous, some are... deranged? Some require such an investment in materials that you might as well buy ready-made decorations and save yourself the bother.

Most affordable seems to be home made salt dough ornaments, and they seem to be so simple that even I will find it hard to screw them up. I might even splash out on some cans of metallic spray paint. I'll need ribbon, too.

I also fancy some of the woven and folded paper decorations, although I disapprove entirely of any that use pages from books. Don't people know that books are sacred?? I've seen some very fancy colours being used, but being a traditional old fart, I will probably be using good old red, green and gold for my Christmas palette.

I really need to get out more.

Review: Soulindha

A little while before Christmas, I came across a pin on Pinterest's popular page for a striking leather bag. It sang out at the bohemian in me, and dating a cowboy has given me a fresh appreciation for quality leather goods.

Image from Soulindha on Etsy

I loved the style, and have been looking for a good handbag for a while. My days of buying a £40 "leather" bag from Aldo or Next are long gone - the bags available on the high street are too bland for my taste, and I prefer the strap across the body to something that needs to be tucked under my arm.

There was just one problem with this bag. The colour.

I wanted red. Not just any old red, I wanted scarlet (or "harlot scarlet" as I like to call it). I wanted brash, bright, attention-seeking red.

Etsy being the kind of marketplace where you can make absurd requests like that, I went ahead and messaged the seller directly, to ask if a custom made bag in red was possible.

Rawia was very prompt to reply, and very helpful. I could indeed have the harlot scarlet of my dreams, she would source some immediately and let me know what she could find in the ostrich leather for a contrasting colour on the top flap.

By golly, did she deliver. For just a little extra cash to cover the costs of the custom build, here's what she produced...

Image from Soulindha on Etsy

The colour was to die for. The ostrich panel is a glorious burnt orange that looks superb against the outrageous red. The leather is thick and soft and will age beautifully with use.

What I loved most was the craftsmanship. This bag is sturdy as anything. The seams are all secure and neat, there wasn't a single thread out of place. The bag is lined with canvas, and the inside pocket is finished off with a strip of red leather across the top edge. All of the hardware is high quality brass.

Every rivet is perfectly lined up. The braiding on the front panel is tight, neat and strong. I could wear this bag all over the mountains on horseback and it would hold up wonderfully.

Image from Soulindha on Etsy

It holds everything that I need: purse, keys, phone, excessive amount of lip balm, tissues, pens, paper, random receipts, gum... It comes with detachable straps that will hold a coat or jumper or blanket or whatever else you need to roll up and keep out of the way, as well as a strap to anchor the bag to your thigh. I wish I made more use of this strap, as I often find my bag around my head when I bend down in the supermarket.

The shoulder strap is completely adjustable, and can be changed to wear around your waist like a holster, short on the shoulder, or long across the body.

This bag has been designed and made with such care. The love of its maker pours out of it. Rawia's other creations on her shop are similarly beautiful, and very high quality. She made my bag very quickly and it was shipped in good packaging to protect it on the long journey from Australia. I could not have been more delighted when I opened the parcel.

Everywhere I go, I get compliments about it. I enjoy the smugness for a moment.

Doing business with Rawia was a real pleasure. It's refreshing to encounter people who trade on a more personal level, far from the corporate and bulk buying worlds of Amazon and eBay. This bag will last me for many years to come, and I have already made plans to use some of Rawia's other creations as gifts for good friends in the future.

Visit Rawia's Etsy shop, Soulindha, and see what you find. She offers this design in several other, more neutral colours, as well as many other designs of bag. Well worth a look, and certainly worth the investment.

Efforts in creativity

Things have been a bit mad recently. I'll explain later. The long and short of it is I've needed to find ways to silence my brain, and to focus on one small task at a time. Otherwise the deluge of information and ideas is rather overwhelming.

I spent quite a bit of time over the Christmas period crafting jewellery, and I've picked it up again in the last few days. There's something rather zen about picking apart a piece of unloved jewellery and piecing something new together.



I was given a whole bunch of beaded jewellery by an old housemate before she moved out, which has bulked out my collection of materials considerably, but I've also made a few purchases here and there.



These interesting coloured chip beads came from Fishtail, Montana. The shop had strings and strings of locally sourced mineral beads. I had to limit myself to just the two colours.





I love them, and I want to make use of them, but the holes drilled in them are a little small for the metal findings I use. I'll either have to attempt to learn about using thread or wire, or find myself a drill.



Some of my creations are simpler than others. I have a few different colours to work with, and gold is not something I would usually wear. I'm quite tempted to try now that I've been playing with it a bit.

But these are probably my favourites...



I'm in the process of opening up a shop on Etsy, but being the sort of person who agonises over these things, it'll take me a while before I can summon the courage to get it up and running properly.