Tag: xmas ornies

Repeating myself

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I have found that the last few months of crafting have been very much about making the same sorts of things that I’ve done before, so much so that almost a year to the day that I was putting together some knitted reindeers for a friend, Facebook reminded me that I had made the same things in 2023.

There is a certain comfort in doing the same types of things, and some of it is utility. This year’s Christmas fundraiser was another knitted animal, as I knew that I had some mouse parts in stash that I had knitted a while ago, so thought a knitted ‘Chrismouse’ would be good for the ‘guess the name’ at our craft fair. Turns out that although that I had most of a mouse knitted, there was no head, and I hadn’t got any of the same wool! So all except the ears and tail were knitted again.

She turned out very well though, and with a Christmas dress, and a selection of pretty dresses, spare shoes and a bag, raised 100 euros for our food bank charity in Spain.

She was won by one of our sewing group members who has an eighteen month old grand daughter, so Christina, as I called her, has gone off to live in the USA where she has been made very welcome.

I have also just finished the unicorns, for babies that friends are having, meet Alexander and George.

These are my first unicorns, and they were great to do, the horns were a little tricky as they are a twisted i-cord, and I had to re-do them twice in better yarn, but got them finished over the weekend.

Both of these patterns are by the wonderfully talented Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits. Not only is she a knitting genius but very generous as well. She has just upgraded her removable shoes pattern to include three new styles of boots. That will be brilliant for future knits. The shoes for Christina are the first pairs of removable ones that I have made, even though I bought the pattern some years ago.

I wanted to do some different knitting while here at Ellen’s, so have made myself a hat and wrist warmers. Both are free patterns from Ravelry. The hat yarn is left over from the rabbit I knitted last year for my great niece, Willow, and is from The Range. It is so soft and comfy to wear.

I have really enjoyed this knitting, and they make great travelling and van projects, so have decided to make more for this year’s charity craft fair. Although I have lots of plain toy yarn, I have little of other types, but found a great wool shop in Chesterfield where I bought this beautiful yarn. I love knitting with variegated yarn so am looking forward to casting this on and seeing how it knits up.

I want to develop my skills at using circular needles as well so have got some new ones, as all my old ones went in the great de stash of 2021!

I have also stitched lots of Christmas ornaments, as in previous years, and again these have all been from JBW designs. There were a total of 10 this year, all from the same JBW design booklet that I mentioned in this post. I made these for friends in Yorkshire. They thankfully arrived in time this year, last year they were affected by postal strikes, so I finished them all by September and left them with Ellen to post.

These were the ones for my aunt and cousins.

This cute little mitten was for my Mum, and I’m planning to do more of these, and some snowflakes for the Yorkshire ones this year. I’ve already stitched two.

We had an embroidery workshop part two at sewing group, where I taught people how to use applique before embroidering. These are all patterns by the very creative Jenny of Elefantz.

I love her work, and need to find more things to do with the finished products, sadly Katy now has all the hanging hoops she has space for!

Gale did a workshop the following week and taught us all macramé. I was very pleased with the two little key rings that I made, and have plans to make a hanging tray for Katy that I saw on someone’s Instagram, when I get back in April.

In terms of quilting I extended one of the log cabin blocks that I made in 2020 to make a new cushion for Katy, which I absolutely love.

The applique cushion that I made last year got a bit damaged, so I’ve repurposed it. It will be a craft storage bag once it’s completed, which I’ll keep in the van.

As well as the new small van I showed you a few posts ago, I also got another storage tin for Katy, this was from Aldi and came with free biscuits so that was a win!

I have wanted to try and improve my crochet skills for a while. I have a great book, 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield that I’ve owned for years. I took it away with me this summer in the van, but just spent the time staring miserably at the instructions, and being baffled by the diagrams.

Luckily when Ellen came to stay in Spain we had a masterclass, and I very pleased to be able to to learn to make all these on the left below, as well as a few more of the large lilac design. Ellen made all the ones on the right and now I have enough for some bunting for Katy!

I finally found a frame for the black work I did last year, based on a tile at the Alhambra in Granada. I had been hunting for ages, but needed a 3 inch square one, and remembered I’d given Ellen some from my old stash. She was very kind and gave it back to me, and it is perfect for the design. I think my next design I need to find the frame first!

