Countdown to Christmas!

The weather has been quite good so far in contrast to last year when I spent Christmas in Kent with my eldest son. We were having appallingly wet weather when I eventually arrived on the 23 December and in the night there was a horrendous gale that frightened me so much. The wind howled in the trees outside and sounded as if an express train was coming, and I thought the roof would come off!! Next morning we had a power cut - great!! The local radio said that if customers were not connected by the end of the day there would be no power over the whole holiday, so we had to make plans to cook the turkey on the BBQ. As it happened power was restored to our area but many people were cut off; our thoughts were with them.

On Friday morning, in lovely weather, my Nordic walking group met up for a Christmas walk and lunch at the end.

Striding out!

 We passed the hens who were huddled under the hedge against the wind.

Have they avoided the Christmas pot?

Then onto The Bistro for an excellent lunch with a pudding - such an indulgence!!

When I got home I had to finish off some Christmas presents and that reminded me that one of my daughters in law had had a recent birthday and here it is.

A book cover

She loves notebooks for making 'lists' so I made this for her after attending a workshop based on Stupendous Stitching.**  I used the circular foot that I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show for some fancy circles amongst other things and I really enjoyed using variegated yarns and the fancy stitches on my machine. I have used some of the techniques before but not for a book cover. I also added a pen holder and elastic to finish it off.

The elastic is helpful to hold the right page in the notebook!!

Quite a short post today as I have to wrap presents, ice the Christmas cake (a photo will be posted) but don't get too excited as it will only be a snow scene, make bread sauce and brandy butter, and I must check that I have everything that the grandchildren and I will need for the Christmas table decoration that we are going to make together. I shall be in Cambridge for Christmas and Kent for the New Year.

** Thanks to Sew Happy as this book is not available in the UK and she got it for me on her holiday to the USA.