Ok. Hands up how many times you go to a craft fair and love what you see but think 'I can make that'? If it's not 50% of you at least I'm surprised that you are still reading this blog but I'm thankful that you are.
What follows is a story about how silly my husband and I can be, if you want to get to the craft part again I suggest you scroll down to 'we wandered the streets' be reassured it has a happy ending.
So just before Christmas my other half and me went to Lincoln to the infamous Christmas markets. We've been trying to go for years but it would seem it wasn't meant to be; the first year was food poisoning, the second was work, the third we were already on holiday, the fourth was bad weather but this year we managed to go.
Like children on an adventure we set out. We arrived in good time, drove down a one way street the wrong way, arrived at the same roundabout from three different directions until we finally found the park and ride. Upon entering the first marquee I was sure we woukd find all our Christmas presents except there was then an announcement. See the beauty of Lincoln's Christmas market is that 80% of the stalls are inside the castle grounds but the anonymous voice from the speakers told us that it was unsafe at this juncture to enter the castle grounds. We did what any couple would do - find shelter in a cafe and eat cake. The announcements kept coming. 'Unsafe'. To be honest the thing that was unsafe was leaving two men at the castle gates to ensure no one entered and as there was a gathering crowd of angry Brits the tutting these guys received was verging on aggressive!
We wandered the streets and came across a church that had a handmade wreath competition going on which was brilliant and then we found a village hall with a craft fair. Hallelujah! This village hall saved the day for me. It was packed with great ideas and several purchases were made for Christmas gifts. Yay!
But one thing I came away with was the snowman soup idea. It's essentially hot chocolate packaged up in a decorative way. Such a simple but perfect stocking filler idea. Finding the triangle bags was the hardest part but since getting those it was easy.
What is lovely about that idea is that it's childish enough that children will invest in the fairytale elements and childish enough that adults want them too.
Snowman soup went in nearly all my gift bags and I will be making them again this year. Just wish I could use them all year round. Any ideas how they could be modified?
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