Happy Wedding Day

Yesterday was so happy, and very special - our son's wedding.
Now there are nine of us.
Despite the mist, ice, and mud (hence red wellies!)lots of family and friends made it to the lovely old church at Blewbury and to the reception at a hotel on the banks of the Thames.
Both parts of the cake, traditional on top and cup cakes below, were made by friends.
This is a Christmas to remember!

Christmas Time

It's been a strange year - many weeks with arthritic pains in my hip, arm, and legs, problems with arteries, and always poor mobility - yet, many happy times too!
How lucky I am to have a wonderful family, friends at home and abroad, and so many special friends I'm in contact with via Flickr, in UK and around the world.
Lucky too that I so enjoy working with textiles and threads, painting and paper crafting at times, using my point and shoot camera around the house and garden, and spending many hours on internet, often doing jigsaws or word puzzles, exploring new interests and places on Google Earth, but mostly browsing sites of the many talented artists I am in touch with.
As long as my PC is up and running, and my arm lets me use the mouse and keyboard and stitch, I am never bored.
I was better for a time, after having a new hip in June, but now things have dipped -
more pains in the other leg, more difficulty standing and walking and I'm restarting the hospital and treatment rounds in January with appointments with Vascular and Orthopaedic consultants.
We always love family and friends getting together at Christmas, but this year it will be quite low key - until the real celebrations start at our son's wedding on
28th December.
The house has been, and still is, very untidy and messy, as we have had a downstairs shower room added - scheduled to be completed before now but still needing finishing touches due to delays caused by the unusally cold and snowy weather.
We are not even having a tree, for the first time in 53 years - I'll put up cards, pictures, holly, etc to give a festive air, (and hide the dust! LOL)
The picture above is a reminder of a lovely tree of a few years ago.
We will have a tasty Christmas day dinner at our daughter's, no doubt some lovely presents, and then that special day, 28th December!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my good friends.
Thank you for all the lovely messages and comments I receive here and on my Flickr site. www.flickr.com/photos/23261611@N04/5281195041/

Christmas cake time again ...

Each Year OH John makes a rich cake, from Delia's recipe, injects brandy liberally and then ices it using ideas from the book "The Idiot's Guide to Christmas Cakes"
This is the second time round for this design but this time the singers are older than the original cherubic choir boys!
I add a stitched band but haven't found it out yet.
It's on the pic of last year's cake - must search for it! ....

Memories ....

I really wish I could paint ..... browsing through a folder I found my attempts at Christmas pictures and decided to print two as Christmas cards - not good but nostalgic!
This one and the cottage above were painted from memory - a place in the Worcestershire countryside where my family had summer holidays in the 1940's, when I was about 7-10 years old. I don't think I ever saw it in snow though.
The picture of the couple walking (so out of scale!!!) was further inspired by a bought Christmas card, long ago.
I know my sister and cousins will enjoy thinking back to happy holidays during the war!