Needle & thread time during snowy weather ...

 

A very snowy time in Shropshire brought quiet time because it was too icy underfoot outdoors. 

While dropping off my excess decorations stash prior to Christmas at local charity shops, I spied a ready made sewing kit. It was new, unopened, clearly an unwanted gift & so I thought - 'why not, it has everything in it to do a quick activity.' 

The snowy calm reminded me of the kit. 

The insert had stitch instructions but no particular coding for any part which is great to just stitch. It was useful to have a selection of threads but I also used some others from my threads as I didn't want to include the yellows. 

The kit came with a hoop but it was a little too small to get the needle in close to it so I changed to a slightly larger one & used my hoop stand so I could leave it out easily. 

I like stitching at the small drop side trolley in front of the window where the natural light is good & I also have a magnifying light if needed in our low light afternoons. 

Snowy scenes outside the windows, a podcast on the ipad & time to just stitch without sticking to a set pattern. 

Snow brings a certain calm & quietness to the landscape, sounds are deadened & everything seems pure & white. 

It is perfect calm times with no urgency ... 

The brighter pink was from my own threads; it comes out a bit bright but who cares, it is just for my own enjoyment & it's always interesting to see how colours bounce off each other. 

I used just a small selection of stitches which I can do without too much thinking - back stitch, stem stitch, French knots, fly stitch, lazy daisy, running stitch etc. I like that colour palette too - the berry colours always look good together. 

The first sewing done for 2026; sometimes it is best to just jump in & stitch for the sake of stitching. 

I hope you find time to do more of what you enjoy this year too. Thank  you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🧵🪡📍

Twelfth Night is upon us ...

I like to put up the decorations slowly over a few days & also to take them down on my own time, slowly, intentionally packing them away so I know where they are next year. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the festive packing up, so a little at a time makes it manageable because it has none of the excitement of putting it up. 

I try to keep to the tradition to have it all down by Twelfth Night. It links back to the rhyme of the 12 days of Christmas my true love gave to me and the hidden Biblical meaning behind the rhyme. 

I count the 12 days starting from Christmas day to the night of the 5th of January.... 

Today it was the living room that was packed up.  

The large Christmas tree with its white, rose & old gold ornaments (gold, silver & pink by any other name) were returned to their large container. 

The lights are wrapped around a cardboard sleeve (from an online shop), interspersed with bubble wrap & placed in a container with the large fireplace garland - lights still wrapped on it.  

I try not to focus on the change of space without the tree occupying the whole corner, but to embrace the space where I can read in the chair by the radiator. 

The conservatory was next,  time to light the candle, make some gifted Christmas coffee with a mince pie or piece of stollen. 

I love marzipan so opted for the stollen as a packing up treat. 

 The heart shapes were removed from the window blinds & the doors of the sideboard , the windows of the dining room & stored with those from the dining room etc. 

I like to keep like with like. The festive wares are packed up in a particular order, then they are returned to the tall cupboards in the kitchen.

The deer were next from the dining room clock & sideboard - 7 from there & 2 from the conservatory; all safely stored together in a container for another year. 

The dining room sideboard had the collection of 3 on the left, then one with animals on its back on the right.

I do love their presence & the woodland connection.  

The  little tree with the hand beaded ornaments were packed up gently. 

They have been a joy to pass several times a day, an eclectic collection that reminds me of my heritage. 

They have their own small tins that they are stored in.  

The wooden German decorations (bought in Munich some years ago) are stored in 2 little bags I made, again in their own little tin. 

Ms M & I bought them on a tour of several Christmas markets in Germany & Austria & I like the nod to the Prussian / German heritage of that great grandfather. 

He would have had similar decorations growing up which reminds me of the complex heritage I have. 

They were draped over great grandparents photo on the wall ... 

The conservatory sideboard has once again been well used with the various festive wares - they were returned to the high kitchen cupboard where I do use some of them from time to time. 

I have left the pretty festive Ralph Lauren tablecloth in the conservatory - the calming reds are not strictly festive so they can stay longer.  It replaced the tartan one midway after use. 

What to put on the sideboard? After the busy festive patterns, I seem to gravitate towards cream / Parian ware with a solitary vintage green plate holding centre court. 

