Advent Calendar, Day 21: Candy Cane

On to the last row now - can't believe how close we are to the actual day...

Advent Calendar, Day 20: Christmas Crackers

This is one of the little squares where the pattern wasn't included in the original advent calendar pattern - the pattern is Canadian, and I'm not sure crackers are a big thing there. However, they are big here and I decided it would be easy enough to do a pattern myself. I can't remember which other ones I made up the pattern for (perhaps the sled, which we haven't used yet this year), but I think there were a couple. Anyway, the crackers weren't chosen for any particular reason, but just because.

Advent Calendar, Day 19: Heart

No particular reason for the heart today, but then again, what day isn't a good day for a heart?

Advent Calendar, Day 18: Bell

Alex chose this one today, linking it (tenuously, perhaps) to the fact that their band (parts of it) played Christmas carols at a local train station this evening. 

Advent Calendar, Day 17: Christmas Tree

A bit of a dilemma today; usually we put the Christmas tree picture up on the day we decorate the tree and the Gingerbread Man picture up on the day we do Christmas baking. In a move created of desperation and necessity, we did BOTH of those things today (it was a long day). So, which picture to put up? As you can see, the Christmas tree won..

Advent Calendar, Day 16: House

Sarah chose this one today because she came home from uni for the holidays. So a house seemed like the right choice.

ATC Friday: Bird Deck (Spades)

I've been showing my bird deck; these are the spades. Next week, hearts - and that'll be the end of the deck.  I wonder how many different artists I have cards by? Might try to work it out - I'm sure it's not 52, but I bet it's a lot!

Advent Calendar, Day 15: Rudolph

Reindeer time. Coincidentally, I also wore some reindeer earrings and a black scarf with gold reindeer on it today. I didn't choose the reindeer, though - Olivia did.

Advent Calendar, Day 14: Present

Grandma's choice today - again, no particular reason for it, just chose it for the look.

Cross Stitch Update: Christmas Angel Nemesis

Been working on the border this week - not a huge amount done, but you can begin to see the shapes of the letters in the bottom left corner. There are a lot of half stitches, which takes a while to do. But it's getting there...

Advent Calendar, Day 13: Christmas Lights

Another choice - this one Alex's - with no particular motivation. 

Advent Calendar, Day 12: Candles

No particular reason for this choice today, just liked this picture.

Advent Calendar, Day 11: Father Christmas

About time for a Father Christmas, doncha think? Alex chose this square this morning, and coincidentally, Father Christmas visited my classroom today, so it was a good choice, as it happens.

Beginning to look a bit fuller now...

Advent Calendar, Day 10: Snowman

Well, we got a little snow this morning - and I mean just that - a little. Then it got a little warmer and the snow turned to drizzle, and most of the white is gone now. However, being London, this may well be all the snow we get, so it's worth putting up my little snowman. Should we get a big dumping of snow between now and Christmas, there's always a sledge square I could put up!

Advent Calendar, Day 9: Christmas Bauble

Alex and I were up in town today due to his Maths Masterclass and a little Christmas shopping. We didn't go look at all the windows - saving that for our annual trip - but there were decorations everywhere, so the bauble is in honour of that...

ATC Friday: APC Deck - Clubs

Last week I showed the diamonds cards from my bird themed deck of Altered Playing Cards; this week is the clubs cards. Nice variety!

Advent Calendar, Day 8: Star

Olivia chose this one this morning with the proviso that she could change it if it snowed today - it didn't. I didn't really expect it to, though it's plenty cold out there. The colour is truer in the shot below - and look!  we are nearly at the end of the second row, already. Where does the time go?

Advent Calendar, Day 7: Apple

...or as my husband called it, "tomato". I'm not sure why an apple is particularly Christmassy, but there you go. It's more so than a tomato!

Cross Stitch Update: Christmas Nemesis

Well, I can't even tell you the last time I stitched on this before this week - last year I had intended to, but wasn't very well and then just couldn't face it. This year, I was feeling cross-stitchy again, and Christmassy, too, so I pulled it out to work on. I don't have a before picture, but most of the work wouldn't show much anyway, as I did a bunch of fiddly things in the middle, mainly:

I filled in (mostly; I am missing the final colour for this) and outlined the end of this bell pull. 

I outlined the end of this bell pull, where it sits on the blue dress. And filled in some missing stitches in the red sleeve - it was only one colour, so I must have been missing it before and have bought it since.

I outlined the blue angels hand (there are actually a few stitches still missing in her thumb, which I need to go back to) - and a few stitches in the collar of her robe. 

And then I started on a new row of red in the border. I'm going to work on the red border next, so next week the progress should be a bit more visible. It's actually not all that far off being finished, though I doubt it will happen this year.  All the central bit is stitched, except a few stitches here and there (and some beads in the head-dresses), so it's really just the border to finish off. I say "just", as though it can be used in that context!

Advent Calendar, Day 6: Train

Chose the train today, somewhat belatedly, as I didn't get around to doing it this morning, because Olivia went off by train to Reading today for an interview. It's a tenuous link, perhaps, but still.