MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Gathering at the Chapel

Merry christmas to all my followers and anyone who pops in from time to time. My first year of blogging has been a great adventure, where I have met many lovely new friends, seen wonderful photos of beautiful cities and homes and been allowed to peek into other bloggers lives and dolls house collections. This year has seen the opening of our own little Etsy store and we were thrilled to be accepted as members of AIM - Artists In miniature and even have one of my cross stitch patterns published in the AIM Advent Calendar. On a personal note, it has been a hard year, with Hywels major accident, but many of my blogging friends have been there to offer words of support either on comments or via email and that has been wonderful. I know some of you have also had a hard year healthwise and I hope 2010 will be healthier for us all.

Next year, I will be working on my little shop that Hywel has been making me for christmas, so I will be popping that on the blog. To finish of this post, I have popped some photos of my christmas miniatures on, I hope you will like them and maybe they will inspire some!

A couple of little christmas presents to myself!!

Everyone has been popping pics of their christmas trees on, so I had to be awkward and pop a pic of my fireplace on :0)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.
Have a lovely day and see you all after the big day ;0)

Julia and Hywel xxx

Christmas at Pumpkin House

Well, christmas is nearly upon us and I am still rushing around, where did the time go? But today I have a little spare time as I can't get the car out of the drive, so I have to stay put!! The snow missed us, but we had lots of sleet which froze in a thick layer overnight. Our drive is very steep and is like an ice rink, we started to try and de-ice at 6.30 this morning and gave up at 7.15. We used 2 tins of de-icer, but it was useless, the slush just kept freezing back up, before we could wipe it off!
Anyway, as I have a little time, I thought I would show you the little christmas bits I have put in Pumpkin House.  Hope you like it :0)

And here is a snippet of my christmas present! Hywel is making me a little shop, I have seen it as it progresses, but I am not allowed to touch untill christmas Day :0(

Christmas at Victoria Villa

 
I haven't had a lot of time to decorate Victoria Villa for christmas, but I thought you might to see what I have done. Excuse my tree, it looks a little scraggy, but it is on my 'To Do' list for next year!

I think you should just be able to see the christmas card on the fireplace, it is a little handsewn card, there is another one on the side table below.

Cook has been busy in the kitchen, cooking up lots of yummy christmas cakes and cookies. So busy, in fact, she's too tired to eat her piece of cake!!

The view through the conservatory window, sorry,  not a great photo, the light kept bouncing of the glazing.

And thats all I have managed to do!!! I am off out now for a christmas meal with the girls from work :0)

Julia xx

Making Christmas Cards

I have been busy stitching christmas cards of late. They are 'Real life 'size and are stitched using my favourite blackwork. This is the first year I have made cards and if I say so myself, I think they turned out ok!!! They were nice to stitch, but as usual, I left things a little late and ended up rushing the night before I was due to go my mums with them. Well, because I was rushing, clumsy fingers decided to appear and  I lost a needle.... still haven't found that one... be careful when you sit down, kids! Then I dropped the reindeer button, we hunted high and low and couldn't find him, so I had to use a different one, only to find him in full view in the middle of the floor when I was tidying away? There are naughty pixies at work here, I am sure! Then... to top it all off, just as everything was packed and tidied, I turned around and knocked the chess board.... all over that now tidy floor... arghhh. That will teach me for rushing :-(

Today, I have managed to be a little organised and I have sorted out the children's xmas presents. I like to make sure they each have the same amount of presents, as we open the presents one at time by the tree. Well, Little Meg is one short, so I am going to try and stitch her a normal size sampler for her new girlie bedroom. Hmmn.... did I just say I was organised? How long have I got left to stitch it, 10 days? I better stop nattering and get sewing!

Julia xx

PS I was outbid on the special item I wanted for my santa cabin, it was Julie of Bellabelles dolls Mrs Claus and she was delightful. It has to be fingers crossed for next year now!