tis the season...

...to decorate cakes in a Christmassy fashion.

I had dreams of a stylish simple cake in pure white but after the children saw the reindeer cake I made for a friend....

... we are now all immortalised in snowman form - Jago's snowman has a car, Grandma's has some sewing, mine has knitting. Who knew we could all look so festive!

getting ready

Remember I said we were a house of poorly? Oh my, it seemed to go on for ever - tag team poorly...

Anyway I'm convinced we are coming out the other side with the help of lots of rest, sleep, manuka honey and ice cream....

The mince pies are made, ready in the freezer to be popped in the oven whenever the craving to eat huge amounts of mince pies occurs.

Glogg extract made from lots of our summer blackcurrants - trying a Scandinavian spin on mulled wine this year.

Printing cards with the children - more printing ink is on them than the cards but they're looking pretty... (stamps from the wonderful Yellow Owl Workshop)

Being homeward bound has meant plenty of time to make and create. We've been getting ready in a calm way. One week left of school and then family time - I can't wait!

How are you getting ready?

elving ~ part 2

the list is slowly getting shorter - but not by much...

• chilli relish and chilli jams ~ tick!
• Chilli vodka ~ tick!
• Knitting ~ almost tick....
• quilt one ~ tick!
• everything else waiting patiently for attention....

I am stupidly proud of the bias binding I made for the quilts - yes I know, making bias binding is easy but this is my first and it's very pretty...

Also, stupidly I decided to cast on something yummy for myself (not on the list) which my brain tells me 'won't take long.' To be honest it's something I can knit whilst watching The Killing reading all those subtitles (if I don't keep up I haven't a hope of figuring out what's going on!) The pattern is the Lonely Tree Shawl by Softsweater (ravelry link) knit in Rowan Little Big Wool which I had in my stash... Honestly it's so awful out there that it's best to stay home and knit. It's raining and stormy again and the flooding around here is amazing (and not in a good way.)

Hope you are warm and dry wherever you are and Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the US!

elving ~ part one

It's even more of handmade Christmas and Solstice this year than ever before. My list is quite lengthy so an early start is need. Apologies for everyone who is cursing me for even mentioning the 'C' word.

Currently I'm wrestling with quilts for my nieces. I don't see enough of them so I'd like something handmade to keep them warm and hug them while we are apart.

Then there is knitting, more sewing, School costumes to make (a gold ring and a calling bird), cooking and clay....

What are you making to give this year?

almost Christmas

There is frantic elving (thanks to soulemama for the term!) going on around here, excited children and if truth be told excited grown-ups too!