knock knock...some festive wishes for ya...

festives wishes to you in whatever flavour you'd like them...I can offer Yule and Christmas this year...so whatever you are celebrating I hope you enjoy some quality downtime with friends and family, wherever you are, and can face into 2008 refreshed and re-invigorated. In real terms, what I am trying to say is "here's to making it through another season of festive cheer alive"!

I'll be back from Switzerland in early January, hopefully with some nice pictures of snow (and not TOO many memories of frozen, wailing, teeth chattering, tiny people)

Until then I leave you with some images of a festive flavour...

some angels/fairies on my mantelpiece...


Covent Garden Market - near where I work in the day job (photo courtesy of my colleague Mike who had his camera yesterday when I had forgotten mine) have been meaning to get a picture of the lights for weeks now as they really are quite something. They are a little less than impressive in this shot as the light outside encroached but if they are still in situ when I get back to the office in January I promise I'll try to get a shot in the morning gloom when they look truly stunning...

A la prochaine, mes amies!

cosier tea...a random act of kindness...birds in the tree...a friend for mitzy...those little bags...and one final thing...

love this time of year, lots of excuses to be creative, especially since I took the handmade pledge and am trying to make as many of my gifts as I can...

here are a few of the latest (hope I don't spoil any surprises along the way)...

Lovely Jane lent me her wool and I made another teacosy (can't disclose the recipient as I think they might just read this)


in a random and beautiful act of kindness Erqsome sent me this BeeeYoootIful yarn and now I can do another one - hurrah (will I ever tire of knitting these little cosies? I doubt it)


(I stumbled across Erqsome on Ravelry when I was ambling about looking for Blue Faced Leicester (this yarn) and I noticed she had some in her stash that she didn't appear to have plans for. She had swapped her other BFL so I thought there might be a chance I could coerce this out of her... and there was. It arrived yesterday with a lovely Xmas card. Now I have to track her down in RL (and give her a fiver!) January iKnit club here I come...I hear she is to be found there on occasion...)

meanwhile, life at the back of the wood continues...


I finally managed to persuade some birds to show an interest in those monkey nut garlands me'n'the girls made a week or so ago...


the nuts obviously weren't enough, as the birds shortly began to perch menacingly on Orlando's chair, doesn't that cat look worried though? Luckily for Orlando, baby Eli came to his rescue and took him off to the (relative) safety of the countryside this afternoon, phew! (UPDATE - remembered just before I fell asleep last night that one of the birds headed off to the countryside in the car with Orlando - suddenly he seems imperilled again...yikes! it was hard to get to sleep after that I can tell you)


These little bags didn't get finished in time for Miss Reva's craft'n'movie shindig in the end, soooo they've been filled with crafting goodies and are winging their way around the globe to my various nieces and nephews scattered round and about (Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, the US...) Saved on the need for wrapping paper at least!


And finally...those kids of mine and their buddies got up to high jinks with the coloured icing and stuff again last Friday. I think Miss Reva is mastering her medium in a big way though, isn't this fab?


right, think that's it for now...readying myself for the most manic week of the year which will culminate in an escape to Switzerland next Sunday and an enforced break from crafting and blogging...I guess the snow might just about compensate...

critters of the tree and a winning streak...

more tree critters

Eva Reva designed the heart one herself and chose all the fixings, cool huh? The birdie was a joint effort with me indulging my rampant love of gingham (which really should be contained before I turn into Doris Day) and her indulging her overwhelming love of the colour yellow, looks more like a spring chick than an Xmas decoration thanks to our combined passions but there ya go...

meanwhile, I hear from my yarn junkie friend Shirley that the name I suggested for her etsy shop has been chosen and I am in line to receive a prize. Woo Hoo! Glad to be of assistance Shirley, and good luck with the shop when it opens! (not sure this is public news as I don't see it on her blog yet so I'm not revealing the name here)

I am obviously on a winning streak having come 19th (19th?!) in Eva's school raffle ...better go and find an online poker game to capitalise on this, pronto...

that craft'n'movie shindig...

they came, they crafted, they watched movies, they ate a lot of sugar, they left...




I had a helper, we oscillated between dealing with the demands of 7 craftin' children ("MORE STARS NOW....please" - oh what lovely manners they have!) and making mulled wine...("I think it needs something else" said Clare "more wine?" said I - amazing the improvement another bottle can make)
it wasn't as traumatic as I had expected, and the kids had a lot of fun...

