Where Have I Been?

I know I have been AWOL for a while and this is why.  I have a skill, one that I have mastered to a fine art, this skill is called procrastination! Back in April or May I decided to knit my friend a cardigan for Christmas, I'd already knitted her the matching hat and she loved it so this year I was going for the biggy, the cardigan.  I was very organised and bought the wool in July and then finally got my needles out two weeks before Christmas, yes TWO WEEKS!!!  I was doing a full day at work and coming home and knitting until 2 or 3 in the morning to get it done, hence why I've been so quiet on here.

 Was the midnight knitting worth it? Yes it was because she loved it:

I was also busy baking because we decided to have a Christmas bake off at work, this is a cake from Gemma which looked absolutely fantastic:

 Alison made these unusual meringue topped cupcakes:

 I made coffee cupcakes and came second in the competition!

Alfie enjoyed trying to guess what was in my crop advent swap, I really was spoilt with some beautiful stash that I can't wait to use.

 This year was the first year that there was only me and Maddie for Christmas morning, lucky Paul is away in Austria.  We had a lovely, quiet morning before sound levels rose to epic proportions when we went to my 'beautiful' sister, Jemma's, for Christmas dinner:

 Isn't she a knock out?!?! I even managed to appear in some photos this year and here I am with my sisters Jessica and Jemma:

 And with one of my brothers, Jon - my other brother Jamie is in Thailand.

 Maddie joined in with the fun at Jon's playing on the Wii Just Dance Abba with one of my nephews, Archie:

 And then she found time for a picture with her old mum:

 My nephew Jack had had far too much excitement for the day and crashed on the sofa, amidst all the noise and chaos:

 And finally my sister in law, Lisa, the real dancing queen of the night.  All she kept saying as she was dancing the night away was that these pictures better not appear anywhere!  Well we won't tell her will we?!?! :)

The only downside is that my 90 year old grandad got taken to hospital with chest pains on the Friday before Christmas (I promise you he's not the Duke of Edinburgh) I did mention how he was trying to keep up with the Royals though!  Thankfully he is doing ok at the moment and further tests on Wednesday will hopefully tell us what the problem was.

I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas, ate lots, smiled lots and spent time with the people you loved. 

Right now I'm only 27 days behind on my Journal Your Christmas and I have about 4000 blog posts to read so I guess that's what I'll be doing for the rest of the year :)

Thanks for stopping by, can't wait to blog hop and see what you've all been doing.

Jo xx

Story Telling Sunday: A New Word for Christmas!

I had a eureka moment the other day.  I heard a song that reminded me of something and I thought, at last, I have an apt story for Sian's Story Telling Sunday!

This is part of the song I heard:

When Santa got stuck up the chimney

he began to shout

"You girls and boy won't get any toys

until you let me out"

And here's my story:

When Maddie was in nursery she was taught lots of different songs. One Christmas she came home singing a new song she'd learnt, all about Santa getting stuck up a chimney.  She sang it for me but she used a word I'd never heard before, a word that she had created, and I think it's a perfect word for Christmas.  Here is Maddie's version of the song:

When Santa got stuck up the chimney

he began to shout

"You girls and boys won't get any toys
untince you let me out"

How fantastic and very festive is her made up word?!? I could do nothing to convince her that the word she was meant to say was 'until' and, even now at the age of seventeen, she tells me that it is a word that exists!

Yes Maddie, it is a word that exists, a very special word in OUR Christmas vocabulary and I love it.

I hope you like my tale, I hope that your December has got off to a good start and I hope you'll pop over to Sian's and see the other stories and even tell one of your own.

Thanks for stopping by

Jo xx

December's Here

And so are my advent presents!

This year I've finally decided to join in the advent swap with the girls at my crop. A present a day for 25 days, can't be bad!

As I'm still stuck in my sick bed Santa's Little Helper delivered my parcel today because I missed the little get together they had the other evening. It looks gorgeous:


How cute is that and how cute is this?:


It's full of lovely gifts:


And, when I feel better and can really enjoy it, I shall start opening them :) thank you Santa.

It's nearly the weekend and, if I'm well enough, I shall be putting up the tree.

Hope your week is going well
Jo xx

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What a Difference....

.....a year makes!!!!

30th November 2010 - snowed in!

30th November 2011 - sunny and dry!

I am not getting any better and it's getting me down now, like a trooper, I'll be back at work tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by
Jo xx

I Have Returned!

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I last blogged, the time has flown by.

I have been busy:

Knitting a hat for Paul - because it's getting cold and I want to make sure he keeps warm :)

Baking Christmas cookies - yes I'm aware I'll get through a few more batches before Christmas is here :)

Baking coffee cupcakes - because we're having a "Bake Off" at work and I want to practise :)

Spending time with my nephew, Gorgeous George

Having more ink added to me - Paul is so talented, didn't sketch it out just inked it straight on :)

Cuddling up with Alfie

And I even managed to squeeze in a layout

I love the look on Maddie's face when she realised she was sitting right behind the horse's rear end when we went on a horse and cart ride in Weymouth.

I used papers and embellishments from Cosmo Cricket's Odds & Ends range that I got in one of my Gotta Craft kits.

And some very old flowers!

Today I am off work ill, Maddie was ill yesterday and, on top of the cold I already have, I've picked up her lurgy!

I hope you're all having a great week. I'm sorry the post is photo heavy I won't leave it so long next time :)
Jo xx

Gulp!

I was telling a friend the other day about a little superstition I have, well it's not really a little one, it's a MASSIVE one.  To cut a long story short because of heartbreak in the past I have a very silly superstition and it's to do with photos.  I have about two photos of me and Paul together, just TWO in the four years we've been together.  I'm scared that if I have lots of photos of him then I could be tempting fate for the relationship to end.  I know that it's stupid but even as I type this I'm wondering if I should post it!

Anyway, my friend knew I was going to see him this weekend and demanded suggested that I take a photo of the two of us, so I did and it's here:

Me and Paul together, looking happy after a great weekend together.

There, I did it :)

Hope your week has kicked off to a great start.
Jo x

It's Been a Hell of a Week

This week has been really awful and I haven't had a chance to be creative or blog.  Firstly I noticed a really bad smell of gas at work, then the boiler blew up! So we've been sitting chillin (literally) in the office.  Then the computer system went down closely followed by the phones.  Then yesterday, to top it all, my iPhone stopped working, it seems that if you don't sync or upgrade the software for 2 years then it will do that.  After 8 hours of it being hooked up to a life support machine, AKA iTunes, I managed to revive it. Whew.

Anyhoo, my last blog post talked of me having to do a layout for a deadline that had just whooshed past.  I did that layout and I did it in 45 minutes, not bad eh?

It tied in nicely with the spots and stripes prompt for the Pretty Paper Party and it's Maddie panning for gold, by the look on her face I'd say she was successful :) Terrible photo of the layout I know, it's the only thing I hate about winter - no good light to photo layouts.

Another trip down the motorway for me to see Paul later, can't wait because he's been in Bruges today and rumour has it that there's some chocolate heading its way back to me.

Hope you have a great weekend.
Jo xx