I hope everyone who celebrates it had a lovely Christmas. We enjoyed a wonderful couple of days with our family. On New Years Eve, we went out for a nice meal, followed by some fun at the amusements on the pier.
My daughter and I tried out a dance-off game machine, which was a lot of fun, though quite challenging! My husband even joined in on an arcade game; I think hes now considering getting a game console for home—lol!
To wrap up the year, I wanted to share a picture of the last Post Box Topper of 2025.
Its a brilliant knitted Paddington Bear with the words Happy New Year around his feet.
No sure if I told you all about my new opportunity. I have always loved arty stuff from making clothes to knitting with my Nan and then I got into cardmaking and designing cards.
A few years after I got interested in Jewellery making too.I came by jewellerymakerTV by accident when channel hopping on TV.
Once I watched it I was hooked. Ive had a bit of a sad year, I lost Mum earlier in the year then in July my Son qualified as a teacher and moved to Dubai, whilst I am very proud, I miss him.
Anyway at a lose end and with my Son pushing me I done a screen test and interview for Jewellery Maker and have been their newest Guest Designer.
Ive always loved Nutcrackers from the ballet to the Christmas ornaments. I currently 3 good size ones and a tree ornament. However, my daughter is on a whole other level.
She too loves the Nutcracker ballet from being a little girl and that started her off her love of all things Nutcracker themed.
Not just the ornamental ones but mugs, tea towels, biscuit tins etc. she has accumulated quite a few. Including a huge floor standing one. Her husband has always said at Christmas time she can buy no more than one new one.
Well that never happens and this year has been no exception. The ceramics club at RAF Benson was putting on a Christmas themed event and of course my daughter chose a Nutcracker and all she had to do was paint it and then it would be fired in a kiln.
Now she doesnt profess to be arty or crafty and doubts her own abilities in this area, but when she showed me the final piece I was amazed.
Its not perfect but she made a fantastic job of painting it. It turned out beautifully and I am proud of her achievement.
had a great week celebrating an early christmas in scotland as my partner is working over christmas it was amazing we went to edinborough to see the christmas markets and a cruise on loch lomand ,we saw the new year in with a piper and haggis ,a fabulous time was had by all ,now i can relax over christmas watching what i want eating what i want lol hope you all have a fab christmas and a Happy new year ..thank you for your continued support picture is of me and Cameron our driver at Glamis Castle
Granddaughter was competing again in another cross country race on Sunday last weekend. She had taken the gold medal at Berry Hill. On 5he Sunday she was competing at Welbeck Abbey in yet another cross country race!
This time it was a step up in terms of she was competing against much better competitors … but … she again did really well and got the silver medal!
Tonight (Thursday) we had an awesome sight in our sky around 8pm. Starlink satellites were launched early this morning and made two passes over Australia tonight. It was amazing to see and must say never seen anything like it before.
I have seen the Starlinks before after theyve broken up and spread out. Although it was posted on several sites on Facebook, a lot of people didnt see then and a lot asked what they were.
Besides the actual answer of Starlink the best answers seem to be Santa doing a practice run. Of course the kids will be happy with that answer!
Apparently Santa is doing another practice run tonight as well!! This weeks designs are a set of Flamingo toppers and a set of Australian Floral notelets.
When my children were still at home, my daughter used to decorate our Christmas tree. And when she started work, she even bought some new decorations for it. I still use some of them. However, Im not very good at decorating it myself.
For a few years, when we moved house, we didnt have room for a big tree, so I just used two pre-lit small trees.
Now we have a space for the bigger tree, but I am so out of practice with decorating it. I usually spend days tweaking it. But this time, I just put everything on and decided that I would leave it at that.
It doesnt look anywhere near as good as the ones online, but I am actually quite happy with it, considering the tree is quite old and tatty now.
And after I had finished and stood back to admire it, I noticed it was leaning to one side. So here it is, my tatty, wonky Christmas tree.
My daughter has been the biggest fan of the Musical Wicked since it first appeared in the Westend of London and the first time she heart the original Elpheba (Idina Mendel) sing defying gravity.
Her the fiancé now husband bought her tickets for the show in London.
She has seen both movies and plans to go and see the musical again in the Westend. So she was beyond excited when she discovered this years extravaganza for Christmas at Blenheim Palace was going to be the Wizard of Oz.
She has been to a few of these over the years and theyve always outdone themselves and this was no exception.
Being greeted by Aunty Ems farmhouse and a tornado. Then a few days later she went to Westfield Shopping centre in London where they had a small Wicked for Good exhibition which gave plenty of photo ops for those who are fans of the movies.