In terms of other projects for 2024 I will be mainly looking for small portable ones. I am travelling for nearly 8 months this year, so will be away from the sewing machine, and the stash, for most of the time.

I want to do some different things as well, so will be looking for things that extend my skills. It is lovely to stay in your comfort zone, but I am looking forward to more crochet, and possibly some English Paper Piecing. I love that, but haven’t done any for so long, and that is a great small project as well.

I also have some possible cross stitch patterns that I want to do, there are so many cute caravan designs available! This is one of my favourite, by the same designer as the original caravan hoops I did, Flamingo Toes.

If you have any ideas of good small useful things I can crochet, please let me know. I also need somewhere for things to go, so any suggestions of charities that need things please let me know.

I’ll be packing up ready to leave Ellen’s tomorrow, so will see you all again as soon as I can from my next adventure. This trip will definitely be an exercise in self restraint, as I’m going somewhere with amazing textiles. I am planning to take a very small bag with me, to avoid temptation, but will take lots of pictures!

See you all soon. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Happy Christmas, from me and a special tree!

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This will be my last post before Christmas so I thought that it would be a good time to share some of my most recent, and older ornament makes with you, all displayed on the tiniest tree that I have ever owned!

I bought this tree last year, as you may know I love making and displaying Christmas ornaments, but due to packing everything I own into only three 20 kg bags last year for the move to Spain, there was not much room for anything, so most of the ornaments had to go to other homes. This tree is only 12 inches tall but it does have some pretty lights as well.

What survived were the ones that I most loved out of my previous stitching and I had plans to make some more tiny ones just for me. I have spent this week making two very special ones, both from one of my favourite designers, JBW Designs. I bought a new book last year from Create Nostalgia, with 20 of her designs in, but the site also sells individual designs.

I am very pleased with the two new ones, both are designs that I have stitched for other people in the past. This one is called Tree Wreath and comes from the Wreath Ornaments Collection as well as being in the booklet above.

The other is called Tiny Motifs Tree and it is from the following leaflet Christmas Keepsakes 3. I can’t find this exact pattern on the Create Nostalgia website but there are many similar trees on there. This was my gift ornament to Yorkshire friends this year.

The other very special thing about these ornaments is the backing fabric. Two years ago I was lucky enough to be able to come to Spain for Christmas during the pandemic era, so made a mask to wear on Christmas Day.

I promised myself that I was going to use the fabric for ornaments one day as a reminder of that period, and to always be grateful for being able to be with family and friends at special times. Even though we still wear masks here in health care and on public transport I have sacrificed this one for the decorations.

The older ornaments are a mix of JBW designs, such as this lovely stocking, and other designs that I have done over the years. The stockings can be found in the booklets available from Create Nostalgia.

I no longer have the Joy design, that came from a cross stitch magazine a very long time ago. This was a complex stitch but I did do another version for my Mum later on.

I have found a site with some of the Helga Mandel trees on, this is the Noel tree and if you look carefully the design spells the word, Noel, vertically.

There seems to be an error with the purchase link on that site at the moment so I don’t know how you can buy them, but they are very pretty and innovative. I still have some others of these to stitch that I got years ago so am planning to do two of those for next year as well.

I already have four stockings stitched for next year, thanks to some intensive stitching while camping this summer. My plan is to spend the week between Christmas and New Year stitching and watching Christmas movies, including all of the Die Hard series and probably most of the X Men ones for a bit of fun 😉

I hope that you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year, the forecast for us is 20-22 degrees so we will be having a picnic on the beach and a BBQ on Christmas Day. Whatever you are doing I hope that you all have an excellent time.

Thank you for all your support and friendship over the years, I have had this little old blog for 15 years now and love meeting new people from all over the world through it. I am thrilled to now have over 400 subscribers 🙂 As always have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks so much for visiting, subscribing, liking and commenting.

Tis the season …..

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To hold Christmas ornament workshops again! Well in my world we can do it at any point and as long- time readers know I have held workshops in July before now 😉

However this week was the workshop at my lovely sewing group. Last year the group did baubles with folded ribbon and some of them brought theirs from last year to show me, more of that later.

This year it was mainly trees with folded ribbon that people were doing, although one member did an egg, and another a bauble using the cutting into the ball technique. It was, as always, a lovely morning full of activity and sparkly ribbon.

