this time last year

This time last year my family gathered together

and said goodbye to our Mum .

It feels like so long ago.

It feels like yesterday.

We have all missed her every day since.

Love you Mum xxx

a big ho

Told you there was a big ho here .

Wishing all my readers a fantastic Christmas

please, please travel safely .

I will be back here after Christmas but

then in the New Year I will tell you all

my exciting plans for 2012 weeeeee!

This year has been a great one for my little business

and yes it has been a lot of hard work

but I think I have been given heaps of help

from you and others in the webby world .

Thanks so very much .

If you are looking for me you can find me

most days on facebook come on over

the Christmas tree is up and the kettle's on .

HO HO HO

the point is

Hello there !

I've been making poinsettia brooches and thought

if you had a spare few minutes you might like

to make some too .

First I made a template from cardboard in a sort of

poinsettia petal shape .

Mine is about 1" along the base tapering to the top

and about 3" high .

Trace 6 petals on doubled Christmasy fabric .

Stitch around the sides leaving the base open

for turning through .

Cut around the petal with pinking shears

and trim the point .

Turn right side out and press .

Use a double thread and tacking stitch to join the petals.

Pull the thread to gather the petals into a flower shape.

Use little , teeny stitches to stitch the flower securely .

Add some pretty matching buttons to the centre .

I can hardly call this a tutorial (but I will anyway) these are so easy !

These can be used as brooches , gift toppers or Christmas

 decorations maybe you'd like to wear one in your hair!

I hope you get a chance to make some of these .

Quick coasters

Tick tock Christmas is coming quickly .

I have heaps of quick Christmas ideas if you're interested.

Yes by quick I mean really lazy and hardly any effort.

To get some pretty coasters to match your Christmas

theme just use a gluestick to glue some wrapping

paper to small paper doilies .

Easy enough for the kids to help with and when

they're finished with they can just go

into the recyle bin .

Not the kids the coasters.

be seated

I've been having a bit of a fiddle with place settings

for my family Christmas dinner .

I finally got myself organised and did teeny tiny

stitches on my dyed doily rounds and turned

them all into a very festive runner .

So , so lucky my oilcloth and doily runner

match my button tree .

I am a hopeless cook so it's just as well

the table will look beautiful as it might distract them .

it's all about the money

Every Christmas a chocolate coin is placed under

every plate at the dinner table .

My kids don't think it's "just like magic " anymore

but it really isn't the same Christmas unless I do it .

Last Christmas was a very traumatic one and I was

so distracted I didn't manage to get any coins .

The week or so before Christmas day I had

so many people hunting all the shops for me and

I was even ringing nearby towns looking for them .

This year it's going to be different .

I have so many gold coins they can all eat the

chocolate and maybe I won't have to cook !

Do you have your own little traditions?

Please tell about them , I love hearing nice stories.

on the...

first day of Christmas

my true love sent to me

lots and lots of buttons

so I made a tree .