She had a fab time and made lots of happy memories, now all she needs is to bump into the actor who plays Fiero in the movies whose parents actually live in Benso village near RAF Benson where she lives.
… youngest granddaughter, Olivia, was competing again at the weekend. This time it was at Berry Hill in Mansfield. It was a cross country race with 2 laps around the park and through the woods.
I was able to see and cheer her on in 2 places by dashing up and down the (very muddy) steep path.
She led the race right from the start and there were no other competitors in sight! Unfortunately I missed her going through the finish line …. she was that fast she got there before I managed to get back up the slips, muddy path!
Lol
This year we were going to decorate a tree in the front yard and put it in the Community Christmas Lights Competition.
Last year the tree that won it was the only tree entered with two strings of purple lights.
We didnt know there even was a competition last year so this year we decided decorate and enter a bottle brush tree in the front yard.
We went and brought decorations and a couple of boxes of lights only to find out they scrubbed the tree category this year.
Anyway the grand daughter said wed decorate it anyway so last weekend very reluctantly we threw some tinsel around, hung the big baubles and the candy canes, bows and a stocking on the tree.
We actually didnt even use all the stuff we brought. In the daylight it looks good (except for the high bit we couldnt be bothered doing) with the sun on the tinsel and decorations.
Night time it doesnt look as good even with the lights.
We also put some strings of lights across the front of the house and coloured ones along the hedges. Looks pretty but hard to show the night lights. Just waiting for a storm to come and wreck it now!! So far weve been lucky and not even had rain. This weeks designs are perfect for Birthdays, New Year or even a retirement.
Even though we live just a few minutes from the beach, our Golden Retriever, Sam, has been experiencing a bad reaction to the seawater.
Because its difficult to keep a Golden out of the sea, we have been taking most of our dog walks at a nearby country park, which is a short drive away.
The boys dont mind at all, as they get to run around, meet other dogs, explore new smells, and enjoy getting wet and muddy.
They absolutely love it! Plus, we get to take in the beautiful countryside view, which is very relaxing.
hi everyone i run a craft group called make do and mend, and yesterday we all met for christmas lunch at our local pub,it was fun time with lots of chatting, we have 1 male member ,the laughter and happiness was a joy to behold we also invited some ladies who were alone to join us, and some of our husbands,we finished up by talking about crafts we might do in the next few months, a good time was had by all,Merry christmas everyone ,i am off to scotland on Monday for a few days xx
…Peach Roses too- well its that time of year again and the decorations are finally up after 3 days of it.
This year I decided to get a bigger tree, a six foot one.
So more ornaments would be required and my older one would go into the small hallway I have. I ordered the tree and whilst waiting for that to arrive I was trying to decide on a colour scheme.
Now Im not a traditionalist, I was when my kids were young and we had all the novelty ornaments but as an adult Ive had teal themes, pink themes, Scandinavian themes etc. so I popped to my local garden centre for a coffee and then those fatal words of Ill just have a look at the Christmas shop, Im not buying only looking.
Who was I kidding, out came the phone and snapping everything in sight as I ood and aahd at all the wonderful displays.
Then I saw it, the tree of my dreams, the colours and yes flowers.
Not just poinsettias but roses all in a peach colour with white and gold baubles and foliage. That was it I knew what I wanted. Now I did but a few little bits in the garden centre, but wasnt prepared to take out a mortgage for everything, so I did look elsewhere and improvised.
Im recalled pleased with the end results even though it took me 3 days to complete everything.
… been using up some of the odds and ends of paper and card we crafters ultimately have.
I can never bring myself to throw it away! … and if I do get rid of any … then it is always that one thing that I NEED at some point in the future!
Lol. Soooo I had a lovely time making some Festive Christmas danglies for my youngest grandchildren! Its a bit if a win/win …. as I loved making them & hopefully theyll like them too! Lol
As some of you may know, I have a passion for making bags. While I enjoy using my domestic sewing machine, it struggles with thicker fabrics. This limitation affects the types of fabrics and bag or purse patterns I can work with.
I have been dreaming of getting a semi-industrial sewing machine, but since sewing is just a hobby for me, It felt wrong to spend the money on it.
What I didnt realise is that my husband has been paying attention and keeping track of deals on my dream machine.
He has hobbies as well, so he knows how I feel. Well, today he surprised me by ordering it, and it will arrive tomorrow!
Im so excited but also a little nervous, as it will be very different from my current machine. Stay tuned to see what my first project will be with it!