Couple of my pressies....

How cute is this...a cupcake cookie jar........just one of the pretties I had for Christmas.....this was from my friend together with a cookie recipe book...I think I'm going to be busy.
and then dots dots and more dots..the lovely jug to go with my sugar bowl....

and how on earth did my DD guess that I would love this from M & S its so cute and a top shelf for the eggs....what a lovely pressie along with lavendar body scrub/handcream/and body cream....see the knitted heart, this was attached to my pressie from my friend....I keep them and they're so useful to just add that extra bit of prettiness.

57 years!

My Dad came to dinner today...first time he has ever spent Christmas apart from his darling wife (Mum) in 57 years. Mum has been ill for a long long time now with vascular senile dementia. She's had it for 8 years now, I can even remember when it first started, it was my eldest daughters wedding, and she just kept on going up to total strangers and just standing and looking and Mum had started to shuffle slightly. Diagnosis came about 8 months later. It has been a tragic disease and a very unfair one. Dad has looked after her at home until about 3 months ago, the last 3 years she has been bed ridden, with loss of all bodily functions including speech. It pains her to swallow but even though the Nursing Home gives her paliative care and very small things (all liquidsised to eat)...Dad still feels that the longer he puts food in, the longer he keeps her alive, he doesn't realize that the pure effort of even swallowing is hard for her and to see her try to drink from a straw, well...it takes all her effort. He just doesn't see the deterioration, my darling Mum is even more of a living skeleton than before, her hair is so thin, her frail hands all now knarled and closed, her sunken eyes. Her torso is square and has been for a long long time, she is and has been stuck at right angles for a couple of years. She sleeps most of the time now and will occasional manage to open her tired eyes and peep out, she hasn't known me for years now but sometimes just sometimes there is a momentary glance and a weak smile, that if I were to blink I would miss it...when it does happen I cherish it. When I go to visit her I cannot bear it if she is awake and watch me walk out of the room....I have said "goodbye" so many times now. Three times when Mum was in hospital when I was taken in the "small" room but she rallied. She must have a very strong heart. Going back to the saying "cheerio"...I always go back and stroke her back to sleep, kiss her and whisper in her ear "I love you Mum, thank you for being my Mummy".

So with Dad sitting at the dinner table today, it felt very strange, as even though she hasn't sat there for years, she's always been at home with darling Dad. I could see he was struggling, so we spoke about lots of nice things, spoilt him with dinner, mince pies, tea/coffee, sweets galore, he fell asleep for a while and then we watched an old Some Mothers Do Have Em!.....I nearly wee'ed myself laughing, sometimes they are so much better when you've seen them a few times before, and then Dad left to go and spend the evening by the bed of his darling wife, where he will sit for a few hours, holding her hand, wiping her mouth, giving her juice and generally loving her.......

My Christmas Day was filled with DD...SIL and twin grandbubs.....absolutely magic and magical, I so treasure the times.....hope yours was good too.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everybody a wonderful warm

xxxxx Merry Christmasxxxx


Honestly trying to nibble my yarn!

Just like to thank people who stop by and take time to look at my blog....and to thank all those that leave a lovely comment....they are all very much appreciated and I love reading them... enjoy your Christmastime. xx

Christmas Eve magic

Christmas Eve magic.....I absolutely adore Christmas Eve, to me it is so so magical, the sense of expectation in the air. Even now although the children are all grown with children of their own. It still exists for me, sometimes I take myself back in my mind to when they were little and the leaving out of the mince pies and milk and sherry for Father Christmas. I always used to get the fits of giggles when opening their bedroom doors to put the stocking at the bottom of their beds, I remember one time, one of the girls woke up and said "Hello Mummy".....luckily she didn't see anything as she said "has he been yet". I remember when we pretended that Father Christmas had left a trail of wool all over the house and they had to follow it to find their main pressie. A couple of years ago I brought the girls the film Polar Express and put a jingle bellin with the package, my youngest daughter of 29 now has the bell on her tree and she loves it...she says it brings back memories of when she used to hear Santas sleigh bells!!!!....see magic....and now shes showing her 2 year old twins this bell....and they are just starting to understand there is something special going on. Every Christmas Eve without fail every year at midnight, I always throw open the bedroom window and just look towards the sky and just breathe in the cold midnight air, I glance upwards and just take in the stillness, nothing is moving, stillness, quiet, just my breathing showing in the coldness......Happy Christmas I say to the sky..Happy Christmas I say to the world...xxx

Okeedoee now for some pretties, this gorgeous garland I purchase in Harrods...darlink!.....well to be honest about 15 years ago....and the bauble is another Waterford One.

