Busy ... busy

I can't wait till tomorrow and I can start an almost 2 week break.  The run up to Christmas has been frantic.  The good news is that Dan came home on Saturday and its been really lovely to have him home!   I  had a great weekend ... I have mentioned my love of a good crafty read and I had given myself an early Christmas treat

I particularly enjoyed Love Embroidery which I think is the same series as Love Patchwork

I want to do a lot more embroidery next year as I have only done  little bits.   I particularly love the freestyle embroidery.   Anyway this magazine has loads of advice, all the main stitches and is a good resource for when I get round to it .... so many projects and so little time.

We also enjoyed a woodland walk 

I think you can guess what came next .... a bath!

I've been dashing to the shops in dribs and drabs as I am not one of these lovely organised people who have everything ready!  Even my crafty pleasures have had a rather intense feel.  Last Christmas I made a little cross stitch picture for a friend

 A rather cross-looking kitty and I thought that it would be good to make a matching one for her this year, as I had a pattern.   It might have been a good idea to start a bit earlier as I actually got it to the framing shop yesterday .... just in time.   I thought I would show you the picutre before the back stitching first, as initially I used to be quite reticient to do the backstitching and even left a few pictures without.  So here we are without any embroidery

As you can see quite bland and definitely unfinished.  Although, I do worry that having spent hours on the cross-stich bit I will spoil it with the rather more challenging and free-style backstitching I think it is clearly much better like this ....

Well all for now.  I'll have a bit more Christmassy news before the actual day!  So until then .... happy preparations.