Tag: Christmas & Advent

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dear diary ~ space clearing

It’s been a while, it’s also been quite frantic here and as usual it’s been stressful and joyful in equal quantities….well almost, perhaps a little more on the stress and a little less of the joy!

I just thought I would pop by as I can’t believe it is the latter part of February already and I have only completed a few tasks on my long, long to do list. I decided that the beginning of the new year called for a major declutter in our house to regain some lost space. I intend for this mad clear out to also include the loft, shed and garage….though at the moment it is far too cold to be in any of those places for any length of time.

I am hoping it is a case of it will get worse before it gets better as the whole house is in a mess now with piles everywhere destined for charity or recycle or a friend or craft group. Hardly anything is rubbish, very little has gone in the bin – it just needs rehoming…. either at my house or hopefully someone elses.

As I go through every drawer and cupboard, every box and bookshelf I am finding that as I remove more and more I am loving the space and it is becoming much easier to part with things.

After Christmas I sorted through all the decorations before I packed them away and took a bag full down to the charity shop – I have found as time goes on I am putting out fewer and fewer decorations each year.

I did have a box full of lovely cards that friends have handmade for me over the years – I picked out the best and then photographed the remainder before putting them in the recycle. Such a shame but I can’t keep everything.

Christmas seems a long time ago now. We had a large family gathering at my sister’s house for Christmas dinner and we managed to get my mum there too though the one little step at the front door was quite a challenge for her.

The grandchildren were busy before Christmas making their traditional place name cards which were wonderfully decorated and have now gone into my keepers box with the others.

I even managed to make a few cards myself and had a bit of a production line going one day. Thank heavens for rubber stamps as they are quick and easy to use when I run out of time to do my own lino cut.

Since Christmas it hasn’t been all work and no play…. during January we celebrated Master Freddie’s 5th birthday (at one of those ear splitting play gyms with a party room) and my mum’s 98th birthday – a much quieter affair. The weekend after her birthday my sister and her husband took mum out to a posh hotel for a meal during which mum suddenly stopped eating and went unconscious at the table – her head slumped but her eyes remained wide open staring ahead and they could not get a flicker of a response from her for over 10 minutes, it was only the fact that they could detect a faint pulse that they knew she hadn’t actually died! During this time my sister got reception to call for help – they wouldn’t send an ambulance – obviously not thought urgent enough but passed her over to a 111 person who asked my sister a load of questions to establish mums condition.

Eventually, mum finally rowsed and started talking as if nothing had happened and finished her meal – she didn’t even realise anything had happened. The 111 person then ended the call as they thought she sounded OK and said they would refer her to her GP who did actually go and see her next day and take some blood tests. The results showed a blood abnormality but the GP said they would not do anything because of her age – so far she is a write off then and so far no-one knows why she went unconscious for so long!

For her birthday I bought her one of those large button TV remote controls as she was having difficulty changing the channels with the tiny buttons on hers and was always pressing the wrong thing. She had been intent on getting a new TV just to get a different remote (her mind works in a mysterious way these days) even though I told her it would not be any different to what she already had. The new remote has been wonderful – it has fewer buttons for her to press so she can’t press something she didn’t intend to and end up on the shopping channel or mute it by accident and best of all she doesn’t get it muddled up with the telephone anymore either and try to call me on it.

So far this month we have spent a good deal of time researching a new but used car for my daughter. It is unknown territory for us as we have only been used to new ones – DH had a company car and we always saved up to buy my small car outright and traded in the older one in part exchange. The big question was who do you trust …..we do not know much about cars to buy at one of these auction sites or from a private individual so we resorted to a local Kia dealer as that was the make she wanted with the 7 year warranty….or as in her case the remaining years of a 7 year warranty.

After two days of trawling websites and a spreadsheet to capture all the information we fnally found one that ticked all the boxes at Perry’s in Rotherham. It was a 2020 reg with only 11,000 miles and one owner. It looked like new with good quality Michelin tyres hardly worn. We took her and the girls down last Saturday to pick it up. It is a long story but she had only driven it for 14 minutes along the M1 northbound when we got a call from her saying mum I have broken down!!!!

It was no joke.

Whilst driving the tyre pressure sensor suddenly came on the dashboard at the same time as the rear passenger side tyre blew and went completely flat. She couldn’t even make it to the next exit to get off the motorway.

Of course she rang her breakdown company but they had failed to mention that by switching the cover from her old car to the new one there was no immediate cover and it would not kick in until the next day.

Perry’s in Rotherham could not recover the car but they gave me a number to ring for a local recovery man. Imran came to the rescue – he was so lovely and got my daughters car on his breakdown truck and off the motorway so he could swap the wheel for the emergency one in the boot – that was the first expense of £200.

