Deck The Halls.

Hi everyone in Bloggerland,

I have finally finished all my Christmas cards and they are in the post! I have already started packing away all my Christmas stamps and papers. My room did look a bit like a war zone!Lol!!

This is the fireplace in my sitting room. When these decs are done, I really feel it's Christmas.

The stocking is very special to me. About 11 or 12 years ago, I saw this stocking pictured on the cover of an American cross stitch magazine. I fell in love with it straight away, so I bought the magazine. When I got it home, I was very disappointed that only the top 4" of the chart was in the mag. The rest of the chart was going to be spread over the year, coming out every few months. I never saw the magazine anywhere again.

A couple of years later, a very close friend, who I used to go to all the stitching shows with, sadly died after a long battle with cancer. She was only 54. She had left me all her cross stitch collection. Along with hundreds of kits, there were about 700 magazines, complete with the subscriptions which were paid for, so they kept coming.

I searched through all of the mags and found the complete set of the patterns for the stocking.

It took me 6 months to stitch it. Santa's robe and a lot of the background is a shiny rayon thread, which was very slippery. His beard and the animals fur is a fluffy mohair, which you just have to stroke. I felt this was the best gift my friend could have given to me and I still miss her. I was with her to the end.

This is my tree number 2 in my conservatory. We bought it last year and it has very realistic ends to the branches. The same at the one in the sitting room. My friend's husband was sitting right along side it when I was cutting her hair and he thought it was real!! Well I know it does look good but having said that, he is a man!!Lol!!

The metal bird in the heart is one of my favourite decorations on it. I also have two stags somewhere but I couldn't find them. I have a feeling they are somewhere in my craft room, as I know I did want to make a couple for the tree in my sitting room.
I did decorate half a dozen baubles this year. These are 2 of them. Not very exciting but it was all I had the time to do. Just gold and red glitter, double sided tape and a few peel offs!

I took the Charity collection box, which I had put my money in from the markets, over to the home yesterday. I had not counted it, so we were very surprised just how much I had put in there! They were very pleased with it. Made it all worth while getting up at 6am on market days! No more markets now until March!
I am now going back to sorting out my craft room. I can nearly see my desk!!
Please pop back soon,

Luv,

Carol S.xx