Notes to Self...

Christmas and another birthday safely out of the way (and the birthday party -seven 11 and 12 year old boys taken swimming). And a New Year. Happy New Year!

So here are the notes to myself for next year:

1) Start Christmas sewing in January (once I've finished the stuff from 2011). You will still have not enough time, but at least it may stop the months of dithering about what to make exactly....

2) When cooking the giblets for stock for the gravy, do NOT use half a red onion. It may be good use of the one remaining from making coleslaw, but anyone seeing the stock before it becomes gravy may well refuse to eat it (Gravy Browning, I love you)

 (Believe me this picture does not do it justice - it was a very weird greeny purple, and would not have looked out of place in the Harry Potter prop department)

3)Make sure Boxing Day is commitment free - because there is no way that you will get anything done for Child 1's birthday on the 27th before then. Midnight *wrapping of presents is bad enough on Christmas eve, let alone boxing day too.

4)Embrace Fly lady NOW - that way there may be Christmas lights up outside before Christmas, and the tree may actually be up more than a week......just saying.

5) Chocolate Orange does NOT count as one of your 5 a day (the figure on the bathroom scales this morning just confirms it)

And as a final note - am I the last person to discover the "Queen" on Twitter ?


* In fairness I should point out that this year, I gave a big pile to DH as well, and headed off to bed around midnight when I had finished my pile.

A Finish!

Sadly not my tree skirt - that is at the point of being half quilted (It is my first attempt at free motion quilting, and I am still terrified of it!) It might make it under the tree by New Year.

I have managed though to complete two crayon folders as part of the Christmas presents for some dear friends' 2 little ones.

I fussy cut a picture from some of the fabric used inside and raw edge appliqued it to the front - this way they can always tells whose is whose! That and the different coloured elastics that keep them closed. I considered putting their initials on the front, but I am struggling to find a font that I like that increases to the size I want with the proportions I'd like!

They nearly didn't get posted though - I discovered that my box of brand new crayons mysteriously didn't contain enough to fill them both, so there was a mad dash to buy some more on the way to the post office (I am currently very thankful for Gift bags) where we just got to in time, by the skin of our teeth

(By the way, they are much better than the first one I made - I used a linen fabric for the outer this time and paired it with a lightweight fusible fleece - I also used a lightweight interfacing on the inner fabric and the whole thing works so much better)