All over for another year .......

Christmas day has come and gone, we had a good time, lots of lovely presents, too much to eat, lots of leftovers. The snow left, so no white Christmas, but by the sound of the forecast we may get a white new year.

Just off my needles is this cute young lady - Jessica Rabbit, I'm quite pleased with her, but maybe she could have had a bit more stuffing



Made this for Rachel - a pocketed scarf



My next project is to finish off a WIP, its been hanging around for a while, a pram blanket in petal squares, easy enough but because its squares easy to put away to another day! However, I plan not to have any WIP's this coming year and to finish all projects before starting another, I've got into some bad habits. The stash busting is well underway, as long as I can keep away from the yarn sales.



Off to make a drink and maybe get a mince pie....

I'm free....

my work is done, my time's my own until 4 January.

As this year comes racing to a close its time to reflect on the past year, such alot has happened but at the same time where has another year gone.

Highlights of this year have been:
Rebecca and Tim's wedding
Rachel's promotion to Senior Youth Offending Officer
The annoucement that we are to be grandparents in 2010
My weight loss - 33lbs
New friends - my ladies on Ravelry

Low points:
My father's cancer
The loss of 2 friends, one old, the other not so

Things to look forward to in 2010 so far:
The baby of course in June
Lots of concerts booked
My first trip to Switzerland

I hope that whatever you are doing this christmas you have a lovely time and see you in 2010

The north wind doth blow and we will have snow......

and no electricity!!! Our power went off at 9:50pm last night and finally came back on at 2:15pm this afternoon, then went off again, then on, currently its been stable for about an hour now. Fortunately we have plenty of candles and matches, a bath by candle light is very romantic but the goose bumps from the resulting dash to a cold bedroom not so! My morning cuppa was made in a saucepan on the gas hob, breakfast by candle light too - bread and jam as I didn't want to keep opening the fridge. Its amazing all the jobs you think you'll do then realise you can't, oh how we rely on our electricity. I was supposed to get my hair cut and coloured today also, but the salon in Over had the same problem, as did Rachel, so she came down to keep warm - curtesy of our wood burner - as her boss told her not to come into work. So we've put up the tree and decorations, been for a walk and I took some pictures of the garden.

A bit of creativity

For me


For Rachel


Audrey - she didn't really help much just kept sitting on my scissors

I knew there was a problem

today I have been to Ely hospital for someone to finally look at my neck problem.

After months of being told go away and put up with it. ££££'s spent on osteopaths, acupuncture and Bowen technique I have been seen by someone that was interested. After a lengthy chat she got me to do various exercises to which my neck responded badly, to a point where there was an audible clunk, she said "what on earth was that", I said "that was my neck!!!" She said "that is seriously wrong". So I have had 3 x-rays, she will phone me Monday after the consultant has seen them and advise what the problem is. Basically the large muscles front and back of my neck are guarding an injury, what it is she's not sure as apart from a bad pull on the ab cruncher I've not done anything else, as in no accidents/whiplash. I may have to have my neck immobilised before things can be put right, we didn't go into details on that until they are sure whats wrong! So watch this space.

On my needles - just finished another pram blanket in blues, pattern chosen by Peter, so possibly for Baby Jones if his mummy to be likes it (she wants a blue pram so not an indication on the sex of the baby).



I will be making some sample squares and basic knitting instructions/patterns for a Youth knitting group we are starting in the new year and apart from that not sure what to knit next. I have loads of yarn to use, I am on an self-inforced no yarn buying programme at present and need to clear some out before the January sales!!!!

Why do they do it?

Had my hotmail account hacked into, which has been very annoying and actually very upsetting. It has been used to send mails to people I've no knowledge of and has diverted replies from people that I do. Hopefully I have sorted it now, passwords are changed and replies redirected.

Found a large dead rat this morning near the wood pile and all is quiet in the kitchen roof so I'm hoping our lodger has departed.

I think I'm on top of my christmas shopping and I have written my cards, just need to post them and then do the wrapping. Bird ordered, pudding made, still have crackers to get and to make a list of the food shopping. The christmas decorations will go up.......... not sure really. A friend said she still had pre-christmas cleaning to do! I asked what that was, surely the decorations hide the dust!

Its my brother Bob's birthday today - happy birthday Bob you are catching me up for a while

Bah humbug

yesterday I went Christmas shopping. The shops were heaving, the assistants ignorant, the shops over-heated and under-stocked, making it a truly miserable experience, I will be doing the remainder on the net, soooooo much easier.

I also found out how to become invisible - I went to a meeting of the local knitting group - I have never felt so unwelcome in my life. I was more or less ignored when I turned up. I introduced myself, they just said hi and carried on their conversations. I sat down got my knitting out, they carried on, one asked what I was knitting then turned her back. Some other arrived said hi to everyone, me included, but never asked my name or introduced themselves. In fairness the lady that sat the other side of me did introduce herself, chatted a bit then got into conversation with others beside her. I tried to introduced topics, but had them hi-jacked never coming back to include me, so in the end I gave up, sat with my knitting, alone in a group of about 15 women. When 4pm came round I packed up put on my coat, said good-bye, not one person responded. Needless to say I won't be returning. Thanks Ktog Cambridge.

So as you can see yesterday was a real write-off

Latest scan of our first grandchild

Baby Jones
Apparently he/she has grown 2.5cm in the last week, but is still making his mummy very sick - cute isn't it

When things go wrong.......

We seem to be having a few problems with items in our house at the moment -
Firstly the freezer section of my Maytag started making crackling noises and warm air started to blow out of the bottom section. I emptied it and left it running whilst at work, it was good and cold when I got home, and all seems ok now!

Last night Peter ran a bath to find no hot water, the boiler had been on for 5 hours, only the washing up water had been run-off and the heating was working ok. This morning there is a tank of hot water after the boiler only having been on for 1 hour – so what was the problem there?

Our wood burner appears to be giving off fumes, can’t seem to find a problem with that either, but it’s making our eyes and throats sting.

We have rats back in the kitchen ceiling – the poison has been laid so hopefully they will take the bait and go away!! Either that or could they please put on quieter shoes!!

And would the house gremlins please go away and leave us alone