"... Nothing up my sleeve. Presto!!"

Tonight we are off to the theatre. In fact we are off to a prestidigitacious extravaganza of trickery and japes. That is, a magic show.

The winners of "Penn & Teller : Fool Us" are doing a UK tour that takes in a few teeny ween tiny winy village halls and one of them is just up the road from us. I am quite excited and should I not get turned into a rabbit or sawn in half I shall be back to tell you all about it later.

I would like you all to meet ...

... Clarissa the Kitchen Aid.

She has just come to live here at my house this past weekend. We have been making her welcome and keeping her busy.

Sometimes, just sometimes...

... finding the right people

can make all the big things in life

so much easier

to deal with.

Friendship, it is what makes the world go around.

this morning

*today is my first day alone at home in months. CK has gone back to work. The children are at school. And I have no idea when the builders will be back. The quietness is weird.
*I walked the dogs this morning and walked back up the hill with a friend and her dogs.
*a neighbour has just offered me her no longer required fabric stash. I shall accept just as soon as I find somewhere to put it all.
*we have a flat broom for the wooden floor, turns out sweeping can be fun!
*posh orange juice tastes way more yummy than the ownbrand stuff. You get what you pay for.
*have understood my mistake on the garden shawlette and rectified my idiocy.
*I plan to actually do some sewing this week. The new year/getting going vibe infusing blogland has leached out of my computer and into my head. We shall see if it makes it to my hands.

And now it is no longer this morning.

Importance of instruction following

During a recent IKEA trip my girl noticed this warning on a storage container.

It seems someone else missed it.

My 'mini' Christmas tree.

My plan this year was to have a Christmas Tree filled with teeny weeny, tiny winy decorations in the new kitchen. (Did I mention already I got one of those? It was last year's present.) Well it didn't quite turn out that way.

You see the tree was awfully big -7.8 feet tall - and the children took on the task of dressing it with only minimal interference from me, this meant that more were placed than I would have chosen. Add to this the fact that I had only a few ornaments that fall into the category 'teeny weeny tiny winy and my tree was never going to look exactly as planned.

But it did look quite beautiful there by the long window in the corner. And looking particularly gorgeous are the teeny weeny tiny winy felt stockings stitched with lovely snowflakes made for me as part of Chookyblue's SSCS (Secret Santa Christmas Swap) by Tracy which are hanging 5,11 & 12. There is a much clearer photo over at 'Sunny Corner Farm'. I am in awe of the teeny weeny tiny winyness of the stitching. Honest I will post a closer-up pic soon.

After getting over the shock of being woken at 5am (forgive me, have I mentioned this previously. I may still be a little tender on this issue) I got to open presents and in my SSCS parcel was this stunning table runner. Gorgeously executed piecing and points that sat perfectly with the Yule log candle holder Princess C-W made for me

Then, when feeling a little more frivolous, turn it over and all the perky Santas and general Christmassyness can be enjoyed! Win/win I say.

Tracy thank you so much for the presents and once my sewing machine is recovered from the kitchen fit detritus I WILL sew those table napkins with the lovely koalas, I have got as far as buying the red linen to put with it. Now all I need is a JCB to excavate all this renovation rubbish.