Christmas pretty...

Christmas is my favourite time of the year! I love, love, love this time! We don't always manage to spend it at our holiday home, but this year we are here! I love the whole spirit of Christmas, the family time, the friends we see, the wonder of celebrating Jesus' birth....it helps to place the year in perspective and gain strength for the year to come. I adore decorating the house and have collected a lot of very special decorations over the years.

I especially love Christmas decorations that have a homely feel, and if they light up, play music or move, so much the better! Every time we travel overseas, I try to bring back some Christmas decoration from wherever we have been...it serves to remind us of a special holiday each time we take it out and hang it on a tree, or place it on a table....

My all time favourite decoration is a resin figure of Santa kneeling at Baby Jesus' crib in adoration. I have one on my bedside table and one in the lounge....one day when my precious girls are decorating their homes for Christmas they will each have one of this special decoration :)

I have collected several Christmas themed crockery sets as well...however I am still looking for the "perfect" set, something with traditional gold, red and green trimmings, something Victorian and elaborate!

Our Christmas Tree is a large affair, and I have restrained myself from totally covering the tree with huge amounts of shiny things...I can't be sure that it will remain restrained...I may yet give in and overdo things next year! :)

I was pretty happy with my knitting today! I have knitted what I think is certainly the *perfect* short row sock heel...no wraps, no holes, easy peasy....it's called the Sherman Heel, and I may yet do a tutorial when I get back from holiday...have any readers used this heel for sock knitting? Are you as amazed at how perfect it is , as I was? :)

I spent a lovely afternoon with Debbie, chatting, sharing, discussing things ...she is a wonderful person and friend and I am very blessed to have her live so near...

My dear friend Dana and I were chatting yesterday about how much we enjoy learning new techniques in knitting. As knitters, we enjoy the actual knitting , but the intrigue and ongoing fascination with knitting , comes from exploring the seemingly endless variations of doing things with sticks and string! I sometimes knit just to be able to test a technique or try a pattern swatch...so Dana and I chatted about an interesting workshop Dana discovered on Ravelry.

It's called "Swing Knitting", and seems to be a technique using short rows to achieve wonderful wave like variations in your fabric. The workshop comprises 4 parts and the first few parts have both English and German translations. I reckon this will be my "new to learn" goal for the New Year!

Above you can see my bestest Christmas decoration...I am so attached to this figure :)

This holiday has also been a great time to listen to audiobooks! If you have yet to discover Audible, you have just found the perfect Christmas present for yourself! I love audiobooks because I can knit and listen anywhere! Yes, in the car, on the beach, in front of the computer, lying in bed at night, in the bath ...anywhere! And, there are tens of thousands of titles you can buy, including latest releases...check it out here. A subscription to Audible is also the easiest and most appreciated gift for someone that doesn't knit (*Ahhmmmm...*cough*...the DH)...

I made a divine Cape salmon bake for supper with some lovely buttered olive bread and salad. Trifle for desert and a crisp white wine...bliss! Holidays are so right!

Enjoy the evening folks!
♥Heidi

Catching up...and some new activities

Today is a very quick post just to say "Hi", and let you know what I've been up to...I have been a busy little bee in the last few weeks :) Still running a lot at work, but I have managed to squeeze in loads of catch up fun stuff between everything. The staff and I want to decorate the ICU for Christmas, and after much thought, I decided to use paper as our tool for decor. It's relatively inexpensive (as I have wayyyyy too much Scrapbooking paper), and everyone can make something. We wanted the ICU to look bright and colourful, so hot pinks, bright oranges , neon greens, egg yellows and other saturated colours are the main elements.


We are making 3D paper stars, 3D snowflakes, and other paper cutouts to hang on the walls. I found the most amazing range of colourful glitters to add a happy sparkle to the finished items. Hopefully this week will see me making the Santa's Village (in paper of course :) ) for the Nurses station. I hope to make some big and small reindeer as well, and our small Christmas Tree...yes, also from paper.

Above is my Cricut Expression Cutter. I am using a bunch of cartridges with Christmas and Snowflake patterns, to cut out shapes and decorations like these you see below :) Loads of fun and actually quite quick!


I managed to make all the Christmas gifts for the staff as well as little Origami gift boxes to house the gifts, and most of my friends' and family's gifts too...so things are on the way to getting finished :)

I pinned LOADS of pins on my Pinterest Boards for you all to see...so if you need some inspiration for gifts, go and take a look :)


I found the most amazing papercraft and Origami stuff while searching the web for ideas for our ICU...I pinned the best ones for you to see ...


Two weekends ago, I made up a huge batch of Bath Melts (probably around 300 or so), which were Lavender scented...these will be gifted to all my lady/ girl friends and family members.

How is your gift making going? Have you found anything that has inspired you? I'd love to know :)

Have a good evening folks!
♥Heidi