Merry Christmas

It's 10:30pm here. Our Christmas Day is almost over. The kids are tucked up in bed after an exhausting day of non stop eating and playing with their cousins. 

 Our tree looks bare without presents under it.

 

Everyone was suitably spoilt and happy with their haul of pressies. Especially me with my new stash of owl goodies!

I got three of those black owl picture frames, a bathroom set, a placemat and table set complete with mug. A cushion to add to my collection, some new magnets to replace the ones that broke and an awesome cookie jar that is coming up to my crafting area. I am undecided if it will hold craft supplies or sweets.

 Now I am off to bed to listen to the rain on my tin roof. Rainy Christmas Days seem like a new tradition these past couple of years. It sure beats those ridiculous 40 degree temps which are the norm. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas filled with fun, laughter and family.

Happy Birthday Jesus.

Snowman Bunting

Now that my partner for the Christmas swap has received my package I can share a project that I absolutely loved working on. The Snowman Christmas Bunting pattern by Wendy Poole has been sitting in my Ravelry library for a long time just waiting for the right incentive to get it started. The Christmas Swap was an obvious choice.

 As I still had a few other things to work on, I decided to make the bunting smaller so the project would go faster. 

I had myself a little helper.

Nothing major. Just decreasing at both 

ends of a row instead of just one for the bunting and using the head pattern of the snowman for its body and using a shorter stitch for its head. The proportions turned out great for the modified bunting.

 I also changed up the scarf and only used one of the pieces on each snowman to give him a windswept scarf. 

I was very proud of the way he turned out. The sewing felt like it would never end, but I think that may be because its my least favourite part of crochet.

 Eventually I managed to have a very cute bunting that my kids did not want to part with.

Luckily it's new owners love it as much as we do. Of course the bunting didn't get sent to England on its own. I unfortunately didn't take a photo of everything I sent over, but I remembered to take photos of the crocheted items.

Here is the Chevron Cowl by Melissa Campbell of Totally Stitching. You can find her over on Ravelry. I made it in my favourite Bernat Mosiac yarn. I love the softness of this self striping yarn.

The other thing I made was a couple of six inch squares for Caroline's friendship-ghan. I made them in her favourite colours and with flowers just as was requested.

I hope they fit into her afghan nicely. I had a ball working all the gifts for the package and got a lovely new friend to boot!

 Thank you Caroline for being such an awesome swap partner.