We went to the woods today.

Bouyed by my recent pledge to make the most of every second of life, I didn’t want it to be a wasted Sunday doing housework and the mountains of washing that only ever get dealt with at the weekend.

So we booted up and went in search of some pinecones. I recently read about a lovely day in the woods over at Mummy’s Little Monkey and was inspired by the idea of collecting pinecones and turning them into something festive and pretty.

It took a while, but we eventually found this beauty…

Surrounding it, the biggest pinecones you’ve ever seen. *cough*

Filling a supermarket Bag for Life with the little pinecones (I wanted to bring a wicker basket, but the husband pointed out we’re not “Little Red Riding Hood frolicking around in the woods and I’m not carrying a bloody basket”), we also spied a little bit of holly and some sprigs of fir tree branches fallen on the ground.

When we got home – covered in mud – I popped the pinecones in the oven on the lowest temperature possible to dry them out.

Then I made a festive table display by sticking cloves in oranges and messing around with the holly and fir. While I was doing this, my toddler invaded the washing basket, scattering my dirty knickers over the kitchen floor.

In a desperate attempt to save my knickers, I dug out the glitter and glue and let Frog go wild. My knickers were saved, but my carpet wasn’t.

(Don’t judge my choice of newspaper Mum, this was a freebie from work.)

I sent the ever suffering (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine out to the shed, to dig out some of the huge hoard of jars I keep there.

And we filled them with mini balls of glittery loveliness. With a few candles, they look quite pretty on the mantlepiece. Ready for the tree next weekend.