Christmas is coming… my tiny terrariums and giant paper snow balls

So, Christmas… this year, I’m all about the snow. Since it seemed unlikely there’d be actual snow (*shakes fist at the sky*), I wanted to create my own little snowy scenes. Guaranteed snow if you will!

Add in a new obsession with terrariums – even the word is fun to say – and I knew I wanted to make some sort of mini magical display. Not having an actual terrarium (I did find one in a junk shop but it was (a) expensive and (b) larger than you’d expect), I decided to use a few large jars that we had in the flat.

And yes, there may have been a Game of Thrones inspired theme going on (you know Scotland is Winterfell right?).

Then I added sugar, glitter, a plastic wolf and some tiny trees (most of which came from Homebase, the others from a train model shop!).

And not to give up my obsession with foxes completely, I added an arctic fox into the mix too.

Now you if follow me on instagram, you might have already seen the above picture… this is the cautionary bit of making a teeny terrarium. I managed to drop some of the sugar on the floor and before I could clear it up, the fox-owl-cat gleefully rolled around it, purring like crazy, until she was one very sugar-covered cat! While all I could do was laugh…

Anyway…  as well as the tiny terrariums, I thought it would be good to turn our living room window area into a sort of terrarium too. (I’m not sure if that makes any sense but it did in my head when I thought of it!)

So I bought a few paper balls from a budget-friendly party supplies website…

Except my ‘a few’ turned out to equal a lot. And they were bigger than I’d expected…

Which is why some are on the floor as ‘fallen’ snow…

(Also this year’s tree is squint. I’d love to say it’s a deliberate thing but it’s just how he likes to rock!)

And the others are suspended from the ceiling as ‘falling’ snow…

The main reason for the on the ceiling/on the floor thing is that putting up paper snow balls – using fishing wire which is pretty much invisible – is somewhat trickier than we’d anticipated. Especially when you have a really shaky ladder. (Why are they always so shaky?) And one of you wants to take photos instead of holding the ladder. Ahem.

And on the tree? (Who’s called Eric Nordman – after True Blood’s Eric Northman – and because he’s a Nordman fir. Last year’s was Bruce, the Blue Spruce!) Well, the army men made a comeback…

So along with a whole lot of ceramic stars that we made, there’s a troop of golden army men, guarding our tree!

Or intent on destroying things on the tree… I can’t quite decide!

And on our mantlepiece this year, my favourite thing is our Instax photos bunting…

Which is just some little golden pegs, a golden bit of string and a few pics from our travels this year. Simple but possibly one of my favourite crafty things ever.

And a bit more snow (paper snowflakes this time) above the couch… I did mention I was on a snow theme right?

And our wedding deer looking a bit festive too… since why not!

Hope you all have a sugar sweet Christmas! 

And I wanted to say thanks for all your lovely comments, tweets and emails in 2012, you wonderful, brilliant, funny, amazing people. You really are what makes blogging such fun – and why I keep coming back here to share some random little pieces of my life. So, a huge thank you for always putting a smile on my face!

Here’s to an amazing 2013 xxx