Tidy patchwork

I am really pleased my patchwork carrier is finished

 I choose the check for the handles, which are threaded in between the fabrics and stitched together at the bottom for extra support of any weight carried. 

 I thought all the fabrics went well together. 

The fox fabric was purchased for my daughters baby room, 

but whilst it was to her taste, it would not go into the nursery theme. 

 Loads of pocket space, 

plus my cutting board slides into big pocket.

 I tried to make pocket sizes big enough to swap items around

 I am pleased with the finished effect. 

I last worked on it here, at this point is a work in progress.

The outer cover I just wrapped around the stitched inner, by folding the edge over and neatly stitching, I covered all the raw edges. I cut two outer's and joined at the bottom, I could not use one long piece as with the inner, the pattern would have been upside down on one side.
I purchased the fabric for the handles, I did have a selection here, but none matched to my liking. I do have to get two big poppers for the top corners, to hold it together. The fox fabric cost £8.99 for a meter, and the check £4.00 for half a meter, in both cases I have fabric left over, the plain inner colours came from my material stash.
The idea came from Pintrest, I copied some of the ideas, but built the design to suit my requirements. It has been fun to make, and now all my patchwork cutting tools and templates are stored together. Now I need to get back to sewing hexagons, to make my sewing machine cover.

We made the decision not to travel to Somerset, the fog is lingering and heavy, so we are staying put, journeys at this time of year are bad enough without the extra hassle of thick fog.
I hope you are with those who you love and looking forward to 2017 and whatever it brings.

In between time again.

Last look at my stash list

I did save almost £100 on last year, I aimed for £200, but failed after an expensive trip out with my sister, still I have loads of Christmas material in my stash. 

I love to be able to go to a material stash when feeling creative. 

I am doing another list in 2017, not set myself a target, just see where it leads me. I would be happy without an increase in my spending on craft. 

I am enjoying 12 days of Christmas, here is the first 4 gifts,

I do love a book to read

We popped to Dun Elm for some fabric, it's the nearest shop to us

But this fell into my basket, far too cheap to leave behind

 I have a choice of two fabric's for the handles for my patchwork carrier. 

I have done some more sewing, but I will show photo's in my next post.

I am really pleased with my reading this year, I have a tag at the top of the page 'books', I have listed all the books there, it's great to be able to look back. 

On the poor side, I have not stitched so much in the past few months. I never worry when the cross stitching bug goes away, it has always come back to me. My finished items has been more about sewing, which I also love. I think I am gearing myself up for when I retire from work, having so many hobbies will keep me busy, but as its 3 years away, I do as much as I can.

Last night youngest daughter and her hubby came for tea, and they took loads of food home with them. Hubby did the last minute shopping, and over shopped, so we had loads of things in the fridge which won't last past end of the year. I hate food waste and through the year we have been very good, but hubby got carried away, loads of things still unopened. 

I am itching to take the decorations down, so later I will pack them away, before driving tomorrow to Somerset for the New Year with family.

We are having sunny cold days, Tuesday we woke to a heavy frost, it does mean the heating is on most of the day, but I can't stand being cold. I do enjoy having so many days without anything to do, how often do we get to stay at home without plans, to fill or waste as we please. 

Boxing Day

Our Amaryllis is now in full flower

 It does have a 5th bud which has not opened

 A gift from Josh, 

It's fantastic to know our grandsons loves books

This one is a bit different

 Full of stories with 100 words, all created by local school children

Here is Josh's story

I'm a proud Nanna, what a great idea. 

So it's a sunny Boxing day morning, we will walk to Portchester Castle later, it will be nice to be out for a while. Coming back to a vegetable soup made with all the leftovers, it has become a tradition in this house and the promise later of cold turkey sandwiches, which I love.
Yesterday was a quiet day, just youngest daughter and her husband, we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner cooked as always by hubby. A lazy afternoon, chatting and watching Lion King (again)
2016 has taken far too many talented people, with the news of the death of George Michael last night, another star in our bright sky.

Christmas Eve

My amaryllis has opened, just two flowers, 

pale and beautiful

 Sam made Christmas cards at school

I love the schools print them out to use as a fundraiser

 I saw these beautiful glass baubles on sale

Two designs 5 for £7.50, just had to have them

 I also got tulips for 99p, the water beads I got earlier in the month

I will plant the bulbs in a glass pot with the beads.