The folded ribbon baubles that Isla and Teresa made last year were just stunning. I love the colour combinations and all of the different patterns that you can achieve with quite a simple process.

I did think that I had given up on the bauble making, partly as anything I make for friends now has to be easily posted, however after I got back from the session I got a message from a local sewing shop asking if I would do a workshop for them next October 🙂

That gives me a great reason to restock on all my pretty embellishments when I get back to the UK and make some more samples next year doesn’t it?

All of the Christmas makings are now finished so I am getting on with rest of the to-do list that I have set myself, with a few extras thrown in. I am having a quiet pre-Christmas week and have nothing planned for the week between Christmas and New Year, so will be happily ensconced in my sewing space.

I am making some more Barbie outfits, using the same pattern that I have made many times before. I spent the first few weeks of lockdown in 2020 making these gowns, and love the flexibility of the design in that it looks so good with different types of fabric and beads . There will be an evening coat of velvet to go with the dress.

These patterns are reproductions of vintage ones and can be found on Etsy at GailsDollEPatterns. They are instant downloads and very easy to use.

I am also making good progress with my Liberty log cabin squares using some vintage tablecloth material for the centre pieces. This is the bit I love the most about making these squares, deciding which of my Liberty stash I will use 😉 It also gives me chance to catch up on some sewing vlogs.

I will share progress with the Rainbow Rascals knitted dolls at some point in the future as I need to do a proper photo shoot. I am really enjoying knitting them as they are so quick and easy and I am planning two dolls and a lot of wardrobe changes for them.

I hope that you are all happy and busy whatever you are doing and are looking forward to Christmas if you celebrate it. I will be back before then with seasonal greetings, until next time have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A rabbit, a quilt, some reindeer and many baubles!

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Now that I am settled back into my Spanish life I thought that I would set a few targets for this visit here in terms of crafting that I want to get completed. I have a mix of things that I have to finish, and ones that I want to do, some of which have been on the WIP pile for a couple of years. I do also have WIPs that have been around for far longer but we won’t discuss those just yet 😉

The first thing that has to be completed is another fundraising ‘name the animal’ for the local foodbank charity. You may remember that earlier this year I made a Luna Rabbit complete with changes of clothes for the Jubilee Fundraiser.

For this next ‘name the animal’ I have chosen to make this adorable pair of reindeer from Little Cotton Rabbits. I have not made the reindeer before but they are the same pattern as the fox, which I made two of last year, with modifications to the head.

I will be giving the two animals with a Christmas outfit and a change of clothes.

I already have the Christmas jumper for the boy and a pretty textured dress so just need to make a Christmas dress and a jumper and trousers set. I have a month for this so there needs to be knitting happening every day!

I am determined to sew up as I go along, I made this jumper some years ago and look at the mess that is left to sort out with all the ends to work in!

The second thing that has to happen is that I got a commission for a Luna from someone who didn’t win in June. I am going to make them a boy rabbit with a change of clothes.

The plan is to make the rabbit out of the top linen in this photo above then use the paler linen for the short and the grey flannel for trousers. The grey is an old scarf of Jacob’s and the paler linen is a charity shop shirt.

I am also using these charity shop finds for this other shirt and trousers. Hopefully these will be very quick to do as I can make a couple of outfits in a day.

We are having a few workshops at sewing group so there will be WIPs from that. We had the first one this week, learning how to make purses. I have looked at this type before for Steampunk but never done one.

This week’s workshop was just talking us through the make and sewing the clasp on a ready prepared purse but next week we are going to learn how to make the purse. I think these would make lovely gifts.

I am going to be running a workshop in December to make my beloved Christmas decorations. Over the years I have made so many different kinds of things using polystyrene shapes. This year we are going to be doing either trees, cones or baubles at the workshop.

Of course I stupidly gave all my previous ornament stash away before moving here, convinced that I wouldn’t be doing anything like this again. It all went to good homes, to various charity craft projects, but luckily the local Chinese markets have stash and I found a Christmas shop locally with the lovely ribbons in the picture below so all is good!

Lastly, if I have time after all of this activity, I would like to make a lap quilt for Katy. During lockdown I participated in a block challenge and I made lots of lovely things including these Liberty log cabin blocks.