(The Reva Girl is already asking when she can have her next Christmas party, don't think she quite gets the "[insert annual celebration here] comes but once a year" concept, yet)

After we'd cleared up from that me and Mr G went out to a party of our own - the annual Pink Christmas party thrown by our friends Wolf and Ms D. We had delicious food and far too much pink champagne and pink russians (my god they are easy to tuck away) danced and chatted until the wee small hours. There were two rather large hangovers in our house on Sunday (that hangover preventing milk thistle must have been watered down) which caused the kids much delight as we ignored all domestic chores (too hard!) and any need to go outside the front door (too bright! too cold!) in favour of lego building, rocket driving, camp making (great for a sneaky lie down), card creating and sewing machine driving...I don't think Ms Reva got out of her pyjamas all day. Will have some photos of the results of the sewing tomorrow...they are funny

something nice for the wall...

I have nothing new of my own to show (having been ill and mired in tediousness) but while trying to set up my "blogs'u' like" section I've been going through my (large and very rambling) bookmark list and came across a link to this print which I bought from etsy way back in June for Ms E Reva's 5th birthday. Something I have to tell you about that daughter of mine is that she is a self-confessed superhero whose greatest aim in life is to resist sleep at every given moment of night and day. Indeed the recollection which gives her most pleasure is of the camping trip we did last summer one night of which she managed to sleep not one wink. Oh yes, she rejoices in the telling of the tale every single time (I still claim she did drift off for, oooh, ten minutes or so around 4.30am but she disputes this hotly). Anyway, this print sits by her bed in order to remind her that even superheroes have to sleep, sometimes...


I also fell in love with this one which now resides in my own bedroom to remind me that, well, am not quite sure what it is reminding me but I do love it (maybe that sometimes you can be yellow and sometimes grey, sometimes float in one direction, sometimes another? sums me up pretty perfectly actually)

I notice that AshleyG has a seasonal print this month on finding the perfect tree...

which is kind of appropriate as yesterday evening we did just that and the aforementioned Ms Reva declared this morning that she thought we had "made a very good choice". Phew!

And the final image for today is one that I have just seen on Ashley's etsy shop and which I like a lot, must be the scarves calling to me...reminding me of those promises I made to knit scarves for the ladies of the bog...


back soon with something from my own hands I hope...though I have the "craft'n'movie" extravaganza looming tomorrow afternoon so it may be some time before I am fit to communicate in anything but a low groan again...

(ps all photos belong to Ashley - not sure what blogging etiquette is here as I haven't been doing this for long but I HOPE she wouldn't mind)

UPDATE - I emailed Ashley to check it was ok and she said yes. Well, what she actually said was "And thank you so much for sharing my work! I have no problem at all with you sharing photos of my work! Wishing you a wonderful holiday season : )

Truly, I don't know the etiquette either. I know some people may mind but I certainly don't. If you're ever worried about it I think you did the exact right thing."

Ashley had trouble leaving an anonymous (ie non Google account holder) comment on here which seems a shame - I've checked my settings and they look ok. If anyone knows anything about this that I don't let me know (assuming you are a google account holder and so can communicate with me that is!!!)

anyway, enjoy Ashley's great prints...

some kind of lonely... a xmas tree...

well, as predicted, on Monday night I did sew my fingers together...but I also managed this little tree...


which is in fact a bag...


I had been planning to do lots of them for a little "craft'n'movie" shindig Ms. E Reva is having with some schoolfriends on Saturday (I thought it would be nice for each child to take their crafty bits'n'pieces home in one) but I am rapidly running out of time so I guess it'll have to stay lonely. I'll have to think of someone who might appreciate such a thing in the singular...

for completeness I feel I must show a rough of the forest it was once a part of...



this was the most fun I've had on a Monday night in a loooooong time!

Just a shame I started with my least favourite fabric combo as it was a bit of a trial run and I didn't want to waste one of my favs, you know how that is...

Maybe I will have to do another after all...

Going Nutty...

Very little crafting happened this weekend but I had a lovely time with my father who visited from Ireland, was great to see you Dad!!!

Unfortunately I seem to have caught some kind of virus in the last day or two and am currently feeling very under the weather, I reckon if I picked up a needle and thread I'd only sew both my hands together, that's how groggy I am today...

BUT, I did set the kids on an early morning monkey nut painting and threading exercise yesterday, while they were waiting impatiently for their granpa to appear. They painted the nuts VERY carefully, and then equally carefully immediately dried them on tissue with the end result that the effect of the paint is very, erm, subtle, indeed.


You can just about see it. They enjoyed themselves though and Ms E Reva managed to thread and put a bead on each "necklace" too. I was impressed. We put them out to tempt the poor hungry birds we saw circling the bird table in a very dispirited fashion early yesterday morning.

I disobeyed Dad's instructions to "stay in and stay warm" by going out in the garden to photograph the nut necklaces after he left today, isn't that blue sky just amazing? You would never believe how grey and wet and downright miserable the weather was in London yesterday when you look at that gorgeous sky...


