Nice Things!

Phew!
I'm quite glad that last week's now over - nothing wrong with it at all, just busy. Fortunately, most of the time was spent on enjoyable tasks...

One evening last week, six of the mums got together to make Christmas felt decorations to sell at the local nursery's Christmas Fair which was held yesterday. I had meant to photograph all the ones we'd made but forgot. They included hearts, stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, gingerbread men and penguins. I took rather a fancy to two I'd made and they didn't actually make it to the fair (they are the Christmas tree and the snowlady shown above) and last night I finished making the robin and the Christmas pudding - it's a shame I didn't have these two designs ready earlier, but there's always next year...

Some homebaking activity was also scheduled, including...

...making tablet, yum! I took some photos while I was making it so will publish the hitherto top secret recipe next post.

At the fair I was one of the volunteers manning the homebaking stall and so got first choice of all the goodies on sale. I came home with rather a lot, most of which has now been devoured including two other tablet offerings - must keep track of the competition!

I was recently the lucky winner of a giveaway hosted by Beth of The Linen Cat and last week I received my prize.

First out the box were these three lovely hanging bird ornaments. I was thinking of making a feature of purple and gold in my Christmas decorations this year so these are perfect! Not that I'm waiting till I've got my tree up before displaying them - they're currently dangling from our standard lamp (on the scrolls visible here - my Lucy crochet bird has been relegated to my daughter's bedroom as she liked it better than I did in the end!)

Next...
...was this beautiful sugar plum fairy. She's going to look fabulous on top of the tree (replacing the rather wonky star we've been using for about ten years).

I was delighted to win the giveaway as I do like Beth's work a lot.

We've been having some rather dramatic skies here recently. I managed to ge a photo of this one just before collecting A from nursery one day.

And the sky was mostly blue earlier today when I photographed some of the snowflakes we've made and which are now hanging at the window.

I wasn't able to make my usual Saturday morning bike ride this weekend due to the Christmas fair. After all the homebaking I've scoffed in the last 24 hours I could really do with some exercise! I did work quite hard at the concert on Friday night, there being only two of us in the bass section. The concert was pretty much sold out as usual, I think the audience quoted was 2300 people. £7500 was raised in the collection during the interval and overall (with ticket fees, sponsorship etc) the concert typically raises £35000 for CLIC Sargent so it's time well spent on the part of the orchestra.

Finishing of this collection of bits and pieces from last week...

... some holly offcuts left on the picnic table made even more beautiful by the frost one morning.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Oh, and by the way, the tablet recipe I use is still the nicest I've tasted so far...