I would love to make some more using motifs from my vintage tablecloths.

Many years ago I made a bag out of four, using one of Jacob’s old shirts for the outer fabric.

The plan is to use these 6 flower motifs above, and the 4 existing log cabins blocks and some sashing to make a little lap quilt for when I am sitting reading and it is not warm enough for the fleece blankets. I have until July to do this so that should be plenty of time lol!

So that should keep me out of mischief for a while. I also plan to stitch the first of my own Blackwork designs, that I showed you in this post. Fingers crossed I can find the time to do the other goldwork design I mentioned in that post as well, though that will not be done until next year.

What about you, what are your plans for this season? I always feel that autumn is a very good time to start thinking about new projects. Normally I am hastily putting together Christmas ornaments this season but those have all been done already.

I think it is the 35 years as a teacher that means that I always see autumn, rather than spring, as the start of things. Although there are no visible signs of autumn here really I still feel a sense of renewal of possibilities. Outdoor swimming is coming to an end, and I am looking forward to more cycling. I did 27km this Thursday with a friend, which I was very impressed about, my longest ride for about 14 years!

I hope whatever your plans you are having a lovely time. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A long awaited visit

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During my last week in the Peak District I visited the Silk Museum in Macclesfield. I have been planning to visit for around 15 years but somehow it never got factored into the plans. A wet day at the campsite seemed like a perfect opportunity.

The museum is housed in the former school of art, a wonderful Victorian building where many of the designers who worked in the local silk mills learnt their art. This means that they have a fascinating collection of artefacts such as the Jacquard punch cards and the samples that the students had to make for their assessments.

They have an amazing array of weaving looms and it was brilliant to talk to some of the volunteers who are restoring these. This one below is a jacquard loom and you can see the punch cards on the right and moving over the top of the loom.

This machine made narrow ribbons and there were samples of the sorts of things they wove.

I had a go with the tassel making machine as the volunteers had just mended it, it wound the silk around the wooden bead perfectly.

This loom makes knitted stockings which we still wear for re-enactment, although mine are wool and tied at the knee with a leather thong.

In a separate section was a display of silk printing from the Langley Printworks, some wonderful blocks including my favourite Paisley designs. The blocks were all carved in house to the designer’s specifications a very painstaking job as you can imagine.

Also very interesting were the manufacturer’s sample books, still so vibrant even though they are 100 years old. There were also a few garments, the Macclesfield stripe was particularly renowned as it was woven rather than being printed. A really lovely museum and I am so glad that I managed to visit.

I was busy decorating for Ellen last week, and did a day volunteering for the food bank. I am now back in sunny Spain so will be able to catch up on all of the other blog posts from my summer adventures as there are some other museums and historic house visits that I have done as stops on the way between campsites. Who knows I might even do some crafting 😉 so that this can go back to being a craft blog!

The last 3 months have gone so quickly, I have had a brilliant time but am looking forward to spending a lot more time at my sewing machine and having a few months in the same place before I start travelling again. I did mange to finish all of the Christmas ornaments for friends before I left the UK, backing them with stash that I gave Ellen before I left the UK.

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

Amazing lights, beautiful city

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Edinburgh was so beautiful, as expected. We have both been before, but to be there at Christmas was just magical. We stayed in a very central location, just near the castle so it was within walking distance of everything. The apartment was beautiful, here it is on Air bnb , if you are ever interested in visiting Edinburgh. Last two pictures are from the listing.

We spent most of the first day we were there just wandering around admiring the buildings and looking in some nice shops.

We were stunned by the amount of beautiful Christmas lights on all the shops and hotels. There were some absolutely gorgeous displays, including some very innovative light displays on the buildings.

We had tickets for the Botanical Gardens light event on Boxing Day which was also wonderful, a trail through with all different lights shows and music, the photos so not do it justice really as most of the light installations changed colour as well.

One of the best things was the number of gorgeous places to eat, so many stunning architectural gems as well as the food and drink being great. We had delicious gluten free pancakes in the old Assembly Rooms, a company called Stack and Sill, and Bailey’s hot chocolate in a lovely café called Tiles which was the previously the reception area for the Prudential insurance company.

