Getting a little festive

Let me show you my next flower stem from the wonderful glorious Amaryllis.  This will be its final stem for this year, but if you look closely you will see that four of the buds are blooming, and there seems to be 2 more that will follow in about a week...... can you believe it, this bulb has had 3 stems, the first two stems gave me 4 buds on each, and this last one looks like it will give me 6 flower heads.  I don't think I have had a flower that has given me so many surprises and pleasure for the grand total of around £3.00.  In total this bulb will have produced 14 flower heads.......can anyone beat that?

The last two stems 

Can you see the two extra buds?

Christmas has come to my house...... Yep! we dragged out the deco's and decorated the lounge.  We don't spend Christmas at home, but never want to get to the point of not being bothered to hang a few bits and pieces.   I  have made lots of bits over the years, so the tree is decorated with smocked bells, baubles, mini wreaths, crackers and sprinkled with dripping flower heads taken from a bridal headdress.  There are groups of Angels, some bought, some machine embroidered by a very good friend who used her fantastic embroidery machine to make 'lace like' Angels, some 'Hardanger' Angels, some made with bobbin lace and some Tin ones.  Many of the other decorations have been collected with friends, given by friends, and all have their own memories of when where and who bought them...... Just love Christmas and everything it brings with it.

Lots of memories on this tree

This is what greets you as you walk into the room

The Hardanger Angels sit by the T.V. and on the other side hanging from a silver tree are the machine lace ones,

You can see one of the new cushions

This is the view of the room from the sewing/office room

The 1/4 tree in the corner....such a good space saving idea

Not much sewing going on, but do have one thing to show you.  I have wanted some place mats for ages, so this week was the week to get down to making them.  I had one of those pre cut 'Candy Squares' and although I love pre-cuts, I never really know what to do with them, so adding them to place mats seems a good idea.  I use one pack, then added a couple of extras from my 'stash'.   After I had made the first half dozen I realised I could play with a 'Charm pack' in a very similar way, so someone might be getting some placemats as an extra for Christmas!

This was the Candy Squares 

and these are probably going to be wrapped as an extra Christmas gift.

These were made from the Charm pack

To finish the weekend, we had a beautiful sunset....

Will it be a 'red at night - shepherds delight' day tomorrow?????