Christmas Eve.

In Donegal and there's a bit of my Christmas tat hanging up.

My little grandson has been creative too and made a jam jar lantern.

Happy Christmas!

Christmas Trees.

Out and about at the weekend, in the local town, doing a bit of Christmas shopping and looking at the decorations.

There was a nice window display in our local Department Store.

 I wondered would anyone feel sorry for the 'Last One' tree and buy it.
 That modern tree with all the coloured lights was very pretty.

 Then I felt sorry for this tree that had seen better days.

 Decided to head down to the Island Centre where the big tree hangs out. It was looking good.

 It was a gigantic tree.

With gigantic baubles to match.

 Then I saw this little tree framing the moon. I was pleased with this Christmassy photo.

 Then heading home, back through the town, this tree outshone them all!

A Host of Angels and a Christmas competition.

It was our craft group Christmas lunch last Thursday.
The subject this year for our competition was 'An Angel'.
In the past I've been quite vocal about the lack of entries for our competitions and also for some of the group projects.
Well, as you can see from the table, our members excelled themselves this time! There was a host of angels of every description on show.
There is a special cup for the winner of this competition and I've yet to get my hands on it!!
Maybe this time, I thought.

So take a look at some of the entries.

It was stiff competition.

 My favourite was this choir of angel mice, but I'm sure I saw a worried look in their eyes. 

Because that's MY angel they're competing with!

Well, they needn't have worried because they were the judges favourite too!

The Winners.

Congratulations to Janet!

Gingerbread Santa's.

My gingerbread men I originally made for my craft group 'Afternoon Tea' exhibition have had a Christmas makeover.
I think they look much happier as Gingerbread Santa's!

Our Craft Fair.

Last Thursday the Harmony Hill Craft Group held an 'in house' craft fair.
As you can see, it was well attended and, as usual, there's always plenty to chat about.

I brought jam and chutney, here it is maturing in the kitchen cupboard

Dorothy brought candles 

Yvonne's embroidered necklaces

and machine embroidered mirrors and needle felted bead necklaces

There was an assortment of interesting items on sale ..... necklaces, brooches, earrings, bangles, mirrors, candles, cards and jam and chutney!
And a variety of skills and materials used ..... machine embroidery, lace, beading, knitting,wirework, friendly plastic, needle felting, card making and cooking.

Mavis's lace necklaces

Elizabeth's knitted brooches

earrings 

Jennifer's silk bangles

pretty earrings

Margaret's knitted dishcloths and fingerless mitts

Dorothy's cards

Anna held her own sale for a charity and raised more money than anticipated thanks to the generosity of the ladies.

threads and fabric at Anna's corner sale

                   And some of us made enough money to pay for our Christmas lunch next week!

Margaret was kept busy collecting our  Christmas lunch money

And, ladies, I don't want to frighten you or anything.... but while all this was going on Patsy was busy working away on her 'Flights of Fancy' project for our exhibition next May.  Now that's what I call dedication!

Anne Marie's Doughnut Muffins.

I loved watching 'The Great British Bake Off' and it seems to have inspired a bit of a home baking revival. Yesterday I made shortcrust pastry, I haven't made my own pastry for years. None of this is good when you're a WeightWatcher member.

Didn't stop me from trying out this recipe for these Doughnut Muffins, did it? My motivation to lose weight is low and I'm going to have to catch myself on. Well, I decided I'd make 6 instead of 12!

I only ate one....Promise!