ho, ho, ho, the festive spirit kicks in.............

Good evening everybody, is the festive spirit upon you yet? It's well and truly arrived in this house. The tree is up, decorated to within an inch of it's life, the stairs are swathed in fairy lights and garlands, the candles are lit, as is the fire, Nigella's on the telly expanding our waistlines just by watching, the advent calendars have only 5 doors left to open and I've still a humongous pile of presents to wrap and Christmas cards to send.

So this will be a post of many pictures and very few words, apologies to all. However, I must mention the button maker since so many of you have asked where it came from. So I will let you in on my little secret because I'm kind like that. I bought it at Dunelm Mill for the princely sum of less than £2, the buttons themselves are about £2ish as well. I've also seen them at "The Range" - see, I go to all the best places don't I!! Of course whilst I was out and about scouting round the cheapo shops I felt it would be churlish of me not to throw another one in my basket along with a pack of buttons, so I have one to give away to one of you lucky ladies (or men). Just do the usual, leave me any comment before Christmas Day, doesn't have to be funny or anything, a simple hello is enough, and this little gadget will be winging it's way to the lucky winner. As Miss Sew'n'Sew will vouch I am the slowest parcel posting lady so I will not promise it before Christmas Day but it'll brighten up those post Christmas blues and give you something to do on those long dark nights.

So, are you ready, pictures galore to follow...........

...............let's start at the front door with my trusty old wreath. As tempted as I was with the truly delicious eucalyptus "White Company" one I was a goody two shoes and let it go. There is a limit as to how many a person can have and at the last count I had nine!

....................now have a nose through the window, go on tell me you do it too! I just love dusk at this time of year, it provides the ultimate nosing opportunity, curtains still open and lamps on. Does that make me sound weird, back me up here ladies!

.................the fire's roaring so come on in out of the cold.

....................Christmas tree by night (bloody hard to photograph it was too!)

..............................and by day.

.................we have our own little carol singers,

.................vintage baubles,

............................little sparkly snowmen,

The baby blanket will not be finished in time, surprise, surprise. It is coming along a treat, the Rowan yarn is a dream to crochet with, the colours are sublime. I've (sort of) followed a brilliant tutorial for granny squares with built in flowers kindly given by Rosehip, and I'm thrilled with the results. Give me another 6 months and we may have something resembling a blanket.

The only thing left to say is have a lovely, peaceful, joyous Christmas, and see you in the New year!

For some reason my latest post is below the last one, if you get my drift. Scroll down below "show and tell, part 2" and there it is, can't work out how to move it, so there it'll stay!

show and tell part 2.............

In trying to fit in all the house cleaning, Christmas shopping and sewing duties before I start work on Sunday blogging has taken a bit of a back seat (again).

I promised details of our trip down to London to the Country Living fair. However, pictures are a bit thin on the ground. After hauling the camera round in my bag all day and being too embarrassed to take any photos in the fair itself, we spotted this fab restaurant in a red double decker but after one very blurry photo the battery died!

We had a fab day out, met the lovely Kathy on her gorgeous stall and managed to snap up a few treats. We also visited Spitalfields and the market and then got totally lost on the way home, being totally unused to driving in a big city. So that's our London fix over until March and very enjoyable it was too.

I've also been indulging in a bit of retail therapy closer to home. A local wool stockist is closing down and everything is down 50% so needless to say I was there, big bag in hand, ready to fight off the grey haired old ladies to get to the Rowan cotton yarn - totally unnecessary, they preferred the pale blue and pink baby wool it seems! Now Rowan is a revelation, a total dream to crochet with and I've set myself the task of making my baby niece a blanket for Christmas (gulp), not being the fastest hooker in the west, it may be a tall order. Anyway, she's only 8 months, she doesn't know Christmas falls in December!

Look at those colours....................

Talking of colours, I couldn't resist these cyclamen to try and brighten up our post armageddon front garden.................

and finally, I had to take a photo of this scrumptious pea soup in a cup, easy to drink and sew at the same time!

Back soon...........

how many books?....................

We have a problem in this house which no amount of shelving, storage or de-cluttering can resolve. All of us love books, no one more so than Jack. And, none of us can bear to part with them, even if they're outgrown, re-read 20 times, or not particularly good, we hang onto them. Wherever the children are in the house you can guarantee that there'll be a pile of books somewhere nearby. Which means that I spend an inordinate amount of time piling them on and then carting them back up the stairs. Every now and then I attempt a book cull but before I get chance to surreptitiously remove the bag from house to car and then charity shop I get caught and have to bring them all back in again. What's a mother to do??




I have to share a story about my gorgeous bookwormish boy. Jack is not what some people would call the bravest child. He doesn't like to take risks, can't swim, has only just learned to ride his bike, is terrified of dogs and cats and likes to be at home more than anywhere else. He also has a significant stammer. When the school held a talent show last year we assumed that he would not want to perform. How wrong we were. Our beautiful son wrote his own song, stood in front of the whole class with his best friend and sung and acted out the entire thing. To his disgust he lost to "Greased Lightning"! In our eyes he is the bravest, kindest little boy and we were so proud of him on that and every day.

On an entirely different subject, thank you so much for all your good luck wishes for my new job. I'm two days in and I think I can safely say that standing at a door shouting "Hello" at every customer is possibly not what I want to do for the rest of my life, but the girls who I'm working with are lovely, as are most of the customers, so I think I can stand it for six weeks! Needless to say I've spent (in my head) my wages six times over, and I've got my eye on a half price wreath at the moment, oh , and the napkin rings, cowl neck dress, rose print nightie etc, etc.........

Lastly, just had to show you my new gadget, a button maker. It's super quick and highly addictive, just what I need on these long winters' nights!