On the trail of the lonesome sprout

Facebookers among you will have heard the tale of the single sprout (in a plastic bag) that was the result of an online shopping misunderstanding - I thought it was one pack. There have been hilarious tales of other peoples adventures, including Dorothy's seven bunches of seven bananas. In view of the difficulty of sharing the aforementioned sprout I have decided to decorate it and put it on the tree. Watch this space!

I've been juggling work and Christmas - lots to do on WoW at this time of year but managed to find time for the annual train trip to see Father Christmas. This has been going on for five or six years now and we keep thinking that the older GCs will grow out of it but they are as keen as ever. Although Lauren may have to have a re-think as a Hannah Montana game is a bit infra-dig at eighteen!

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It takes place in our local garden centre and the track has been extended year by year and now is about a ten minute ride. All lit up with fairy lights and the track is lined with toys.

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Good for swoopy photos.

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When you alight from the train (at the grotto) Father Christmas is waiting. It was a new one this year and I think he was a bit unnerved by our GCs en masse. I would be, too! Anyway they grabbed pressies and we took a photo.

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By unamimous vote (theirs) the next stop was the scruffy pub for lunch. This is part of the golf course at the end of our road and is very unstuffy and slightly shabby but the staff are lovely. The boys like the table football, too.

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So a good time was had by all.

Not much about textiles in this blog but I'll just show you one of the pics from Alysn Midgelow Marsden's next Wow article - March issue. A fantastic mix of shrinking plastic, t-shirt transfer paper and stitch. I can't wait for after Chrimbo to try her techniques.

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In the meantime I wish you all a lovely, peaceful Christmas and here's a Displacement Map, (made from the swoopy light pic) to go with the wishes.

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Even fewer sleeps now

As you will gather I am having a few problems in trying to write my blog using my new galaxy tablet. I love it but this is hard work as I don,t seem to have much control over where the pics go.

The pic above shows Elli W, Jane W, Clive and I having a convivial lunch, complete with crackers and party hats. We had a fun time.

The pic below is of the Art Van Go garden. We called in on them on our way to do a talk at the Letchworth Christmas party, which was wonderful fun. I was so surprised at the lovely garden and there is an outdoors area for classes to be especially messy or smelly. Sounds just right for me and I got talked into doing a workshop next year. I always enjoy teaching there.

I am going to quit while I am ahead but if anyone knows how to move pics on a tablet, do let me know.

Apologies for the phantom heading -it was the blog that got away.

Not many sleeps to go

The Christmassy Edition

A lot has been happening here, as usual. It's a good thing that, thanks to the economic situation, I can't afford to retire! Sorry about the rant - I don't really want to hang up my needles yet, but it's annoying to sees one's little 'pot' disappearing.

The Lynda Monk book has been a great hit and I'm so pleased. Apart from being so creative, she is such a delight to work with.

The Christmas season always starts for me with the Stanpit Christmas party. This is held in the hall where most of us local stitchers learned our craft through City and Guilds courses. Sadly, these haven't run for a while, but the party has continued, currently organised by my Beyond Stitch Group. Maureen Beale has been the driving force - a fantastic job she has done, too - but circumstances have forced her to give up. Luckily, one of the other local groups is going to take it on, so it will continue. It must have been going for about thirty tyears and is always such fun.

This year we had Ruby Lever as speaker and she was just great. Look at her lovely work.
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Don't you just love the tassels?

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This made us feel very Christmassy so yesterday Clive and I set to, to wrap up the presents. We lit the fire in the baked bean can, put some Chrissy music on the ipod and off we went.

Clive does the wrapping and Smudge and I get in the way.

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Smudge was disappointed to find that he no longer fits in a plastic bag - even the outsize ones. He used to disappear in them and then scoot round the room at a great rate of knots.
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He had that look on his face that I had when I tried my Christmas glad-rags out the other day, 'I really must go on a diet!'

He has become something of a local character due to his fondness for dogs. As we live on a dog-walking route, he gets to see a lot of them and has made special friends with a Saint Bernard and a Labrador. Luckily they both like cats but it's funny to see him rubbing round them and we often have a little crowd of dog walkers gathered at our gate. He's such a show-off!

A Flickr group is a great idea for Lynda's free online classes, Wabbit. I'll get that going.

Sorry your birdie got 'roughed up' in the ;post, Heather. Is he OK? Do you need another one?