Misty Mountain

The snow in bitter cold fell all the night...

Well from about 3am onwards apparently.

And we woke up to a 'white world.'

Phaolin loved it...

 

Of course he totally overdid it and we had 3 legged dog for the rest of the day, but considering that by the following morning he was raring to go and play in the snow some more I guess there was no real harm done.

I am so in love with this picture of Phaolin laying in the snow :)

Actually it was a pretty good week.  Friday was himself's birthday so I baked

36 miniature cupcakes!  I iced some as you can see and left the rest plain in case the iced ones were too sweet for the birthday boy.  They weren't and significant inroads have been made into the sweet feast.  Himself wanted to know why I had waited nigh on 20 years into our relationship to start baking regularly!  After the shortbread and gingerbread at Christmas he seems to be quite taken with my baking!  I'm taking it as a win!  In reply to his question all I had to do was look pointedly around our farmhouse kitchen... I'd defy anyone to not want to cook/bake in it.

I took the actual day of himself's birthday as a holiday from work, which coincided with our major snowfall so we had a splendid day taking Phaolin out in the snow and then cosying up inside.  We had bought all the necessary ingredients for us to make home made pizza for dinner and they were truly splendid and when we weren't stuffing our faces with pizza we played our latest MMORPG together or sat curled in front of the fire and TV.

Well we still have snow and being half way up a mountain we are somewhat cut off and if it doesn't thaw soon we will have to resort to using the powdered milk.  Not that I mind, I'm kinda partial to powdered milk if the truth be told, but it would be useful to be able to get to the end of the road at least

In complete contrast to the snow, on the final shopping trip before it all came down I bought these...

They were only a pound a bunch in Marks and Spencers so I bought two and they've been sitting on my kitchen table and in my conservatory cheering me up through all the cold snowy days this last week or so.

It has been a seriously picture postcard world for the last few days.  Been along while since we had snow like this here, being so close to the sea we usually miss out on all the powdery white fun, not this time.  There's an unusual peacefulness to a world free from traffic, where almost everyone chooses to stay home.  It's as if the snow forces the world to move at a slower pace and in my view that's no bad thing.  The only slight drawback for me is that because I work from home there is no such thing as a 'snow day.'  :)

I think I can honestly say I have never seen so much snow on our trees.

And finally...

Snow dog in snow.

O. xxx

Weekend Musings

There's nothing nicer than that point on a Saturday evening when you sit down to read with a glass of your favourite single malt knowing that the weekend is only half over and you still have the whole of a blissfully relaxing Sunday still to go.  Especially when you have managed to get most of what you planned to do done on the domestic front and there's nothing spoiling, no huge pile of laundry or ironing to be tackled, the house is reasonably clean and the crochet projects for next Christmas are all started!!

I was oddly taken with Lucy's crochet Christmas Wreath but I knew there was no way I was going to get one made especially as I was busy with my own Festive Bunting.  However it made a lovely little project to potter around with over Christmas, happily hooking up all the bits and pieces I would need to make some kind of woolly wreath concoction of my own all ready for next year.

 I had a happy time making little pom poms and stuffed crochet balls, and holly leaves and then gathering together all kinds of christmassy odds and ends off crackers and gift wrap and so on.

I've been doing odd little bits for this over the last week or so, starching my stars, one blue one got lost in the bottom of the basket and missed the starching process as you can see.  Deciding on buttons, hunting out my ribbon stash ready for the flowers.

And of course all the lovely old fashioned ric-rac braid...

No idea how this is going to come out but I'm having a really fun time pottering around with it.

Besides the wreath and the corchet presents for next year I have been keeping to my resolution to get one with my monster rainbow ripple.

I had completed the first round of the 26 colours and am now 8 colours into the next round.  I have to admit I'd frogotten how easy and relaxing this pattern is.  It's very pleasant to sit in a evening and just hook along while I watch TV or listen to the radio.  And speaking of hooking along...that's exactly what I'll go and do.  O. xx

After the Winter Festival

There's a distictly bare feel to the house today.  the decorations have all been taken down and everywhere needs a seriously good dust with my new ostrich feather duster.

