Christmas Shopping has started.

Hello again.

Well the Christmas shopping has been started.

I spent a good 4 hours trooping around Cheltenham and got a few bits (and a few things for me!) I had jolly sore feet at by the finish and had to give them a soak and a bit of TLC when I got home.

I also bought a few new decorations.

To me Christmas is all about the house looking pretty and spending time with the kids snuggled around the fire playing board games and enjoying each other's company.

I L~O~V~E decorating the house at Christmas and this year me and DD have decided that the main theme will be pink/purple/blue. I say main theme ~ this will be in the living room.

Other areas of the house ~ hall and kitchen will be different.

I do go a bit wild ~ it takes me a good few days to get it just right ~ and NOBODY is allowed to change anything on the tree. :-)

I've had a bit of a tidy up in the garden, the Clematis Cirrhosa which flowers right through winter is looking lovely. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

I found these Echium Pininana seedlings under the Buddelia.

Not very interesting at the moment but the picture below shows the last time we managed to get some through the winter. I'm sure I have a better picture than this but I have (literally) taken hours trying to find this one.

This has told me two things:

1. I need to organise the photos better and

2. I must ask Father Christmas for a digital photo frame so we can actually view the (thousands of) pictures that are sitting on the Mac doing nothing.

What this picture doesn't show are the stunning blue and pink flowers that appear between the leaves when these flower. I've wrapped up the seedings with fern leaves hoping they will survive the winter. Watch this space!

On the knitting front I've nearly decided that the Herdwick Jacket will be better as a waistcoat so I'm going to take the sleeves off.

I realised why I haven't added the buttons to the Purple Garter Swingy Jacket ~ I don't like it, I'm not sure why because I really liked the pattern and love the top down construction but I've tried it on and poked and prodded but can't make it look any better. I've another pattern in mind for the fabby Rowan Aran Wool and will knit straight from one to the other.

I'm also making a really chunky waistcoat in the Stylecraft Life Super Chunky that I got other the day so hopefully it'll be done soon.

Hope you don't get too much much cold weather and snow this week.

Have a good week. Clicky Needles.