It's been a busy Saturday with lots of things on the pre-CHristmas to do list ticked off. All the shopping is now complete, although a fair amount more time is required with the wrapping paper and sellotape before all that is complete. There are a few handmade gifts that are not quite finished yet though. I'm not panicking yet though as there should still be plenty of time to ensure that they're all done in plenty of time - remind me of that late next Thursday though! With freezing temperatures, yesterday's snow still lying deep outside, and more forecast our attentions ... read more
Snow in St Albans
At least 5 inches of snow overnight. Looking doubtful that I'll make it to London for my last day at work! ... read more
Countdown to Christmas
Only four more working days to go and then the level of blogging really should increase - or more accurately, the point at which I no longer have a valid excuse for a lack of posts.Along with finishing work there is the obvious count down to Christmas going on as well. The tree is up, the wreath is on the front door and I've even started writing cards. Shame that I'm not so organised on the present front. To make up for not seeing friends for far too long Mr C and I did have a bit of a festive gathering at the weekend though. My baking efforts went into overdrive with ... read more
A busy afternoon in the kitchen
In fact such a busy afternoon that I didn't get round to picking the camera up at any point to share it with you - sorry!A batch of ginger cup cakes are made and cooling on the rack before they get iced with some lovely fudge flavoured icing that I've got the recipe for. I've also completed a batch of mince pies for some friends that are coming round on Saturday. First time I've done these in the new oven though and they ended up in there for nearly twice as long as I used to do them in the old oven. I may therefore have to get Mr C to try one later on to ensure that ... read more
Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas
I was thrilled to see that as a follow up to Kirstie's Handmade Home there is now her Handmade Christmas too! I love Christmas and just wish I had more time to be able to do more myself, so I thought some inspiration for things that I might be able to fit in would be good.Having had a nice trip round Liberty with my mum lately it was lovely to see Kirstie also enjoying a wander round the Christmas store. There were some lovely decorations, including some that I could never justify the price of, but it would be very difficult to go round there without starting to get into the festive ... read more
Doors Open – Ian Rankin
I've been an Ian Rankin fan for a few years now and was therefore thrilled when I saw Doors Open in a pile of books that my mum passed on to me. The question was though - was I really a Rankin fan, or was it actually Rebus that I was a fan of?After Rankin retired off Rebus there was always the big question as to what, or who, he was going to write about next. We always knew it was going to be a crime book, and there were no surprises when it was set in Edinburgh. The only thing that I was a little amazed to find was that there wasn't a very strong ... read more
Still here
Still here and just twelve more working days to go. Only problem is that my employer seems determined to get every last drop of blood, sweat and tears out of me in that time! Still, not for much longer and then life proper can really start. An afternoon in Liberty's haberdashery department certainly has provided lots of inspiration. Roll on 18 December! ... read more
Canvas work
After doing cross stitch for years it seems strange that I hadn't actually tried my hand at canvas work. All that changed whilst we were away though as I'd randomly pulled out of a box a couple of small kits to do in the evening and one of them turned out to be a canvas work one that I'd picked up at an old Cross-Stitch Guild Make & Take session. It was the first time that I'd tried many of these stitches, but also gave me a good excuse to use the books I'd picked up whilst up in Northumberland.I really enjoyed doing something a bit different though and it certainly ... read more
Crafting books
Things are finally getting a bit more organised following our move and it felt great to today get all my craft books in one place on some new (to me) shelves in my study. Over the last few years I've been picking up various books either when I've seen them in sales, or in charity or secondhand book shops. Getting them altogether made me realise what a collection I've been building up covering knitting, crochet, embroidery, dress making and patchwork. Although new books are always lovely and very inspirational, there's something about finding ones secondhand that give me a real ... read more
Cragside
One of the nest things about having had some time away from home was being able to go and re-visit places that we used to go to as a family years ago. One of those was Cragside where we regularly used to visit on trips up to Northumberland. The house itself is fascinating and full of great antiques and period furniture. Sadly the timing of our trip meant that the house had closed for the winter just the week before, but the grounds still hold lots of wonders themselves.The November light gave things a slightly eerie feeling and it wasn't difficult to imagine seeing a strange figure ... read more