Seasons Greetings!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
I'd like to share a few of the gifts I sent and received.
For an exchange in a Facebook group I'm a member of I made and sent this bag,

and received these beautiful hearts and Christmas plaque.

It was a completely secret exchange and my partner hasn't come forward so I don't know who to thank, but I love them very much, especially the large one with the cats and blue and white china, which is going to look wonderful in my kitchen.
I also made a bag and matching scarf for my friend in the village

and received these lovely handmade goodies from her - the pincushion is made using an antique bakers mould.

I received some lovely gifts from online friends,

Huge thank yous to (clockwise from top) Barb, Clare, Karan and Julie 

and my daughter wood-burned these fabulous tree decorations for me

I'd like to finish by wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year, and leave you with the cover image from the calendar that the girls got for me.

I can't begin to imagine where they get their sense of humour from...

Birthday Thank You and Christmas Wishes

Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you everyone for my birthday presents, including, from online friends and fellow bloggers, an ingenious snap closing fabric basket from Julie,

a pretty notepad with sewing motifs from Barb, a lovely set of sweet-smelling soaps from Karan, and a wonderful book of crafty pompom projects from Clare

Also in the picture a necklace with a theobromine  (chocolate) molecule on it from my sister, a beaded necklace and a pierced metal tea light lantern from my friends in the village, and a pretty silver necklace from my husband. 

The girls came home fro Christmas on my birthday too which was perfect. They got me a beautiful winter coat, which was a bit big to fit in the photo above, but I found this picture online

As you can see I was thoroughly spoiled. And now all that remains is for me to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas

The Last Gifted Gorgeousness of 2017

And also the hardest, because it's December, and whilst I've made tons of stuff for gifts I can't show any of it yet!
(If you're not sure what Gifted Gorgeousness is then pop over to visit Serendipitous Stitching - the blog of Jo, who invented the concept  of showing off our gift related crafting every month, and runs the SAL - for an explanation of the rules (though to quote Captain Barbossa they're "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules")
Returning to my annual December quandary, I think these might be safe to show: three little stitched gift tags for the family's Christmas presents.

Double GG points because the tags themselves were a cover gift with Cross Stitcher magazine. I used an alphabet chart I found on the internet instead of the Christmas motifs that came with the kit, and subbed in some of my own threads to get the colour schemes I wanted.
And then there is this.

These little knitted #christmasangels have been appearing throughout the village this week, and the other day I went outside to find some wonderful person had hung one on my door handle. More information about the project can be found here

Advent Calendar Blog Hop Day 13

Welcome to Day 13 of the Advent Calendar Blog Hop. To see the other days in the Advent Calendar please visit Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.
Jo asked us to share a picture of something festive that we had made. I haven't actually managed to stitch any new ornaments for this year, so in true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I made earlier:-

I did make this though - a kitschy mid-mod style wreath for the front door:-

Jo also asked us to share how we spend Boxing Day. Apart from eating left-over turkey (and doesn't everyone do that?), we mostly spend Boxing Day playing board games and watching TV, although if the weather is good and the tides are right we sometimes go for a walk on the beach.

David took this picture around Christmastime a couple of years ago. The tide is only this low once or twice a month so you can't always get this far along.

Ornament Exchange and a Spot of Knitting

Yesterday was opening day for the Needlecraft Haven Christmas Ornament Exchange.
By pure coincidence I both sent to and received from Lindsay this year.
Here is the ornament I sent.

The snowman design is by Carol Manning Designs, from this year's JCS Ornament Edition. I changed up the colours a bit to fit with what I had, and added an iridescent sequin to the snowflake at the top before making it up as a flat ornament edged with some vintage lace.
And here is the ornament I received from Lindsay, an absolutely exquisite 3-dimensional beaded star.

Thank you Lindsay, I love it.
I also finished knitting this shawl earlier in the week.

The yarn is Stylecraft's Candy Swirl, one of those big balls of self-striping "cake" yarn.
Eagle eyed readers will spot that the very edge is a slightly darker shade of turquoise. This is because the "one ball to knit a shawl" ran out halfway through the cast-off row, so I had to carefully un-cast off the edge, find some wool in the house that half-way matched and cast off with that as there was no way I was buying a whole other ball of the Candy swirl. I had a few choice words to say on the subject at the time, but actually I think it worked out OK.