Table centre decoration....hmmmmm! looking at this piccy, seems I
need to sort it out a bit.

Isnt' this the most cutest Christmas biscuit barrel,

my youngest DD brought it for me from M & S...got it full

of CHOCOLATE COOKIES.....woohoo!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
falalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......and breathe.x

My kitchen and new door.

I'm such a chuffed happy little bunny with my new larder door, the white one on the left. Before it was a boring modern brown thingy, yeuk yeuk and double yeuk. Now glass panelled with a curtain behind, being the same as I used on the stools. Hey!...see my turkey plate on the fridge/freezer, a bargain buy from T.k.maxx. Of course my lovely new Ikea island unit which I posted about in a previous thread, this has made my kitchen so much easier to use and work in and its lovely to spread everything out when baking.

Just a snippet, purchased the cutley box from Ikea I think its called megazin and cost £1.99...painted eau-di-nil....lovely.

and of course what would a kitchen be without some pretties, so loving this tray, just need to find a lovely teapot to go with it. I have one but its a Denby in dark green, doesn't quite hit the mark for me now.

Here you can see the new door better....and on the island unit the shelves where I keep my sugars and flours for baking, so easy to get to and use.

Ta....daaaaaaa! and of course my lovely Megs my Cavalier...had to be in the shot..and of course polka dots...what else does a girl need. I love my kitchen now and enjoy being in it so much, before it was just perfunctionary.

Bye for now off the a spot of tea. x

Some Christmas decorating....

I just adore this little Northpole Express Train....we've had it a number of years and now the Grandbubs are enjoying it....it plays Christmas music and also makes a choo-choo noise as it goes round.Thought I would share with you one (red) of the 3 Waterford baubles that I have collected....one in green....the red one here at the bottom and a gold one...

Oh I do so wish that I was better at taking photography...(think I'll blame it on the camera)!...afraid piccy doesn't do justice to my tree, honestly it does look pretty and not so bare as this picture shows.....anyway looking into my little sitting area next door from the dining room in which the tree sits....we have

Okay!!! not a lot...I seem to have gone for very little this year decorative wise....I suppose the adage KISS came to mind..."keep it simple silly"...well I did and I have....

and even simpler...actually quite like the simplicity of this on the mantle in the lounge.

Hope your all enjoying your decorations up....love looking at them.....ttfnx

Christmas aaaaaarrrgggghhh!