We also visited the gorgeous Café Adaluz for a tapas lunch and had an evening meal in a restaurant, Angel’s Share, that I did chose for its amazing tin tile ceiling and chandeliers. Luckily the food and cocktails were nice as well!

We had a ride on the big wheel and a lovely couple of tours on the big red tour bus which is always a great way to get around a city and find out lots about it.

Another highlight was a visit to a cat café, Maison de Moggy. We had been planning to visit one of these in Japan, so spent a lovely hour having some very delicious Turkish Delight hot chocolate and cake. The visit was a chance to pet the ten cats they have there, including a beautiful Maine Coon, Pauline, that had the most amazing lion like face. This photo at the bottom of her is from the web site as I couldn’t get a good picture while we were there.

I am enjoying my time at my sister’s, I have bought a new sewing machine, with 99 stitches so am looking forward to using that and am knitting my first Little Cotton Rabbits fox.

I am enjoying cuddling up with her lovely cat as well, Scully, she is my sofa companion when I do my studying for my writing courses.

Jacky and I have also been to the gym a few times and I have done my first aquarobics session which was fun. We are having a quiet weekend at home as the weather is a bit rough. My sister is a primary school teacher and has had a busy first week back at work so it is nice to have some quiet time.

I hope that you have all had a nice week, and have a good week ahead. I will be back with the first of my museum series of posts, as I have lots to share with you from all the lovely costume and textiles things I have seen since August. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

We interrupt this travel blog to bring you some Christmas stitching!

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I have been frantically stitching ten ornaments in the last few weeks and last night put the final stitches in the ribbons and breathed a sigh of relief. Two of them only needed a little finishing and making up but the others were done from scratch.

I did post a while ago about using some of Jenni of Elefantz’s bird designs with some new Scandi fabric but it was difficult to stitch them neatly enough on the felt I had so I decided to go with my tried and trusted JBW Designs.

I forgot to take pictures of the first two as I have left them in Spain for my aunt and mum but this one above that I did for them is one of my favourite designs and I will have to stitch it for my little tree in Spain. I kept a few of my ornaments to take with me and bought a tiny tree so I did have that up for a few days there before I came back. The picture is of my cute children when they were very small!

I love this design, most of the JBW Designs have these little motifs in them which are so cute. Some of the others I have stitched are similar to this, such as the tree one below.

This comes from another JBW Design set, I stitched all three of these this year, each one twice.

The last ornaments I completed were from a new book that I got from Create Nostalgia. They have the best selection of Judy’s designs in the UK and I was able to get this brilliant compilation from them. It is great value at only £19 including postage, as individual design cards retail for about £5 each.

I am planning to stitch more of the cute stockings and little mittens for next year’s ornaments and might find time to do some more of these for me.

As I mentioned previously I did not save any of my Christmas fabric when I was having my sort out of what to take to Spain so I needed to order some more when I got here. I found a great selection packs on Ebay at Fabric 4 Craft . The best thing was that they sell packs of small squares which are perfect for ornaments or little patchwork projects. I particularly love the fabric with all the little motifs on below.

I have been volunteering at the foodbank with Ellen for the last few days. It has again been a very interesting time and nice to do something very useful and worthwhile. They have been doing some more social media recently so here is a photo they did with my lovely daughter on the left.

I am off on a little UK tour tomorrow, mainly in Huddersfield but I will be having a mini break in Manchester and visiting a few museums there.

Until next time have a good week and weekend, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Actual crafting going on!

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You’d think I would be posting a bit more about actual makes now I am retired, especially as this is supposed to be a craft blog. I have always posted about travel but obviously that has been the main priority of the last few months, although there has been a little bit of making in between all of the adventures.

The big news is that I have finally learnt how to crochet, after several previous attempts. My lovely daughter Ellen was very patient with me, and after lots of encouragement I got to grips with at least two stitches. I still need more practice on trebles, but have been watching some further videos on Craftsy as I got a very good deal on a year’s membership. I decided to make a project while practising my double crochet, and am very proud of what I have done as my stitches are quite neat. The lovely sparkly variegated wool is from our trip to Alnwick earlier this year.

This is a little pouch for my new crochet hooks, as well as the couple I have bought here, I have a set waiting for me in the UK so hopefully Ellen and I will have the chance to do some more crochet when I spend time with her over Christmas. She is now a crochet genius, and has made so many wonderful things.

