Christmas is a comin (and fast!)

I had just about given up on getting here before the Seasonal Holidays arrived but here I am, the weather is cold(ish) and very wet (again!) so today I decided was going to be MY DAY. 

So what have I been up to since I last posted? Well I've been knitting like crazy, trying to get a sweater ready for Little H, I've finished the back and started the front, this is a 3 colour version of the lemon one I made earlier and couldn't finish due to running out of the yarn (now discontinued, so I think I may now have to unpick it :-((). I've tried my hand at Redwork using a cute little free pattern that I got from the lovely Lena over at Stitching Cow blog.

 I made another fluffy scarf, Black this time to give to my neighbour next time I see her. I've made an advent calendar, a stocking and a soft toy for little H,

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The calendar has cut out shapes to attach to the tree on corresponding printed shapes, I bond-a-webbed these to green felt with red ribbon hanging loops, added red/holly print tabs at the top and made a matching bag to store the shapes in which can be buttoned to the bottom then sewed on buttons and beads to hang the shapes with before machine embroidereing the stars with glittery thread.

The elephant is based on a character from one of H's favorite books and has machine embroidered 'sleepy' eyes. I made this stocking  for H the elder several years ago and little H's is very similar but with brighter fabrics.

About a week ago I realised with a start (you know one of those waking up in the night kinda starts!!!:-O) that due to the 8 week 'Bathroom' saga at Mum's closely followed by the 'Electrician' saga that I had done very little NOTHING towards my food/ present preparations for Christmas, so I determined to put that right, starting on Monday the electrician was at Mums all day, and it was WPQ's Christmas party in the evening. My show & Tell was of course the Calendar and a 'Fat Snowman' made with Anne at the November meeting, I already has a 'Fat Santa' made when Anne did the same project with SVQ, so I made 'Frosty' instead, here they both are getting acquainted. He was supposed to have a felt hat and scarf but I decided a knitted one would be warmer as they have to sit on the window sill in the lounge which is very draughty when the curtains are shut!! LOL.

 On Tuesday I made 4 Christmas Puddings, helped a bit by Little H who gave them a 'Stir & a Wish', something I remember doing with my Grandmother when I was very little. Then Wednesday I made 3 Christmas cakes and had them and the Puds in the oven (Yes! I cook my puds in the oven, always have - always will!!) and was ready to have my hair cut by 11am when the lovely Lisa arrived (Lisa is my hairdresser!!) after Lunch Mum had an appointment at the optician's and in the evening it was SVQ's turn to have a party. Can't remember what I did on Thursday - probably something at Mum's. Friday a.m. was grocery shopping, on our return we got the tree & trimmings out of the attic and put the tree up, then our nieghbour came round for a cuppa. The tree is an artificial one that really needs to stand overnight to 'drop' so it was Saturday morning before I put the lights on. At 12pm I had to 'deliver' Mum to the Pensioner's Christmas Lunch organized by the churches, I got invited to join them so enjoyed a very nice lunch and we were then ably entertained by the local Brownie pack. Getting home DH and I made another foray into the attic to find the unbreakable decorations for the tree, for some years I have been building up a selection of really nice Glass ornaments which I decided would be a real problem if we could not stop Little H touching the tree.
I got up at 6am on Sunday and decorated the tree, then marzipan'd the cakes before cooking lunch, after which DS and S arrived staying till 6.30pm.
Then it was Monday again! DH and I went Shopping in Yate, on getting home I got a message from Mum to say the washing machine had flooded the kitchen - twice, so off we went round there, turns out she had not set it right then opened the door before the spinner has done its job. That sorted I caught the 2.15pm bus to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway to do more present shopping getting home at 6.30pm. Luckily I had grabbed a bite to eat in the Mall so was able to fall into the chair and promptly fell asleep!! Zzzzzz
Getting up early again on Tuesday I managed to ice the 3 cakes before DD, Little H and the boys arrived for the day.

H greeted the sight of the tree with lots of excited OOOh's and after being told it was hot (she accidentally touched our Storage heater when she fell a few weeks ago and is now very cautious of hot things) she just went very close to look at the 'balls' (as she called them) and blew on the tinsel to make it sparkle, all the time using her latest word which is Wow! which made Ganma (her word for me) feel very happy, and this is the tree that made her so happy and my 'Christmas corner' in the lounge.

All that remains now is to get this little lot wrapped, labelled and delivered before the Big day.

I hope to get back up here again before the holidays as there was a lot of Show & Tell to share at SVQ last week but in case I don't make it back here I very much hope you all have a very good Christmas however you choose to spend it.

L

Aaaah!!!!

Note this is a different aaaah! to the ones you were getting 3 weeks ago, not you may guess because the Seminole is finished  (or any easier for that matter) but because once again my t'internet is up and running and I can come here to my own little corner and talk to all of you out there in Blogland.

The Seminole Workshop was a great success and we all had a good time, here are some of the girls at work including the lovely Lynne Quinn our Oh! so patient tutor (bottom picture centre).

This is Lynne's bag and is what ours are supposed to look like when finished! the little bag is a pin cushion.

I also took the oppotunity to photograph the SVQ Banner which is now complete, I took it along to show Lynne as it's based on the colour wash project we did with her a while ago (see post in June 2011) All the members made a block each then the committee assembled it, added the lettering and finished it off.

The workshop was held in the held in the hall of a local school, on the wall was this beautiful angel made by the children, she is called Petra and has a little brass plaque to tell everyone about her, isn't she lovely.

Well! I hear you say what else have you been up to? At this moment in time I am breathing a huge enormous sigh of relief that the 'wet room' project at my Mum's bungalow is complete, it's week 6 of a 5 day job!! plus I got a flu virus in the middle of the first 2 weeks so dealing with a constant stream of plumbers/plasterers etc was difficult to say the least :-((. Now we are into a round of electricians coming to quote for some minor jobs like adding a couple of sockets in the lounge so we don't have an extension cable going right round the room from one side to t'other.

I have not been idle on the needlecraft front throughout all this time, I have been knitting like there was no tomorrow (except during the flu thingy!) so far I have made 3 little sweaters that will be going children in the area near The Butterfly Project (See post 28th September)

I made 2 like this, the other is bright yellow and slate grey

 

I made a scarf to give a friends daughter on her birthday and a second one the same (because I could and because I had enough yarn!!)

 I've started a shawl style scarf in this very interesting yarn, which will be great when its done but is very tricky to knit with. It's worked on old size 000 needles which is a bit like knitting with telegraph poles and the yarn itself is very slippy!
 Plus Ive almost completed a sweater for Little H but annoyingly, although pattern asked for 4 balls of yarn I have run out, 2" short of finishing the 2nd sleeve. So if any one out there knows where I can get some Sirdar Snuggly Chatterbox yarn (now discontinued) in shade No 215 I would be a very happy lady indeed. 
Last Saturday saw CTQ assemble for our Christmas meeting, lunch was as ever delicious!! We were all delighted when Laura announced she is expecting another baby in May, then, lunch was rounded off with the exchange of our Secret Santa Gifts when I recieved this lovely box, handmade by Sue.

The pen is just to keep the lid open

Well I better sign off and get some sewing done, I'm working on an advent calendar for little H (yes I do know it's the 1st on Saturday and yes I'm in a bit of a rush, so byee for now. L