Brrr!

 This was Boxing Day night, when the snow started to fall...and fall.  By the following morning, a lot of it had gone but we were left with the slush and the cold.  It's not the cold of Canada, but after quite a warm and mild autumn, it is a shock to the system.  I don't really like the snow as it causes so much trouble, but it is beautiful to look at.

 This morning it was really frosty, although it did give me the opportunity to take more photos in the garden. (They are a little blurry, but you get the idea!)

 Hydrangea Arborescens Annabelle...

 ...Hart's Tongue Fern...

 ...Penstemon...

 ...the blackened and frosted flowers of an aster

 ...and the black leaves of Ophiopogon planiscapens nigrescens - Black Lily turf - which look wonderful with a frosty outline.

On a positive note, this little primrose is trying to flower - probably a couple of months early!

Questions and Answers

The lovely Alison at farmhouse traditions recently nominated me for a Liebster award.  It means I need to answer some questions she has set and then nominate other blogs I like and follow, to do the same. While I am very happy to answer the questions, I won't be nominating any other blogs from my long list, but if anyone wants to join in, please do.
Here we go:
What's your favourite craft?
I have two in particular - Jewellery making and felt making.
What's your home area like?

I live towards the eastern side of the UK, in a large rural county. I live in Lincoln itself, which has a Cathedral and Castle. The area I live in is is predominantly terraced housing, dating from Victorian times onwards.
What's your favourite childhood memory?
Holidays spent in Hunstanton, in Norfolk.  Going to the fair and riding on the gallopers, eating cream cakes and making sandcastles on the beach.
What's your day job?
I work as an administrative assistant in a University.
What's your favourite animal and do you have pets?
My favourite animal - I like members of the cat family but I also like the elegant lines of the greyhound.  Yes, we have two cats: Scruffy (in the box) and Ginny (on the chair).

  

How are your happiest days spent?

Visiting gardens with good friends or being creative at home.

What are your dreams for the future?

On a personal and selfish level, I would like to age gracefully without too many aches and pains, continue to be able to enjoy my crafts and upsize, so that I can have a studio/craft room and the craft materials will not intrude into the rest of the house!

What's your favourite quotation?

I have lots, but this one sprang to mind:

"No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent" Eleanor Roosevelt.

Well done for sticking with this post! In case you feel like joining in, here are a couple of questions for you to ponder:
What is your favourite book and why?
What is your favourite food or recipe?
Is there a craft which you would like to try?

My little polymer clay Christmas trees appeared on the TV yesterday - I sent a photo of them in to the Wall of Fame (where you can send in photos of your work, as long as the materials are predominantly bought from Jewellerymaker) on Jewellerymaker and they were featured! (Apologies for the flash off the TV screen).  As you can imagine, there was great excitement for those few seconds!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Christmas making and baking - despite my creativity going AWOL!

 For some reason, even though I have been enjoying time off work, my creative muse appears to have left the building! I just haven't really felt like being creative.  I know that this is sometimes the way, and I do try to make the most of those times when the muse strikes.  Before creativity deserted me, I did make some polymer clay Christmas trees, using liberal amounts of glitter.

They are very simple, stand about 6 cm tall, use up some scrap clay and were quite satisfying to make.

I have also made the my usual iced star biscuits which I enjoy making.  I hope that over Christmas I will feel that I want to finish my tunic dresses and skirts, make jewellery and perhaps even make some felt...of course, if not, there is always eating, drinking, watching TV and reading!

Christmas Cracker swap

I have been taking part in Tracy's from Mad About Bags Christmas Cracker swap for the past three years and it is a lovely one to do as you are limited to what can be fitted inside a kitchen roll, which gives you a real challenge.  This year, I was paired up with the lovely Alison from  fatdormouse and View from the Teapot.  We emailed and I discovered that she didn't sew, so she asked whether I could wrap the cracker in paper, for paper crafting, rather than material. Of course I could!  We found out about likes and dislikes and then got on with the making and buying.  We swapped our crackers and here's what I received:

 A cracker with an added extra of the most beautiful rich purple coloured felting wool...

 ...and when I opened it up...well!  What a lot of goodies!  Alison had even drawn a zentangle picture featuring a cat, which was also ingeniously wrapped around the cracker.

 Lovely buttons, a necklace, a key ring, two corn dolly decorations (which will be going on the tree), chocolate coins...

lollipops, ribbons, mints, toiletries - how lucky I was!  A HUGE thank you to Alison for her generosity

Here's what I sent (although, rather foolishly, I forgot to take a photo of the wrapped cracker): hot chocolate, Lindt bears, a felt heart, star decoration, quartz earrings, ribbons and cosmos seeds.

I found this rather gorgeous hand made paper so wrapped that around the kitchen roll before wrapping in paper and adding ribbon.  It was a lovely swap, so thank you to Tracy for organising and many thanks to Alison.  

Winter has arrived

It can't be denied any longer, yesterday morning, Winter had definitely arrived with the first real frost of the season. I took a few photos of the frost on the plants - above is one of the blueberries.

It looked like a dusting of icing sugar on the flowers of Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle.

 They looked really quite beautiful.

 Frost on the rose leaves...

... and highlighting the edges of the Penstemon leaves

Although it means that autumn is over, Winter does has its own beauty.