As you may remember last year I was a bit disappointed with the look of my tree, it had lots of mass-produced shop bought baubles and very little that was unique so I have worked very hard this year and am proud to say that this year every single thing on it is either hand-made or a special ornie bought at places  like Disneyland, visits or craft fairs so all have lovely memories attached to them.Here is the lovely tree with some close up pics of some of my special things.

I have also made some new baubles for the mantelpiece to go with the tree skirt I made last year and moved the other set to the hallway where they co-ordinate with the little trees and hanging from last year.

I had a lovely time last weekend with my very good friend Kerry, we went to the Xmas Fair and special event at Tatton Hall, where we go each June for a re-enactment event. That takes place at the Tudor Old Hall but we had never visited the later manor house so went for a lovely day out. The craft fair was very nice, I bought some ornies (surprise!) and this very cute little Xmas cake shaped like an Xmas pud.It goes very well with my knitted Xmas pud that I bought from the WI craft stall a couple of weeks ago.

The manor house was gorgeous, the theme was a Venetian Christmas and they had the whole house decorated with trees, displays and baubles, it was heaven for an ornie addict like me.No pics were allowed as usual in historic properties so you will just have to imagine the loveliness, there were lots of ornies based round peacock feathers in purples and turquoises.

 We walked around listening to the chamber orchestras they had playing imagining ourselves to be guests at a Downton Abbey style house party and bought some lovely spiced mead and quince chutney for our forthcoming Xmas buffet this week.I also bought a couple more packets of beautiful paper napkins, one Xmas themed (which now makes about 5 sets of Xmas napkins!) As well as the Xmas fabric addiction I have a slight napkin addition – especially Xmas ones, well at least they do get used up!

 I have ordered a gourmet smoked cheese hamper from a friend, Martin,  who has his own business  supplying fine foods so we are looking forward to some very nice food this week. We are having pretend Xmas dinner on Tues and my brother and partner round on Weds for a buffet. Ellie is home for the holidays and today we have been making gingerbread – very festive!

The winner of my blogaversary giveaway was Thimbleanna  – I am posting her ornies tomorrow, they may just make it to the USA in time for Xmas but at least they will keep till next year if not!

I do hope that all your preparation for the festive season is going well.

See you all soon and thank you very much for visiting.