The big sitting room has gone from looking like this...

 

To looking much more like its usual self.  I can never decide whether to be happy or sad about the end of hte Winter Festival.  In the past the New Year always brought with it that sense of new beginnings and a spirit of adventure as to what the year would bring.  Perhaps it's a symptom of getting older, but now I find myself more reflective as I sit at my desk transferring those all important bits of personal information into my new diary.

All those pages just waiting to be filled with plans and events and reminders and memories, all the minutiae of daily life here on Misty Mountain.

All this rather pensive reflecting was not helped by another kind of sad thing I felt I just had to do this year.  I have done a serious culling of the Christmas Card List.  I try very very hard not to get sad and angry when people can't be bothered to sign a card, stick a sstamp on it and put it in the post, but I find myself asking the same question every year.  If I can manage to hold down a full time, pretty high level job, run a home, take care of my very elderly parents, keep in touch with sundry other elderly relatives etc etc etc and still manage to get several dozen cards written and sent so that they get there in time for Christmas, including ones to far flung places with early posting dates, why the hell can't other people manage to at least return the sentiment.  Yeah I get that some people make a conscious decision to send e-cards and do other things with their money and that's absolutely fine by me because choosing an e-card can take just as long as choosing a snail mail card and brings just as many warm hearted wishes with it.  It's those people (and we all have them) who just never seem to make the effort and then spend their time coming up with excuse after excuse about how busy or just plain disorganised they are.  I have decided that it s pobably better to be without those people than to keep on getting upset over them. There aren't that many after all, and why let the thoughtlessness of a few upset me?  So that's it, decision made, names crossed out, Christmas Yearbook updated... RANT OVER!  This is supposed to be my happy corner of cyber space but I just had to get that off my chest.

Moving on...  Peeping in at the corner of my diary picture is a lovely colourful heap of old fashioned ric-rac braid waiting for this years projects.  I used to love this stuff as a child and remember hours of fun with my grandmother decorating dolls clothes and appliqueing felt items to be given as little gifts to my mother and my aunts.  I began work on a festive wooly wreath a la Lucy but after I had finished my jolly festive bunting there wasn't enough time to get the wreath done as well so I will finish it this month and set it aside for next year.  It will be the first project that uses up some of my lovely new braid.

And of course there were buttons, there are always buttons.  The name on the packet made me smile when it brought back memories of the hours of fun my granny's button box gave me as a child.

Well I guess it's time to have tea and relax with some more crochet.

O. xx

 

2012 in Crochet and Knitting

Having another go with this blog and decided to start with a round up of 2012 crafting.  A poor year for blogging but not a bad one on the crafting front so here are just a few of the completed projects in 2012.  There were other items that I gave away and forgot to take pictures of and some that didn't quite get finished but I'm pretty pleased with most of the things that got made. 

The biggest item was the patchwork granny blanket and I am very pleased with the result.  I have enough yarn left to make a matching cushion so that will be one of the things on the list to make in 2013.  I guess the one I'm most proud of is the Doris Chan sequined evening jacket.  I love the sequined yarn, the jacket fits perfectly and I made it! 

Because we intend to get the bedroom done this year I have taken the rainbow ripple out of hibernation and intend to get it finished this year so that it can finally take up its rightful place on our bed...

I have decided to add a border when the blanket reaches optimum size because I think it will help it to keep its shape as well as adding about 6 inches of overhang on each side of the bed.  Looking forward to getting this one done.

I also have plans to make some fingerless mits to match the totally mad tasseled hat shown in the mosaic and maybe some legwarmers too.   I already have all the matching Mini Mochi yarn so its just a case of 'getting on with it!'

Which is precisely what I intend to do right now.  Hopefully there'll be another entry in the not too distant future meanwhile if anyone happens by this post Happy 2013!