19th December - Well that's Christmas Day cancelled then

 So Boris has cancelled Christmas this year.  Before his announcement our Christmas day had already been cancelled.  My youngest daughter, Stevie, and her fiance, Darren had invited us to have Christmas dinner with them this year as it was their first Christmas in their new home.  But, Stevie called last night to tell us that Darren had tested positive for Covid.

He isn't too bad with it, thank goodness and Stevie is not showing any symptoms, although she has been for a test today, I doubt the results will be back for a couple of days though, fingers crossed she will be able to avoid getting it too.

So Christmas day will be a little different.  Stevie had already ordered the food and was due to pick it up on Tuesday evening.  We will now pick that order up and cook Christmas dinner and then do a doorstep meal delivery to them.

I daresay the new rules have scuppered a lot of plans for people, there really does seem no end to it, at this rate there will be no jobs, shops or business left, It's all very worrying.  

To think that in the Springtime we all thought this would be over by Christmas! (yeah, they though that about WWII)

I'll be consoling myself with stitching and knitting seeing as we can't meet up, how about you?

Speaking of knitting.  I am still working away on my (not so strictly) socks.  I'm on the foot part on both of them so the end is in sight!

I've decided these will be for Mark as they look a bit manly and I want a pretty pair :-)

He has tried them and they do fit.

So, here are today's beautiful minis, love them all ❤

Tomorrow I plan on making up Jacobs stocking, so, if you hear cussing it will be me 😬

Take care, see you tomorrow

-X-

18th December - 2021 stitching plans

 I will be carrying a couple of stitching projects over to the new year, It would have been nice to enter 2021 without any stitching WIP's, but that was never going to be a reality.  That won't stop me planning what I would like to stitch in the coming year though.

I sorted through my charts and came up with some that I would love to get done in the next twelve months.  

My fingers are itching to get started on Happy Christmas by Prairie Schooler.  I saw this finished on Misty Pursel's floss tube channel a while ago and had to pause the video to go and buy it I loved it so much.  I have the fabric and floss to get started.

Some Bunny Loves You by Cottage Garden Samplings is a chart I've had for a while and it would be nice to get it stitched ready to display in February, not sure if that is doable, we'll see, I have fabric and floss at the ready. 

 I first saw Teresa Kogut's Curious Bunny made up into a pillow on someone's blog, (sorry, can't remember who's), and loved it.  I loved it even more when I found out that you could purchase the chart as a pdf :-)

Stevie bought me this PS chart last year and I kitted it up right away but never got round to stitching any of the Santa's.  I really would like all of these hanging on my tree by next Christmas

And last but not least, a Waxing Moon chart that I've had for so long I can't remember when I got it.  I also have the Autumn and Summer charts in this series, I wonder if I could manage to stitch all three next year 🤔  I have the fabric and the threads all ready for this one.

So those are my stitching plans for next year, of course any plans are subject to change should something else take my fancy ;-)

Have you started to make any crafting plans for the new year?

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Here are the lovely advents from today :-)

Take care, see you tomorrow

-X-

17th December - Christmas chocolates

Buying a tin of chocolates is a must at Christmas, I don't know if this is a tradition particular to the British or not, perhaps someone will tell us in the comments?  But, If you live in the UK you will see tins of chocolates appearing in the supermarkets from August.  

I bought a tin of Quality Street and a tin of Roses quite a few weeks ago now, I bought the Emma Bridgwater limited edition tin of Roses because I liked the tin, no idea what I will use it for later, but I liked it, it's more like they used to be when I was growing up, before they started putting them in plastic tubs,

Something else we only do at Christmas time is buy a TV guide.  

I don't watch TV, I watch only what I want to watch on catch-up, we have Netflix if we want to watch a film or a series but it's nice to see what's on over the holiday.  I'll be having a browse through this at the weekend to see if there is anything I fancy.

Here are today's lovely minis, not many days left now.

Take care, see you tomorrow

-X- 

16th December - Plans for my Advent minis

 It's just rained and rained all day today, a perfect day to stay in and get some more things crossed off the list.

I wrapped two more piles of presents, I put my audio book on and they seemed to get done in no time, so another two sacks ready for Santa to deliver :-)

This afternoon I put some Christmas films on and sat down to finish Jacobs stocking, I'm so glad that it's all stitched now just (just!!) the making up to do, I plan on tackling this on Saturday, I have everything except piping cord and bias binding which I'll get tomorrow.

I was sorting through my advent minis this morning and remembered that I hadn't shown you my mitred square blanket in a while.  This is where I will be putting my lovely advent minis in the coming months.

