Santa Claus is comin to town......

Today has been one of those winter days, with the wind howling and the rain beating off the windows-love those days every now and again, when I don't have to go out! It suited me brilliantly today, since hubs does all the morning school runs on a Wednesday.....oh, I LOVE Wednesday morns-I am free from 8am til 11.15:)) So, I battened down the hatches and first off, got the cooker on and very soon the smell of apple/raspberry and cinnamon crumble was wafting through the house!

That of course set me off again thinking 'Christmas'-not that I need any encouragement!lol! I have had a few UFO's hanging about-not needing much really to finish them, but this week, my target has been to get them finished and I apologise now if you aren't a Santa fan, because that is what they all are,

First up, is an olde Santa with his wool coat and beard. When I showed him to hubs, the comment I received was 'thought Santa had a red coat'......some people just don't get it, do they???


Oops-this wall really is a darkish red in real life:)



Against a plain wall, to show his colours better:)

This next little pillow-again all wool, is a needl'n love pattern, from one of their books-can't remember which one, but if you really want to know, I can go look!





Lastly, a little needle punch. This is a 'Country Stitches' pattern and I so enjoyed doing it. I chose to trim it with red wool and temporarily stick it to this basket for the holidays-it needs a little more flattening out, but I was rushing to get this post done, but you get the picture.....




This is the one time of the year when I tend to burn the midnight oil-there are so many Christmas things I want to make and only a small window of opportunity to get them done, so I must confess to 'handy' dinners, 'rushed' housework and bleary eyes, but I don't think I feel guilty-least I am using up some of my stash and supplies-that can't be a bad thing can it? Just not sure how I can explain away, ordering 'Country Stitches' new Christmas pattern...........oh yes, I was afraid of them going out of stock....!lol!

Ok, I'm off to make one of those 'handy' meals, so that it only needs heating up later-I feel a late night coming on:))

Blessings, Shazy x

Blog hop and some finishes!

I can't believe it's Friday already!! I feel as if I have just spent all week clearing up after last weekend-housework:( and here we are again.....

Have you been following the great blog hop on at the minute? organised by the very clever Stacy from Buttermilk Basin Designs-she has lined up a host of great designers that I love, to provide us with some wonderful patterns and recipes for the holidays-well this really appeals to me as I LOVE anything to do with Christmas:)

Thanks to Stacy for the wizard idea and to all the designers for their generosity-such fun!!

First up was Brenda (Country Stitches)with a lovely needle punch Santa and of course I had to give it a go-(please bear in mind, that mine is nowhere near as good as Brenda's and my photography doesn't help, but I'm joining in the fun and going to share my attempt:





A closer view-Oops he seems to have lost the greenery from his hat in this one!lol!
I increased the size for the standing one-the next photo is the original size, which I will use for an ornie.....yes, I made two...they sure were fun:)



When on the subject of stars, here are a few fun pillow finishes from Stacy's patterns (BMB)-love her designs and yes she is designing for the hop too!Yipee!





Every so often my sister and I get together to have a baking/cooking day to fill up our freezers, so I thought I would share a few pics of what we made on Wednesday.
It is great to get time together to chat, have fun and come home with produce at the end of the day-you sure can't beat that:)

I'm sure you can guess our theme.....of course it's Christmas!lol!



Lovely cinnamon shortbread (freezes great)



The traditional mince-pie (we do a mini version)
Sorry, you can't catch the smell in the kitchen...yumm!



This is just to show we mean business! Yes, we did make apple tarts, but we didn't make much impact on this lot did we? Next Tuesday is, tray bake day-anyone else coming?Ha!

Thanks for stopping by, I love visitors and hope you all have a great weekend,

Blessings, Shazy x