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Silly Season

Well, it has certainly felt pretty crazy here the last couple of weeks!

Jonathan has now left primary school which involved his Graduation evening, Presentation Day and Yr 6 Leaver's Camp.

Meg has now left the gorgeous Infant's school that she has been at for 3 years and will join Joseph at the local Public School.

At least I will only have 3 educational establishments to worry about next year, rather than 4!

We've also been busy with some doings and makings.

Jonathan as 'Music Star' at the Santa Fun Run

Robert's Reindeer mask for the Pre-school Christmas Concert

Seeing Santa

Infant's School Christmas Concert

Mug cosies for pressies and to order

Ninjabread Men fro the Yr 6 Fete

Some yarn-y gorgeousness

Teacher presents

These became these!

Bought as kits from Blossom and Cat at the Olive Tree market and made by Meg and her friend with some(!!) help from the Mums!

Jonathan made these from this website.  In case you weren't sure, they're Clone Troopers and Boba Fett.  Obviously.

Kid-friendly Rocky Road from this recipe.

And I got my Christmas Present early...

I got a fantastic deal and so far have mended 90% of all the clothes that have been languishing in corners around the house.  It has paid for itself in those repairs alone!  I've also made some picnic-y looking bunting

and some Christmas bunting!

Will post a pic when it is in place.

You can imagine the chaos with 5 kids in the run up to Christmas, but I have tried to keep it chilled and a bit cultural too with a visit to the Cathedral to hear Handel's Messiah with Archie - just beautiful.  I think we have Christmas lunch sorted too as the kids decided on Tapas.  Archie, Robert and I headed to a great deli today, while the others were at Tennis Camp, and got everything we wanted for a whole lot less than a turkey and all the trimmings.

So I doubt very much if I'll pop in before Christmas, but may I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and hope that in all the fun and frenzy that you get time to think about WHO we are celebrating.

Sandra xx

Gingerbread.

For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere I should explain that not only is this time of year crazy here because of Christmas, but also because it is the end of the school/university year.  This, obviously, results in that overwhelming feeling of "Too Much!!".  This year I have 2 leaving their current schools and preparing for the next stage, which involves Leavers Assemblies, and Formals alongside the usual Presentation Days and Fetes.  I keep checking my calendar to confirm that I haven't forgotten anything (or anyone...) yet.  We also have Jonathan going off on a 3-day camp for the last 3 days of school which I need to remember to pay for.  Oh, and I need to remember to buy Christmas presents!

Anyway, we have been busy!  On Saturday our surrogate grandparents invited Meg to a Gingerbread House Decorating morning at their church which was great fun.  Some of the older ladies were in seriously competitive mode with very professional looking houses, while Meg's looks rather more 'age-appropriate', shall we say.

Jonathan then remembered the Ninjabread men and decided that he wanted to make a load of them to sell at the Yr 6 Leaver's Fete.

He also asked Joseph to whip up a batch of his fantastic gingerbread muffins (from Susan Reimer's Muffin book) that he is now becoming very proficient at.

We had a busy evening last night and the house smelt delicious.


I managed to find a little Gingerbread House kit so I have promised them that in the first week of the holidays they can make, and decorate, a house each.

I managed to whip up a couple of these little mug cosies for Christmas presents and posted a pic on facebook, a Lovely Lady then 'shared' my pic which was seen by some of her friends, which resulted in some orders!

And now I'm off for a cup of tea and one of Joseph's muffins to gear myself up - yum!

Another Granny Blanket Ta-daah!

*WARNING* lots of photos

I completely forgot to post the pics of my latest Granny Blanket.  I kind of lost interest half way through as it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to work up since I used 4 ply wool and a 3.5 hook.  I was then waiting to find out the sex of it's recipient, and then dithered about which type of edging to use.  At one point I used the wrong shade of cream and had to frog about 5 hours worth of work - gah!

Anyway, here it is...

Up close the colours are lovely and are the same batch of yarns used for this blanket...

but somehow I think the mix of the turquoise, orange and lime green dominate and look brown at a distance.  Better colour planning next time.  Nevertheless, it is soft and snuggly and should be the right size for a cot or just for building a den!  The edging is very simply, UK Tr's in cream and UK dc's in blue and green, a couple of rows of UK sc's, with a little picot to finish it off.    

Come to think of it, I don't think the other blanket had a ta-daah so here are a few pics quickly...

If I remember correctly, I added cream shells all the way around.

I've also managed a few more scarves and cowls, all very simple UK Tr's for a long/wide as you require.  Obviously we won't be needing them here for a while....!

I think my mirror needs a clean...