Sunday, December 06, 2009

Catching up....

I am SO organized. I did all my Christmas cards ages ago and completely forgot that the foreign ones actually need to be posted. Oops. Tomorrow. I will get there. I tell you, it is the ordinary things which I forget to do which complicate matters. I also spent a fruitless afternoon yesterday on a quest. Nothing earth shattering, let me hasten to add. I needed more of those hooky things which one hangs tree ornaments on to hook onto the branches. Do you think I could find any???? No. I went all over the place, and people seemed amazed that they actually did not have any. Then I happened upon a man in a small shop who told me that nearly half his normal Christmas order came back as "unavailable" this year. He says the manufacturers have cut their stock drastically. Including pesky little hook things.

So I bought some giant paperclips. The only ones available. None of the delicate little things in the shops. Not one. And hooked up the baubles. Then today, the quest continued and finally ....FINALLY good old John Lewis came up with the goods. At a price. But still. I now have enough hooks for the next millennia or 2. My children will thank me.

I do realise that this is not wildly exciting, but it is life! I was going to finally get the cream rug to hide the hideous carpet yesterday too, but on the way to the shop I noticed an orange light. Petrol. I had been driving about with zero petrol, so that rather took care of half the rug. Oh well. I will get it one day!

On Friday, 5 of my friends got together at Jean's, and had a "making" day. Jean provided endless cups of tea and coffee and delicious soup for lunch, and we all worked on Christmas projects and chatted. It was absolutely great. And so interesting to see what everyone was making too. So many great ideas.

And this afternoon, I have been letting the embroidery machine do some work. I programme it and then walk away for a while. And have more coffee. And watch the masters tennis. And shake my head when I see the Tiger news updates. And the pre-budget talking amongst the politicians. And eat the homemade bread I baked yesterday.

And now, the tree is lit, as are the Advent candles, and I can relax a little and forget things like lists. This is the best time of the day. Tomorrow is another day, and things can wait.

6 comments:

Needled Mom said...

You will have to remember to add those hooks to you will for the children!

Your crafty date at Jean's sounds absolutely delightful. I love dates like that.

What are you making with your embroidery machine? I hope you will post a picture of it.

Dawn said...

The get-together sounds like so much fun.

The little hooky thingies - they are so cheap now days! And I don't mean cost wise - but they're so flimsy! I saw thousands yesterday - could have sent you some. But I can never find mine and I know I have lots!

Have a great week!

Crystal said...

I love the idea of that craft get-together!! What a delightful way to spend a December day. It sounds like you are quite decorated and ready for the season over there. My goal is one extra thing each day. Yesterday was the cranberry-pistachio bark and today is Samuel's stocking. It's such fun getting ready and thinking of each person as I create, bake and cook. My candles are burning tonight too :)) Have a lovely week, my friend!

Daniel "Captain" Kirk said...

Not selling enough (or any) replacement hooks is a conspiracy, I think, by the manufacturers and importers to get you to buy new ornaments when your old ones are perfectly good. I think using paperclips is a way around the blockade, and a form of protest against this sort of nonsense, to boot!

Then again, maybe I'm just cranky because I lost my cell phone. Someone turned it in, someone else claimed it, and Wal-Mart gave it to them.

Linda said...

A little bit of everything and that is, indeed, life. I think the get-together sounds like such fun. It's so nice to work on things together. I'm glad you have such a wonderful group of friends.
Sounds like things are going well Linds. Enjoy that delicious bread.

Janine said...

We've been using paper clips for years. Don't think that you can actually buy special hooky things here! Sounds as if the pre Christmas excitement is mounting. Can't wait! See you soon.