Is it me, am I getting older and becoming a Christmas Grinch!!!!!...do you know what I stood in the middle of Churchill Square in Brighton and stood and watched people and well I just felt I wanted to open my mouth and scream..."WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING"?....just shopping and shopping and shopping....I passed by a small toy shop which was heaving, I heard from some small children....Aw I want, I want...pleaseeeeeeee, oh but I REAAALLLY DO WANT IT!....the looks on some of the parents faces.....not wanting to deny their darlings things.......but £40/£50/£60 a toy, wheres the magic gone, when you hear some 5 year olds saying they don't believe in Father Christmas. I find it all very sad, so much consumerism, so much commercialism. It got me thinking back to my childhood...and I wonder if the children of now will have such fond memories, I doubt it somehow. I used to get so excited as everyyear my darling Nanny would knit me a (well I used to call it a swiss sweater then) but you know the jumpers with the knitted yokes in all the different colours....and I would get a snuggly hot water bottle and I would love waking up in the early hours of the morning to see if Santa had left my stocking at the end of the bed...I used to get so excited to feel the noise when I kicked the covers and blankets. (no duvets back then good old tuck me in tight sheets and wool blankets with an eiderdown). It was a nylon stocking filled with an orange or satsuma an apple and some brazil nuts....a couple of blowers you know the ones with the feathers on the end....oh a Jackie magazine or something girlie...of course the bag of chocolate money and some fun odds and ends...but I used to love it...Mum would generally come in then saying its only 5 a.m. ops!
I can still picture my Christmas days as a youngster, actually I can recall quite a few. We always used to buy very small pressies for the tree for boxing day and Dad would always buy Mum her Max Factor powder makeup.....and Estee Lauder Youth Dew.....the house we lived in when I was growing up was a Victorian terrace, no central heating, no hot water. The windows used to freeze up on the insides and I would get washed and dressed in bed sometimes, with Mum holding my clothes in front of a single bar electric fire it was that cold. Dad would always be telling me to shut the lounge door to keep the heat in. But Christmases at home were so full of fun, love, laughter and family. I remember Mum used to buy cheap tumblers and use special paint to paint holly and berries on them.....seems my darling Mum was ahead of her time back then.....just sinmple things to make things homely. BUT...maybe its me being silly in my reminiscing....its just that looking around today as I did, I just saw, stress and rudeness, nobody smiling. I held doors open for people to go through, not one thankyou. I stopped to let people by, did they see me, did they heck. I feel lots of people have forgotten what its about, I still get choked up thinking about what Christmas is really about....hey ho! and the older I get the more choked up I get....I would love to have my time over with my children again and enjoy their faces....but then I can enjoy the Grandchildren and boy oh boy is that I heart wrencher. I cannot believe the love I feel from the pit of my stomach. I could just sit and sit and watch them for ages, well thats when they're not climbing all over me going "Naaaaannnnnnnnnyyyyyy".....cuddles, kiss (or mats as one of them calls them) and of course "Aahhhs" which are cheek cuddles....and when I do something silly my darling little grandson just says "funny". Oh of cours we mustn't forget the butterfly kisses, these are something I used to do with my own daughters, I used to flutter my eyelashes against their cheeks when they were toddlers and of course this Nanny is doing the same with her twin 2 year old grandbubs.
They are a complete joy and me and DH will enjoy our Christmas this year through their eyes.....as for the others dashing here there and everywhere....let them...one day they will know!

Christmas Wishes to all xxx

Matching Cath Kidston stripe.....not!

Honestly what an absolute numpty I am....ok to explain, hubby and I went to Ikea and brought a lovely island unit for the kitchen....well actually we didn't intend to buy one, but hey sometimes impulse buys are the best! There we saw the hendriksal stools, they sold them in cream/grey/navy. So cream was the colour, anyway we got them home and I'm sitting having my brekky and I could feel something catching on my trousers, anyway turned stool upside down and there is velcro....well of course silly me!....these chairs are cream as they are for covering. So me and my lovely knitting friend went to Caths in Brighton and I purchased Ric Rac strip cotton duck. Quite expensive I feel for what it is, considering that Ikea had a red/beige strip for £4.99 metre but anyway............................................. CAN YOU SPOT THE DELIBERATE MISTAKE........WHAT A NUMPTY I AM...happily cutting out material for covers and you've guessed it LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't think to match.....shhhhhhh....duh!
NO MATCHING STRIPES......... ah well, at least they're original and am pleased with them.

Will post piccys of finished kitchen, when I've sorted it out, just waiting for a cottage type larder door to be delivered which I will put the same ric rac strip curtain behind....all starting to come together nicely....have a great day.x

A so homely cookery book...

Brought this rather sweet cookery book come hints on decorating called Autumn (see in sidebar)...its an American publication but I was attracted to it as its so sweetly illustrated and has that homely feel and so really scrumptious recipes. The ingredients are in cup sizes which is so easy for flours etc. Have already tried Apple Crisp which is really Apple Crumble but with cranberries and eating apples, the cranberries give it a lovely taste sensation.

Lots of how-to's

and really lovely pressie ideas....

Oh and must not forget the lovely sugar/jam pot in gorgeous polka dot....the kind http://bellascountry.blogspot.com/ pointed me in the direction to purchase this...thank you...have a pleasant Sunday....x

Fireside Sweater.

Has anybody seen the film "The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz Jude Law?
Its my faviourite feel good seasonal film, anyway in the film Camerzon Diaz wears this cream sweater....and a lovely lady on Ravelry designed one for all us obsessed knitters to make. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fireside-sweater So thought would share mine. Part of me wishes I had done it in cream or even red...maybe next time, thats if I have the patience to do it again but I will enjoy wearing it now the weathers turned frosty. Have a great weekend all.