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.