Vintage details

I have really enjoyed making this flock of birds with scraps of felt and vintage fabric. I think they are destined for a colourful Christmas tree. They couldn't be simpler to make - just my kind of project (thanks to my mum for spotting the idea in the Christmas House Beautiful magazine).
I've been playing with other Christmassy ideas this week, too. Home made oatcakes, peppermint creams....all have appeared, and vanished again, in our kitchen.

These oatcakes (a Jane Cumberbatch recipe, from her book Recipes for Everyday) are so simple and delicious. Just a mix of oatmeal, a little melted butter, sea salt and water. Great with cheese and grapes. They could be packaged in a special tin, like this beautiful old fruit cake tin that I found recently:

As we're talking details today, as I was sewing away at the birds with my new over-the-counter reading glasses perched on my nose, I couldn't help noticing the name of the colour on one of my reels of thrifted thread: 'dark lovebird.'   I have also clocked nutmeg, rose, myrtle, violet and mink. But I think that 'dark lovebird' has to be the best description of a colour that I've yet heard.