Hello, I’m back, having found a tiny little gap where the unrelenting gloom lifted enough to take the photos for today’s Advent Calendar.  I’m not flying completely by the seat of my pants each day, I do have things up my sleeve, but there’s always something I need to do at the last minute.  T’was ever thus!

I’m going to digress a little first however, because I went into Norwich yesterday and apart from the much needed haircut, I did a little shopping.  I really, really hate going shopping at this time of year.  It’s not just the crowds, and the too hot shops etc.  It’s the unrelenting forced fake Christmassiness  (is that a word?)in the big stores which devalues the whole event and is calculated to panic us all into buying things we don’t need.  If it’s not sprinkled with glitter, it’s covered with sugar, or possibly chocolate and we’d be letting the family down if we don’t stock up with lots of it, whatever it is…

I’m trying  as much as possible to buy from independant shops and small craft businesses, and because of living out of the city this tends to be online.  So I made a point of going to a little shop I’ve been meaning to visit for ages and had intended to write a blog post about.  Imaging my dismay when I arrived there and found it’s to close before Christmas!   It’s a gorgeous shop, and I’m sure  if I was still in the city on a daily basis I would have practically kept it viable singlehandedly(well I’d have had a jolly good try!) But I’m going to tell you about it anyway, because if you near enough to visit I urge you to go there for your present shopping before the doors close for ever.

These two posters give you a really good idea of the feel of the place…

It really is just one lovely thing after another, beautiful handmade things, and vintage bits and pieces.  I can’t show you most of what I bought alas, as it might spoil some surprises but I did treat myself to a little something which seemed appropriate…

…and I bought these which have come in handy for todays Advent Calendar make…

You’ll find Follies in Bridewell Alley in Norwich, and on Facebook too where you can keep up to date with the online plans.  It’s very sad that vibrant and original shops like this can’t get the support they need to survive.

So because I’m not going to support Mr Tesco by buying my wrapping paper and labels from him I’ve been making some tags of my own, and have also sourced some online ones to print which I thought I’d share with you.

I already had some brown parcel tags which I customised in this post, but yesterday I found some dinky little ones in the stationers which I couldn’t resist.

If you’ve got time and some hefty sharp scissors and a hole punch it would be more economical still to cut your own.  It’s time I never seem to have! Anyway having spent a happy half an hour with the box of ribbons and cord, buttons and bells, stamps and ink and of course the trusty glue gun I came up with these..

The other tags are available to download and print if you have access to a printer…

(apologies for quality of the photos)

The links are on the Botanical Paperworks Blog  the SassandPeril website and there are a vast variety of tags on Examiner.com

Have fun, I hope this is useful!  I’ll be back tomorrow although the blog post will be a challenge as Tim’s coming home and is making threatening noises about going back to Norwich for my Christmas present!  You never know, we might bump into each other in Follies!