Merry Christmas To Everyone

Wishing you a Happy and Peaceful Christmas from all of the family here at craftyconundrum.
Thank you for all your wonderful comments throughout the year.
Jane,

The Snow Came But Now Its Melting

The snow came on Friday, school was shut so we built a snowman and had a snowball fight. The snow hung around all weekend gradually disappearing here and there and turning the road and pavements into ice rinks! This afternoon as the temperature climbed to a giddy 3 degrees it rained/sleeted/snowed and the thawing surfaces are now so much more treacherous as they have turned back to sheets of ice again. Tony's journey home from work has proved difficult this evening, as it is snowing over the North Downs and several routes south are closed. He has rung to reassure me he is ok, just stuck in traffic nose to tail heading for the M23 in the hope it is still open. Jane x Added at 7.30pm Tony arrived home safely after a very long journey, normally his journey home takes one and half hours tonight it took four hours! The M25 and many motorways off it are blocked by the snow and at one of the services (Clackett Lane) cars are snowed in! Tony managed to get on to the M23 and home, but drivers heading toward London, Kent etc are all stuck in traffic/snow.

Christmas Preparations

Emily has been busy christmas baking in her food tech lessons at school. Last week she made a chocolate log and decorated it beautifully. This week she made biscuits which are delicious. We've decorated the tree and now the house looks very festive. Last night the English Department had their Christmas Meal and at the same time said farewell to Jo who is leaving us to spend time with her baby girl. The sampler I was stitching was for Jo and she was delighted with it. We also gave her vouchers for a pampering session which she loved, as well as an enormous bunch of flowers. It was a lovely evening but tinged with sadness at Jo's leaving. We finish school on Friday for Christmas which will be lovely as we will then have time for all those little things which still need doing. Jane x

Nothing to post about!

Well I'm not sure thats true, but I haven't progressed much on the sock knitting nor have I done any stitching apart from hemming Em's school trousers. At school we took the A level students to GunWharf Quays Portsmouth, we were fortunate with the weather - it didn't rain. The views from the top of the Spinnaker Tower were very good. The students had questionnaires to fill in and all sorts of data to collect. We, the staff were playing host to a lovely teacher visiting on a teacher exchange from Africa. Sadly she is going home at the end of this coming week. Happy crafting and I hope you don't get too wet this week. Jane x

Hoorah! I've Finished The Sampler

Its been another bad week healthwise, Em has been ill again! She made a good recovery from the tummy bug for last weekend, but then Monday morning had it all over again. She was off all week again, the GP suggested that we keep her off all gluten as well as the usual dairy products once she started eating. Finally she is well again so I hope she will be back at school tomorrow. Three weeks illness has been a real trial for Em but she has carried on working at home on Maths, English and IT set by her teachers. My crafting has been mostly cross stitch as I have finally finished her leaving sampler, I just need to hem and mount it, I think an over sized pencil might look good top and bottom. For the next two Wednesdays I am running a craft evening at Em's Girl Guides group, whilst half the group is learning to shoot then they swap over. Em is going to start off the evening showing the girls how to make pipe cleaner flower pencil toppers, then I will show them how to make the little Christmas Tree topper. They will also have a chance to make an angel and a handprint poem. I hasten to add that these ideas were borrowed from across the web and adapted to our needs for the crafting evenings. I wanted to find a pattern for an angel made from paper doileys - instead of which I came across an angel on a website which uses paper doileys for wings. Now doileys have all but disappeared in good old England, so I played with the pattern and borrowed wings from another angel and changed her halo to a pipe cleaner version. Hey presto she looks like an angel. I thought the Handprint poem would be perfect for the girls to make, usually these are made at toddler groups and pre-school with hand paints. So I decided it would be fun for them to cut out their handprint and put a toddler sized print on top with their name age and the year. I also adapted the wording to reflect the fact they are older now. I apologise for my photo being on its side I have tried to upload the photo three times, it was saved in landscape format but blogger keeps loading in portrait! You can still see the poem. The Handprint poem and angel I found at DLTK's website. The flower pencil toppers Em found in a book. but she designed the flowers and made her own templates. I hope you have a good week. Happy crafting. Jane x

Progress on Knitting and Stitching

Thank you dear friends for your kind wishes for Em, she did come down with a chest infection over half term, she recovered in time to go back to school. Then Wednesday I got a phone call to say she was in sick bay feeling sick, dizzy and faint. So she has been off school again for the rest of the week with a horrible tummy bug. She recovered in time to help with the Guides Jumble Sale on Saturday - They were raising money for Sight Savers which is The Lions and The Rotary clubs in partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital working to save the sight of children in Ghana, Africa. They did very well but we don't know how much was raised yet. Today was Rememberance Sunday with Church Parade, so the Scouts, Cubs, Guides and Brownies all attended the service and wreath laying in the village. During half term I knitted a Robin Hood figure, which a friend at work had requested from the Jean Greenhowe Book of Favourite Toys. I then made a little ghostie for Em to cheer her up as she was feeling so ill. Tony managed to find me the October issue of Simply Knitting magazine when he went up to visit Ali, so I could knit a Pudsey Bear. He is the mascot for the BBC's Children In Need Appeal, which is held every November to raise millions for childrens projects both at home and overseas. Finally I have been busy with my cross stitch, I have done more work on the sampler for my friend who is leaving school in early December. I hope you have a good week, and thank you for leaving me so many lovely comments. Jane x

Knitting and Stitching

Progress on Mary Wigham has stopped since my previous photo because I have several other projects on the go. I returned to a pair of socks I started last year but because of the pattern I hadn't got very far with them. I frogged the sock, changed the pattern and voila! one sock down and the other on the needles.

Another friend at school is leaving, she came back from maternity leave and decided that she couldn't continue teaching and leaving her little girl at creche. So at the moment she is counting the days to the end of the Christmas term which is when she is finishing. I have started a sampler for her with all the things she has been involved in at school, in the six years she has been with us she has been very busy. On Friday we had another coffee morning, this time for Breast Cancer Care we raised approx £159 At the moment it is half term and we are enjoying the sleep-ins and lazy days although Em seems to be fighting a chest infection at the moment. I hope you have a lovely week whatever you are doing. Jane x