Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

Pickle-Lily and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Little knitted robin

Thank-you to all our lovely followers and readers for your comments - and we are looking forward to 2013. I already have lots of ideas flying around in my head!

See you in the New Year!



Oh Christmas Tree

Paper strips tree

This week has been busy again - but amongst the organised chaos timetables, I have sat with the children and we have made tissue paper Christmas trees. It has been a delight sitting, chatting, cutting and sticking these. So easy, but so much care and taken by them in choosing colours and getting the right sizes. Very simply - tissue paper cut into strips and using a glue stick stuck on white paper.
I also thought ribbons or felt strips on a Christmas decoration, or why not use the paper hats from crackers to make multicoloured snowflakes, stars or just shapes on thank-you cards after Christmas.
Why not make one, these have been my oasis of calm in a week of plays, parties and pantomimes and still more to go!

90 cards

I know it doesn't look like 90!

This afternoon I made 90 Christmas cards for the children at school! I've always given the children homemade cards, and for my last 'full-time' class I knitted 30 little stockings. This year as I'm teaching three different classes I've made them all a card each. The pictures are from Dots and Spots wrapping paper, that I've cut out and stuck onto coloured card. I just love Becky's designs. Now I've just to write in the cards and do 90 envelopes!!!!

This morning Pickle-Lily and I visited our favourite garden centre - Cadburys, and it didn't let us down! Beautiful Christmas displays ...

Lovely things to buy - I loved the hyacinth basket.

And as a treat I'd booked an ice-skating session for P, which she loved!
This week has seen the last Christmas fair, and I have one order to post tomorrow. I've got a full week at school, but in between times I'm making Christmas gifts and reading all the lovely blogs on Handmade Monday. So now to write 90 envelopes!

Ice skating at Cadburys

Festive Friday

A few Fridays ago I blogged about mini Christmas cakes made in a baked bean tin, and I said to keep one empty tin back and this is why! It is now time to marzipan and ice your cakes. I usually have a few days between each stage, but for Festive Friday I have combined them.
So ...
Turn your little cakes uspside down, you may need to slice a little off the old top so they don't wobble. You will be left with a lovely smooth surface. In the photos Pickle-Lily forgot this step, but it really doesn't matter!
Then brush a little melted apricot (traditional) or raspberry seedless jam over the top of the cake to make it good and sticky.

Then using your clean tin as a cutter, you can cut a perfect sized circle of marzipan to put on the top of the cake. You can also use it to cut out a perfect matching circle of fondant icing to put on top of the marzipan.

The cakes can then be decorated with whatever you like!

We then wrapped our cakes in small clear presentation bags ready to give as Christmas gifts. You still have time to make some to give!
Have a good week-end!

From little to BIG

On Sunday I showed a sneak peek of my knitting work in progress.

With glittery red festive needles!

Now I can show you the finished products! I love them so much I'm now on my third one! What I did was to use the pattern for the mini stockings I knit as tree decorations, and using super chunky yarn  make super chunky stockings!

From small .....

. . . to big

I'm now filling them with small gifts for those awkward men in my life - socks, smellies, chocolates and a little torch so far! They are so quick to knit as well!
I've also found a lovely link party to join in with - Hookin on Hump Day hosted by My Merry Messy Life why not go and visit!

Running out

Merry Christmas everyone!

My beautiful door wreath made by Pickle-Lily

I thought I'd better do this now because I am running out of time and space!
Last time I blogged, Blogger told me I was out of picture space in my Picasa album, so I had to delete a few photos to add some new ones. Since then I have been trying to find a way round it. Google offered to rent me some space at so much a month, but I didn't feel happy doing this, having my details 'moving around' each month. After much googling the solution I have come up with, thanks to Grit in the Gears , is to create a new 'personna' with a new set of storage space. But any better ideas or suggestions would be very gratefully received!
I'd ran out of time because I was just so busy, and to be honest I'd overstretched myself. Last week-end I had four major fairs (Fri to Mon) in different locations and was very, very busy as well as a lot of travelling. This week I had personalised orders, as well as the day job and family life. Then I was supposed to do four fairs (Thurs to Sun) this week, and I just couldn't do it all. So, after much hard thinking I cancelled three of my fairs as I just couldn't be in three places at once. It has taught me a lesson about over stretching, and it will certainly have an influence on next year's activitiess.

Personalised felt bag

One of the things I didn't have to this year was sort out a front door wreath. The very clever Pickle-Lily made one with the Guides. I love it! It was made using a very simple oasis wreath and we keep adding bits from the garden as parts die off, so it changes every so often. I think I'll get her to make one again next year!

wrist warmers

The knitting needles have been busy too! I wanted a pair of wrist warmers to keep my hands warm, but my fingers free when at fairs or I'm out and about and these were so easy to make. They took me a day to knit, using Adriafil Knitcol merino double knitting. Using 3.75mm needles I cast on 40 stitches and knitted two knit, two purl rib rows until they were the right length. Sewed up the seams leaving a gap for my thumbs and now I have some very useful wrist warmers. They would also make a super Christmas present.

Work in progress .. all will be revealed!

I also have a work in progress on festive sparkly needles that I will share with you later in the week! In the meantime, I'm going to visit Handmade Monday and see what everyone else has been up to in my absence!