Friday 21 December 2012

Time to decorate

Greetings friends on this December solstice day, a time when I traditionally decorate our house for Christmas. Early this morning I went to the attic and found the familiar boxes that contain our much loved decorations and very quickly numerous helpers appeared all eager to lend a hand with box emptying. I wonder if they will be nearby when I need help to pack things away!

 
Quickly I found the box containing our lovely glass baubles. These are much too precious for enthusiastic helpers to unpack. 
 
 
Finding a pair of golden bells, Lucy Lavender wasted no time in using them as earrings. The robin looks less than impressed wouldn't you say?
 
 
I made this snowman many years ago and now it wouldn't be Christmas if he didn't put in an appearance. His head lifts off and his body is hollow (made from a large glass jar). When the children were little I used to fill him with tiny inexpensive toys (one a day for the twelve days of Christmas).
 
 
Now what secrets does Santa Mouse have in his sack I wonder?
 
Oh dear! A spot of trouble in the tree. . . . .
 
 
The foolish bunny children decided to try climbing into the branches. What they hadn't bargained for was the spiky needles that stuck into their clothing and held them fast. Ouch!
 


I carefully unhooked each foolish bunny and then told them to be on their best behaviour while they had a chat with Santa on his sleigh. He only brings gifts to good little bunnies so I just hope he hasn't seen their many antics throughout the year.
 
Our Christmas decorations have been in use for many years and I rarely add to the collection but this year I couldn't resist giving a home to this cute little glass elf.

 
Wherever you are in this great wide world of ours I should like to
wish you a Very Happy Christmas.



Monday 3 December 2012

Jolly chaos

After several weeks of grey skies and rain I felt I needed to put some extra colour into my life. So I spent last week in the sewing room and made a few little smiling cuties like this.


I ended up making four and once I've added lining and handles they'll become little tote bags.


I also made three cheery bunny pencil cases. A small bunny can be seen peeking round the door with a cup cake (from the pantry) or a ball (from the toy shop). Mother bunny as might be expected is looking far from pleased!

 
This needle book has a stiff card interlining so that it'll be easy to flip open. Quick and fun to make I think I'll do some more of these.

 
Before I'd had time to fill the house with needles some mousy visitors took up residence.
 
 
These scamps belong to my daughter who is currently in the process of moving house. Things are chaotic with her at the moment as she has urgent arrangements to make and lots of packing to do so I suggested she let me look after the rascals from her Toyshelf shop until she is settled in her new home.
 
The visitors, living in the playroom with my family of knitted scamps, behaved well at first.
 
 
However, over the weekend things got a bit chaotic when my two mischievous bunny boys escaped from the playroom with a number of the Toyshelf visitors and they all found their way into my sewing room. The result was a jumble of rascals having enormous fun with the newly made pencil cases and little house.
 
 
Luckily help was on hand. Two of my 'sensible' dollies (Kate and Tilly) were quick to spot the rascally runaways and wasted no time in gathering them up and depositing them in a basket.


All are now safely back in the playroom with the door firmly closed. If you're a knitter you'll probably recognise these scamps, if not you can find them here.