Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

10.12.17

On the ninth day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me, nine ladies dancing,


 eight maids a milking,

8 maids a milking

seven swans a swimming,

7 swans a swimming

six geese a laying,

6 geese a laying

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS...


four calling birds,


three French hens,


two turtle doves,


and a partridge in a pear tree


Not sure the video works so well on the blog, which is a shame :(

8.12.17

On the eighth day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me, eight maids a milking,

8 maids a milking

seven swans a swimming,

7 swans a swimming

six geese a laying,

6 geese a laying

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS...


four calling birds,


three French hens,


two turtle doves,


and a partridge in a pear tree


The maids are based on the Princess Leia Star Wars project... Who'd have thought?


On the seventh day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me, seven swans a swimming,

7 swans a swimming

six geese a laying,

6 geese a laying

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS...


four calling birds,


three French hens,


two turtle doves,


and a partridge in a pear tree


(The swans are based on the ducks/geese in 'Make Your Own Zoo'. One egg carton is enough for about four swans, which is pretty good.
 But the challenge is getting harder now.. )


28.12.14

'Present' Danger

I came across this when I was clearing out my half finished posts from ages back - a timely find really, but feel sort of mean, because I got brilliant Christmas presents this year... 



'Hope you like it!' he says and I smile politely,
(thinking that's going to be very unlikely),
and bless him, because I know he tries,
but when it comes to clothes they're never my size...
Jewellery's dodgy,
music's okay,
though I'm more Stereophonics
and he likes Doris Day.

I open my present. There's a torch inside.
'You just wind it with the handle.'
I almost cried
'So useful sweetheart, hope you like yours',
it's Rick Stein's India,
there's a pregnant pause...

'Wow…that looks just great…' He never cooks.
But he does like spice
and he does like books.

He starts fiddling with the torch and I flick through Rick Stein,
everyone's happy, it's all turned out fine.

So, I buy what I want, it's simply stress free
when a gift's from me
to you
to me.

16.1.13

The Gallery - New




I love it when the kids get this excited about everything they open. No holding back, just pure spontaneous, fabulous joy.
It might only be a new pencil case; but at that moment, it was the most fantastic thing EVER...until she ripped open the next parcel...
And so begins the noisy unwrapping rollercoaster of excitement - can't bear the thought of it ending one day, but know it will.
The ten year old is already more grown up and sensible about the whole thing - now a quieter, slightly self-conscious present-opener.
Or maybe he's just getting harder to please??



The Gallery theme this week is NEW

3.12.12

Soft landing and a calendar cushion

Home life has settled down at last, after all the excitement of him getting back. The days now have a gentle rhythm to them. Not to say there haven't been a few bumps along the way....the morning routine went a bit haywire at the start - I mean, you'd think another pair of hands would speed things up during the mad rush before school, well not straight off as it turns out, we were all over the place! Things eventually calmed down by the end of the first week - just needed time to get used to each other again.
And I have to admit, I am still adjusting to having company 24/7 (as lovely as it is), after being on my own for so long. From nothing to all and back. The story of my life. Maybe a post for another day?

I can see my husband slowly unwinding too. As well as being relentlessly tough, his year away was so regimented and ordered - everything done pretty much straight away and people listened....realisation's dawning that if he expects things to go like clockwork here, he'll drive himself insane!
And the house is lit up like a belisha beacon. He seems to have forgotten how to switch a light off.

Talking of lights - sparkly, twinkly fairy lights - I'm going all out this christmas, no holding back! It's going to be christmas with jingly bells on and lashings of multi-coloured glitter.  I was such a misery last year as he'd just gone to Afghanistan - time to make up for it I think. So to kick things off I made an Advent calendar cushion...


Not sure it'll catch on, but any project that makes a dent in my huge wool supply is fine by me. The cushion's made out of an old jumper I couldn't bring myself to throw away (so soft, but holey - sooo soft though)

This is such a quick and easy knitted cushion cover, and the sleeves make a good pair of fingerless gloves. Old patterned christmas jumpers would be great for covers, wouldn't they?


The tree itself is a large knitted triangle and the little square pockets were quick to do, but the numbers took a while. Don't look too hard - I chain stitched them on and they're all kinds of sizes.


I put some chocolate buttons wrapped in tin foil in each pocket, and the cushion is now sitting at the end of my daughter's bed. It's going to be a bit of a test - more self-control needed than one hanging on the wall or safely on top of the fridge. We'll see...

But this has got to be my favourite Christmas thing so far. It's the picture my 5 year old drew at school for those cards you feel under a great deal of pressure to buy, you know the ones I mean?

Poor old fairy.

Ouch!