Happy New Year 2015-2016

Hello and Happy New Year everybody! I've been a lazy blogger again and not been here for - argh - over a month! Promise to try harder. No, really this time I will try :)

So, a bit of chat about Christmas ..... did you have a happy and calm one ? We did. We barely left the house, stayed in pyjamas all day long and had extremely flexible meal-times :) I am like a big kid at Christmas, I really love it, and I love getting presents. Does that make me a bad person ? I hope not! I do enjoy giving presents as well, and quite a few this year were handmade by Yours Truly, including the chunky cowl shown above, I made it for a friend though here is a picture of me modelling it, as it's hard to see really what it's like until it's on (if you see what I mean) ....

My friend had to get me to message her a picture because once the buttons were undone she couldn't work out how it was meant to sit!

I was very lucky this year, my husband bought me the Attic24 Harmony pack .... 17 balls of scrummy squishy yarniness ..... I loved Lucy's foray into pastels, and very early on in her Harmony Journey (http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/harmony-blanket.html)  I felt pulled by the colour palette she'd chosen. Ooooh just look ......

.... see what I mean! Squishy! Yarny! Scrummy!

My husband also earned MAJOR brownie points this year - unbeknownst to me he took the Little Peeps to Hobbycraft one afternoon and they went a bit mad choosing things for me. As well as a paint by numbers kit, a knitting kit and a set of paints and an easel I didn't even know I wanted, they bought me a pile of colouring books ..... (I also got one from a friend plus the family gave me another 4(!) which are all scattered round the house by now) .....

.... this latch-hook kit that I've nearly finished and which I will turn into a cushion for Little Miss at some point ....

.... a nice little pile of crochet books .... 

.... ok I confess I may have bought two of those for a project I'm currently working on -  see next post for details!

... and they (mostly Little Tomboy this time) also picked out this excellent pile of crafty randomness ....

.... each item was individually wrapped - aren't kids the best ?? They know me so well. A pile of beads and buttons and wool chosen and lovingly wrapped by my Little Peeps makes me a very happy Mummy :)

Another great present I got was this lovely wall hanging that a friend gave me .... isn't it perfect for me :)

This year I also participated in a Secret Santa Christmas Swap run by a lady "down under" called Chooky of the blog Chookyblue. The rules were : it's secret (duh) - you know who to buy for, but not who's buying for you, and the swap is two presents - one decorative item to be opened before Christmas, and one "main" parcel to be opened on Christmas Day. My parcel went off by airmail to its recipient Suz, of the blog "Bears Mum", in Australia. Most of the swappers are stitchy folk but there was no specific rule for the type of gift other than homemade, so I included quite a few crochet items, some machine-sewn bits, plus a couple of little British novelty things, seeing as my parcel was to be delivered half way round the world. And unbelievably annoyingly I don't think I took a photo before I sent it! Argh! As far as I can remember the novelty things included a new cross-stitch kit of a London bus and a little tin in the shape of Big Ben :)

Suz has since emailed to say she loved it all, and when time allows she'll blog about it. 

Near to Christmas a parcel arrived for me from a lovely lady called Diane of http://www.thesloanpatch.blogspot.com.au

I was so excited to open Diane's present to me that I forgot to take a pic of it in its wrapping. But inside were two beautiful gifts - the first is a gorgeous tablemat in lovely Christmas colours 

.... it's far too pretty to use only at Christmas though, so at the moment it's on my coffee table with  flowers on it :)

Diane's second gift to me totally blew me away and made me think my gifts for Suz were a bit rubbish! Sorry Suz! Diane made me this absolutely exquisite needlework book, it's beautiful inside with lots of pockets ....

... Diane thoughtfully included some embroidery threads, embroidery needles (fab as I always seem to be losing these), a seam ripper (always handy!) and some little stork scissors (which I've always wanted but never bought!). And as if that wasn't enough for me to rave about .... look at the front ....

.... isn't it so gorgeous ? I really really love how Diane has embroidered on my name , it's utterly beautiful. Diane, thankyou so much, I shall treasure it for a very long time :)

I'll be posting again soon with some waffle about my current projects, as usual I have far too many on the go with no chance of getting anything actually finished any time soon !!! Here's a wee sneak peek though ....

.... blanket for a customer for her son ....

.... some stitching to add to a cushion for another customer ....

.... very start of a year-long SAL (stitch-along) .... Exciting! It's going to be so lovely!!

That's it for now folks! Byeeeeee!

Love Jill

xxxxxxx