Christmas in February!!

Well hello!!  I see I've not managed to keep my blog very up-to-date...probably earning me one of those "bad-blogger"  or "no-post" blogger titles!...But I am resolved to get back at it!

Please don't eat me!!!

So Christmas has come...and gone...and we enjoyed a traditional BOUCHE NOEL...a cake rather like a jelly-roll...with a very decadent cream filling (chocolate in our case).  It is always in the shape of a fallen log...and I made some little marzipan wood-land creatures to play hide and seek on it!

BOUCHE NOEL

You can see a small blue and purple (?) raccoon hiding from a wee white mousie!

Bedroom re-do!

I have been wanting to paint the master bedroom for a while...like the past 5 yrs....but never seemed to get around to it.  A few weekends ago I took the bull by the horns....and not only painted...but made a new headboard as well.  The headboard was a piece of 5' x 3' plywood that I got the lumber yard to cut (hubby was away)...and I used about 200 glue sticks to apply nylon rope to it.  I did a little basket-weave pattern hoping the effect would be "wicker"....hmmm...

Here is the bedroom before....headboard during construction...and finished product! 

BEFORE (pale lilac walls...YUCK!!)

Add caption

Walls painted...headboard 1/2 done

Christmas stocking swap!

Stocking Stuffers!

Well, a while ago I participated in Aunt Pitty Pat's Christmas Stocking Swap....we had to create a Christmas Stocking for our partner...then stuff it full of treasures! I made my partner a stocking out of a wool sweater...and lined it with some fabric from my mum's old stash. The lace "cuff" was an embroidered pillow slip from my grandmother.

Tomorrow I'll post what I got from my partner!

Stocking Lining

Pillow-slip "cuff"
(Note how the fingernails match the bow...tee-hee!!)

My Stocking from a Sweater

A New Swap!!

Well here is a new swap





...a "Secret Santa Swap" that I've signed up for....and one of the rules is that you need to answer these questions:  so here we go!!

1. What are your hobbies?   I like sewing, painting, making "stuff", playing tennis, ice skating, travelling...
2. What are your favorite colors? pink!!!  lime green, turquoise, chocolate brown
3. Do you collect anything? "Hello Kitty" stuff, "Madeline" doll things, sparkly jewellry
4. Are you allergic to any fibers or animals? No
5. Do you have any pets? 2 cats!  One siamese, one tabby
6. Coffee, Tea, or Chocolate? All three!!
7. What do you like to read? craft magazines, fashion magazines, "home" magazines, Canadian fiction.
8. Do you prefer Cookies or Candies as a sweet? probably cookies
9. What is your favorite holiday treat? shortbread
10. Describe your favorite holiday tradition.  putting up the tree....driving around to look at the lights,
11. Did you believe in Santa as a child?  Of course!! And I STILL DO!!
12. When do you open presents?  Christmas morning, after breakfast...
13. Do you put up a tree and when?  If not, how do you celebrate?  Yes...at Thanksgiving
14. Does your tree have a theme? It's sort of "retro"...I have lots of "hallmark" ornaments..tiny teddy bear ornaments,
15. What has been your favorite gift to give?  to receive?  I like to make things... hats!!...sometimes aprons (of course) sometimes paintings, sometimes stuffed toys,  knitted things...scarves and mittens....  I love getting handmade things...my daughter over the years have made me all sorts of things I treasure...one daughter cross-stiched ornaments one yr...one daughter made blankets one yr...my mum used to make me clothes...which I LOVED getting... a friend made me a gorgeous bracelet just a while ago...

2 months later...

So I've been absent from blog-land for a couple of months...my excuses:
                                       #1.  High School Tennis Season (meaning many trips across the state on the big
                                              yellow bus)
                                      #2.  Too much catching up @ school...due to being away for....yup...High School
                                              Tennis!
However...all that is behind me now...and I have until Spring Tennis Season to make stuff...and blog!!

So...I've whipped up (literally) a couple of new school-skirts.  Both made of old sweaters....the bottom ribbing becomes the waist-band.  Skirt #1 I hemmed and embelished with some ribbing rosettes, and a couple of leaves cut from some other old wool garment...and a few french knots.  Skirt #2 was really a 1 minute effort!  I didn't bother to hem the bottom, cause it's wool, it won't do anything except stretch.  And I liked the wibbly-wobbly look.  I cut vertical slits to put a ribbon-belt through the waist band...that took an additional 30 seconds!  (Must be the camera angle that makes me look short and gnomish(large-headed) in these photos!)

Sweater Skirt #1

Detail of Rosettes on skirt

Sweater Skirt #2

1 Minute Skirt!

The Caravan Trip

Melle and a friend inside the Barge Inn

Here we are on a misty, moisty July evening...ready to start off on our caravan adventure!  So first off of course we had to visit a pub!  This one was right on a canal with barges docked.

Inside the caravan, Melle, sopping wet from our walk in the...er...rain (it was England, after all) enjoys a bed-time brew!

And we're off!
Note that I am sensibly dressed for the weather in rain boots and rain-suit!

Next morning Melle's beverage of choice is a nice, hot cuppa' tea!   The caravan was all fitted out with cute crockery, blue gingham curtains and duvet cover, really all the comforts of home. We wore those rain suits day-in and day-out!  Tomorrow I'll continue our journey!

Mumsie and Melle go Abroad!

Well this is the reason I've been absent from Blog-land this past month....daughter #2 nand myself have taken ourselves on a wonderful trip to the UK.  Here we are...matching raincoats and all, in York, in front of Westminister Cathedral. 

And THIS is what we went to do...tromp about the beautiful British country-side in a gypsy caravan!  We had an absolute blast!  Would do it again in a heart-beat.  I'll post more pix when I have time!