Turkey and Latkahs... of course

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas with all your loved ones around and that you enjoyed sharing your kids magic (unless, of course, you are the actual kids). We had a wonderful holiday spending time with the family where we were swinging our crackers to White Christmas and lighting the channukiah singing Maor Tzur.

For me, the holidays are of nostalgia and traditions, giving plenty and placing a smile, creativity and inspirations. Its a time for love and laughter, board games and great tv. Cold turkey sandwiches and Quality Street. Glasses of Baileys and spoonfuls of trifle. And children. Its all about the children.

We started the holidays with making chocolate rice crispies cakes... for the reindeer's of course

...then a gingerbread house and mince pies... for Santa of course

...checking the tv guide... of course

...and no Christmas would be the same without yarn slipping through my fingers, so what better opportunity than to start the crochet granny square baby blanket that's intended to gift.

Progress on another smock continues.

Wish you all a Happy Channukah.

First light gets lit tomorrow night... remember plant candles right to left and light candles left to right with the Shamash (the tallest most candle).

MIL lives these winter months in warmer climates. She's a regular reader of my blog and a huge complimenter. She's 4 foot, ginger and lovely... and I couldn't ask or pick a better one.

Enough with the shmoozing.

She phones me from her Cyprus balcony twice a week. OK, one of those two phonecalls is to ask her son to call her when he's free, but the other is a sole me / her conversation. We speak for 10 minutes about the weather before we start chatting generally. The conversation:

Me: How's things?
MIL: The weather is glorious here. The best December yet.
Me: Lovely, you keep saying.
MIL: Its cold there, I see, isn't it?
Me: yes, freezing, but don't worry about whats going on here, enjoy there.
MIL: We keep an eye on the weather from the news. Sunday's going to be nice there.
Me: Oh...good...thanks

And it goes on a bit how she's still in her shorts and t-shirts, blah, blah, blah.

Yesterday made me chuckle when she told me that the weather was 11 degrees and that its quite warm here.

Hardly warm, but it still made me chuckle that she knew our temperature. But, it was still hotter there and the best December yet!

In News: I booked my first table at a craft fair. So excited. And nervous.

I'm making applique t-shirts and these skirts. The t-shirts are like the ones in a post further back. Honest criticisms welcome. Any craft fair tips of the trade also welcome.

I'll post details of the fair once I receive the official flyer.

1 week 'til Chruxmas.... yippppeeeeeeee

Ottobre 06/07.

Having heard so much about Ottobre patterns and flicking through their online pattern books I ended up buying the 06/07 Ottobre pattern book from Dots n Stripes (the only UK distributer). I did think about subscribing, but I can't subscribe to another magazine. It was difficult selecting a one off pattern book from the whole library of back issues, but in the end it was the Ollie pants that did it for me, here! The patterns are gorgeous, even nicer (I'd say) than the Japanese magazines - and they come translated!

This particular pattern was ok to construct. I do feel that probably some instructions get lost through trasnlation, however, if you're an intermediate/advanced sewer then I think you'll be fine. The patterns are not marked in any level of simplicity like the Burda Fashion patterns, so I highly recommend reading through (as you should anyway) the whole pattern first.

I did omit the pockets. The reason being that the dress was too small for them and they looked silly. I've constructed and sewn the pockets up already, and I'll save them for the same dress in a bigger size that I plan on making shortly.

My lining and seamings are a bit messy, I need alot of practice!

The Hubby comes in Sat morning from clearing out the car, shticking [laughing hysterically] to himself. Its his Saturday morning ritual - the car cleaning not the hysteria - to clear out the weeks worth of mess that the boys (and I) leave. I tend to leave him to his own devises at 9 oclock on a Saturday morning. But this particular morning something seemed to be up. Did I leave some oddity in the car? Had a passing stranger told him a joke? Did he tell himself a joke?

Turns out it was the next door neighbour.

We've got lovely neighbours next door (the ones that are attached to our semi). Mr neighbour is always outside in his Barbour watching the traffic and Mrs Neighbour is always gardening. Flowers all year around. She wears a cork hat, I guess to ward off those pestulant insects we get year round.

We don't tend to bump into them an awful lot, but when we do we exchange pleasantries. They're not like our old neighbours (Mr and Mrs Noseyneighbours), espcially Mrs Noseyneighbour. I used to have a "coooooeeeeeeeiiiiiii" most mornings. Not great when you've got to fly off to the school run. It got to the point where I'd have to leave the house 5 minutues earlier than my already 15 minutes - to beat school traffic - earlier, Oy.

Anyway, Mr Neighbour called over to Hubby Sat morning. "Good morning, we've just got back from holiday and it seems that everytime your doorbell rings, ours does too!" And they'd just got in from Australia so I guess they didn't appreciate the early post delivery at 8am. Hubby tried it and, yeah, that's what happens!

*giggle, giggle*

Wireless interferance, methinks.

T'was my turquise corduroy fabric that the postman delivered bright and early this morning. I've already started cutting it up! It goes deliciously with the Farmers Market florals.