No new shoes:

I realised on Christmas day that I did not buy myself any new shoes. Shock shock horror, I hear you shout. I have decided that it was due to the weather, I alternatively purchased a lovely pair of ankle boots, with a sensible heal may I add. I did however molester and drawl over several pairs of gorgeous high heals but none of them made their way to the checkout points. Sitting looking at my Christmas tree I realised I did buy new high heal shoes! I purchased the delightful white shoe from BHS in Chester on the 14 December. (Yes ok it was in the sale, even if it had not been I would still have purchased it because it is so meeeeee. In that same sale I also bought a beautiful silver shoe for the tree. I now have six different style shoe ornaments on my tree. Two of them where given to me by my daughter. This little silver sling back with diamantes is one of the two. It started life as a key ring and when the chain snapped I could not bring myself to throw it away, hence it got recycled. Tonight however, the high heals are coming out of storage and I intend to dance the new year in and continue to dance my way through some exciting times in 2011. I want to thank all my friends who follow my blog for their continuous support and wish you all a very happy new year. Love and hugs Susan xx

lLittle man is growing:

Cole is growing up so fast and he brings such love and joy to my life. He loves to dance and everytime he hears music he dances to his herats content, with a few clap hands thrown in. It is so heart warming to watch him and I am truly blessed.

Oh Christmas Tree:

On the first day of Christmas Susan put her tree up. It has been three years now since I started my memory tree. I am gathering quite a little collection of tree ornaments but I stil have a long way to go to fill all the branches. What you can not see is the back of the tree which is completely empty and the sides are quite sparce too. As always my gorgeous daughter has bought me several new pieces over the last few weeks. I also have a homemade cross stitch decoration all the way from Tasmania, from my pen friend Leanne. Several lovely ones through out the years from my friend Janet. Saddly when I opened the box of decorations, the beautiful glass bauble with my name etched on it, had cracked. This bauble was a special gift from Michaela last year and I thought I had wrapped it up very carfully, obviously not. :(
I feel a trip to the January sales is a must to add to my collection next year.

I go back to black:

I have been working on my black and gold applique flowers, talk about slowly slowly catch a monkey. I am finding it difficult sewing around the flowers in blanket stitch using black cotton and on black fabric. I can only do a little bit at a time then I have to take a break and go back to them a little later. During a break, I decided to use up one of the sample flowers and make a cover for a 2011 dairy. Black and gold together are such timeless colours and I thought Michaela would like this as a stocking filler. I used a different technique to cover this book, other than the one taught to me by Jackie Martin. I really enjoyed it but it took a little working out and like every protocol there are a few little things I will change when making another. With that said, I am very happy with the end result and i am sure Michaela will be thrilled with her new diary when she opens it up on Christmas day.

What's a mug rug?????

On Wednesday we had our Liverbird Christmas party. At this event a challenge is set for the next years party. The last two years it has been to keep and Christmas card and make something using the image on the chosen card. I chose two cards, I had decided to make a table runner from one and a quilt from the other. The quilt is all designed but not started and the table runner was a bit of a disaster. I tried to quilt it on Mrs Jones and she was having none of it. At this years party the challenge has been set to make a festive mug rug. Well, I had missed our last meeting when Janet had introduce the latest trend in the world of sewing. Therefore I did not have a clue what a mug rug was. Luckily for me Janet had made a lovely posh one from felt and produced it at show and tell. I was (as always) very impressed. Looking for something to do yesterday evening, I decided to google mug rugs. Low and behold there were lots of imagesand imformation on how to make mug rugs. A mug rug is a long coaster that not only accommodates your mug but a biscuit too. I had bemoaned to Janet that I was unable to do my challenge in time for our party cos Bernie was at her spa. Janet rightly pointed out (all in good fun) that we had had 12 months to do our challenge. So I took this on board and here is my 2011 Christmas challenge, a festive mug rug and funnily enough the Christmas card is from Janet. :)

Welcome home Bernie;

Look who is back home, Bernie. I know you are all probably sick and tired of hearing me moan about how I have missed her (I'm sorry). She has had her retreat and is in tip top condition. Therefore she is ready for a hard work out over the next few days as the sewing has bee piling up during her absence.

Elf shoe;

My neice Paige has put their Christmas tree up and this year her colour scheme is blue and white. I was flipping through my latest eddition of Homespun and came across these delightful little Elf shoes. It is made from felt and it took me about one hour to make from start to finish. I dont think the chocolates will last that long though :)

Timmy:

Meet Timmy, Henry's new friend. I finished knitting him this morning. Notice though he is sporting a lovely red cotton scarf. I found the red cotton wool at the bottom of the draw that I keep my knitting needles in and decided Timmy needed a scarf. I just hope Henry isn't jealous, I may have to knit him one too.

At a loss;

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I am at a loss without Bernie. I have cut out all the pieces for my applique flowers but because Mrs Jones only does straight stitch, I can not fix them to the back ground fabric. So out came a sketch book and I started to make the templates for my second Christmas challenge. I completed these yesterday and once again need Bernie to start the quilt. I am an addict, I freely admit it, I am addicted to my sewing machine and can not function with out it. I have even done some little stitcheries but its no good I need Bernie. Me thinks the knitting needles will becoming out tonight and Henry (the sheep) will have a new friend by morning.