As I mentioned last post, some things are more difficult to find here. Wool is no problem as all of the Merca China, (a cross between a pound shop and a homewares shop), have a good selection and there is a lot of basic haberdashery. Fabric shops are few and far between, and the postage and import duty since Brexit makes it very expensive to get mail order, so I am going to have a good stock up when in the UK.

I bought this lovely wool, and some Christmas fabric, at the little craft market I mentioned in my last post. The wool will probably be either some crochet, or dresses for animals. I love variegated wool and the rainbow one is so bright! The other ball is very subtle and beautiful shades so I might use that for crochet if I can decide on a good pattern.

The red fabric is going to be used for this year’s set of ornaments. I was looking for something quick to stitch and decided on some Scandi inspired ones before I found this lovely fabric. I am using one of Jenny of Elefantz’s stitching patterns here. The holly fabric will go to back some cross stitch ones that I have had in progress for a few years.

I have also finally completed another Little Cotton Rabbits project, another elephant this time. This is Edward, and he is my 21st animal and my 5th elephant. He is a present for one of my old colleagues, for her grandson. I love making the little outfits and am now pretty confident at the removable shoes. My current LCR knit is a fox and I will be trying the slippers for the first time for that one.

I will be back next week after our latest adventure, we are going to have a really hard time choosing what to visit, I have been doing the research this morning and there are so many museums and palaces, very excited now.

I hope that you have a good weekend ahead, whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A Christmas Miracle

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Well dear reader, you may have realised from the lack of recent posts that I made it to Spain! It was indeed a Christmas miracle as I landed, with my lovely negative test certificate, the day before Spain stopped letting people from the UK in, and came back just before the UK started asking for the same tests on return. Phew! I am now safely ensconced in a snowy Marsden, self-isolating for the next two weeks.

As we are now online only at work and likely to be so for the foreseeable future I may not leave the house again for many months! Although I am determined to try and get out and do some exercise once the weather improves (and the pavements are less slippery) as I have had a very lovely time in Spain walking and even doing some cycling 🙂

I have not used my bike in Spain for about 4 years, since I started having more joint and back problems. My fitness has declined so badly during last year due to lockdown and working from home that I really wanted to do something to try and improve things. I started doing an online fitness programme a few weeks before I left, based on Salsa dancing, and really enjoyed it. So I got Rosie Raleigh out of my Mum’s basement and we had some fun adventures together.

I was determined to do as much walking as I could while I was in Spain as it is one of my favourite things to do. I started off with just an hour an evening to go and watch the amazing sunsets. I was later able to take the bike out a few times, culminating in cycling all the way to the beach, about 6km in total, there and back.

I was so pleased. Not only was it really lovely to be out in the sunshine and have the freedom to roam around some of my favourite cycle paths but it also gives me the independence that I need for when I move there full time. My relatives are very helpful with driving me places but I want to be able to travel myself as well and my plans for passing my driving test have been on hold since May and are no nearer completion.

I had great fun exploring some of the areas of the urbanisation that I have not visited before, including some of the smaller squares of older properties. They have lovely little green areas in the middle with palms and bougainvillea decorating the houses. There are also quite a few more refurbishments, and makeovers of the older properties into the newer white modern style are in evidence all over the area.

On one of my rides I went out towards the mountains. There are a number of paths alongside the irrigation canals that have been designated as cycle paths and the views were beautiful as always, especially with the sun shining through the rushes that grow at the sides of the water.

I also spent a lot of time on my terrace. Mum gave me some more money for plants for Christmas so I redid all the pots which gave me something pretty to look at while I was admiring the blue sky and the lovely sunrises. I also added a couple of beautiful ceramics to the wall. I am looking forward to having more tiling done when I am there full-time as I love Spanish tiles.

I also spent quite a few evenings sitting on the terrace reading as well, wrapped up in a fleecy blanket with all of my candles lit and solar lights. It was so peaceful and relaxing.

My Mum had her little candle tree up with all of the ornaments I have made over the years, all but the green tree at the top and the cross stitch to the left of that are ones that I have made for her. This is also useful for checking what I have already made for her for planning future creations.

