December Favourites

 Happy New Year. Not something we tend to celebrate despite Scottish ancestry only two generations back, and I expect to be in bed and asleep before the clock strikes 12. 

I have a few favourite cards from December. The first was for my brother's anniversary.  The third was primarily to use up the selfie frame which I had backed with embossed vellum and it just didn't work for whatever I expected it to at the time. 

The busker with his dog was cut from gorgeous black velvet, and in looking for a simple background, I thought that particular gel print looked a little longer a swirling  pavement.

Despite my best efforts and intentions, I will have no photos from December to use as a blog header when December 2022 rolls around. I've been keeping an eye out, but it's been a pretty grey and dull month, mostly.  And I forgot to update my header for Jan 22 before turning the PC off, so my second job tomorrow will be to see what photos I might have from January 2021 to use as a header. First job is to move my two-day Italian bread recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi onto the day two processes early enough to have it baked by lunchtime.  Right now the biga is rising. 

Christmas wishes

I was given a kit with felt animal ornaments last year, and have slowly been making them. This polar bear was my first attempt. There was a deer and a penguin which have both found homes elsewhere, and a less successful fox who looks as if he is wearing black wellington boots, a bit odd.

The snowman was also a kit for needlefelting on a form. The instructions required a lot of hot-glue gun work, which I did without altogether, managing to felt the nose onto the head and the head onto the body, and using black roving instead of sticking buttons on. I also wasn't very taken with the enormously thick brown felt supplied for the hat and scarf, and thought I would rather knit the little bobble hat from Arne and Carlos's Field Guide to Knitted Birds - having knit one for Lorraine I had an idea the size was probably about right. But those tiny pompoms aren't easy.

 

November favourites

...are very thin on the ground, but as we have reached December I'll include a couple of Christmas cards I was particularly happy with.

The blog header is some borage flowers on a frosty morning last December. I was interested to find it in my December folder, as it's in full bloom at the moment. And yet it feels very late to me - I'm sure we saw it in borders in the gardens in Fota when we were there in July. Maybe mine is late because I sowed it too late and it was so dry. Surely a flower used as the traditional garnish for Pimms should be a summer flower. I planted it for the bees, but by the time it finally flowerd there weren't many around.