The next day my daughter got the tyre examined at our local Halfords – it had a few holes in it and one still had a visible nail head embeded in it. Halfords showed her where a nail must have popped out when she was driving and had been the cause of the sudden flat. On examination it was found that the tyre had already had a repair in the past so it had to be a new one – another expense of £99 ….luckily only the one was needed as the other rear tyre was like new.

It is yet another mystery as my daughter did not notice anything on the road at the time and had only been on a normal A road before getting onto the motorway – she had not been down any rough tracks. Once my daughter is back from her holiday Perry’s are going to look in to it but as it is a punctured tyre I expect there will be no come back on them.

We are now in Scotland to rest and recover for a few days and where I can plot and plan for more space clearing when I get home. I have brought some bits and pieces to do up here along with my knitting in the hope of finishing baby Chocolates little hooded jacket.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying 2024 – many apologies to anyone coming over on the 15th for the ScrapHappy Challenge I will try my best to show something for March, and welcome to new readers – as you will have realised by now my blog posts are a bit hit and miss!

How is your new year going so far this year?

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creating christmas * the ups and downs

Since we got back from Scotland last Monday it is all go here….I am not sure if I am creating Christmas or if it is just creating itself. I think the latter. I have simplified, but I am still far too busy.

There are some issues that always arise at Christmas – the car, washer, fridge, oven stop working – well this year we have the ‘condemed’ gas fire (only because we cannot get a new part - the ceramic tray beneath the coals) and our heating boiler requires more than a service and so the manufacturer will have to come out and rectify a fault (though we can still run the boiler, thankfully and have heating in the radiators). The Christmas lurgy has also struck and we are two men down (Master Freddie and baby Chocolate both have a digestive bug – I won’t mention anymore details on that issue!). Oh, and did I mention mum has been ultra busy in the complaints department and upsetting anyone who enters her flat! She keeps trying to ring me on the TV remote and change channels with the phone but says it is not her that is doing anything wrong it is the TV and phone that need replacing and we cannot persuade her otherwise.

On the good side I have managed to get icing on the top of the cake ready for the little ones to decorate.  I also, with great relief, put my cards in the post box on Thursday (4 days before the last posting day – must be a record for me as I am often waiting for the ink/paint to dry when I make my own. The lights which DH put up in November were ready and waiting to be switched on in December and the Christmas pyjamas for the little ones, ordered in late October, are all ready in their respective Christmas Eve boxes.

This weekend we are childminding – not sure whether it will be 2 or 3 but only 2 will sleep over tonight. I have plenty lined up to keep them busy – Christmas plates to paint, table place cards to make, our Christmas tree and the cake to decorate. Today we are going to Nostell Priory to see the Pantomime themed decorations in the house and, weather permitting, have a brisk walk around the grounds to spot the woodland fairies.

This coming week we have our hair appointment, a dental appointment and then lots of dropping in on friends to exchange gifts, have a festive drink and a natter.  Lovely.

Every year our church holds a coffee morning at the end of November to raise money for the charity Crisis who help the homeless over the Christmas period. Each year I make some Christmas gifts to sell on the gift stall and this year my idea was to find some empty craft boxes and fill them with various items for someone to give as a present or use themselves. 

The craft boxes are quite inexpensive and I used old Christmas cards to decorate the top. I made up six boxes in all – once I got into the swing of things and made a prototype I could have made more but time as usual was the big constraint and I had to photograph all these in a rush before I put them on the stall so I apologise for the poor photo quality.

Inside each box the contents were carefully concealed under pretty leaves of tissue paper to add to the surprise. Three of the boxes contained toiletries or beauty items that could be given as a gift.

My daughter donated these brand new No7 skin care products and I added a face cloth.

She also donated some rather gorgeous French make up that came with an equally gorgeous cotton printed scarf.

I had a number of unused shampoo and conditioner bars that were given to me as gifts but far too many for me to use so I wrapped some of them in pretty sheets of tissue and added another face cloth in this box.

The other three boxes consisted of homemade cards and gift wrap accessories – gift tags, ribbon or twine and a little pack of matching embellishments made up from bits and pieces in my craft stash.

I made three designs of cards in differing colour schemes and chose the accessories to suit – ‘Winter Wonderland’ was my favourite in cool white and silver.

‘Happy Christmas’ was the more natural pack…..

…and ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ the traditional red and gold.

Whilst searching online for the craft boxes I came across these lovely Advent boxes that contain 24 boxes to fill yourself. All the boxes are from the Tiny Box Company www.tinyboxcompany.co.uk - (Just to be clear I am not being paid to mention their website or endorsing their products but if you are interested then follow the link they have some lovely packaging).

I decided my two daughters would love them and so bought them one each and then had great fun finding things to put in them. Everything had a Christmas theme and some items I made and some I bought.

The grandchildren have loved waiting to see what surprise is in each one as much as my daughters – I included Christmas balloons, string lights, baubles, cake toppers, a mini pot pouri box of pine cones, cinnamon sticks and dried oranges and even some home made gift tags and thank you cards.