I put up some pink patterns then my eyes fell on my ruby / cranberry glass in the kitchen. They are enough colour & still ties in with the table cloth so they came out.  I do love their colour & shapes - all vintage, Ms M & I collected some together in Dorset from the market stalls & a charity shop. They remind me that random ones can happily sit together. 

The family are not Christmas / fruit cake fans so our bought cake was uncut until today. 

The glass cake stand was one of Olive's and the cover is a salad bowl that fits exactly on the cake stand. 2 unconnected things that go well together in a practical sense. 

It is a wonderfully dense fruit cake that needs cake forks which I duly retrieved from the drawer. 

I have a selection of new red cake forks & spoons  that we use often. They are stored in a drawer in the conservatory. 

I also have a collection of 6 forks & little knives from Olive. 

Their fork tines are much closer together - she used to call them tea knife & forks & we use them for scones from time to time. They have pretty detail to their collar & are very dainty. 

The modern & vintage ones compliment each other quite happily, probably a half century apart in age but in the same colours. 

I think it is so important to use & enjoy the things you have. I handwash these because of the handles but it takes no time to do. 

The Wedgwood cream Parian ware bowl with lion head handles was planted up with pink cyclamen flowers some weeks before Christmas.  

It is perfect bowl shape goes well with the two matching bowls with their pink border next to it.  

The planter has pink & white hyacinths around the edge but they have not yet flowered so I just enjoy it as it is. 

I have learnt that hyacinths flower when they like & I seldom get them to flower at Christmas. However, the brighter colour is a good transition from festive to winter plants.

I think it is done for now, I know I will tinker with it but I do enjoy the change & I like to see other things out too. 

Moving things to their places brings a sense of calm & order to spaces. 

It is a ritual to take everything in the house down by Twelfth Night, a calming signal that the festive season has come to an end & normal life will resume with work & routine again. 

The last thing to come down is always from the front door. 

On Twelfth Night, I take down the front door wreath / garland. It is stripped of the adornments, ribbons etc then it is hung on the garden shed for a few more weeks. 

For me, this signals that the house reverts to its winter state. 

We always have a fresh door wreath & I love seeing it in the garden & how the birds flit in & out of it, helping themselves to the moss etc. 

I do not like to hurry through this period - I like a reset without abandoning this time of the calendar. 

Wintering touches stay - woodland scents of herbs like bay & rosemary, citrus, pine & eucalyptus remain.  We still have fluffy throws on chairs to curl up in while we read or relax with a warming tea or hot chocolate - slow living when time allows, as winter should be a time to slow down, hibernate even when possible. It is a slower time dictated by nature & the weather. 

I keep the twinkling lights on the kitchen windowsills which light up the glass candle holders - a reminder to enjoy the home I have. The windows face the garden & I love watching the changes happening outside the window & how the low light hits differently on the plants, sometimes making them glow. 

How do you do the change from the festive season after Christmas?  Do you just let winter be winter & enjoy it without trying to hurry it by? 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🌲💐

What do I want to carry forward in to 2026 ...

 As the two years lie side by side, I an inclined to set intentions for the New Year rather than resolutions. 

Intentions are more encompassing, more forgiving, more gentle. 

Intentions invite reflection & introspection about the path life is taking.  This is not about being critical, just accepting the passage of time & the happenings of the past year. 

Accept that life is not perfect for anyone, it is a series of misadventures & misdemeanours that will define us if we allow it to. Learn the lessons then get the heck out of the past is how I view it. Don't carry it forward to a new year with you. 

I am acutely aware that I have less time ahead than the time I have already lived & that makes me mindful to enjoy the time I have, while I have it. 

This is a big year for me - it is the year I officially retire, when I step away from a lifetime in education of sorts. I have worked for 2 decades with 5-18 year olds in Elective Home Education.  I have loved it & being privileged to work in people's homes & to know their family well.

In a previous life when we lived in the rurals of Lesotho, I drew up a programme & trained several nursery helpers to run a nursery school in the Maluti mountains.  My training programme was used nationally too & I loved the challenge of working with children who found it all new & exciting when their communities were thrust in to modern life. 

In England, I worked in academic & county libraries - jobs I really loved, especially the buzz of the university environment before I returned to education which suited my family life more. I can confidently say that I rose to all these challenges.  Challenges are what shape us & that alone is good. 

So with a new chapter on the horizon this coming year, I am already thinking of what I want this chapter of life to look like. 