The flight back was lovely though I was very sad to be leaving. It was raining when we left Spain but we flew over the Pyrenees in sunshine so I was able to get some shots of the mountains in the snow, I do love mountains!

So it is back to life in lockdown for the next few weeks, however I have plenty to keep me occupied. I am not working many weekends this term (hurrah) so am planning some more Barbie couture as my younger relatives loved their Christmas gifts and still have bunny knitting to finish. I have also been watching the wonderful Bridgerton and am taking inspiration from the amazing costumes there for more Steampunk plans for the future.

I hope that life is ok for you all at the moment, it does seem like a long time until brighter days, as it often does in January, but hopefully things will get better very soon and we can have some return to that wonderful weather we had last Spring. I have been so lucky to be able to enjoy the sun in Spain and will stay warm and await it’s return here. At least Marsden looks very pretty in the snow.

Take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A whole lot of sorting going on

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Well I have had a very busy few weeks, very little crafting but a huge amount of sorting and decluttering. It is less than 3 months until I put the house on the market (eeek!) so there has been a lot to do as I wanted to make the best use of what time I had before Christmas. Starting in January I will be finishing the re-painting, doing the final declutter and then calling the estate agents!

I have been helped by a new Facebook page in our lovely village for people to gift and request items that they need, set up just as the newest restrictions started as all of the charity shops were closed, and some smaller items have gone to new homes. It is such a lovely idea and people have been very generous, there have been some really nice children’s toys and all sorts of things that people have donated to others.

My wonderful Ellen came up last weekend and we did an enormous amount, not that much is visible as it was all things in cupboards, and under beds and in long forgotten boxes and drawers. Some of it went to the local tip, some saleable items on Ebay, but I know it is all gone, and there will be much less to get rid of after the house is sold.

I have even decluttered the craft room, I still have to find homes for some of it as there is a lot of scrap fabric that in previous times would have gone to the local school but they are not accepting anything at the moment. I still do have some time to sort that out though.

It seems weird to be on the final countdown, fingers crossed I only have about 8 months left living here and then it will be a life in Spain, and hopefully on the road for part of the year. I have no idea what will happen, the double whammy of the pandemic and Brexit have meant that planning is not easy but fingers crossed I will get there. I count myself very lucky that I have a house there already and am not trying to do that bit as well.

I have finished a couple of things, I have knitted a basket and some carrots for Ellen and I am doing another set of these for the next bunny as well. I love how the basket has turned out with the basket weave stitch, it was very easy to do and I love it. It is very sturdy and has a lovely i-cord handle. The basket is from Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits and the carrots are a free pattern by Wendy from Flutterby Patch.

Wendy also had some really cute little snowmen that you could use as gifts bags for sweets etc. so I have bought this pattern from her Etsy page and have knitted one already, I have just got to do the face now so I will show you that later. I am going to make two as gifts for my great nieces. These pictures are from her Ravelry page.

I am really tempted to get some of her other patterns as well, I love this group of teddies, and the cute little group of kids.

These dolls are beautiful as well and she has patterns for extra outfits for the larger ones. All pictures are from her Ravelry page.

I shall just spend my retirement knitting endless amounts of little knitted animals and cute dolls 😉 I am sure I can find good homes for them to go to. Most of my relatives are getting a little too old now but I am sure I can give them away to others for gifts, or to charity. I did really enjoy making the fabric dolls I made a couple of years ago for my cousins and would like to make some more of those as well. Details of the pattern for these are in this post.

I have finished all on campus teaching now, we have moved everything else online for this term so that hopefully we can all meet up with people safely for Christmas. I am just doing tutorials and marking for the next two weeks so hopefully will have lots of time for other things as I am not leaving the house at all. It seems strange that I will not be going back into work until the middle of January now but I am quite happy here at home. It has been cold and wet out recently so I am happy not to have to stand at cold bus stops!.

A little Christmas tree is up (I have given away the big one and most of my ornaments, even my hand made ones), I have the house full of pretty lights, some new fluffy slipper boots and so I am cosy and warm inside. I am very blessed to have such a safe and comfortable warm home and extremely grateful for this in these difficult times. I am going to light the candles, carry on with some knitting and watch the second series of the lovely Virgen River on Netflix.

I hope that you are all safe and warm as well and have a happy week ahead. Take care and thanks for visiting.