Month: December 2025

Christmas crafting catch up

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As promised here is all of the things I made over this year for the festive season. I do these posts as much for myself, to keep a track of all the ornaments I have made over the years for friends and family, but hope you enjoy them as well.

I have recently gone through every single ornament tagged post since I began the blog in 2007, to make a list of what I have given people, so that they don’t get the same one twice! I am now working on the ornaments for 2026, to get ahead of myself before I start work again, and have an idea for 2027, more on that later.

First up is the fundraiser for the local food bank charity here in La Marina. I actually started this in May, before I left Spain, as I knew that I wouldn’t have much time when I got back at the end of October. Also I already had a couple of dresses made, and knew that I could do the knitted ones over the summer. This year’s choice was a Luna Lapin, I think that this is my fourth ever Luna, only the second one for a fund raiser.

The fabric dresses all come from the various Luna pattern books, I have tried to use as much recycled fabric as possible from my charity shop stash, and was very pleased with my use of this beautiful edged soft denim fabric for the tie shoulder dress.

The French knickers were another use of fabric from the reuse stash, I managed to cut the edging lace from an old sun top. I am very pleased with the fit of these, much better than my first pair.

The broderie anglaise fabric was gifted to me, and I layered that with some pink cotton. All other fabric was new, from some of mine and Ellen’s many shopping trips over the years.

All of the knitted items come from the Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, all from the Textured Dresses pattern. I just knitted them on slightly bigger needles, and lengthened the dresses. the lace edged design is one of my favourite patterns to knit.

I am really pleased with the little cardigan, as I wasn’t sure about the sizing, but it fits perfectly.

The fundraiser did well, another 60 euros for the pot, and was won by one of our newest craft group members, which was nice. My craft groups are always very supportive, and buy most of the, ‘guess the name squares’, so they quite often win.

I completely forgot to take photos of my finished ornaments for this year, as I was in a rush to get them all packed up for postage, so you will have to make do with just the stitched part.

These are a mixture of designs, the snowflake and flower come from some of my ages old Quaker designs, and the rest are all JBW designs. I love the mittens, and have done so many of them. These went to the six friends in Yorkshire, plus my cousins and aunt in the UK.

I chose to go back to a lovely set of designs for my Mum, unfortunately I can’t find them listed anywhere now. They are by a designer called Helga Mandl and they are a series of trees that when turned sideways spell out Christmas words. I stitched a Joy one in three different colours of red for my little tree, and did Merry in green variegated thread for her.

I also stitched a version of one I have done many times, another JBW design, for another friend here in Spain, and I am currently doing one for me as well. This is from Christmas Keepsakes II by JBW Designs.

As well as the last few ornaments I have been improving my crochet skills with some hats for my Mum. She wears a lot of these little soft beanie hats since she lost some of her hair due to skin cancer, and had asked me to make her one in grey.

It was very successful as you can see, so I made her three more for Christmas. The first two, the grey and variegated wool one below were using this Drops Design pattern.

The others are adaptations of a Summer Cloche Hat that I found on Ravelry. As I can only do a few limited stitched at the moment, I varied the design by doing some rows of treble, then double rows for the border and the brim on the beige one.

I am going to make some more of these to donate as well, as they are very quick and easy to do. I have ordered some crochet books which are waiting for me in the UK, so 2026 will be the year that I hopefully get really good at crochet.

I am also planning to learn tatting. I keep seeing the most wonderful Christmas designs like these on Pinterest. Look at this beautiful snowflake, photo from here.

I tried tatting last weekend and it went well, I do need some thinner needles, which I shall order when I am back in the UK, but thought that some trees and snowflakes, beaded and backed with nice silk or satin would make a change from the cross stitched ones. Watch this space!

I hope that you have all had a good festive season, I am enjoying a quiet week after lots of socialising over the last few, and work is progressing on my little cross stitch Christmas tree. I might have it finished before it is time to put all of the ornaments away on the 5th Jan!

Hope everything looks good for you for the start of 2026, and that it is a very good year for you all going forward. Thanks so much for visiting and for all the likes and comments, it is much appreciated.

A pink palace with painted ceilings

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Technically Crathes is a castle, not a palace, however it reminded me so much of all the amazing painted ceilings that I have seen in palaces in Europe, that I definitely think it deserves palatial status. I was lucky enough to visit on a gloriously sunny day as well, which was brilliant as they also have gorgeous gardens and grounds.

This is such a beautiful part of Scotland, a lot quieter than others, but Deeside is just lovely, and the drive to Crathes was beautiful as well. I hope that I get to return sometime soon.

The painted ceilings are amazing, they are themed and there is very good interpretation to tell you about the symbolism, and also some very interesting, for me anyway, textile interpretation.

The Nine Nobles ceiling is self explanatory, representing kings and nobles from different times in history.

The Muses and Virtues ceiling was of particular interest to me, as at Hardwick Hall there are a number of hangings that Bess had commissioned with same themes, and they would have been created at around the same time.

There was a cushion on one of the seats that had used elements from the ceiling as its inspiration, clearly a modern one, and on enquiry at the main desk I found out that it had been stitched by some of the castle volunteers. Just beautiful, and what a great way to add to the furnishings in the castle.

The historic needlework was also in abundance, with a lot of crewel work.

It was very good to see some written interpretation about its date and conservation.

