Where have the last few days gone?

Christmas this year certainly turned out differently to what we expected. Not only did mum not come over on Christmas Day, but she still didn't feel well enough to venture out on Boxing Day. So in the afternoon we had a taxi over to her so that we could take the presents that were here for her and also some of the Christmas food.

Thursday was quite a functional sort of day - because we had someone coming to do the cleaning (relief for the regular person), it made sense to take down the tree etc in the morning ready for her coming in the afternoon, because next Wednesday we're having new carpets fitted and so won't be cleaned again till next Thursday.

So this really has been a strange Christmas because it's the first time ever that the tree has come down by 27 December! We've still got cards up, but not much else.

Yesterday I had a day of watching craft on QVC (no, I didn't buy anything) and in the afternoon I popped briefly into Bromley (no way I wanted to battle through the sales zone, except I did venture into M & S) to collect an unstamped letter from the Royal Mail sorting office.

And today I've been putting items for sale on ebay (no, not unwanted Christmas presents!) - it's taken me best part of all day, taking photos, descriptions etc.

I'm well aware that this is supposed to be 'My Crafty Outlook', so back to crafting reality. I did make a few cards yesterday - or it might have been the day before - but I won't show those now.

Why oh why didn't I make John's birthday card earlier?!?! Why is it that the important ones are always left till last? It's his birthday tomorrow and I'd been trying to come up with a new idea - the longer we're married the harder it is to come up with something new!

He plays bowls (for a blind bowling team) and enjoys rugby on TV and loves his classical music, but I seem to have exhausted those themes, and, besides, I made a rugby decoupage card for mum to give him. We sometimes play cribbage (we use large print playing cards - and because you only finish up with four cards to play with, it's not too difficult. Anyway, I decided to try to do a card based on this and looked up the maximum score that could be got, which is why the card has the Jack and 3 fives and the other five at the bottom. I was going to put something like 'you are a top scorer' but I wasn't sure that was good wording for a card!

I'm not sure that I'm that happy with it, but at this late stage it will have to do! The background paper is from the Guy's Life collection, which picks up on the cards theme, although not clear on the photo:

Between courses

The morning was spent preparing the lunch and family phone calls (some more to come later). Mum was meant to be coming over to us by taxi, but, unfortunately, had one of her giddy turns just before the taxi was arriving, so she hasn't been able to come over.

John and I have just done justice to our Christmas lunch (neither of us could quite finish it - eyes being bigger than ...) We're now having a rest between courses, so I decided to open my CBC secret santa present:



We haven't got presents for each other this year because we bought our new TV for each other, but we've got other presents and stockings to open in a while.

Hope you're enjoying your day.

PS - for anyone who read this earlier, I made the most terrible mistake - I typed 'fortunately' instead of 'unfortunately' about mum!!

New Year Blog Candy

My site meter is telling me that I've now had over 9,700 visits, so it seems that some time in the new year I'll reach the 10,000 mark (I didn't actually have a site meter when I first started the blog, so for the first two or three weeks there's no record).

I'll come back to this after Christmas.

Happy Christmas everyone

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog. I'd like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and every blessing in the coming new year.

This evening I've packed away the remains of my Christmas crafting stuff (even sorted through it before doing so and was a bit ruthless with getting rid of some bits and pieces).

We managed to get to church this morning for the family service and also the early carols by candlelight this evening. In between I did some baking - mince pies and sausage rolls and prepared for cookie dough which will be cooked tomorrow.

We still feel a bit in a state of limbo, as the decorating's been done, but the new carpet is being fitted on 2 January, so we have carpet cut away from the skirting boards - not the best look really! And because things will have to be moved again for the carpet laying we still have boxes of things housed in the room where I craft because it's pointless unpacking them and packing up again.

One day (soon, hopefully) we will be straight(ish!).

Christmas tree

On JB Elvin the Elf has today asked us to share photos of our Christmas trees. So here is mine (and it will also serve as my HS:MS one for today):

Handcrafted cards I've received

Over on the Just Bex forum, Elvin the elf is asking us to show some of the handcrafted cards we've received for Christmas, so I thought I'd show some here. Some were made by the people who sent them and one or two (I think) were purchased from others.

We are very grateful to all who have sent us cards.

HS:MS cute

'Attractive in a pretty or endearing way.'

My initial reaction was to post a photo of Josey, but you've seen so many of her I thought I ought to show something different - and besides, Anita has shown her new cute puppy who is so much cuter than Josey!

Here are our stockings hung up in the hall - for three adults, mind! But hey, why not? I'm going out today to get all the stocking bits and pieces. I'm doing one for John, one for mum and one for me. For a few years now John hasn't been able to put one together for me (lack of vision and other problems make it impossible for him to trail around). And this way, I get to buy all those little bits and pieces for myself that I never usually buy!