Yoo hoo! I’m back...

...and writing despite a jet-lagged, foggy brain. I just couldn’t wait another day to return to Blogland!

I’ll be simultaneously unpacking, sorting toys, doing laundry and catching up with everyone’s blogs. I do hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. It seems we fared very lucky indeed escaping severe weather on both sides of the pond – we left England before the horrid storms flooded areas, toppled trees and left our village without power until late Christmas Eve, and we flew out of the States just as the latest snowstorms closed most of the airports in the northeast and record-breaking freezing temperatures roll in! Phew!

So my Christmas...filled with so many lovely, festive, cherished moments with family and friends...

A white Christmas at Grandma’s house!

Santa Claus visits every home in the town before Christmas, and boy oh boy my girls were sooo surprised and happy when the doorbell rang and he stepped in! Little Flower had been worried that Santa might not get our message that we wouldn’t be at our house Christmas Eve, but a personal visit to Grandma’s certainly alleviated those fears!  

But hey, let’s cut to the chase: What crafty goodies did I manage to squish into my suitcase!?! Well, I was very limited with my purchases because I was sharing luggage space with two little girls who spent Christmas with their grandmother, so you can imagine the amount of doting and spoiling that went on! Luckily I found a few great bargains...

These mugs speak volumes, and match my kitchen colours!

I visited a craft store that was about the size of my village. The ribbon section alone was bigger than my living room – and the ribbons were massively discounted. I forced myself to stop at 10:

And that price tag reads 75 cents/46 pence! That is linen ribbon! They were all the same price...

I discovered yet another craft book, I really must stop buying craft books, but I just love all the inspiration!

The three-inch hoops cost about the same as the ribbon. Again, I lament having to tuck these beside Journey Girls, Build-a-Bears and other space-hogging toys! I console myself with the knowledge that the girls will be teenagers one day and will want only clothes, jewellery and small electronic devices, so I’ll have oodles of room for supplies...

I can’t ever leave the States without a few balls of Lily Sugar n’ Cream:

This is the *best* dishcloth yarn ever! You can see I’ve already started one; my old cloths are desperate to be retired. (As per tradition, I share with the four dear friends in my craft group – choose your colours, gals!)

I picked up this Lily dishcloth booklet because it features both crochet and knitting – it might be an easy way to get into knitting again. And it looks so retro...

My biggest bargain of all was a new winter coat, found after Christmas during a crazy sale at the local mall. It is a gorgeous deep plum, quilted, hooded, toggled – all I need for a typical English winter. And best of all, it was marked down down down to $20/£12!

But it gets better: yesterday I discovered that the King Cole Riot Chunky I purchased on a whim because I fancied the colours matches the coat! So I’m working on a more feminine version of the Manly Scarf I made for Darling Husband (I’ll take a FO photo of that soon, he left the house wearing it this morning).

Oh dear, wave of jet lag swooping over me, I must go make a strong cuppa!

Happy New Year to all of you lovelies!

Chrissie x