Merry Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas to all my friends, family and blog readers.

My sister Heidi calls it the 'Silly Season' which I think is very apt. Amber had a few of her friends stay with us over the weekend and they enjoyed playing in the snow.Christmas eve saw a steady stream of customers rushing into the store to buy those last minute gifts. Plenty of them men I might add - funny that :) Many with their young children giving them advice on gifts for Mummy.

There had been no friendly visit from the jolly man in the red suit when we awoke this morning. We had overslept by an hour to find that we had no electricity! Quickly racing down the stairs at 7am, torch in hand Craig and I surveyed the damage. We live in a very old house with its own well and sump pump which, when the power goes off ceases to work and it's amazing how quickly the water builds up. During the night the rain had come down in buckets plus the snow had melted. Our basement was on the verge of being seriously flooded and the actual pump was completely submerged while the contaminated water was rapidly seaping into our well. Not a good start to Christmas day at all. The next plan of action was to wake the girls so they could help bail out some of the water and move everything to higher ground (you can imagine how two rudely awoken bleary eyed teenagers felt about that). Actually they were a big help, lighting candles, phoning the electricity board and moving stuff upstairs all the while giggling, can you believe it?

Luckily we have a really good friend Greg, who lives fairly close by and came to our rescue with his portable generator, we managed to pump all the water out of the basement before it did too much damage.
Finally the panic was over and the daylight streamed into the house and I looked sadly at the forgotten Christmas tree with no presents beneath it. I don't think we would have got away with that a few years ago somehow! No, the days of Santa quietly visiting in the middle of the night, leaving his footprints and nibbling on the mince pie so carefully chosen and placed alongside a glass of milk or wine are long gone for us :(

Heidi take note, enjoy them while you can, they are truly precious and innocent years.

On the bright and less nostalgic side, Craig and the girls were all pleased with their gifts, which did eventually find their way under the tree and the giggling carried on until this afternoon when we were all a little too full of home cooked turkey dinner and terry's chocolate orange. The electricity was thankfully back on by midday and all is well again, we will just be drinking bottled water for the next few days.

So here I am typing away and planning on going downstairs to watch a movie 'Love Actually' a little later this evening with Craig and girls and possibly a glass of mulled wine :)

I got a few special little treats myself under the tree this year including a sweet little Christmas heart in white emboidery anglaise with red trim from my friend Keriann in NZ and arriving in the post from England just yesterday, the Judith Glover 2009 Note Nook Calendar which is adorable and will adorn the wall in my kitchen for a whole year.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Hazel xx

Another special birthday celebration

Last weekend we celebrated Amber's 'real' birthday. I say real because she tried an experimental 'half birthday' in June to see what it would be like not so close Christmas time. The outcome was that although she enjoyed the day it just didn't feel quite right. So, with Dec 1st falling on Monday (a school day) we had a special lunch together at Boston Pizza on Sunday. Her present was a long awaited and well deserved Ipod nano chromatic, or is that a shuffle? Anyway it's a pretty nifty looking gadget. I have a lovely green Ipod that has, wait for it..... a total of 50 songs downloaded and no photos (how embarrassing). Amber's already contains over 500 songs !!! as well as videos, images and photos. She absolutely loves music, all kinds from Indie and jazz to the current pop sounds. This is the child that likes to get up and dance as we are yawning and ready for bed!

My other little girl who is heading swiftly towards her 18th birthday in the summer is suddenly seeming very grown up too. With the upcoming semi-prom only weeks away she began a little project and turned this.......

Into this! I would like to call her a 'chip of the old block' but I'm not particularly fond of the word 'old' . She is most certainly creative in her own right and very determined, not needing a stitch of help from me, as she created a sweet little dress that is unique and was admired by her friends on the night.

Both Jemma and Amber had a great time at the school semi-prom dance, Amber wore a pre-loved black taffeta number that had been altered to fit perfectly by her big sister too!

Today it's 6.30 am. as I write this and I have a Saturday off work - yippee!! Why am I not having a lie in you may well ask. I just have too much on my mind and don't want to miss a minute of the day I suppose. Also I was feeling in the mood for writing a blog post :)

My Etsy orders are doing fine considering the little time I spend working on promoting! I have had a few local orders through word of mouth. My friend Mel requested a couple of tiny Westies with the initials BFF embroidered on them for her young daughter and best friend to remember each other by. They are soon to be moving to another part of Canada. I was so keen to give them to her that I forgot to take a photo, so perhaps I will make a couple more and list them as a pair in my shop. Also had a cow request to complete a farm set locally and a custom brown bunny using my guinea pig pattern!

Traditionally the weekend following Amber's birthday is decorating time! This morning Craig is going to collect the tree they picked out last weekend and after a quick shop for groceries I shall return for a family tree decorating afternoon, which I shall endeavor to report on next weekend if I get the chance.

Hazel x