A homemade advent calender

When I was little, my Mum always used to make beautiful, handmade advent calenders for me and my brother, which I absolutely loved. No matter what's inside, a homemade calender is just so much more personal and exciting than ones you buy in the supermarket (although saying that, I do love them too and have my Cadbury one ready to go!) Therefore, I thought that this year I'd have a go at making Rob one as a sort of birthday/advent present. I had such fun making it and think it was possibly more of a present to myself than Rob, but he seemed to love it too and hopefully will enjoy opening it over the next 25 days. (Aah only 25 days!!)

As I'm sure you can see, this calender was really easy to make, although it did take a bit of patience (wrapping very little things gets a bit boring by the time you reach 25...) I went for the cheap and easy option of using a stick from the park, (I gave it a good clean, don't worry), although you could also use and paint a wooden hanger. I won't reveal what I bought to go in each present because that would ruin the surprise, but there are so many options and you can spend as little or as much as you wish. I secured all the knots with clear nail varnish to ensure that they wouldn't come undone, glued the string to the stick so that it wouldn't slide around, wrote the numbers on with a gold pen, and hey presto. One advent calender ready to go!

Essie x