Last Friday, I was off work a little earlier than normal, and the sun was shining, so I decided it was a good time to get my Christmas lights out, and get the front of the house decorated.

I don’t do a lot just the front porch/walkway – keeping it simple means I can do the whole thing in just a couple hours, AND I only need a couple rubbermaid tubs to store it all in.

There are a few things different from last year. Last year we didnt have the arbour, so it needed some lights too.

I’m a little annoyed that the “white” lights are bought this year don’t match the ones I bought last year. The new ones (which I put on the porch), are “Pure white”, where the others are “Warm white” and you can see, there’s quite a difference. Next year, I’ll rectify that, but for now I can live with.

The arbour also got some sparkly blue snowflakes.

New to the lawn, facing the walkway, are a pretty little pair of deer. I actually had these last year, but never got around to putting them out.

They look so sweet – I just love them.

The porch has the most decoration – mostly the same as previous years: Fir garland, lights, a few ornaments.

And fresh Christmas greens in my white boxes.

I get the fresh stuff from a local nursery that grows everything on site.

The only new thing added to the front porch is a pretty “snowflake” curtain

It would look nicer if those other lights weren’t so darn “pure white” but oh well! It’s still nice and festive.

AND… I got the whole set-up on a photo-cell timer system this year so I don’t even have to worry about turning them on and off! Now that’s some real Christmas magic!

Despite feeling unwell, one of the things I had to do on the weekend was get new tires put on Dory. It was to the point where I couldn’t put it off any longer. So I had an appointment booked at the tire place for first thing in the morning…

And while Dory got nice grippy new shoes, I worked on my brother’s birthday socks.

They were pretty quick with the tire change, so I didn’t get a tonne done, but I’m through the ribbing and about an inch into the plain leg knitting. If I can keep after this like I did with Dad’s sweater, I’ll have a second sock done in no time.

The Ginger Twins are primed and ready to keep my on task!

First, thank you for all the well wishes. I felt much better by Monday morning.

Before the weekend, I’d been diligently working in the evenings to add more rounds to the last sleeve on Dad’s birthday sweater. I had a rotating cast of helpers too…

And then by Sunday, when I just didn’t have much energy to do anything else… I plunked myself in the recliner, put on Good Omens 2, and Burton and I pushed through to finish it!

About an hour before bed, I was happily casting off the the final round!

It still needs blocking and all the ends sewn in, so Burton and Lemmy say you have to wait for a proper FO post to see it. But we are all very happy to have finished well in advance of our deadline and can move on to something fun, and not HUGE and GREY!

This weekend was not the productive weekend I was hoping for. I wasn’t exactly sick… I just felt off all weekend, making it hard to accomplish much of anything. There were a couple naps, some long reading sessions, some knitting, and very little sewing.

All I managed to sew this weekend was five more placemat tops for Christmas dinner.

Like the first five, I kept the design simple and let the fabric shine.

I think they look quite nice together. I was hoping to quilt them all this weekend, but two things stopped me. 1) I just didn’t have the energy, and 2) I really want to quilt them with diagonal lines… but I need a washable fabric marker to mark the lines – I’ve tried to do it free hand before and it just looks like I was sewing drunk.

So.. maybe next weekend. I’ve got as few weeks before I Christmas dinner, at least.

The flurry of sewing last weekend saw me finish up the pile of Leader Ender blocks I had on the go. In the end, all those scraps I sewed gave me just 10 blocks. But it was 10 more to go with the 11 I already finished.

The boys helped me lay them out on the bed to get an idea of how many more I would need to make.

And to my surprise, I need just two more to make a decent size quilt. Of course, once they are done, I have to make the blocks that go in between. But they won’t use as many small pieces, so they should go quicker.

This one is coming together quite nicely, if I do say so….

The rainy weather has mostly backed off. And while the days haven’t been super warm – frost overnight and lucky to warm up to 10 celcius – they have been mostly sunny.

And the gardens are a testament that Mother Nature doesn’t need much to make things grow.

I cut back all the Sneezeweed weeks ago, and now that the sun can get to the base, it’s already growing new plants.

And remember how I planted one new Sundrop plant this summer. Well it looks like I’m going to have A LOT of Sundrops next year. It just spread out all over the place.

Here’s a neat example of Mother Nature finding a way to thrive…

Here you see two white Bellflower plants beside a bare spot…. Well the interesting thing is, the Bellflower used to grow in that bare spot. But this year, while it was trying to grow after a cold winter, Burton decided it was a good nap spot. So the Bellflower didn’t grow… I figured I’d have to get another one next year… but it appears Mother Nature had another idea…. the plant just moved…and created a little baby. We’ll leave that spot bare for Burton, and next year he can nap and hide behind the pretty white flowers.

And next year is going to be SPECTACULAR for foxgloves! Just look how well all those seedlings took!!!

Down in the bottom right corner you may notice something

That’s my Hellebore. It died off in the hotter weather (as they do), but now there just enough sun to get it growing again. It’s obviously happy and should do just fine over winter.

The cool days don’t bother the Heuchera at all. All the ones I’ve bought have done extremely well and should be even better next year! They were the perfect choice for the shaded garden at the side of the house, and I think they are going to be just as good in the Woodland garden.

And there’s still a bloom or three shining in the sun. From Left to Right… Pink Pincushion Plant, Pink Dianthan, and Waterperry Blue Veronica.

They say we could see snow this weekend… but I know Mother Nature will bounce back with just the slightest bit of sun and warmth!

Since the youngest ginger is more social, and more vocal, he tends to get a lot of our attention.

But there’s no forgetting the Elder ginger. Rupert spends most of the day in bed. In fact, he usually kicks me out of it in the morning. Dave generally gets up before me and feeds the cats, and I almost always wake up to a post-breakfast Rupert staring at me, because he wants to steal the warm spot in the bed!

Late afternoon, he usually comes down and heads out to the catio for a little evening bird-watching. Then he comes in and mostly hangs out to watch TV with us after dinner – though every other night, he and Lemmy have a good chase around the house for half and hour or so. While he’s eight years old… he still loves a vigourous game of chase. (Both as chaser and chase-ee)

Then, when it’s time for the people to head to bed – he’s always at the top of the stairs waiting. He sleeps on Dave most of the night – and I think that’s just because Dave is warmer than me.

Last week, I had to take Dory in to get a stone chip in her windshield fixed. I knew from previous experience that it would take a little time. The GGS is much too big and bulky for waiting room knitting, so I grabbed some needles, and the second ball of Felici to get started on the second of my brother’s birthday socks.

I didn’t get super far on them (I’m five rows short of finishing the ribbing), but it’s a start. Now I just have to resist the urge to work on them when I should be working on the GGS at home! Their time will come soon enough.

With Christmas crawling ever closer, I needed to get moving on making those placemats for Christmas dinner.

Even before my fabrics arrived, I was pouring over ideas, trying to figure out what to do. In the end, I decided to keep it simple and let the fabrics shine

Aren’t those gnomes and mushrooms just the sweetest?

Burton, however, is more curious how they taste… are gnomes sweet?… or savoury?

While he ponders that, I have five more placemats to make with some different fabric. Then I’ve got to get to quilting them!

Another week down…

That’s only about three inches of progress on the sleeve. But progress is progress. And every six rows has two less stitches, so the rounds get faster and faster and faster.

Since it’s all in one piece, the project is very heavy to work on. It makes it harder to pick it up after a long day of work. I just keep reminding myself, that once it’s done – I only have to sew in the ends – no seaming! That should keep me motivated.