Tooth ache ......

The weather is miserable, my wisdom teeth hurt and I don't have enough hours in the day to do the things I want to do! I'm feeling miserable this week, as you may have guessed. At my age you would think I'd be wise, but oh no my teeth decide to hurt and I mean really hurt and now I have to have a full head x-ray to check what's going on. So to cheer myself up tonight I started to write out my Christmas cards sitting in front of the tv. Made me feel quite festive looking at last years cards and writing and stamping cheerful little pictures onto each envelope. I took a break from knitting tonight, almost finished a cute tea-cosy for a lady in Holland. My knitted items are going around the globe! Just need to decide what to make to put on the top as I'm fed up with pom poms now, so 70s and so time consuming! Anyway I hope to be in a better mood when I check back in a few days and maybe I will have finished the tea-cosy. Thank you to The Sunroom for mentioning my blog, what a lovely surprise. Enjoy the rest of your week whatever you are doing. And Happy Thanksgiving to anyone visiting from the USA. Amanda x

Christmas crafts

I recentently purchased hand-made Christmas cards from the WI stall at the farmers market, so I thought I'd have a go. Well, only with tags for presents. Luckily my sister has a Sizzix die cutter machine and I borrowed it for a few days. It's great fun and reminds me of being at school! Some glue managed to make it onto the tags and they actually look quite cute. I bought the wrapping paper weeks ago so I'm making the tags to match. I then went around the house and in the loft to find last years cards and ribbon. The gardening club are having a craft evening in a few weeks so I've made some templates to take along.

felted hearts

I like to try something new most weeks, so this morning I searched the internet for a heart knitting pattern. After a lot of research and trying one pattern unsuccessfully I found one I could follow! I used a ball of Patons Lolly Orange that I bought from eBay recently. It was meant to be for my scarf, but sadly the colour wasn't a good match. But it's turned into the perfect colour for my felted hearts. I might even make some cards using one side felted. I'm off to knit the second side now! Have a great weekend. Amanda x

What to do with all those leaves

It's my third year collecting leaves from the tree in my front garden (well actually my neighbours!) I also collect them from my back garden. I leave them at the back of the garden and they are ready to use as leaf mulch the following year. It improves the soil and the worms do the rest. This year I decided to buy some Nutscene leaf bags as they are easier to use than plastic bags. I managed to fill one last Sunday and hoping to fill another one this weekend, weather permitting. It's free and makes use of all those fallen autumn leaves.

the scarf is finally finished!

I finished the seed stitch scarf this evening. I changed the design and added two hand-made pom poms. The scarf is off to Japan! My friend is over this week from Japan, she works for our distributor through my job. I've known her for many many years and when she is in the UK we spend some time together. On Saturday I am taking her to London for the day to shop in Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Liberty and Covent Garden. As its her birthday next week I decided the scarf had to go to Tsujii. I just hope she likes it. The picture makes it look the wrong colour, its actually raspberry and the pom poms are combined with Patons Jet Lolly Orange.

Jam making is not just for the WI

I found this by accident today and thought it was a good read
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article6846219.ece

The weather has improved so I plan to tidy up the garden, veg patch and plant the onion sets that Anne gave me a few weeks ago. The two Acer trees at the back of the garden have now lost most of their leaves, so these need collecting for leaf mulch for next year. For a small garden there's lots to do out there today!

Yesterday morning Jack came with me and Moss for a walk along the beach, in the rain. Despite getting wet it was fun beach combing and we found an amazing stone full of fossils. Well they look like fossils.

In the evening I picked up my knitting needles and continued with my Moss stitch scarf knitted in Patons Jet Lolly Orange. It such a lovely wool to work with, shame I'm almost out of it. I'm trying to locate another ball to finish the scarf! I originally bought it months ago from Kemps http://www.kempswoolshop.com/ and was using it for other small projects. The plan is to put a pom pom on each end. I'll post a picture when its completed, not long now. I am also waiting for my Wendy Fusion (in Spice) to arrive, so hopefully this will turn up on Monday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.