 I have found a local hospice charity shop, with a great craft section, these threads were a great price. I also got just over 2 meters of heavy fluffy textured cotton for £7.00, I have been looking for red material for ages. So nothing broke the bank, and the cost of these items have been added to my stash list.

 I was given this from a lady I work with, I took her in a gift,

 neither of us had said we had anything, so it was a nice surprise. 

Christmas Eve is here, I have skipped between feeling festive and then not bothered all through the month, and this last week. Our Floor boss on Thursday was in a foul mood, so we all kept our head low and worked, it's a shame because we have all seen a much nicer side to him. We took in party food on Wednesday, which became a fun day.
We all finished yesterday just after mid day, so I popped to a local garden center and got hubby a couple of stocking fillers, I was very aware his stocking this year was full of foodie things.
Mid afternoon I spent time with eldest daughter and grandsons Josh and Sam, we had a treat in the local cafe and went to the park, so the boys could have some exercise on the playing area, it was cold, so we did not stay out too long, but it was good to see them all happy.
Today hubby and I are out to lunch, we will pop in to see some friends, later we are out for a prebooked meal, so an enjoyable day ahead.
Tomorrow, just 4 of us, but that suits us, having grown up with huge numbers for Christmas lunch, I like a quiet day.

Weekend over

Dave the bear is feeling festive

 These two are finished for this year, the Christmas tree was from last year

 On the spare bed over the weekend

 These were from last year as well

I did not get my Christmas tree finished 

 This bud is opening, not sure if we will have flowers for Christmas day

 We have had a busy and restful weekend, my brother Martin came down overnight on Saturday, it was as always lovely to see him. We had an evening in together, loads of fun and chatter, I love my brother and hubby get on well together.
Sunday we had our youngest daughter's baby shower, it was lovely to see so many of her student friends, who we knew so well a few years ago, they are all nice ladies, they each brought a plate of food, so we had lunch together, and then a few games. Later hubby and I had a restful evening.
So a busy two days, but no at all stressy or tiring, I feel as if we had a lovely long weekend with people we love.
So now we are looking forward to next weekend, other than one small shop for fresh dairy and veg, we are ready, which is good as we have a weather storm advancing towards us.

Christmas Jumper day

My 12 days of Christmas swap arrived yesterday

Thank you Debbie, I hope you enjoy the gifts I sent to you

 It's getting festive here

 My Amaryllis is breaking into flower

Christmas jumper day at work

Things are coming together quiet nicely at work and home, at work we are still busy, but everything should slow down by the middle of next week, we finish on Friday 23rd lunch time,  and return back to work on 3rd Jan, so a great break. We are planning a trip home to the village in Somerset to celebrate the New Year, we go each year, it's not about the drinking, just meeting loads of old friends all out for a lovely evening.

At home we are almost ready for the big C, hubby has a couple of supermarket trips to make, but he is retired and has time to go in the day. Our celebrations won't be huge again this year, we don't have a food mountain for the festive season, but we do have what we feel we require to enjoy our break.
I was given £60.00 gift card from work, a nice surprise, it will keep to the New Year, if and when I do require something.

Restful weekend

Christmas on my desk

I love the tiny real conifer, without glitter, just a simple set of red lights.

 To cheer me up, hubby got me a plant

how do the growers make money on plants selling at just £2.50

We did nothing over the weekend, loads of time reading and we found a couple of good films which we both enjoyed, I can't say which was best both are worth watching.

We did not go to town shopping over the weekend, but our local hospital was requesting gifts for elderly patients, who would still be in hospital on Christmas day, so we walked to our local Superdrug and got two gifts and sent them to the hospital,  just a simple thing to do.
Hubby went to Tesco today for some shopping, and hence he got me my plant, it is good to have him do the running around midweek, leaving peaceful weekends.
I'm feeling a bit brighter today, had a couple of nice things happen in work, it feels good to smile. Our Christmas opening times were confirmed and I have extra time off, and our final week will be dress down every day instead of just the Friday.
I'm off to finish reading Little Black Lies, it has me gripped, and I so enjoy turning the TV off and reading, lucky hubby loves to read as well.

Getting closer

 I did not show my cards for this season

Again I am keeping them simple

Using card stock I already had

Can you see two shoots, these are my Hyacinth's

My Poinsettia is hanging in there, I have given it fresh soil in a bigger pot. 