Right, I'm off back to bed now...Dad's orders!

Heeeeeere's Mitzy...

remember this old tablecloth I picked up in a charity shop for a quid or so?



well, with the aid of Amy Butler's free Birdie pattern it's now turned into ...


... Mitzy the cat...

what a pleasure it was to make Mitzy and a great chance to mess around with fabrics that just don't go...in any traditional sense at least... obviously I love how they look together...


now, must hide her away as I have a suspicion she'll be visiting one of the kids for Christmas...(if I manage to make another to avoid the inevitable fallout should ONLY ONE arrive that is!)

p.s. I visited my friend Jane last night to help her with some casting on and, as well as allowing me to polish off her totally scrumptious cranberry and white chocolate cookies (and giving me the recipe, mmmm mmmmm) she sent me home with some gorgeous hand dyed wool felt from 21st century yarn and a mouse pattern from this book. So we might have some interesting games of cat and mouse going on around Christmas time...

waiting for the light...

I have made a softie...my first...and I love it...but it is so dark and grey in London and I work hours like a mole during the week (into work out of work in pitch blackness) so can't photograph it yet as the light is so awful...I will be home tomorrow so will post it then...watch this space...(her name is Mitzy, oh yes Lisa and Alan, in memory of the furkid that nearly was!)

In the meantime, I was going through my photos and found this one of the bunnies I made for the kids Easter Egg hunt last year. They sit on eggs to keep them warm you know. It made me laugh so I thought I'd pop it up here, while waiting for the light...


and here, similarly out of season but just spotted as I found the other pic, is the Easter/Birthday cake...


amazing what you can achieve with some chocolate and a couple of shredded wheat!

have I gone quite mad posting about Easter less than a month before Christmas, or am I just in severe denial? it's an interesting question...one I couldn't possibly answer...

Finally - something to show...

It's been a frustrating week, too much work on, not enough time to make anything...(although we did have my in-laws over to stay and that was lovely as always)
Finally, last night, I gave up on the Ms Mc C project for a bit (very slow progress it has to be said) and ventured up the stairs to the spare room where I keep my "stuff" in what I have to admit is horrible disarray. So horrible I can never bring myself to do anything in that room and always beat a hasty retreat. I grabbed as many bits and pieces as I could and set up camp in the kitchen again. Phew! It was strewn with fabric, felt, ribbon, stuffing, threads, buttons (I could go on) and it felt like heaven...
I messed about for a bit and came up with this little critter for our festive tree/branch/twig (whatever it will be)...




It was fun! It was so much fun!
I want to do it all again right now
unfortunately the day job calls...

I think I need to just mess about a bit more with my "stuff" on some shorter length projects. What with my time to devote to crafting being very short these days (practically full time job in an unrelated industry, two kids etc etc etc) it is rewarding to finish a making stint with a finished object rather than another WIP. Instant gratification, that's obviously doing it for me at the moment!

5 go wild on a bog, or, very random witterings about the week...

I spent a wonderful weekend with my four oldest friends (we won't go into HOW long we've known each other but, gulp, it is now over the quarter century mark) and we reminded ourselves of how much fun it is possible to have by barricading 5 women up in a country cottage with plenty of fine food and wine and nothing to do for two nights and two days other than reminisce and act silly

there were many toasts...


oh no, we weren't inebriated, not at all...



that's Siobhan doing her peig sayers in my blue scarf for those of you who missed the obvious cultural reference!!!



see the resemblance?

Orders for 4 scarves flew in after this performance (and I haven't forgotten the teacosy request Siobhan eile)


AND I met up with Marion and got my LRPC back...thanks sis!


(complete with 33 year old sweet wrapper still inside - Trebor something or other)

all in all, the BEST weekend!

Then I got home from the airport (via a long day at work) on Monday night, exhausted, to find the following waiting for me...

the kids had missed me so much they made a model of me to sit on top of the fridge and oversee kitchen activities. I just love my hairdo and the vintage style empire line dress...VERY now

they also made a footballing version of me, now this I just don't get...


also waiting were a couple of ebay deliveries to add to my (ever lengthening) list of Things To Do Someday



and here is something I forgot to show off last week, a little pinny I picked up in a charity shop for 80p...wearing this I will surely be a Domestic Goddess, even if all I have cooked recently is "fish puddle" (believe me, you DON'T want the recipe)...


really must do some crafting this week...

Eli's blanket - v2.0

phew, it's done!

I can stop lying awake at night agonising over how it it might be managed...oooh, a nights sleep, what a treat...


I made it all up in the end - some kind of mangled reverse treble stitch that I hope will hold

it ain't pretty in close up I'm afraid, but at least it can be given back to the lovely Eli before he freezes...



meanwhile the ever brave Ms McC remains smiling, even on the operating table one amputation later...what a trooper...


