Wow!

If love was measured in Christmas gifts then I would possibly be the most loved person in the world, this is my "pile o' love"

This is not including a beautiful jumper that the girls gave me because I was wearing it! I am most loved! Some people, so it has been said, do not enjoy getting "smellies" as I call them, or scented scrubs, rubs and body lotions, but I love getting them. I get enough to last me right through to my birthday when I get more, so I can pretty much get through the whole year smelling be-oo-tiful.

We started our Christmas day with our usual trek to the beach for the kids to have a quick dip, we usually have pancakes but I was really not well enough to do pancakes and a big lunch, so it was toasted fruit bread smothered with butter and a cup of tea, for me it was my beloved fancy tea from the picture above in my new Doctor Who cup, also as seen above. The waves were massive and the kids only went in briefly but it was enough to still count as a Christmas dip!

We then came back home so that I could begin the cooking for our traditional Chrissy lunch, which was tummy filling and good for leftovers for Boxing Day, even the dessert, my grandma's trifle, made it into the next day so that we could all enjoy it again! The calories don't count if you stretch it out over two days, or so my grandma used to say, I never had the heart to tell her that I don't think it really works like that, but it was still scrum-diddly-umptous!

After lunch it was time for feet up and another cuppa, fancy tea in my new cup, and some quality time with my knitting. I was able to finish up my sock and actually started another one almost straight away, but I didn't care for the original pattern that I picked because it just didn't seem to sit well with the wool that I was using so after frogging the original and choosing another pattern I have the beginnings of another pair of socks.

You can't quite tell but the new socks have little "bow ties" on them, I must see if I can borrow a camera to take the photos instead of relying on my little phone!

I hope that your Christmas was as wonderful and loving as mine was.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Christmas!

It seems hard to believe that Christmas is here already, I am aware that we have had almost 365 days to get around to doing something about it but life kept getting in the way! We did do the smart thing this year and begun buying gifts as early as September, every time we saw little things we thought the little lovelies would like we would pop them into our trolley and put it into a pile that has gradually grown to epic proportion, but the smaller things like food shopping and baking that can only be done in the few short days before C-Day has crept up quietly and is now leaning over my shoulder and whispering in my ear that I had better get a move on.

The lovelies have all been to their other parents houses these last few days which has left Lovelyhubby and myself with some time on our own, what did we do with this precious and very hard to come by time? We sat quietly in the living room watching the big t.v, knitting and reading blogs or in Lovelyhubbies case finishing a battle on his PC game sitting in the big comfy chair, and eating simple dinners except for one night when we sprang for a large special fried rice from the Chinese takeaway across the road.....yes we seem to have grown old up when we weren't looking!

Today I did manage to make 2 vanilla cakes, one is in the freezer next to the banana cake I made the other day, and the other is the base for my famous Christmas trifle, the jellies are in the fridge jellifying and the Christmas biscuits are all iced and sitting in the container ready to be devoured, minus the few that Lovelyhubby, the dog and myself munched on with our cups of tea tonight, we had to have them, quality control purposes you see.....it was for the good of the nation that we tried them....and they were yummy.....but again, it was only for quality control! Tomorrow I have to make the stuffing, peel the vegetables, make potato salad and coleslaw and put all the trifle fixings together to make the actual trifle, I have special fancy glasses for the trifles, we all stuff ourselves silly on trifly goodness and this may be the reason why I only make it once a year! The only things left to do on C-Day is pop it all into the oven and let it do it's own thing, make the gravy and remember to make the pancakes in the morning for our annual eat pancakes on the beach on Christmas morning excursion.

My mum received her cushions the other day and she was beyond wrapped with them, my dad still hasn't quite come to grips with how I made them but he seemed pretty impressed that something he helped to create can do something "pretty clever."

I hope that every one's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, or whatever your celebration is, is a happy family filled day of joy, if you are travelling be safe and remember it is always better to be late than be the late, at least that's what my grandma used to say.

Merry Christmas xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Turning a corner and seeing Harry

This has been a very busy time for us all, we have had LovelyDaughter1 graduating year 10 and passing all subjects, LovelyDaughter2 finishing year 9 and passing all subjects, LovelySon1 finishing his first year in high school passing all his subjects and then LovelySon2 finishing his year 8, after transferring to his new school half way through the year and passing all his subjects and receiving an award for his efforts.

