Just in time

Normally Christmas is easy and cosy with just us and our doggie to please. This year, however, has been busy and all because we wanted to replace the kitchen floor before Christmas.

It was after we ripped up the old floor we realised that it was not going to be a simple removal task because the old floor was glued down.

We managed to put the new floor down just in time for Christmas. Poppy had already decided the best spot to keep an eye on the oven and to wait for dinner.

After a few days of helping my husband doing home improvement I was glad to pick up my needle and thread again and worked on my cross-stitch.

Before I end this post I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Pocket for my Calendar

This is my 2009 calendar and I keep it in the kitchen. I purchased this because I like the pocket design. It can hold pens, appointment cards, birthday cards to send…etc a very useful organiser for me. My husband likes it too because he can always find a pen in the pocket when he needs one.
I keep meaning to go to a bookshop and buy a 2010 calendar but just have not got round to do it. Then two weeks ago when I went grocery shopping at a Chinese supermarket they gave me a 2010 calendar for free. It is a lovely one too showing both the Chinese and the western dates. The only thing is – it does not have a pocket.

I have been busy this week sorting out Christmas presents and cards. That’s all done now. Sooooo…today I set to work and made a pocket for the new calendar.

I kept it simple, using a fish appliqué design from SummerPond by FatCatPatterns and just quilted the background with two curvy lines to suggest water. Now I have a pocket again to hold my pens and all those little things.

Gnome-in-law's

I have three younger sisters. This year for the first time I have knitted something for each one of us for Christmas. A gnome for each sister and the gnomes are named after our husbands.

I just finished the last gnome. It has blue eyes and blonde hair - Mike gnome -this one is for me to keep.

I took some group pictures of the gnomes before shipping them away.
The tallest gnome is at the back and the height of the men are in the order too.

銀杏 Ginkgo Biloba

I love Ginkgo trees. The Chinese name for Ginkgo is 銀杏 and in strict translation it means silver almond. Pretty name and its leaves are pretty too with very unique shapes.

Here is a picture of the leaves from one of my two baby Ginkgo trees.
As a young child I was confused by my mother when she used ginkgo nuts for a Chinese vegetarian dish but she called it white nut. It is not white. Now I know why: it’s white when it still has its shell but yellow when it’s cooked.

So when I came across a crochet pattern for ginkgo leaf and nut, I simply could not resist.

I am going to make more of these then decide what to do with them.

Delray Christmas Tree

Delray Beach Downtown is very pretty this time of the year, especially in the evening.

I remembered my camera when we walked Poppy down the Avenue last night.
A 100’ man-made tree: children can go inside the tree to visit Santa.

All the palm trees are decorated too. The City also put up a small outdoor ice skating ring next to the tree. So even though we don’t have snow, young children can still do a little ice skating. Isn't that sweet?

Alan Gnome

We have bad weather lately. The rain was so heavy this morning it actally woke me up. It is very dark outside and looks like it is going to rain some more. You can see how dark it is outside from these pictures I took earlier.

This gnome is for my sister #1.
He is sitting on a fallen Royal Palm frond.

Keeping dry in the tangerine tree...can you see the tangerines? They are still green at the moment.

OK, I am off now to work on my fourth gnome - the last one for this Christmas. Talk about Christmas, they have turned on the light on the 100' Christmas tree at downtown. If I remember to take my camera with me I will post some pictures to show you. Till then, take care and have a great weekend.