yule log

I love the idea of hand made gifts. I've blogged before about how we are trying to make all our gifts this year.

So, when I read The Magnifying Glass are having a series about making gifts from nature, I was really rather pleased. Making things and nature are our two most very favourite things...alongside space, dinosaurs, horses, cheese and balloons.

We have a friend who has a sparkly new log burner that she adores with near maternal affection. Having seen a couple of years ago the art of finding your perfect Yule Log on a River Cottage, I was inspired to do the same.

If you are wondering about the history of the Yule Log, click here. In a nutshell it's a lucky log to bring protection and prosperity throughout the year - but most importantly - it's pretty and practical.

Behold the (admittedly unpromising at this stage) log:
Once we'd checked no little bugs had made this log their winter home, we dried the it on the radiator for a few hours. Then we wrapped some wool around it - this is to be the framework so it needs to be tight but not so much that you can't poke things between it and the log:


We are lucky to have a garden with an abundance of holly and ivy, so I braved the freezing temperature and snipped a couple of bits. We also had some festive coloured netting and white felted wool from our recent scrapstore visit, so Od made a bow:

After a bit of fiddling about, it looked like this:

Which was fine, and quite pretty in itself, but Od wanted to add more, so we put in some pine cones and added just a drop of cinnamon scented oil so it would smell nice when it was burnt :

I am quite pleased with it, mainly because the whole thing can be burnt safely if desired, and I managed for once to resist the temptations of the glittery glue gun. At the moment, it is sitting on top of our piano, surrounded by some fairy lights....it looks so nice I am tempted to keep it, but that's not very much in keeping with the spirit of Christmas, is it now?

May be I should just make two...