We have had poor LovelyHubby battling the flu which has taken a rather nasty turn into pneumonia which has managed to knock him off his feet, his medication looks like something a horse should take, but with luck he should begin to turn the corner and begin to feel better very soon

In between taking the kids to various end of year events and looking after poor LovelyHubby I caved into the uber strong urge to knit some socks and have turned the heel of the first sock:

I am making the Hermione socks, the pattern is easy to follow and looks great but it is not easing the sock craving, it has made it worse, I have already got two more skeins ready to make into balls for another pair and ordered a ball last night from eBay for yet another pair, people may be getting socks for Christmas next year at this rate!

I have, as of last night, finished the front of Harry Potterpuff, I have the back part of the cushion to make and then the simple seam closing to do but then it is in the mail, finally, to wing it's way down to my mum for Christmas, thank goodness for next day delivery from our postal service!!! Without further ado here is Harry in all his bright pink glory:

His glasses look blue in the pictures but they are actually green. And here he is with his Snape Potterpuff buddy:

I think that my mum is going to like them.

I hope that all the Christmas rushing about is over for you all and that you are able to enjoy this last week before the large man in red delivers his cheer. Stay safe.
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Ta-Dah with Christmassy sparkle

This is how I spent around 8 hours yesterday afternoon, for the rest of the evening I sparkled every time the light hit my face making me look very much in the Christmas Spirit.

I had to make 15 cards to cover my list, and I am more than sure that I have managed to forget someone!

We also made a kitchy Christmas tree using ornaments that we had made at home and using a can of gold spray paint and a branch that I picked up on one of our walks, the kids and I liked it but LovelyHubby is still a little dubious.  I have always felt guilty about chopping down a tree for just a few weeks of Christmas joy so I do not buy ones that are not in pots, but this year they are asking an extreme amount of money for a tiny tree that does not look like it will hold one ornament let alone a bunch of home made ornamental goodness.

It does look a lot better in the light because you can see all the gold shimmer but we had rain today so I still couldn't get a better picture, hopefully tomorrow will grant me a better photo!

I have also done a little more on Harry so he is coming along, all be it slowly,  and I am fighting a huge urge to make some socks, I haven't made any in a long time and I am finding it a hard battle to fight. I may cave in tonight and cast on a pair......

Maybe Harry could be a Mother's Day gift instead of Christmas and then I could, without guilt, cast on my longed for socks.

I hope your Sunday evening is a calm one with lots of cups of tea and good t.v. viewing, may I recommend Mildred Pierce and Boardwalk Empire, both wonderful shows that are great to crochet or knit socks too!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoo

An unacceptable amount of time to be away!

Shame on me! I have been away for a long time and will give myself a sound talking too. I would love to say it is because I have been somewhere exotic and fun like Bora Bora - I have never been there but the views I have seen have made it number one place to visit in case we ever win the lotto - it has been because of doctors appointments, kids, family life and unfortunately a great deal of pain. Normal activities have become a longer chore than usual because I seem to be a lot slower at doing them and now require a longer recovery time, with luck the new medication regime will work and I will be tickety-boo in no time!

I haven't just been resting but I haven't been able to concentrate on the Harry cushion so he is only at the 20% stage of being but I have at least been able to do some smaller projects that needed to be done:

This is for a lovely lady at the chemist who is having a baby in the next few weeks, not the same lady who works in the same store who I made the other baby stuffs for, she had a beautiful baby girl last month.

These are just some jar covers that I made because I have more jars than space in my cupboard and I thought they would look nice lined up on my counter.

These are soap socks and a face washer that smell particularly yummy when I walk past the bag that is holding all the handmade goodies that I have been making just waiting to go to the people that they have been made for.

These are just some Christmassy coasters that I made, I have no idea who to give them too, I was just testing a pattern!

We also had a birthday with LovelyHubby turning an age that I am not allowed to repeat -this means that he thinks he is now officially old and this is why it is on pain of death that I am to keep it secret- but back to the original reason as to why I shared this event of oldness! Our LovelyDoggy loves paper and cardboard tubes and after the presents of oldness were opened she shared in the joy that is paper tearing:

This is her laying on her stash of wrapping paper so that no one could take it from her until she has shredded it all to her satisfaction, she never swallows the paper she simply tears it into tiny little strips and places said strips into their own pile ready to be rolled in and then shoved on the floor for the magic pixies to come and sweep away until the next event that requires paper and more shreddy goodness!

Weekendyness approaches and will begin with some Christmas card making and some hooky goodness to make it a weekend of resting and making sure that the lounge cushions are good and comfy just in case they have become uncomfy! I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend no matter what your plans!

xoxoxoxoxoxo