Yikes.... it's New Year!

Well.... Happy new year, I hope 2010 brings new opportunities and lots of joy your way. Hopefully this one wont go by as quickly as 2009 did.

Lets catch up shall we....

The week and a half leading up to christmas saw us snowed in with temperatures of -19 C ....which is pretty cold. Outside looked like this



And driving looked like this....




.... yes that is ice on the inside of the window..... so we avoided going out unless it was absolutely necessary. This meant that I had a little time to do this....



Yes, you are looking at the finished nativity...."what nativity?" you may ask... well... when I started this blog, I shortly thereafter started a knitted nativity, which has been unfinished since. So, after 3 years and much nagging on my hubby's part, I have finished it, and we had it set up over christmas.

I also got some more gifts made....


heat bags for my grandmother



A fun little outing bag packed with goodies for Yasmina (fostered little sister who is 3)



And a patchwork tablecloth for my mum (sorry about hopeless upsidedown photo).

And we set up the christmas tree




We spent Christmas day with my folks and stayed there for a while. We got Rafaela a baby walked for her christmas.... she absolultely loves it, though she doesn't look impressed in the Photo

Finally, I'll share the joy I have over what my lovely Husband gave me for christmas. He says it's combined christmas and birthday (he hadnt given me anything for my birthday this year)

yup.... it's a .....


Spinning wheel...can you believe it? isn't it beautiful... I'm thrilled and I am also getting the hang of it now.... look...



close up....



that's my first spun and plied lot off the wheel... it's about 67m of thick yummy yarn.... it's so exciting. I have ordered 2 fleeces to prepare and spin.... I'm really enjoying myself.

So.... that's us all caught up, I do apologise for the silence but I am sure you all had enough to do with christmas and new year hope you all had as great a christmas as we did.

Back in business

Well, winter is rolling in and the frost is heavy in the mornings. The days are short and crisp making everyone scurry around quickly about their business to get it all done and get home to the fireside. We're not immune to this scurrying and we always feel a little desperation as the sun starts to set and the days work isn't done.

However, long cold nights wrapped up indoors leads to lots of knitting.... I'm proud to present my first knitting in months ....


These are the sleeves of the jumper I am almost finished knitting..... I LOVE the wool. It's Cleakheaton 'Vintage hues' from a sale in a Sydney wool shop. I decided to just knit a very plain v-neck to emphasise the fabulous striping.

You may also recognise those needles..... yes.... I finally have my very own knit picks! I havn't photographed them yet, but I will. I just have the small started pack with 3 wires and 3 needles, though I bought an extra pair.

So in Sydney I had a little adventure in a wool shop.







pics from Morris and sons themselves

Thankfully they had a couch, which homed the hubby for the duration of the adventure. They had 30% sale on everything (yes, everything) including the knit picks. I bought 40 balls of wool..... um.... it came in packs of 10. I bought the vintage hues for me and then the other 20 were this.....

This is for the mans jumper...nobbly curly stuff.... I love it (thought not as much as my own)

I also had an adventure in a wool and fabric shop in france (it really was an adventure) couldn't understand anything and couldn't explain that I wanted the book I had seen in the window. In the end I took the lady out of the shop and pointed to the book in the window, and smiled a lot. It was a tiny little shop with every surface filled with shelves of fabric and wool and with racks of crosstitch, tapestry, patterns, tension squares, beads....you name it, it was stocked there somewhere. With barely enough room to maneuver, I purchased this....


It's just gorgeous and I cant wait to start something from it.

Unfortunately my little shop stands startlingly empty, I have not had time to do anything to sell there. Not only that, but I can't see anything happening for a while yet as christmas is round the corner and I plan to make some gifts. Not to mention that lovely nativity that I STILL havn't finished. Oh dear. Looks like, once again, I am all outta time.

OK, today I am off to paint our bedroom. We ought to have the power turned on today too (fingers crossed) and then soonish (in a couple of weeks) we should be living out there. In case you forget what out there is, this is the acre we stand on...


Oh... and we need to get some firewood too.

Much to do, and we are going to host christmas (with a big fat goose) hopefully. Better hop to it, catch you later.

Christmas countdown draws to a close

This is where we are headed to spend Christmas, the quiet village my folks live in.


Here Christmas is a small affair, closeknit and communal.


Here little children still sing christmas carols and people don't shop on Boxing day.


It's peaceful and it's importance is not measured in gifts.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Hopefully you can experience some joy and goodwill somewhere peaceful so you can remember what it's all about after all.

'But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good-night'

"Night before Christmas" - Clement Clarke Moore

Mr Greedy and the Gingerbread house

Another week ends... I cant believe it. Next weekend is Mans birthday and then ta daaa its christmas.... ouch... where does the time go??? As you can see above, Mr Greedy and his salt dough counterpart..... it turned out well and my little student was really excited when he saw I made it for him (it was all dry for his arrival thank goodness)

Below you can see the dough decorations we made. These are my students ones, which we threaded and got ready to hang before he left. We also watched the muppet christmas carol and I gave him the 'Mr Men christmas carol' to read for next year.



And here was our second christmas activity last night... A gingerbread house, complete with snowy icing and sparkly jellies. Was great fun.


Ok, I'm off for the weekend. Take care and keep warm.... it snowed here today!! I am hoping that (as usual) my folks had more snow as we are off to visit them.

See you monday folks.