Post Christmas Update

Well I hope you are all basking in the afterglow of Christmas and wondering why you got so worried, and trying to work out where you will put those Christmas presents.  So firstly, here is a little something I am rather proud of... it's wreath, a Christmas wreath currently hanging on my front door.

And do you know why I am so proud of it, it is made by one of the ladies who took a class with me last year.  Isn't it great when you are able to pass your skills on?

Then there is my tree, you may remember that last year, I spent much of the time on suicide watch with my suicidal tree which spent about eight of the twelve days of Christmas trying to leap out of its bucket.  So this year I managed to buy the reject tree from Trafalgar Square... I think that it only lost out by an inch or two... and I have no need for curtains as it fills the whole of the bay window!  In fact, I had to take this pic standing on the coffee table and I still couldn't get it all in...

And what was even better is that most of the decs this year were made by me..

Now this is rather special and I wanted to share it with you before Christmas, it's a commission I had made for my sister by Sally.  I wanted a picture that would capture her interests and Sally had a twinkle in her eye and knew precisely what would work for Annette.

She got it s right, even down to the pink wool :)

And talking of Annette, I have a real treat for you on Sunday... a pattern from my big sister, inspired by her friend Cecelia (of whom more later) and here is a little preview of what we will be making.

I do hope that you like it, cos I think that the model feature here made rather a good job of it!

Kamikaze Christmas Tree

I don't know about you but my Christmas decorations carry so many memories of my life and I love opening up the bags and boxes each year and remembering where I got them and why.

Now to be really honest, if I used more than 50% of my decs on the tree you would not be able to see a single branch, yet every year I buy one little something to put on there.  However this year I was not going to buy a tree as I still have not found a permanent job and I was going into mega economy mode.  So you can only imagine how thrilled I was when a friend asked me to stay in on Friday morning and arrived with a Christmas Tree in the back of her Mini.  However what she did not tell me was that the tree was suicidal, it leapt off the table twice before I realised that it did not have a root ball... Deborah came round with another stand... we set to work with secateurs and a bread knife... who needs a man, eh?  


I got it decorated again and it made another break for it, so I jammed it in with my embroidery thread tin... I am a resourceful woman... it is now held in there with a brick but I have had words with the tree and it knows that if it makes another break for it, it becomes another part of the Christmas tradition - The Yule Log!

I was going to make do with my little tree which I bought back in the 1980s when I had my flat in London... I still have all the decorations and even the angel with the bendy wings.  When I started to buy real trees, I used to bring this tree to work and share out the choc decorations after Christmas... except for the year of the IBM mice.  I got a phone call from the office to tell me that whilst we had been off over the hols, mice had hit the Exec Office at IBM and had climbed up the tree to nibble into the chocs... and no, they were the four legged rather than two legged variety!

This little group are rather special, the tree on the left came from an Italian cookery holiday in Limone on the Lakes and the tree on the left was a prezzie from sister when she took my aunt to Venice.  And I made the fairy in the middle the Christmas my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer, it is thanks to her that I knit and sew... not a bad legacy to inherit.

I always smile when I see these Russian Matryoshka dolls which were brought back from a Moscow market when my friend Lisa was helping to set up the KPMG offices in Moscow... not only did she do that but she also organised her wedding from there.  It was one of the best celebrations I have ever been to, best of all was her present to her husband Liam - it was a tandem - he always complained that he had to wait for her when they went cycling together... she thought this was the most elegant solution :)

These are my oldest decs, they are older than me and when I was little they meant that Christmas was really coming.

Now if you look down at the bottom of the fireplace, you might recognise my Christmas Salt Dough Sheep, which I made 15 years ago... who says salt dough doesn't last?

Finally, no crafter's tree is complete without the tools of her trade and here is a cotton reel angel, my needles and wool and sitting in the background is another ancient salt dough parcel.

Now off you go to look at Wendy's Handmade Monday and see what everyone else has been up to in the week before Christmas.