Nearly there!

- with crocheting my blanket

- with my New Year Resolutions

- with my de-cluttering (actually no where near)

- with finishing WIP'S

- with thinking up crochet presents for next Christmas
- with tidying up after Christmas

Thought! - If I was 'there' then I'd have nothing to do so I think I'll stay at 'nearly there' for a little while longer.

Nearly there!

See you next year.

Up your nose?

The bird of paradise plant is flowering and has about 6 spikes ready to bloom. There are about 4 opening and all 6 should be in bloom by the new year.

Can you spot the Christmas trees?

This plant is taking over. We rescued it from B&Q when they were closing down their plant section a few years ago. It had been sadly neglected but we gave it some tender loving care - cleaning and repotting.

xx

One thing leads to another

I'm continuing with my 2012/13 blanket and thought I'd do some squares that linked in with the Christmas blanket. 

Here's the poinsettia colours,

the holly,

the mistletoe 

and the colours of Father Christmas. I had to introduce his brown boots and gold buckle to make up the 4 colours.

Ho, ho, hmmm!

xx

Christmas Present

I seem to be making another collection - this time it's tea sets. Here's my present for this year. (A wonderful, bargain-ous find in the CS.)

It's Royal Albert Lavender Rose design.

I had a lovely cup of tea in one of the cups after Christmas dinner.

Here's last year's present. This set is called Trillium.

Cuppa anyone? I think I'll have enough china for the Tea Party in October now!

A very warm welcome to my new followers and to everyone who reads this blog - thank you for visiting and commenting. I love reading your blogs and even though I don't always comment IRYPT more often than not. I'm busy now thinking up my New Year Resolutions, which I may or may not note down here. I did pretty well with last year's lot. It's good to have a target. (Ooooh - work speak!!! No, no, no - I won't mention that word again.) It's good to have something to aim for. I feel that could be a title of another post - we'll see.

xx

Christmas Tree Advent Garland

The Advent trees have now been crocheted together in a garland with 10 chain between trees and 20 chain at each end with a loop made. I should have made a loop at the top of the centre tree but forgot. The garland now adorns the dining room.

Lots of trees to spot here.

xx

Mum's Advent Calendar 25

Happy Christmas!

Spot the last Christmas tree? Spot the star?

There's a story here, I think, just right for today.

Happy Christmas!

xx

Mum's Advent Calendar 24, Days Left 1

I'll just make a few biccy pressies and then I'm done. There are plenty of shortbread recipes on the web. 

Some of my first batch of bics didn't even make it to the Christmas bags!

Enjoy the day in what ever way tomorrow.

Peace, hope, love and joy to you all.

xx

Mum's Advent Calendar 23, Days Left 2

Happy Birthday DS.
Love you.
xx

(no tree today)

Mum's Advent Calendar 22, Days Left 3

Everlasting Christmas cards

Advantages - made with recycled materials

- no need to buy Christmas cards

- after initial make no need to make any more until the card is full of greetings. 

(e.g. To the Smiths, love from the Browns 2012

To the Browns, love from the Smiths 2013)

... and so on.

1. Make a card.

2. Send to friend or relative with this message.

3. Friend or relative sends the same card back to you next year.

Our peace card has been backwards and forwards between us and our friends since 1993. It's looking a little worse for wear but when the inside is full of greetings I shall make a new card and keep the old one. One of our friends has given up sending cards altogether and from now on will send email greetings so I shall just put up her everlasting card each year - no need to spend money on postage.

xx

Welcome to my new follower. I see you like to make things aswell. Lovely to have you drop by.

Mum's Advent Calendar 21, Days Left 4

Took a trip out to the Garden Centre yesterday to meet up with ex-colleagues and exchange Christmas cards. Some more everlasting cards returned to me.

Plenty of gardening displays and ...

... plenty of Christmas displays.

Just looked, didn't buy - poinsettias were an astronomic price!

Home afterwards to finish the fingerless mitts and continue with my 2012 blanket (mark 3).

xx

Mum's Advent Calendar 20, Days Left 5

I'm just crocheting a last minute present of a scarf and fingerless mittens using thick wool from my stash and a 5.5mm hook. The pattern is 1dc, 1ch with the next row crocheted in the chain spaces with a 2 chain turn at the end of each row.

I don't know whether to put a fringe on as it looks quite plain. (The colour doesn't look so brilliant either. It may be back to the drawing board.)

Can you tell where the hole for the thumb is?!

xx

Welcome new follower. Do you have a blog - can't seem to find it.

Mum's Advent Calendar 19, Days Left 6

Kitchen Window - December 2012

I can't put much on the window sill now as the window is awash with condensation, being the only single glazed window in the house. The funny black thing is one of the feet off the hob pan support. It keeps falling off when I clean the bits on top of the oven.

This Christmas tree twinkles in the light ...

... and this Christmas tree will accompany the sweeties this morning to welcome Day 19.

xx

Welcome to my new followers and welcome to all the 'new' bloggers who comment from time to time. When I read the comments I always like to 'click' on the names to view people's blogs and see what others have been up to. Many bloggers have completed their preparations and decorations and are looking forward to the Christmas break. My trees are nearing completion - Christmas will soon be here.

Mum's Advent Calendar 18, Days Left 7

There was a tree in the last picture yesterday. Who's not looking hard enough? :)

Festivities last night at the music group with crackers, cake (no pic - eaten) and Christmas puzzle.

Looks like someone wanted to join in! (Caught him in the act at sherry time.)

xx

PS Whoops, now I've got two trees in this post!

Mum's Advent Calendar 17, Days Left 8

Isn't it difficult to capture the magic of twinkly lights?

Things are beginning to look festive round here.

Christmas cards are arriving ...

decorations are up ...

parcels are wrapped ...

and we're ready for the count down.

xx

Mum's Advent Calendar 16, Days Left 9

My Christmas Granny Blanket is finally finished - before Christmas! It's a zig zag in treble shells. The stripes represent different Christmas themes. In the first  picture, from the bottom up the first white stripe represents snow or snowflakes; the light green, white, light green section is mistletoe and the 3rd representation is the holly at the top. Each section is enclosed in the Christmas colours of either green, red or white.

Snowflake

Mistletoe

Holly

To add a bit of seasonal interest I enclosed some granny squares of poinsettia and ...

Christmas trees!

The white and red stripes represent Father Christmas.

Father Christmas

And finally the edging is my 'holly' which is 2 rounds of dc followed by a picot edging.

Here it is altogether. The stripes were worked quite quickly but the squares took a bit longer as I was working out how to fit them into the zig zag.

Now back to my 2012 blanket which I think will now be called 12/13!

xx