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Hello everyone and hope you are all keeping warm in this seasonally cold weather...it took a while to get Wintery this year but I think we can definitely say that it's arrived. I'm sitting on the sofa with the Christmas tree lights twinkling away, waiting for the daylight to get a little stronger so that I can start work without straining my eyes.
I really do enjoy putting up the decorations and especially the trees. I have this one in the lounge and a really old one in the window of the Doo Lally Pip room. The star of the "lounge tree" this year is my new traditional glass snowman which was an early gift from Heather.
I think he's adorable!
Well, after all the long hours of work I put into getting things made for my stall at the Poulton Christmas Festival the morning finally dawned when I had to get myself wrapped up like Scott of the Antarctic! It was a 7.30am start to be ready in time...there were tables to be brought out from Church, a gazebo to be erected and then the job of setting out my wares and hoping that the forecasted rain would stay away - it didn't! It was quite windy too...the worst combination of course - so I had to lash the gazebo to the benches that were behind me to stop it from being carried away on a strong gust. Thankfully the rain came in short bursts so it was a case of hurriedly moving things to protect them from the wet which I mostly managed to do.
I was against the Church wall which gave me a bit of protection at least. It was a cold day of course, but not quite as freezing as I'd feared it might be, although there was a rather surprising hailstorm in the afternoon with large stones that covered everywhere in seconds!
I was there until 6.30pm so it was a very long and tiring day - aching feet and legs for a couple of days afterwards and I fell asleep very quickly that night! It looked very festive as the sun went down and we had the lighting of the Crib at 4pm with carols and the Churchyard tree also being lit.
You can see how many layers I had on beneath my coat...I struggled to bend in the middle!!!
It was a really enjoyable day and, thankfully, my creations sold well. I had a surprise visit from Jacqui and Christine who had travelled over for the afternoon...lovely to see you ladies! Heather came for a few hours too and manned the stall while I nipped for a "comfort break"!
I didn't have a great many of my mixed media pieces left but I've put what I didn't sell on the day onto my Etsy shop shelf now. Here are a couple of them...
...sorry about the reflections of my conservatory net curtains in the mirror!
Speaking of my mixed media techniques, Christina from A Maze of Memories sent me the link to show me what her customers had been up to in their scrap club. You can see their results here. I love what they've done using the white backgrounds!
On Saturday I had planned to do the neglected housework and give everywhere a good "Spring" clean before putting up the decorations. I was so tired when I woke though (I must have looked a charming sight, shuffling around with stiff ankles and leaning my head back so that I could peer through my half closed eyes!) that I decided to have a lazy day instead. However, after a strong coffee and warming up a bit, I gave myself a kick up the rear and set to work. The Doo Lally Pip room had become a disgrace....
....shocking mess!!! But, after some determined tidying, it looked like this....
I gave everywhere else the same treatment but I will say that nobody is going to be allowed to look into the spare room until after New Year! Lol!
Sunday was a madly busy day too as I was on duty at the 8 am service at Church which meant another early start and then I stayed for the 9.30 am service which is the one I usually attend. The Sunday school children were performing a play for us so you may imagine that there were some extra smiles all round! Then it was coffee with friends from Church and some much needed grocery shopping which I had to carry home through yet more hailstorms....it was very crunchy underfoot! I warmed up and confess to a small snooze (!) before it was time to walk back to Church for the lovely Christingle service....
...myself, Jane and Rebecca holding our Christingle oranges. In case you don't know, the orange represents the world, the cocktail sticks represent the four seasons, the sweets and fruits on the sticks represent God's gifts to us, the candle is the Light of the World and the red ribbon around the orange represents the blood of Christ.
We all made a big circle around the pews in Church and then our candles were lit from one to another...such an atmospheric service.
Yesterday, apart from adding the items to my Etsy shop (which took quite some time) I decided to have a really lazy day and just sat on the sofa watching Christmas films with the company of Thomas and Tara. I didn't even feel guilty!
Today though, it's back to work and I have lots of drawing to get on with in readiness for new stamps designs. So, as I think it's as bright as it will ever be today, and as I've warmed up a bit now, I had better get started!
2 comments:
Hmm! Dark here too! I think this is it! Glad your day went well even though you had the dreaded rain! Still to get our tree up - probably today as we have appointments and visitors coming up at the end of the week! You deserved your rest yesterday! Hugs, Chrisx
Your stall looked lovely and I am not surprised that you sold nearly everything!
Keep warm - and looking forward to those new designs in the spring!
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