Busy, busy busy!

Tuesday was a hectic day along the beach road. I dashed home from the school run to finally finish felting the flowers for my Christmas wreath, the poinsettias had already been done but I still had Christmas roses and many, many leaves to do. I had been toying over putting them in the washing machine, as the label advised, but decided instead to give hand felting a go as I wanted to be able to control the degree of felting. So I boiled a kettle to get the water nice and hot and put in a generous squirt of washing up liquid then got to agitating the items in the water, in between they were plunged into a bowl of icy cold water and agitated again to shock the fibres into milling up. Each colour needed doing in a separately to avoid stray fibres attaching and spoiling the effect. I was surprised to find that some colours felted up much easier & quicker than others, the kirsch red and grass green reacting the best. When I was finally satisfied I squeezed them out, reshaped them and laid them on an old towel to dry, the old towel is very important in case the colours bleed. Drying took a couple of days but the effect is well worth it.

Then just enough time left to have a coffee in my very favourite cup, a lebkuchen biscuit from the musical merry-go-round tin that mum sent up and half an hour absorbed in a good vampire book.

Before picking Peerie Man up from nursery & coming home to spend the rest of the afternoon finally putting up our Christmas tree. Lots of folk on Unst have had theirs up since 1st December so we were a little late by comparison but we usually have it up two weeks before and two weeks after. A few years ago I stole the idea from Kirstie Allsop that the tree could be a scrap book so every year I make something new and add it on to the tree. This years addition hasn't been made yet but it will make an appearance before Christmas eve, by hook or by crook.

No tinsel just a couple of strands of beads!

One of my first ever makes - a felt stocking for Peerie Man.

Crocheted silver snowflakes, 'vintage' button hearts and a bauble we made when AA Fired Up came up from Lerwick to the Under5's Group.

A red glass bauble that hubby & I bought our first year together, 'Flying Garrick' toadstools that were last year's addition, and a Santa ornament bought in last year's sale. The bows are homemade too and always remind me of hubby being made redundant on Bonfire Night and us dreading Christmas only to be rescued by a firmer employer who took him back & where he loyally stayed until we came to Unst.

A peerie red bell bought for Ethel's first Christmas, a ''vintage' button star and a tiny enamelled bauble brought back from Singapore by Nanny for Ethel.

Just enough time to enjoy the twinkly lights before Wednesday's lightning induced power cuts!

There are so many more things I would like to show you but I will definitely show you this years addition when it's done.