Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that you are all enjoying the holidays and that Santa brought you all some lovely presents.

The girls had a lovely couple of days - Christmas day at our's and Boxing day at my parents' house. We had a great time - all 14 of us!

Leah and Evie enjoyed opening their presents (even if Leah didn't like everything we got - think I should've given her the best presents last. Note to self to do that next year)

Leah got a sledge from Richard's parents which they both enjoyed playing with.

Evie certainly liked it!

Boxing day was spent with family as I said, and Leah enjoyed being with her little cousin Amelia. She's 10 weeks old now, but still as tiny as a little doll - and has a full head of hair!

I did my annual dress up and made the effort for a couple of days. I even wore a dress each time. You have to make the effort at Christmas, don't you?

Of course, we had far too much to eat as usual, and the kids tucked in. Although I must day Leah was far more interested in the crackers than her dinner.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Preparing for Christmas

The last few days before Christmas are always busy, let alone when you're youngest isn't sleeping due to an ear infection. Luckily the antibiotics seem to be working, so we're in for a better Christmas than it could have been.

The tree is up and decorated, although parents of young children know how tempting it is for the kiddlies to mess with the tree. I'm constantly redressing it where Leah has been fiddling to make it 'better'!

We madesome decorative presents to go on the tree this year, from mini cereal boxes, wrapping paper and ribbon.So easy yey so effective. They look great although I haven't been able to photograph them well enough yet.

I even put my sewing skills (?) to the test this year and made one - yes one - felt bauble. TA DA!

Today Leah and I made some very tasty mince pies, and even though I told her that raw pastry was not very nice, she didn't believe me and went ahead and ate it. It was spat out and left on the worktop - need I say more?

They are very tasty anyway, especially with a cup of tea. Not bad for my own pastry making skills - the chicken liver pate is being made tomorrow. Wish me luck!

We had a big dump of snow of saturday, and I managed to get into the garden quite soon after to take some photos.

The apple tree looked so pretty I just had to show you the picture of this snow covered branch.

What to put in a toddler's advent calendar?

I finally found an advent calendar for Leah which I didn't have to put together from a kit and wasn't over £30.
I actually found it at our local Church Christmas bazaar for £3!

I had to come up with some ideas to fill it with as I didn't really want to give her sweets or chocolates each day.

I looked on Ravelry for some small toy knits which wouldn't be too time consuming and would be loved by Leah.

The first I found was a pattern for an Amigurimi Pocket Bunny which was a bit fiddly, but pretty cute. Leah keep moaning that iIidn't make it a tail!

The second I have made so far is for a holiday mouse by Fuzzy mitten (this can be found via the link to Ravelry or via her blog). This was a really quick knit and knitted up in just a few hours. As it is knitted straight it wasn't as fiddly and as she uses bobbles rather than knitting arms and legs there is much less sewing!

I think he's pretty darn cute :o)

We're going to finish off the Christmas shopping today so we're going to head into town early(ish) to beat the lunchtime rush!

The first of my Christmas bunnies

I wanted to introduce you to the first of my Christmas bunnies which are for sale. This little fellow is called Alfie and is knitted from Sirdar Snuggly DK, so is very soft and cuddly. I made his jumper using some Christmas motifs I found in a knitting magazine from a few years back. The bunny itself is from my own design.

He is looking for a home and is £9 plus P&P, depending on which country you live in. I will only charge for postage and packing materials, nothing more!

I made his little tail from Sirdar Snuggly Snowflake and it is very soft and cute! If you are interested please e-mail me or leave a message on this post.

Thanks everyone for dropping by!

Some more goodies!

At the weekend we popped into town to get some jeans for Richard, and as we were passing I had to look in the local wool shop.

I spied this at a reduced price, so whipped some up to make a Christmas scarf for my Mum. I didn't really have a pattern in mine, but after searching Ravelry, I came across this So Called Scarf.

The pattern is really easy to memorise and the effect isn't too bad, although I think it would look better in a smoother yarn.

Here is my WIP,

and a close up of the pattern from the side view. Not too bad I think?

What a busy Christmas!

Here I am, finally, after the busy week we have had celebrating Christmas and seeing our families.

We all had a lovely time even though everyone at some point has been struck down with a cold ( I am the latest victim to fall foul of the virus!) after waking up yesterday with a bunged up nose :oS



Leah had a lovely time and loved all her presents - well to be more precise all the mess she can make with her presents - and she didn't get too spoilt which is a good thing. Mum and Dad bought her the cutest little slippers, but she still won't put them on her feet, she just doesn't want to!

We tried her with Boxing Day Dinner of roast beef (see above) and the traditional roast turkey Christmas Day Dinner, and she ate a little, although she preferred the stuffing and sausages to anything else.....oh well......