There were also some later dated things of interest, including these lovely Victorian crazy patchwork nursery chairs. I love imagining the gowns that these bits of fabric were offcuts from.

The main living area also had some interesting soft furnishings, and this beautiful manuscript inspired lamp.

I mentioned in the last post that I was getting very inspired by all of the needlepoint I have seen this summer. I didn’t find a suitable kit, but I did remember that I used to have some great needlepoint books and managed to find this one on Amazon. This is Needlepoint Cats, by Julie Hasler, and I have a copy waiting for me in the UK!

I am almost certain that I used to own this book, but due to having small children never got around to making anything from it. I am planning a cushion for the caravan as a summer season project, but will have a hard time choosing as there are so many lovely designs. I am aiming to have specific UK and Spain projects, to stop me having to transfer stash and tools from one country to another all the time!

I have completed the very busy week of Christmas trips and dos, and done all of my Christmas gift making, will post about that after Christmas for obvious reasons! I am now working on a couple of projects just for me, versions of cross stitched ornaments that I have given others in the past, to fill up my tiny tree here, and a kit which has been languishing in my stash for more than 10 years.

I started it yesterday, and immediately remembered the joys of stitching on dark fabric, luckily I have a good spotlight, as we lose the light here about 4pm. However today is the start of lighter and brighter days, not that it is bad in Spain compared to the UK, but I am looking forward to my very long summer evenings in Scotland.

I hope that you are all having a good pre-Christmas week if you celebrate, and have a lovely time ahead. I will see you all on the other side, hopefully there will be time for a last post before 2026! Take care and thanks for visiting.

Castles old and new

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Google informs me that Scotland has over 2,000 castles, of which 1,500 are still standing, or there are significant remains. Therefore I was never going to do more than scratch the surface on my quest to visit more of them after I left Speyside. I had naively thought that at least I could do most of the ones in the area around the Tarland campsite, there is actually a castle trail in the area as there are so many, but only managed a few in the week I was there. Lots to do when I go back!

Scottish castles are really unique, as many of them have a very distinctive architectural style, and lots are pink, or greyish pink in hue. They really do have a Disney castle feel, and none more so than the beautiful Craigievar Castle Sadly this was one of the ones that I didn’t get a chance to see inside, as most of them only allow guided tours, and by the time I got there, all were booked up for theafternoon before I had to head to the campsite.

It was a beautiful day for a wander though, and the grounds and surrounding area is just stunning. Not that there are many parts of Scotland that aren’t, except perhaps the motorways around Glasgow, which confused me a lot!

After leaving Tarland I headed back to the coast, to Stonehaven. I mentioned in a previous post that it had been too windy to walk along the coast to Slains Castle, but this was an absolutely gorgeous day, perfect for a walk along the coastal path to see the dramatic ruins of Dunnottar.

I am collecting photos that I particularly love to be printed onto canvas eventually, and I think this will have to be added to that collection. Such an amazing landscape, and I was so lucky to see it in such beautiful weather.

As well as the castles there are so many beautiful baronial houses, and after leaving the Grampian Aire I went to Leith Hall Dating from the mid 1600s, it has been extensively remodelled and is now mainly Georgian inside. Again I had an excellent guided tour of the house, memorable for several curiosities as well as the wealth of textile treasure.

If you visit any heritage house you will come across taxidermy, a favourite pastime of the Victorian collectors, but Leith has a very special display, of boxing squirrels!

This has to rate as the most unusual piece of taxidermy that I have ever seen. No clear idea of the provenance, but I can only assume they were specially commissioned.

Sometimes there are just little things that really catch your eye as well, not only for their beauty, but imagining how they were acquired, and the recipient using them. I like to imagine that this beautiful desk set was a very special gift, and that happy hours were spent here writing letters and journals.

Another really interesting find was this gift of a photo montage of all of the tenants of the estate, given to General Leith Hay in 1902. A fascinating piece of social history, and one that is great for anyone tracing family history in the area, as many of these people wouldn’t have necessarily have had other photos taken of themselves.

One of the members of the Leith Hay family was a very keen needlewoman, and one of the corridors was lined with needlepoint pictures, all from kits popular in Victorian times. There musty have been at least twenty of these, along with all the fire screens and chairs. I know I have marvelled at this before, but how many hours of work does this represent!

I have been thinking about doing some needlepoint again, not that I need another crafting project ! However I used to love it, so am on the hunt for a nice kit that I can do for the caravan.

Someone was clearly a keen collector of embroidery as well, as there was this display case. Sorry for the poor picture, but there is a Georgian waistcoat, as well as shoes and bags.

There were also some beautiful bedspreads, in crochet and lace work.

I have been spending some time here working on my crochet skills, and have successfully made my first hat! After so many years of struggling crochet seems to have just clicked in my brain, which I am very happy about. Pictures of that and other recent makes soon. I have also been doing some writing, so feel like I’ve had a very productive week.

It is a balmy 23 degrees this weekend, and I am looking forward to another lovely week of social activities. We have a packed programme of coach trips to visit Christmas lights, and Christmas celebrations starting this Friday, and I had better finish making the Christmas gifts as there are only 18 days to go! My poker skills are coming along nicely as well, I won 9 hands last night and came 4th out of 8 players, so very happy with that.

Until next time, take care, have fun and thanks for visiting.