I am fortunate in having many hobbies & interests. I love taking classes & courses (typical I think of teachers) & I look forward to devoting more time to my interests. Being idle is not on the agenda, life is too short to not embrace it fully. 

What do I want to carry forward in to 2026? I intend to do more of what I love, I think more travel is on the cards too ... 

Are your intentions set for 2026? May you be blessed with realising many of them,

Dee 🥂✅📋

These are a few of my favourite festive things ...

I love the warmth  of the festive colours at home - the rich golds, reds & greens are reminiscent of the colours of nature. It is welcome colour in our midwinter. 

I shared some views of the touches of tartan in the bedrooms & on the large conservatory table.  It is cosy to wrap yourself in soft warmth as the weather cools here. 

The festive touches stay up from around the start of Advent to Twelfth Night when they are all down & packed away again. I like having the days of Twelfth Night between Christmas & Epiphany to enjoy them without the faster pace of Christmas. 

Having the family home for the festive season meant that the various parts of the house were used even though we did not breakfast in the conservatory because I did not put on the heater in good time in there so it was rather chilly. The table was used the night before & has had a brighter table cloth change from the tartan cloth. 

However, the things were used off the sideboard - the cheeseboard & the little plates came through, the little hands used the small Christmas Rose bowls for their baking sprinkles & so it carried on. That is why I love having it all at hand. 

The sideboard has once again been a mixture of old & new, of various festive patterns - Spode's Christmas tree, Portmeirion Pumpernickel Strawberry Thief , Emma Bridgewater Joy etc plates & bowls, Spode's nutcracker men, vintage cranberry glasses & decanter as well as modern & vintage red forks, knives & spoons that somehow all go together even though they are decades apart. 

Much of the contents have been generously gifted by friends over the years & the common colours bring it all together in an eclectic collection that is used & enjoyed, it is not merely decorative. 

My tiny beaded ornaments from my friend & neighbour nestle in the dining room on the console table - they are delicate but beautiful to look at. 

The Christmas tree & the fireplace garland twinkle in the low light & it is cosy.  I'm not even sure that it was all noticed individually but collectively, it makes everything seem cosy in winter. 

I was not sure how many cards would drop through the letter box & if it would fill the card line, but it has & each one is a thoughtful reminder of that personal touch. 

Winter cyclamen have provided a welcome pop of colour - a pot in the conservatory has red / pink ones surrounded by uncooperative hyacinth bulbs in cream & pink that have not even poked their flowering heads up yet. 

The cyclamen on the kitchen window are doing well, perhaps they are just warmer but they will provide colour for weeks. The gifted  Christmas candle scents the house so delicately. 

I will slowly start changing over things on the weekend so it will be packed by the night of the 5th of January, but for now, I am still enjoying it. 

Do you have a tradition to keep it up & take it down. Tell all, & thank  you for stopping by. 

Dee ☕️🕯

The calm of Twixmas

 

The week between Christmas and the New Year is an odd one; the frenetic pace of preparing for Christmas is replaced by a pause, a calm, a time to breathe again. The busyness of buying & preparing food, gifts, guest rooms is over without the reset needing to be done immediately. 

Preparing the magic for everyone else needs time to reset, for relative stillness when time is suspended, nothing is urgent. 

This strange week is when we lose track of time, of hours & days, when things muddle along with no urgency to do anything in particular. This liminal space is precious - it invites you to hibernate, to rest, to rejuvenate your spirit. 

I find this quiet time peaceful - the house still has its festive touches, they will be gone after the year changes &  before twelfth night as is traditional. 

There is random food everywhere - stollen, mince pies, Christmas cake, assorted cheese & crackers. All the things associated with the festive season that always seem to have some left to nibble on, to prolong the delights. 

A woodland walk is a good idea to blow away the cobwebs while getting some fresh air. We are lucky to have some good ones locally that we visit often. Fresh air & woodlands go so well  together ... 

This pause in the year is a great reset time.  Doing nothing in particular is useful to take stock of life, of home, of tasks. Things that can be done or not, there is no urgency to focus; the earth is resting & so should we. 

The next year will soon bring a to-do rush with it,  but not just yet, it can wait. 

This in-between time is precious when the calendar hasn't yet turned & we enjoy the gift of time. 

I hope you are resetting your year at Twixmas.

Thank you for stopping by & visiting, it is appreciated.

Dee 🪵🌳🦌🎄