She also loved spending time with little William (who is also suffering with a cold, bless him) and she couldn't keep her hands off...

....poor little fella, he doesn't quite know what has hit him!! (or should that be kissed him??!!??)

So here they are on Christmas day, looking as good as gold - all three of them!

My work Christmas party!

Each year our bosses at work kindly throw us a Christmas party. This year we went to a Chinese Restaurant and it was held last Friday. I was a very good girl and didn't drink much but still managed to get a few funny photos.


I managed to take a photo of me and my friend not bad for the last one of the evening. I even got most of our heads in as usually I miss them off!

Poor Sam got a glass of wine tipped over him so he was frantically phoning round all his mates to see if anyone could drop him a shirt down to the restaurant before hitting the nightclubs. I'll have to find out if he managed that one!

And finally my two friends having a bit of a daft moment with the chopsticks - I think they were a little worse for wear before we even arrived! it was a good evening and the food was yummy!¬

Not much has been happening around here......

This week seems to have flown by without much happening, or so it seems. I haven't finished any knitting projects and haven't done much else. One plus, I did get all my Christmas cards written and sent out, so one less thing to worry about.

When we put our tree up, we were a little concerned that Leah was going to pull everything off and end up with the tree on top of her! As you can see, she was more interested in examining everything and just taking it all in.



She loves the baubles and little stockings, but luckily has left them all on the tree. One thing she has learnt this week is how to push herself along on her little truck. It was a present for her birthday, but has been in the loft ever since as she didn't want to go anywhere near it. When we got the Christmas decorations down, we saw it up there and she has been stuck to it ever since. Her favourite thing is to be pushed along on the wooden floor whilst lifting her feet up to go faster!

I am hoping to finish my two sock projects soon, but whether they will be done in time for Christmas is a different story. Neither was supposed to be a present, so if I finish them in time it will be a bonus. Once they are done I have a pair on mind for a friend who I know will love them!

That's all for my unevenful week, hopefully something more exciting will happen this weekend - hopefully it won;t involve, me, a horse and the ground!

Finally put up our Christmas tree!!

We bought our Christmas tree this morning and what a nightmare we had putting it up. The price of trees really seems to have gone up this year, so rather than buy the type we really like, we opted for a different type, which saved us about £15.

When we got it home we tried to put it in our Christmas tree stand but the darn thing had a two narrow trunk :oS We tried all sorts of things to pack it out but to no avail, we even tried tying an old mouse mat round the trunk. Whatever we did it still wouldn't stand on its own.

Eventually we managed to borrow a smaller stand from Richard's parents, but for some reason the tree still looks drunk. Richard doesn't like it, so that's put a bit of a downer on the whole thing - I tried to decorate it the best I could!!



I don't think it looks too bad?




We also went to the Frost Fayre held by the Church in Mum and Dad's road this afternoon. There wasn't really much to do, and the stalls were all too spread out, so it was a little disappointing.

I did manage to slip in a glass of mulled wine so that was a bonus, and the lights in the street all looked very pretty. Leah liked all the trees and the reindeer!!

hmmm, how annoying!

Since her obsession with 'In the Night Garden...' Leah had realised what the remote control is for (thank goodness for Sky+) and it is sooooo annoying! If she doesn't want to watch what's on she grabs the remote and make a real moany noise until we change it!!

Quite frustrating really, especially when she then turns the TV off.....

On another note I finished the Christmas shopping today and still can't believe the lack of space between Christmas displays, it is almost impossible to get a pushchair though :o( I was soooo annoyed by the end!! At least its all done for another year, just the wrapping to do - urghh!

Can you believe it??

I thought I would make the most of the Debenhams sale yesterday and went into town with my sister to do a bit of Christmas shopping.

It was a complete nightmare taking the pushchair as all the clothes are put out too close together, so its like an assault course just trying to get to where you want to. Add into the mix a bored and hungry toddler and a stressed out Mum and you end up with me being in a real bad mood!


Nevertheless, I managed to get a good chunk of my Christmas presents bought, and with another trip into town today, (with the help of Richard) we've managed to get most of it bought and its not even December yet! That's a record for us as we usually leave it to the lasy minute LOL!


I also got myself a dress to wear to my coleagues wedding reception on Friday night - so now I'm relieved I haven't got to go in my birthday suit.....


Onto nicer things, I've got my first waving not drowning sock finished and I can't believe how quick it was to do. Some patterns seem to take forever, but I finished this sock in two days which is another record for me!


I am really pleased with how the striping has turned out so now I just have to make the second one so Mum can have her Christmas pressie!