Christmas This Year

 Is it just me or are the years speeding by that much quicker? it doesn't seem five minutes since it was last Christmas and here we are again with just a few days left until the big day. I am hosting Christmas this year, I don't know how it happened but there you go, I haven't hosted Christmas since I moved into this tiny house of mine and I'm wondering how we are going to manage it, but all the family won't be present as son number two and family will be spending Christmas with his in-laws and son number three is at present in South Korea awaiting the birth of his first child! yes you heard right my baby son is going to be a Daddy, ok well not quite the baby anymore but hey they are always your babies aren't they?  Minju my beautiful daughter in law is due at the beginning of January and.... it's going to be a girl!!! my first granddaughter😊I wish they lived closer and I wish I could be there at the birth but there you go I'm just hoping all will go well and I can't wait to see pictures/video's of her.

So there will be six adults a child and a baby spending Christmas in my tiny abode, I'm trying to push things into the garage to make more space and I'm making a plan, a floor plan and an everything else plan so it should be ok, past Christmases haven't gone that well for me as you can read in this post written  8 years ago! but now I'm going to play the old lady/bad back card and hopefully everyone will be here on time and do their bit to help, wish me luck!

The lead up to Christmas has been filled with lots of festive crafting...

Baubles Galore.

One of the ladies in my crochet group came up with the brilliant idea of using plastic pool balls as a base for Christmas baubles since then there has been no let up and bauble mania has taken hold.  I honestly can't tell you have many we have made..

from these

to these

Once you get going you get hooked literally😆Why so many you may ask? well we have been giving the Marina some festive cheer...

and of course we wanted some for ourselves, they look great strung up with my Christmas pictures

and hanging on the tree, I like my tree to have traditional colours as you can see, I knit the little santa's when I was living in Syria, they must be over 40 years old! I taught my sisters in law how to knit them too and apparently they are still making them to this day. I love how tree ornaments bring back so many happy memories don't you? it seems like the modern trend is to change them each year with different colours to match the decor, each to their own but I think I'm now to old to change.

The baubles are easily made without a pattern but there are some lovely bauble patterns out there, I used the patterns from this website and there is a lot of choice.

Christmas Trees

These little trees seem to be very popular this year you can see them on all the social media sites and I'm not surprised because they are so easy! a christmas tree made out of a granny square, I have made lots of these as well, even small ones to hang onto gifts, the possibilities are endless, I did decorate some with beads and silver charms but forgot to take a photo. I popped them inside Christmas cards to give as a little gift.

Here they are hanging with trees of Christmases past.

You can find the how to here.

Remember the Penguin I mentioned in the last post? well here he is all ready to be gifted to grandson number three, little Louis, I have a feeling that after a quick cuddle he'll get thrown on the floor but I'm sure Louis's Mummy will rescue him and put him away and bring him out each Christmas.

I have been sewing too, a little Christmas tree embroidery hoop..

There is much more, the u3a crafting groups have been making all sorts of Christmas things to raise finds for charities but more about that later.

Have a great Sunday 😘😘

A Host Of Angels

 Once again I appologise for not being around for a while, this time it was because it hurt too much to sit at the computer.  I hurt my back, and please let this be a warning to you all, think before you lift! It was my own stupid fault, my brother has an electric wheelchair and two of the wheels got wedged between paving stones and gravel, he was completely stuck so yes you guessed it, I tried to lift the chair with him sitting in it out of the gravel, what made me think I could actually do that is beyond me. I felt a pop and the disc actually sliding out and then I was on my knees in excruciating pain. I have hurt my back several times before but nothing like this.

After a very painful five hour wait in A&E I was seen by a paramedic who confirmed that I had slipped a disc. I was told to go home take pain killers and move around as much as possible, no x-rays were taken and there's no follow up. So I have spent a very painful two weeks trying to do just that but boy does it hurt! I am improving and doing exercises that I found on YouTube because I know that by the time I get a GP appointment and I get reffered to a physiotherapist it will be weeks before I'm seen.

I have learnt my lesson, when we see someone in trouble our first instinct is to help, but we have to think before we put ourselves in danger, please be careful.  I think its going to be a few weeks before my back gets better, it's so restricting even driving is painful but I will get there.

I have managed to do some crocheting with my lower back supported with a cushion and a hot water bottle, what would we do without our hot water bottles instant relief ahhh. 

I have been making Angels for NHAP these go into memory boxes.

So simple to make and it's fun to make them with different types of yarn and thread, twelve pairs so far, I'm not sure if I'll make more because I'm now thinking of penguins.😀

An angel is always lovely to give as a gift or to even to hang on your Christmas tree, here is the pattern if you would like to give them a try.

PATTERN

I'm now going to try to plant some spring bulbs into containers, I'm not sure if I'll be able to but I'll give it my best shot as the sun is shinning and the weather is mild for this time of the year, it's set to change at the weekend with cold frosts and even the possibility of snow forecast.

Take Care 😘

A Visit toThorp Perrow

The beautiful Thorp Perrow Arboretum is situated in Bedale North Yorkshire, our u3a photography group visited earlier this month.  I jumped at the chance to accompany them because although I visited these gardens back in 2017 I couldn't wait to see them again. You really can't get enough of the Autumnal splendour. The colours were amazing and I think they would have been even better if we had gone a week later.  We all took hundreds of photos, you just want to capture the beauty and take it home with you.
The gardens are lovely to visit at any time of the year, they have many themed events taking place throughout the year and the Halloween trail is lots of fun, they have extended it since I was there last, there seemed to be spiders lurking around every corner. 

What will you be doing for Halloween, do you celebrate?  Happy halloween if you do. 🙂