So much to do and so little time – maybe that is better than so little to do and so much time?  I often find if I have time I will fill it with something and Christmas is no different. Just when I think oh yes I am nearly done you can guarantee I will be off on another project – just fitting one more thing in. I can’t say it has been any different this year but I do get carried away with all the Christmas making and baking and never feel I have done enough.
Anyway to the Advent task on day 18 – this was one of my favourites a bit of repurposing.
A while ago I sorted through a bag of vintage table linens and crotched doyleys that I acquired when my mum moved out of our family home a few years ago. They had been passed on to her from my grandma.  I washed and pressed the ones I wanted to keep and took some to charity, but there was one or two that had bad stains on them that I couldn’t remove. I kept them and began thinking of what I might do with them as I loved the fabric.
One of the items I kept was a small round tablecloth that you would put over a little side table. The fabric is a white Jacquard linen – the type you will have seen old-fashioned napkins made of – edged with some cotton lace which may or may not be hand-made. Because of the stain it was no use as a cloth anymore so I thought about what I might do with it.
Then recently I saw it in the drawer with my sewing bits and had an idea. I decided to make little Sweetie, my new granddaughter, a little Christmas stocking for her first Christmas. I only had a few hours to make it so it is not my best sewing and the beading is a bit wobbly but my daughter likes things to look homemade so it won’t be a problem.
So now little Sweetie has something that once belonged to her great, great grandma to keep.
But you will need to keep it a secret until Christmas Eve (and her real name too!)
Only a few more days to go now so I hope I can complete my Advent activities posts in time. Apologies again that I am out of sync with the actual days – but you can’t have everything – life has a way of taking over sometimes. x
Day 17 – I swapped my Advent task today to make the mince pies – after all Christmas would not be Christmas without them even though I can only eat one or two as they don’t really agree with me now. I often bake these tiny ones as they make a lovely token gift and this batch was to take in to my old workplace for my former colleagues.
The thickness didn’t affect the taste though, the pastry was ‘melt in the mouth’ with no soggy bottoms. After a dusting of icing sugar I packaged them up onto these little white trays (I collected during the year from Chocolate Mini Rolls) lined with a doyley and added a sprinkling of confetti – green metallic holly leaves. 
I also took in a tray of the chocolates. Well it is Christmas.
Day 14 – on Friday my Advent task was to make a tray of my now famous chocolate for the neighbour’s get together that evening. This year I found a tub of miniature meringues reduced to 30p in Waitrose and these were sprinkled on the half with tiny fudge and honeycomb pieces. The other half of the chocolate had fruit, nuts and ginger pieces. The whole slab is laced like a spider’s web with white chocolate and when it is set chopped or broken into square pieces. It is as my friends say ‘just far too moreish’.
I kept some of the chocolates to take a packet in to my old work place for my colleagues to share.
Day 15 – Saturday – after getting home at 2am in the morning (it was a good night!) I didn’t have a very early start and it took a while to come round and eventually I had another go at printing my lino cut Christmas card. 
This year I tried creating a more stylised robin and nothing has gone well with it. The black ink has taken ages to dry and I swear some of the cards were still sticky when I put them into the envelopes – even after being in the airing cupboard all weekend. 
All I can say is that it is ‘different’ and I certainly need more practice but I had fun doing them and I shall miss my ’round’ of robins now they are gone to new homes. Each one was so individual I could have given them names!
It is a community in mourning, feeling the loss of a friend and neighbour – many of the locals are calling for a road barrier to be put in place now so this loss of life does not happen again in the future when the sea is at high tide. The sea that I love so much has suddenly become quite a fearful place but even so now I am back in landlocked Yorkshire I miss going to sleep with the roar of the waves in the background.
Our nearest store is – a bit too far away for a our weekly shopping but we always call in on our way to or back from Scotland at the Penrith or Kendal branch. It is packed with photographs of deliciously tempting Christmas fayre to order or buy in store interspersed with a few recipes to make.
So I collected mine yesterday and spent my elevenses this morning pouring over all the Christmas food on offer and a quick look at the recipes in the back. I find it remarkable that Booths can produce such a lovely little book and give it away free – I was a truly happy bunny.
As you may remember from last year I decided to do something different to the usual wreath on our front door so I hung my chicken wire cone 
Pack the front and sides with moss (I had collected a small heap in the summer in readiness). Find an empty jam jar and push down into the cone as far as it will fit and so it is not visible.
Remove the jar again and push some chicken wire into the jar to hold the stems steady when filling with foliage. Fill the jar with cold water and start arranging pieces of foliage. Hold the cone steady in a small bucket then lower the jar into the cone making sure it is a snug fit.
At the moment I am using some dried red hydrangea heads and a dried white one, some ivy and a few holly stems. As we get closer to Christmas I will swap these for eucalyptus, holly and Hypericum like last years.
As you can see I am no florist but it is not too difficult to get a pleasing arrangement. You could add sprayed leaves, ribbon or pretty much anything. Just remember to keep topping up the jar of water.
…a pack of watercolour notelets (right) painted by a local artist to support the Aldouran Wetland Garden and these two pretty little felted Christmas tree cards for each of my daughters – made by a local crafter.
The frilly cake band takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of Christmases past – they would appear each Christmas round our Christmas cake – at 99p I just had to have one. The packet contains an iced ginger cake – we always buy one when we are at the cottage but usually we get the un-iced version – these too are only £1 from Tesco or Morrisons but I have never seen them south of the border. I thought the iced one would be a nice treat for Christmas. 
And on the way home a few small inexpensive things for Christmas from Tebay services of all places – each of these little tissue parcels were a £1 – you will have to wait a while until I unwrap them to find out what is in them.
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