Of course, as many of my long time readers will know, since my two girls were little, each year they have found an angel in the top of their stocking and this year is no exception only instead of in their stocking she is the surprise on day 19.

So if I don’t get back here again before Christmas…

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas and may all your dreams and wishes come true. xx

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dear diary >> all is calm, all is bright

We are slowly getting back to normal here and like the words of the carol – we are back to calm. Christmas was perhaps a little more hectic than I would have preferred, but with three very excited young children in the house you cannot expect that it would be restful!

We spent the week before Christmas chasing our tails. On the Saturday we had our family ‘Not so Secret Santa’ get together at my sister’s house in North Yorkshire to swap presents, play games and hold our musical interlude after a delicious buffet lunch; I am always the conductor and hold the baton.

Even though our music sheets have both coloured and numbered notes that match the colour and notes of the handbells and xylophones we still, after all these years, do not get any better at making a recognisable tune as no-one ever comes in on cue! But that is the fun of it.

After Sunday at home to put up the tree and a few decorations, my daughter came on Monday with Little L and Sweetie who hung all the baubles on the tree for us…and it looked magnificent, even though we had two, sometimes three, baubles on one branch…and yes I did manage not to rearrange it all when they had done unless a bauble was in severe distress.

We then went back up to North Yorkshire with the girls and stayed overnight to look after them at their house whilst mum went to work (who thought it was a good idea to have the children off school for the whole week before Christmas??).

We came home late on Tuesday night quite worn out and slept well…too well, and was rather late up on Wednesday morning. We decided we had better get the food shopping done in the supermarket in town and a good job too as it was crowded out and by Thursday many of the shelves had been stripped of certain items like eggs.

On Thursday while DH made a large pan of curry for Christmas Eve, I finished off the little desk calendars I had made for my friends who live locally.

I bought the original desk top calendars for about 50p each in a sale after Christmas at Sainsbury’s before the pandemic with the idea of making my own calendar sheets and re-using the metal stands. All year I have been taking photos around the village of some well known and and not so well known spots.

To make them look more special I slipped them into a cellophane bag and then wrapped them in festive tissue. Nothing goes to waste in this house as I re-used some of the brown paper bags I saved over the years from the sandwich shop when I was working – stamping them with a festive stamp – they made a handy carrier to hold the presents.

On Thursday evening we wrapped all the presents while watching some TV (our only nights’ viewing) and on Friday I cleaned and tidied with a mad dash around with the hoover.

Finally on Christmas Eve morning there was only the trifle and a jelly to make before my daughter arrived with little L and Sweetie. At 4pm after putting some potatoes in the oven to bake we went to church for the Crib Service which is the start of my Christmas. The point where everything is done and I can sit back and enjoy. My elder daughter and Freddie joined us for tea after the service and we all tucked in to a hot meal of baked potatoes and lentil curry.

Afterwards the children decorated the Christmas cake with snowmen, penguins and santa…and lots of little icing decorations – it was a very serious job taking a lot of concentration….

…and is probably a little crowded but I think they do so well and I love it.

I especially love the look on Santa’s face!

Once it was finished to their satisfaction the three of them opened their Christmas Eve boxes which contain new pyjamas, a Christmas craft to keep them busy and a story book to read at bedtime. With all three changed into their new Christmas pyjamas they settled down to make the craft item – a string of Christmas pictures to colour in and hang up.

When the doorbell went everyone went quiet waiting to see who it was….it was a wrapped present left on our front doorstep saying ‘To open on Christmas Eve’. (DH had sneaked out the back door, put the present on the doorstep, rung the bell and quickly run round the back again and into the living room without the children even realising he had gone). As you can imagine they were so excited as to who could have left the surprise present – we said it might have been the elf – it was a game of Peppa Pig Monopoly suitable for all ages to finish off the evening before bedtime.

Then some very tired children listened to a story, put out the mince pie and carrot for Santa and Rudolph and went to bed followed not long after by some very weary adults.

After today DH and I will be on our own and able to make new plans for the new year. I am always excited at this point – it is like a fresh start and I am looking forward to a good year.

How did your Christmas go?

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creating Christmas * Christmas Day

A Happy Christmas to everyone – I can’t believe I have actually managed to get everything done in time as it was looking a bit shaky a few days ago. I have not had any spare time to blog; mum had a few difficult days and the grandchildren have also been a bit poorly with viruses and needed us to look after them so I have been almost last minute for everything to do with Christmas but I did make my own cards and a few gifts for friends (I made calendars this year – but more on that another time).

After Christmas dinner is over today it will be my time to relax a bit….can’t wait.

I am so looking forward now to the new year and am hoping that I can get back to blogging very soon.

Until then……

I hope Santa brings you all you desire and that you have a wonderful time. xx