I promise she'll be back shortly with some new fangled footwear, it'll be stripey... that's all I'll say...

ps I've been accused tonight of transforming our kitchen into Knitting'n'Stitching Hospital by the editors of dynamostaropremiumafc who have just returned from their weekly outing. They find me here with various different fixing projects on a nightly basis. These poorly creatures get retired to the kitchen shelves to enable regular life to resume in the morning, I've found a bed for Ms McC above the cookery books tonight... someday I WILL move onto a brand new project, I just know it...still, at least Eli's blanket can be discharged tomorrow and hopefully that'll be the last I see of that particular patient...

another fixing project and a brace of birthday greetings

today is my sister Catherine's birthday so a big happy birthday to you Kate! it was also our mum's birthday so a big happy birthday to you too mum, in whatever dimension you now find yourself ...

the fixing project I have here is long overdue for a start and it is appropriate that I come to it today, on mum's birthday...as she has been on my mind all day and it is one of her projects I need to fix... (sorry about the photos, I took them all this evening in bad lighting as I wanted to get this post up on October 30- will swap them out for better ones if I ever get around to taking them)

anyway - everyone, meet AnnieMcC, Annie - say hi to the internet folk...

isn't she is a bad way?
smiling through it all though, that's what I like to see...

Mum made Annie for me way back when - the dress I seem to recall was made by the previously mentioned craftastic Marion but tsk tsk was never completed. Probably because she was too busy making party frocks for Catherine and I from the exact same fabric at the time - they were maxi length with a frill and featured shoe string straps and some attractive smocking at the chest. I recall wearing mine over a white vest to someone called Kerry's party once, I must have been about seven and had plaits like my friend raggedy here, though I didn't go as far as the seamed stockings - risque m'dear!

so mum, am finally getting round to fixing up the poor old girl - next time you get a chance to look hopefully she'll be looking far less jaded and a tad more glamorous, with better shoes too

a finished scarf, a torn afghan and some canine bedding...

it's been a week, and what a week. I've been in Glasgow for part of it doing some work. Was lucky enough to get along to private views at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. Kelvingrove had some fabulous bits and pieces of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (and co) design work but I especially loved the small gallery featuring 18thC costumes
At GoMA I was inspired and enthralled by the Cutting Edge exhibition of contemporary Scottish crafts, there were some interesting and innovative pieces of jewellery and textiles, shame there are no pictures on their website...
Anyway, back at the ranch I managed to finish the scarf yesterday. I put a slit in it as I found myself running out of yarn sooner than I thought so the slit was designed to enable it to wrap without having to really wrap, iykwim. Unfortunately it was a bit TOO close to the end so I had to frog it (ribbit, ribbit - geddit?) and then add a bit more on after the slit. Think I am happy with it now. It is gloriously warm and once I have it around my neck I feel like I can never part with it. Haven't worn it to bed though, yet...
(this is my new hairdo, supposed to work with my natural curls once I wash it - I withold judgement until tomorrow)

Spent today at home with two sick children. Awwwh. They are very poorly. The littlest one is clinging like a limpet while the eldest one is mostly prone before the telly. I did manage to engage them in some crafting though and I have photographic evidence to prove it...

I made this afghan (my first ever crochet "on the buses" project) for Elijah who was born last February. Unfortunately, it being my first ever crochet project, I had no idea how to bind in the ends and so it has suffered a bit of toe damage (he is a strong boy that Eli!) which I have undertaken to mend. No idea how and have a horrible feeling it will involve some crazy backwards crocheting technique not yet invented but I will give it a whirl.


Esther initially decided to help (the lure of some shiny, pointy needles obviously strong enough to combat her ailment) but shortly after returned to limpet mode...


Meanwhile Eva has been nagging me to make a quilt for her favourite soft doggie for some time now. Today I got her to do a design for it and choose the fabric and we cut it out (she turns out to be a whizz on the rotary cutter and a demon with a measuring tape) and pieced it (she lifted and lowered the running foot, and guided the fabric) together. The real excitement came when she got her foot to the motor pedal thing and the machine went off at 120mph, or so it felt to this old dear (I normally sew well below the official speed limit!). Here is the finished article...with the batik fabric looking very fetching on the marbled table (ahem! ...wouldn't have been my choice of fabric but the girlie and her doggie appear to love it)

the flowers Eva made while she was feeling a bit bored as I tried to remember how to change a needle are at the top of this entry...

and here is a "bag" she made when we were testing out her fabric guiding skills...







I think Eva enjoyed her afternoon even though she was feeling a bit miserable

Now, back to that reverse engineering crochet job...