Christmas at Lucy's Cottage

Lovely Hubby enjoying a glass of Bucks Fizz

Lucy in front of her stocking

Whiskers and Lovely Hubby

Whiskers with my new bear - Horatio !

Next door's little boy, enjoying himself despite the rain !

Wine and a fire - what more can you want ?

One Cold November Day

This morning we wrapped up warm and took the dogs to Cod Beck Reservoir at Osmotherley - one of their favourite spots. While we shivered in the wind the dogs swam in the freezing cold water and had a ball of a time. It was good to breathe in the fresh air, smell the damp pine needles and watch the geese swimming and trying to avoid the dogs !

Below are some pictures of our garden which I took this morning. The Autumn-flowering "mums" are glorious:)

The view from our kitchen window

 

Preparations

 This weekend has been a time for preparations - stocking up on food for our pantry from Aldi for the coming months, filling buckets with wood for the fire, making pretty our jars of home made produce to be given as Christmas gifts, baking cupcakes to take for my work colleagues on Tuesday, preparing to go swimming for the first time in over 10 years tomorrow and then to lessons a week on Tuesday ...

Sometimes we overlook how much we have achieved, thinking only of the jobs we didn't achieve. It's important to take stock and note your achievements, however small.

I hope you've all had a good weekend

Fiona x

Autumn Crafting

Pressing leaves

Pressing leaves

Cards made from leaf rubbings

Cards made from leaf rubbings

Cross stitch - in progress !

Today I thought I'd share with you some of the Autumn crafts I have been doing. I've been putting my flower press to good use by pressing some of the beautifully coloured leaves we've had this year. After they've been pressed I'll probably make them into greetings cards.

I've also been doing a lot of leaf rubbings and decided to make those into cards too. I went up into the attic where my stash of card-making materials are and hunted out the background papers I had with Autumnal colours and designs. I'm really pleased with how the cards have turned out. For the leaf rubbings I used Stockmar beeswax crayons which are a dream to work with - the colours are really vivid and they blend together very well. Much better than my cheap £1.00 Wilkinsons wax crayons ;)

I've also been working on a Christassy cross stitch design for the last couple of weeks. I finished the mouse and mistletoe a while ago but the background is taking forever. It'll probably take me another couple of weeks of doing a few stitches here and there to get finished. And then when it is finished ? I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet - maybe make a card, maybe put it in a little frame... Watch this space !

I also bought some Christmassy material today to make jam/jelly pot covers for giving our homemade produce as gifts at Christmas. I have cut some circles but need to go into my Christmas craft stash to find some ribbons and cute bits and pieces to finish those off. Again, watch this space - pictures to follow !

Finally, this picture was too cute not to post - Lovely Hubby with our darling girl, Whiskers, having a snooze on the sofa !

What craft things have you all been up to lately ?

Fiona x

November

The tree outside our front door

November

by Elisabeth Gmeyner

Golden light is turning grey,

Mists begin to rule the day.

Bare the trees their branches lift,

Clouds of dead leaves earthwood drift.

Through the field the farmer goes,

Seeds of ripened corn he sows,

Trusts the earth will hold it warm,

Shelter it from cold and harm.

For he knows that warmth and light

Love there, hidden from our sight,

And beneath a sheltering wing

Deep below new life will spring.

Happy Halloween Everyone

Fire lit, pumpkin carved, peppermint tea steeping and a good book to read :)

This year we have departed from our usual tradition of having a Halloween party for our friend-neighbours. We even turned down an invitation to someone else's party as I haven't been feeling so good lately. And although we haven't bought candy for the little trick-or-treaters (so will have to shut the curtains, watch TV by candle light and pretend we're not at home), I was determined to still make Jack o' Lanterns. Above is my effort this year. Lovely Hubby still has to do his. I keep reminding him but he's putting it off...

Apart from walking the dogs and carving pumpkins (I did one for our friends too), I've done NOTHING today. I feel guilty, but less tired as a result.

Tonight we're having food from the freezer for our dinner and I'm going to do some warm spiced apple juice as neither of us wants to drink alcohol this evening. 

The fire is roaring and I'm ready to hibernate !

Happy Halloween everyone,

Fiona x

Hips, Haws & Holly Berries