As I mentioned yesterday, I have a three-week holiday over Christmas this year. Liking it. This means that I have had time to take the dogs for long walks in the snow every day, make all my Christmas cards by hand, cook elaborate three course dinners (asparagus and hollondaise sauce, lobster thermidor, chocolate mousse) - and of course, spend hours and hours and hours wrapping all our Christmas presents.

I choose a different colour scheme for my Christmas-present wrapping every year. One year it may be scarlet and olive. Another year - different shades of turquoise. This year I have been inspired by these brown paper, doily and twine creations from Leslie on Decor8:    

And also by these adorable fabric, hessian and lace confections from Grey Likes Weddings via Style Me Pretty:

Yes. This year my Christmas presents have been wrapped in brown paper, linen, lace, net and twine. And they look pretty cute, too.

Here are the materials I used:

The fabric I already had lying around the house. The cappuccino-coloured linen is a remnant from when I made the living room curtains. The white muslin is from a roll I bought to decorate our wedding marquee. And I had a few pieces of spare French lace left over from when my wedding dress was made.

Here's how the gifts turned out:

The adorable pottery hearts are made by Elizabeth Prince - you may have seen them a few days ago on this post.

Wrapping presents in a very elaborate manner is like cooking complicated meals. It takes hours to prepare - and then the whole thing is over in about 15 minutes. But I love doing both, what can I say :-)

We're leaving Manchester in about an hour to drive across the Pennines to my parents' house in Yorkshire - where three days of Scrabble tournaments, homemade food, and country walks await us. Happy Christmas, everyone!