We interrupt this post...

the post about bauble-making

bracelet-making

(beads found and leapt upon by me and the Girl in Hobbycraft last night - we had to kill time before picking up Mr Gonecycling, who seemed surprised that we were able to spend a happy hour in a craft shop - hello??)

mystery present stitching and constructing

mega-baking'n'decorating sessions

and snowglobe making'n'shakin'

 (I knew I hoarded those mini jars for a reason.  The first one looks like he's jogging around the jar, and the second one has come unstuck and just drifts around....know the feeling)

and box decorating and chocolate stitching'n'stuffing

 (thanks Gina!  And decoupage paper found in Hobbycraft, just along from the beads...the Girl and I have discovered a new craft.  The chocolates just need some tissue paper and their label: "Stuffed - the chocolates are, so you won't be" or some such, which I shall leave to the Girl to compose.)

.........

to stitch a very special name onto a very special someone's very first Christmas stocking:

Born late this evening, but not a moment too soon!

I've no idea how much he weighs as I forgot to ask, no doubt my sister will fill me in with all the details tomorrow - we just know he's finally here - only 13 days late! 

I think Christmas can start now.

Have a happy time, everyone - see you in the New Year if not before!

Tree of difficulty

Well I finally managed the french-knot sheep, but then I decided I needed a tree in the foreground.

An indefinite blob-tree was too blobby for something in the foreground, so it had to have branches.  The first two got unpicked and this is what we're left with.  I think it works OK now!  The line of sea in the distance was a late addition as well.  The problems all come from thinking too much...

Now I just need to leave it alone and find a frame...

Tidy desk tidy mind?

Oh dear.  No hope for me then.

Things started well.

Only a small selection of fabric was taken out of drawers to start off a new piece:



and by the end of the afternoon it had reached this stage:

but unfortunately this had happened in-between times:

I'll french-knot some sheep and reveal all tomorrow!
(Unfortunately I've already had to tidy - we needed the table to eat dinner.  Pah).

Throwaway culture

I went to Glyndebourne and all I got was a paper bag

Actually, it's a really nice bag.  And completely over-the-top for three postcards, a pencil, a bulldog clip in the shape of a grand piano and a small book...goes with the territory I suppose! 

So I now have a very special paper bag sitting on my recently tidied and de-cluttered desk.  What on earth should I do with it?!!

The reason for our much-anticipated and surpassing-all-expectations visit to Glyndebourne is described, far more eloquently than I ever could, here. 

Distracted

...from clearing up my desk.

I can't help it.

I'm supposed to be tidying up but I keep finding little bundles of fluff and thread like this:

Would you look at those colours?  Beautiful.

But what can I do with it? 

Put it in a little plastic ricotta pot (washed) and hoard it, of course!

And then there's this little bundle of bits:

The trimmings from the edge of the advent calendar I made for the NEW LITTLE person, due to arrive anytime soon...the advent calendar I didn't take a photo of because I had to deliver it in person to the prospective very tired people  parents at very short notice on Tuesday and didn't finish it until 11pm Monday....sorry!

Like the soon-to-be-born little niece/nephew, these snippets of linen and cotton are truly tiny:

and as if by magic they are stitched together down one side...what else can they become, other than a book?

Why does it take me all day to tidy my desk?