Saturday night round our place...

January 5th and all's well, in fact getting better and better after a low energy slump before and during Christmas I am feeling much more lively, we've been clearing out and tidying and sorting all sorts of dark piled up corners and today I had a day out to Carlisle, lunch with a dear friend and then a little sales shopping...oooh the joy of buying wire baskets and a set of galvanised drawers for more tidying and organising!

...and home to find a lovely smell of baking and daughter mine a busying herself in the kitchen...and producing a delicious apple pie with apple decoration and lots of brown sugar...can't beat it with a bowl of dear old Birds' custard!

so a cosy Saturday night in, husband of patience working away to finish stuff for the start of term...daughter and moi in the warm fragrant kitchen with music playing... reading magazines and cooking tea...and joy of joys a lovely spring like Country Living arrived today..I know it's still only dark January but we can dream of sunny days and spring flowers...and I can feel the nights getting lighter...we even had some sun today!

and as well as The Sales I did some charity shop visitng...and came home with booty...this rather nicely made cardi with delicious detail...I think this one's maybe for wearing as I don't think I could bring myself to felt it!

  

three jumpers in total and a fab pink linen shirt for husband of patience...not a bad little haul...

...and some really fun new fabric from the wonderful Superior Sewing Centre in Carlisle...where Paul works wonders with your machine...and he is kindly advertising my workshop leaflets there too...

 

Making is in the air! Can't wait to meet some more lovely people at my workshops and get creative together...learning free machine embroidery and much more...

click on the poster for more info...

happiness all round...new workshops...apple pie...new magazine...tidier house...a wee stash and my gorgeous new mug...thanks Emmie!

and here's blogging in progress...hot of the press...any minute now!

and did I mention Woolfest...a trifle early but never too early to plan for a trip to Cumbria...28th and 29th June...for a wonderful feast of wool and craft and knitting and so much loveliness...I have just sent in my application for a stall so fingers crossed...my sewing machine has been resting over Christmas and she's raring to go...

hope you're having a great weekend...and a fine start to your new year too!

it's that time again...

when you suddenly realise that that Christmas thing which you thought was safely 6 months away if you thought about it at all, and yes, if it was 6 months to go you would have had plenty of time for the 400 seasonal and present-y projects in your mind... and of course it would all look just like it does in Country Living or whatever magazine takes your fancy and your house would be immaculate, clean, tidy and not a thing out of place... and beautifully and tastefully decorated  and your family would carol joyfully around the piano...but that actually it is now a mere 5 weeks away and there is daughter mine's birthday so conveniently just before (who made that happen!!)...and now all the lovely things you'd like to do sort of drift through your fingers like sand and your mind glazes over...and then...you wake up and it's Januay 5th and it's all over!

was it a dream, was it reality? 
who cares?

I LOVE Christmastime and all that goes with it and it fills me with love for all things creative...and if I just let go of all the impossible dreaming...it is a most pleasant time spent with my loved ones.

so I thought I'd share a little of our preparations and how we do things here...

take a bowl of boozy fruit well soaked...Christmas is all smells isn't it and this is one of the first! a-making and a-baking...



add my Granny's scales for the ritual weighing of ingredients...



and the essential ingredient...daughter mine...zest that orange...mmm smell that zingy aroma...

 

2 hours in the cake baker in the Aga..and there we have it...mmm such a gorgeous smell...and ta da! I don't want to boast...but WE HAVE MADE THE CHRISTMAS CAKE!! Many a year we have made it ooh about a week or even less before and iced it on Christmas or Boxing Day...so wow! here we are...let's hope we haven't peaked too early...

what's next?? who knows...but in fact the next big item on the horizon is....drum roll...The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate...hands up who's going? might see you there...

it's Friday night and i'm loving....

that although it's ages since I did a Friday night loving post...it's a great way to remember that there's so much I have to love and to be grateful for in my life...

that it's been a strange week as a dear aunt, my Mum's sister, died last week and we all met for her funeral on Monday...this involved a trip to my brother's near Penrith and he drove us over to the north east..to Whitley Bay and to a coast full of memory...then to Morpeth for a lovely service ...and a lunch with all her friends and relatives...a room full of love! It was so funny being with all my cousins again...and realising how time has past since we last all met..and how grown up all their children are...some old enough to have their own. Suddenly, obviously... we are not the 'young ones' any more!

that my aunt was a delight to know...she was such a creative person always baking and making...her full to the brim sewing room and delicious smells from her Aga were testimony...and she always gave us interesting and useful presents(!)...and was a demon at quizes and games...she was always up for some fun... 

that I have so many happy childhood memories...of big family parties, of fun and games...of those family members 'gone before' but still loved and a part of us all...and now we are all scattered around the globe...but still the thread which joins us is strong and to be treasured

that my brother and I shared some precious time as we drove and found a new and better relationship and understanding

that I had a big loving family with my parents,sister and 2 brothers,  many cousins and aunts and uncles...and now my own precious family...and many dear friends...so many people to love and be loved by and with whom to share this life and journey...

that although this isn't my usual kind of post...I hope you will  understand that sometimes a blog offers the opportunity for a deeper kind of communication and sharing...as we all share the same things in life really, just at different levels and in different circumstances

that this post is for my Aunty June and my Mum Aileen...with love and thanks for your inspiration and showing me a way to be creative and to love baking and cooking and making and sewing... and the importance of family...

love

such a small word for such a big thing!