Become a Mystery Muse in 2012!

Start the year with art!  Become a Mystery Muse - click here to sign up - the lovely people at Artella are organizing a Mystery Muse 'swap'.  You have all through Saturday to sign up - then early in January you'll receive details of your swap partner by email, with whom you'll swap 2 pieces of creativity throughout January.  What a lovely way to spread creativity across the world and connect with likeminded spirits!  Don't just take my word for it - visit Artella and get the full details!

Happy Christmas

Top decoration totally self-designed and made by Little Man

I want to wish you all a peaceful and joyful Christmas, wherever you are in the world and however you celebrate the season.  Love is the biggest and best gift you can give, so give someone a hug, or a phone call and let them know you're thinking of them.  xxxxx

My very best wishes for you all and oodles of love too!  :)

My eldest still thinks this is the best Christmas tree in the world ... xxx

Baking to relax

Hectic!  But finally a day when I can calm down and do some cooking instead of rushing around doing Christmas things. 

Today I made a birthday cake - a little bit late - but what a cake!  Using my friend's recipe for the best ever chocolate cake, topped of with lots of cream and strawberries.  As it turned out to be quite a light cake I thought I'd go for the torte type.  Really pleased considering at one point the mixture looked curdled at the end and I thought I'd blown it - still don't know how I managed to curdle the mixture when it's an add everything and mix recipe.  Tastes great though and the recipients were very pleased :)

Thanks to my assistant Little Man who helped with cream and strawberries - nothing to do with being able to eat the leftovers I'm sure xxxx

Middle of December already!

Is it only me, or has Christmas sneaked up on us this year?  I'm feeling like I have no time left!  I'm frantically making last minute pressies, and sending them overseas on a wing and a prayer and hoping they get there on time!  Rush, rush, rush and I thought it was a time of peace?  But it is all a choice, I don't need to be rushing around or stressing out - I can choose to be peaceful.  And that's my wish for you all tonight, a few moments of peace amongst the rush.

'night, 'night.  :)

Hearts and words ,,,

Hearts because I love them, blue because that's how I was feeling at the start of the day :(   Better now - listening to my body and having a sleep in the day helped, but my best therapy was writing - the old fashioned way in a journal with a pen :)   Mostly gobbledegook, a list of things, annoyances, feelings and so on, it won't make sense to me, let alone anyone else in months to come.  But wow, did I feel lighter!  I even managed a small sketch for an art quilt I want to make at the end of the blah, finding a way back to my creativity ...  It's something I'd recommend to any of you struggling with what you want to say, how you are feeling - write, write, write ...  It's a great idea to write a letter and put down your thoughts and feelings - you don't have to send it.  It's just important to get the words and your feelings out!

My Creative Space ...

I'm still plodding on with my teeny granny squares - I like to have a pot to chuck them in as I make them.  I found a slightly battered biscuit tin in the laundry, so I hammered out the worst dents and covered it in pretty wrapping paper ...

treasure revealed inside!

And look what the postie left on my doorstep today, a very cool amigurumi crochet calendar for 2012 by crochetme.  So fabulous you can even download all the patterns - looks like I'll have at least one crochet project a month for the next year :)

Check it out here to see other creative spaces ...