christmas already?

I’ve been making the most of my free time this week, thrift shopping, reading trashy crime novels, cooking huge veggie hotpots, packing and repacking my suitcase for tomorrow and a little bit of Christmas embroidery,

These place mats are for Christmas dinner at my parent’s.  I think I’ve already documented mine and John’s unwillingness to go anywhere other than our own mum’s for the holidays so for me it’ll be just the four of us for lunch, then more in the afternoon.

 

I’m putting these up in my Etsy this week too, personalised to your Christmas guest’s names.  I’m also going to list some Christmassy napkins like this,

I’m thinking of Christmas before we’ve even got to Bonfire night - a little early perhaps?  I can’t tell nowadays, especially when shops are putting up Christmas displays in September.  I mean, September?  Seriously?

to match the place mats too so hop over if your interested, reccommend me to all your friends, tell your hairdresser and all that jazz.  I’ve also been kindly directed to Folksy and now have another little shop set up there.  It’s a very sweet little place, a British Etsy, go on over there.

Last night we went for tea then on to see Vampire Weekend for some ska-lite fun.  Ah, live music.  Ever since, at some young and impressionable age, I heard my mum playing The Jazz Singer for the thousandth time I’ve been in love with music, especially live music.  And despite the fact that I’m fully, completely and hopelessly in the Young camp when it comes to the issue of the Two Neils, without Mr Diamond himself the story would have no beginning. 

Right, I’m toodling.  I have German homework to do and those verb tables ain’t gonna learn themselves x

hoppy halloween

We never celebrated Halloween in our house.  A lot of this was to do with the fact that where we lived when I was a kid was two miles from anything other than old ladies and dairy cows, two demographic groups that don’t tend to venture out on a cold October night demanding sweets and making threats if they don’t get them.  There were other factors of course, ones Jane knows all about and we don’t need to discuss any further, there being enough quirks in our family to keep this one under wraps for the time being.  But when I saw these embroidery patterns over on Feeling Stitchy, I finally got some way into the Halloween spirit and made a pillow case featuring these creepy chappies,

In other news, I was back in Yorkshire last weekend for a surprise anniversary party my sister and I arranged for my mum and step dad.  They’ve been married 15 years, which may not sound impressive, but it’s my mum’s longest marriage so far and George was given the unenviable task of dealing with a teenage version of me who was as far away from a good apple as possible. 

I have no photos of course because Jane and I spent the majority of the night talking to our older brother who we haven’t seen in years, making him tell us stories about our dad and trying to figure out which parts of our personality come from him.  It turns out that my ability to make up preposterous lies in the style of Matilda, about kidnapping clowns and teachers who secretly wear wigs, isn’t a huge character flaw, it is actually inherited and as far as I’m concerned, rather a Good Thing.

For now though, I’m off to town to get some Canadian dollars for a – totally non-fictional – trip I’m taking on Saturday.  Honestly x

weeks later…

It feels like I’ve been gone forever.  And this post feels a little bit like the first day back at school after the summer where you’re just not sure where you are in more and how you fit in and what to say without sounding like a doofus.

So the reason I’ve been absent lately is school itself.  I’d forgotten how tiring and utterly time consuming teaching can be but I’ve been reminded of it pretty quickly.  And I wish I could say that the sewing and *gasp* knitting hasn’t gone to the dogs because of it, but I’d be lying.  On Saturday I spent ages tracing a pattern I wanted to embroider on greaseproof paper so I could transfer it to pillow cases then lost all patience when it didn’t transfer properly.  Pillow cases and transfers have sat on the side ever since.  I have been working on that quilt though.  Honest. 

Last night we went to see these chaps,

and loved them.  We were a little less sure about the three people sat next to us dressed as Old Gregg and the Hitcher.  Especially when they offered us polos during the interval.  I’ve just re-read that last sentence and realise that it probably sums up the absurdity of the whole situation.  Ah well.

So, in summary: normal service will be resumed shortly.  This weekend I intend to do nothing more than send out overdue parcels, finish a project I can’t talk about yet and make something lovely that I can post pictures of here in order to validate my existence and this blog in some way. 

Oh, by the way, one of my embroideries is being shown on the Feeling Stitchy website.  Hop on over and ch-ch-check it out.  I’m off to lie down in a darkened room x