Sunday 18th day

Father Christmas night light

Somehow without a candle inside this looks daft, but pop a lighted candle inside and it glows.  I always bring it out and light a candle when I decorate the tree, its an old custom of mine.  So yes, the tree is done and that's why I'm so late with the blog.  This year I went for a colour scheme of white, cream, silver and gold.

Meanwhile, this morning I found a video on yahoo which shows how to wrap properly.  Wish I had seen this years ago.  My DH is brilliant at wrapping stuff but then he has run a mail order business for 30 years, so has plenty of experience. I can't even get the brown tape to go on without creases but he does and the corners of his parcels are perfection. They even admire his handiwork down at the local post office.....So this year I am going to improve my wrapping.  Click on the link below if you want to look at the webpage with the video too.

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/how-to-perfectly-wrap-your-christmas-presents-.html

New ornaments for the tree

My trusty Bernina 1260

Yes it is a trusty machine, and I could never part with it. A little cleaning and oiling each time I use it is going to be my New Year's resolution as I think it needs tlc now its older. Not that there is anything wrong with it, I just want to have the best out of it. And this is one of my new decorations for the tree, homemade silk tussah pinwheels with homemade felt bobble centres covered in gold mesh and beading on the corners. They were a bit fiddly to make but they are done now.

The good news this week is that the Lesser Redpolls are back in my garden.  The Nyger seed feeder had 3 females and one male on it this morning along with a couple of Goldfinches and a couple of Siskins.  So I am pleased as they are such cute birds and they stayed all winter last year with 14 coming to the feast one day! I will see if I can photograph them but they are not easy to pose.....
I do have last years photos on this blog so if you are new to it you can use the search to see what they got up to last December. Well that's all for today, I have so much to do.

Put a cuppa on - Christmas past food

I have been so busy sewing of late that thoughts of Christmas food and baking have been kept on the back boiler so to speak.  So in an attempt to show you something new and of interest at this time of year I thought you might like to meet a food historian, but not an ordinary one. I first met Ivan Day at least 35 years ago at the house of a friend and he struck me as an individual character with a great interest in art but I did not realise he also loved good food and historic good food too. We kept bumping into each other over the years and then the last time must have been about three years ago when we were in Carlisle for the day. Ivan was in a hurry but did manage to say he was making a programme for the television on historic food and gave me his website address.  I had a good look and thought it all very interesting but when I looked recently he had also started a blog, now that's more like it I thought, so for your delectation I offer you his two url's, I hope you enjoy, but I warn you the food looks magnificent and you might need to make a cuppa and put your feet up whilst you browse for quite some time.

Ivan's blog http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/

Ivan's website http://www.historicfood.com/about%20us.htm

Tree topper

What do you put on top of your Christmas tree?  A fairy? or a star maybe? or something else?  Usually I find something amusing so I used to put an owl up there complete with feathers... but for the last few years its been a fairy made with an old toilet roll for the base to slip over the tree top. It was made at one of our Embroiderers' guild workshops and I think it was a Sally idea.  However, this year I am going to use this funky silver stuffed star, just because it looks silly and brings a smile to my face.

When I was a small girl I used to walk home from school along our road and look carefully at each tree lit up in the window and see how many had fairies and I used to judge which one was my favourite, and of course sometimes the curtains were drawn so you could only make out dim shapes of  coloured lights because in those days not many people could afford lined curtains and a good many of them were probably home made; I know ours were.  I also used to count how many Christmas trees I could find on the way home and was always pleased when another one appeared. Its a good game for children, I wonder if they still play it nowadays.

Sitting on a candle on the dresser at the moment.