Christmas is around the corner!

So the festive season is upon us, there's frost on the ground (in N.I anyway) the adverts are flashing everywhere you look attempting to suck you in to commercialism and spend every penny in your bank (or overdraft). Well for me i'm holding two fingers up to this idea of Christmas, as I don't believe this is how it should be celebrated! Christmas is about family, good food, all mucking in together, building snowmen, board games hot mulled wine and thoughtful gifts (usually handmade or cheap tokens). Especially since i've been living across the water from my family i'm sure just having me home for the festive season will be a good enough present hehe :P

A few years back me and a friend made a pact for xmas gifts. It had to be free, found "acquired" homemade or for a good cause. For example anything you find on the street, freebies from websites/samples in the post, homemade gifts or a thoughtful gift in a charity shop (up to £5)  Having this challenge for xmas has been a much more exciting use of my time, and we always end up with great gifts each!

What's your idea of a great Christmas? How much will you be spending on presents and food? Will you give in to the temptation of high street shops with their sparkly advertisements and fake snow? Or will you be creating a low budget, homemade, heartfelt xmas like myself?

I'm still rather excited that our garden backs on to the local forest! Moving to the other side of the UK has made me more aware of such beautiful things we can sometimes take advantage of; for instance beautiful scenery. (especially when it's free) It's sickening to think how much some people pay to visit gardens/woodland trails/nature reserves when there's plenty out there for free! The sad thing is the "free ones" are usually bursting with free berries to pick, local wildlife to spot, little pathways and streams that naturally occur and generally have a better sense of adventure about them. Grab your boots and woolly hat and go explore!

Us supporting our local forest ^^^ 

So other than Halloween preparations the house has been filled with lots of job applications, lots of tea and cake meetings with family, and the constant challenge to not spend a penny unless needed. 

Our latest achievement being FREE homemade blackberry jam! There's no catch, honest! We picked the blackberries on an early morning walk in our local forest, brought them home to wash and boil, added sugar, simmered and poured in an empty jar, wallah! 

Berries found in Ballykelly forest, Northern Ireland.

Simmering the berries

The final product

There's something very satisfying about creating something for free! I'm interested to see if any of you are as frugal with food as I am? Any creations you'd like to share? 

For those wonderful people who sometimes browse upon my blog, a big fat SORRY for the lack of posts recently; It's been a bit of an "up and down" last few weeks here.
The big halloween party has been and gone, it was great having the challenge of attempting to make/find all of the decorations this year! I was lucky enough to not be working and to have my two best friends fly from London to stay for the celebrations!
Here's a little peek at the adventures we got up to:

Amy being a perfect model for my Halloween make-up experiment :)

The top of our stairs (complete with coffin, shackles and lots of blood )

One of le pumpkins (also one of the only things we purchased for halloween)

What did everyone else get up to for Halloween? Parties/scary movies/quiet night in?