 

I love everything about this blanket, it just makes me smile whenever I look at it :-)

I keep it folded in this basket along with all the minis I have yet to use and it sits in corner of my bedroom.  When I have knitted a square the remainder of that mini then gets put in another basket.  As yet I haven't used any one more than once, but I might if I think it will look ok.

I'm using one of Ellie's designs, (Crafthouse Magic), she has some free printouts on her youtube tutorial for how she does her squares, (although I'm not knitting my squares how she does hers), mine is just the basic mitred square that you can find anywhere on the internet.

I remembered to take my advent photo in the daylight today but I picked up the wrong one and opened another Mr & Mrs Rabbit yarns today instead of one of Ellie's, must have still been half asleep!

Take care and I'll see you tomorrow

-X-

15th December - Making a start

I finished the present buying a good few weeks ago but have been putting off the wrapping.

I don't much care for wrestling with paper and sellotape, (does anyone?) but, it has to be done.

I'm on my own when it comes to present buying and wrapping unfortunately, I have a husband who thinks Father Christmas is real because presents magically appear wrapped and in sacks on December 25th  🤶  I honestly think if we didn't mention Christmas and decorate, the season would totally pass him by, lol .  In his defence, he will get stuck in with prepping veg and cooking the dinner on the day :-)

To make present wrapping more manageable I've split them all into piles for each person and will do one pile per day, two if I feel the urge.

How about you?  Have you made a start on wrapping? or are you all done?

Here are today's lovely advents :-)

Sorry, a bit blown out again because I forget to take photos in the daylight!

Short and sweet today, I've leave you with a photo of my Christmas cactus.  I bought this last year so this is the first time I've had flowers, they have been beautiful.

Take care, see you tomorrow

-X-

14th December - A busy Monday

 It was an early start this morning, I was up and dressed by 7am, I like to get a few jobs done before Joanne drops Bonnie off at 7.45.   The weather forecast had said that It was going to be a decent day, for once they got it right.  We went to Brinton's Park today, about 15 minutes drive away, just on the edge of Kidderminster.  This is somewhere else that I haven't visited in a while.  It was a lovely place for a walk, nice big open spaces and wide pathways and the children's play area was well maintained too

Bonnie enjoyed a good half hour playing on the park, she's not a boisterous child and is quite cautious about some of the equipment but once I'd helped her to climb up slope to the slide a few times she was ok.

They don't have a pond at this park and as we had bought our bag of bread we had to stop at the park closer to home on the way back to feed the ducks.

As Bonnie was throwing the bread the ducks and geese of course came swimming over to us, a little boy about the same age as Bonnie came running over shouting that she had stolen his geese, it did make me laugh.

This is the park I would come to after work some day's, there are plenty of ducks and geese to go round :-)

After lunch we baked some shortbread biscuits.

So yes, it's been a busy, but lovely day.

Here are my minis from today's advents, we did have a tealight too but lit that this afternoon

I hope you have had a lovely day too

See you tomorrow

-X-

13th December - Christmas afternoon tea

If you have been a follower of my blog for a while you will know that I am a lover of afternoon tea.  We have had afternoon tea at some posh places, The Dorchester and The Savoy being two of my favourites, it's so nice to sit in beautiful surroundings and do something very English, like being in an Agatha Christy film, and so very civil, without the murder mystery of course, lol

    As all places of enjoyment are closed at the moment we couldn't book our traditional Christmas afternoon tea this year, :-( 

But where there's a will there's a way, right?

We had one delivered :-)

It was from the same place that Joanne ordered us our VE day celebration afternoon tea, which you can read about Here

We had it at our house so that Jenny and Joanne could have a 'kid free' afternoon.  I laid it all out on the coffee table in the front sitting room and we sat and watched a Christmas film.  Not quite the posh surroundings of the Dorchester or the Savoy but we had a lovely afternoon chatting and having a laugh, I'm so glad we didn't let this tradition go this year, it's been such a lovely afternoon, I really enjoyed it.

I am quite stuffed now though, I think I've had my fill of cake for a while.

Here are today's lovely advents.

 Mary's comment on yesterday's post made me smile, I didn't even think when I mentioned face mask that we now all associate a face mask with something we wear when shopping.  I bet you thought, why is she going to wear a face mask in the bath 🤣🤣

Of course it was the face beauty treatment, sheet mask variety, not the virus protection face mask variety🤣

I hope you have had a lovely weekend and the weather hasn't been too bad.  (it's rained none stop here today).

-X-