 My Amaryllis is getting tall, this is much earlier this year

 I was told this is a great book, so I started it Thursday

so far it's brilliant and I don't want to put it down.

 I can show this here, youngest daughter does not follow my blog

their first baby is due in February,

Kev asked me a question regarding my blog book, do I publish the comment from each post, no I don't, whilst I love to read your comments and find them helpful and interesting, to keep my book to a reasonable size I only record my words. I am unhappy with Blurb, the company I have always used for my book, they have stopped the facility to import from your blog to their book templates, this is because there are so many different platforms other than blogger. So now I am finding it is more time consuming, 2016 might be the last book  I make, I don't want to change the style and size of my books by using a different company. I do love to look back on my books.
I'm still not feeling festive, still in fact feeling a bit blue, hence I am reading so many books and not doing any cross stitch. The house is decorated and all the gifts have been wrapped, but the Christmas spirit eludes me, last week was our company Christmas party, but it was aimed at the younger staff and was a full on party so like loads of older staff I did not go.

Books

Last years blog book

these are an indulgence for me, I now have 7 books 

 Reading, one finished and one just started,

got a question for you all later in this post

 More bunting, this is for me

 So quick and easy to make.

 I love pomegranates, so different from most fruits

plus I want to try and grow these seeds. 

I am very pleased with my 7th book, I had 50% off, so it was the cheapest one so far, I have read it and can't find any mistakes, I normally find one or two silly little things I miss.
I enjoyed making the bunting, it only takes a couple of hours, I buy lovely ribbons to stitch it on so the whole effect is pretty.
I am up for another challenge, so my window sill will have pomegranate seeds, hoping I can get  a nice plant to grow, I still have to try and get a Kiwi past the seedling stage. So the sunny warm window sill here in my office should work well, we have a radiator under the desk top and as hubby now is home in the days, the heating is on more often.
We have our new Dyson, thank you Rachel for your suggest to have it serviced, but I have been wanting the smaller Dyson for ages, we only have 2 rooms with carpets, so the smaller one is better.
I have a tab at the top of my blog 'Books', where I list all the books I read, I am lucky I have joined a reading group in work and we swap books, plus we are collecting books for a library, so loads of chances to discover new authors.
I was thinking, with so many of us loving to read, would anyone like to join in a swap, I was thinking if you chose one paperback  book you loved and would like to send it to someone for them to read, and in return you would be sent a book. I would collect a list of names and ensure everyone would send and receive a book, I'm not sure of the postage, but I don't think it would be too bad. Let me know what you think, we could do it for January 2017.

Christmas

It's arrived at our house

 I love to see all our old favourites out again

Plus a few new items 

A tree full of memories 

I love this time of year where you have little pools of light around the room, very festive, I don't use many real candles, I love the little set's of lights which are battery powered, and popped into nice tealight figures, it feels so safe.

I have done my 12 days of Christmas, where I give to charity 12 items,

This year it was from my over large Christmas stash.

Candle holders x 3

wooden hearts x 3

Material stockings x 3

Stocking hanger

Santa bell

Candle glass holder

Paper trees x 2

ceiling hangers x 4

NOEL sign

Huge hanging gold star

Cross stitch heart

Bauble and tree dec's x 1 bag full

loads more than 12 when added together. 

I have done very little in the past week, I read Tell it to the Skies, by Erica James, work is very busy, so I don't plan to do much in the evenings. 

Yesterday hairdressers, picking up leaves in the garden, youngest daughter popped in, looking beautiful with her perfect baby bump,  and out for a meal with friends. 

This morning Rod and Maureen popped in, it's nice to catch up with friends, Maureen's memory is much worse, which is sad to see. This afternoon friends popped by with Jack 1 and Maddie 5, lovely to see their faces looking at our decorations. Home made mince pies (hubby) coffee and chatter, perfect way to spend the 1st Sunday in December. 

Now I am off to catch up on blog reading. 

We are looking for a new vacuum cleaner, our Dyson blew up yesterday, it was over 7 years old, so we are not unhappy, we are looking at expensive modern Dyson V8, but I do like a clean house and with a couple of cats we require a powerful model. 

Later a quiet evening in together, maybe a film to watch, all cosy and warm, I love weekends like this.