Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a wonderful holiday celebrating with loved ones. Flo was more excited about the tissue paper wrapping up her tin of treats from Santa than the actual present itself and is now celebrating in true cat style! And I've just enjoyed a mince pie and a cuppa for elevenses. xxx

More happy things

An icy morning up at Blickling.

Flo photo-bombing my birthday breakfast photo!

A lovely birthday gift from my dear pal Snoopydog. There are a lot of hooks to fill!

Celebrating my birthday with friends from the gym.

Birthday cake - coffee walnut - for sharing at school.

Flo actually sleeping on her own fleece for a change!

A surprise parcel from a Twitter running friend.

A knitting-themed Christmas card from one of my class.

Carol singing by candlelight with my chamber choir.

Baking gingerbread stars to decorate at school.

Going for a dog walk with Snoopydog and Oscar.

A mug of tea and toast - perfect comfort food.

The mini balls of sock yarn from my Advent calendar.

I hope that there have been plenty of happy things in your life this week. xxx

A winner, the last giveaway of 2017 and the first of lots of little balls of yarn

It's December already! How has that happened? It doesn't seem five minutes since the start of term in September. And pretty soon, people will be counting down to 2018. But the start of December means that it's time to pick a winner for my November Pay it Forward giveaway. If you can remember, the prize was some super-festive jingle bell stitch markers from Fripperies & Bibelots. The random number generator picked post 1, Jo from Through the Keyhole, so I'll be getting in touch with you soon. If you weren't lucky, check out the Christmas shop on the F&B website as Sarah still has a few festive offerings available.

December's giveaway is the final giveaway in my year of paying forward all the kindness I've received from yarny folk far and wide following Mr JK's death and I hope that you'll agree that it's pretty special! There's a notions case made by my own fair hands, two cakes of Freia handpainted sport weight yarn and a very cute Flo stitch marker. These stitch markers were made especially for me by Sarah at Fripperies & Bibelots and I only have a couple left. 

To be in with a chance of winning, you need to leave a comment on my blog telling me what's top of your woolly Christmas list this year. The giveaway will stay open until midnight on December 31st and I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner after that. Please make sure that it's easy for me to get in touch with you by leaving your Ravelry or Instagram name or some other way for me to contact you should you be the winner. If I haven't heard from the winner after a week, I'll pick another one. The giveaway is open world-wide so please do enter.

I have three balls from my Opal Advent calendar (we won't mention the fact that last year's haven't all be used yet, shhhhhhhh!) and it is a bit of fun each morning to see what little treasure lies behind the door. 

This year's calendar is a book. It takes up a bit less space than last year's massive cube!

I've made myself some bunting which is hanging up in the hall and the rustic bunting I sewed last year is festooned across the fireplace. That's about as festive as I've got so far. 

And through all the decorating, Flo remained distinctly unimpressed! Have a great week and do enter the giveaway! Good luck one and all! xxx