The "Jolly" Season at night

True to our word we returned to the city to see the Christmas lights at night. We decided to do it on my birthday on Tuesday...my choice as it was a quiet day. It was restful and enjoyable and the city was surprisingly quiet...in fact some shops were closing up early! I left my good camera at home so just used the phone........

 Larry gave me a voucher for my birthday to do a Lino Print Class with a talented (and very young!!) artist by the name of Lucy Timbrell. It was set up in an unused warehouse - a great space managed by WOTSO Workspace, an Australian organisation that seems to be spreading its wings to Asia. Such a fabulous idea and I enjoyed my class immensely. I recall my late Mum doing lino prints on tea towels and aprons as I was growing up in the 1950's and 60's. I do wish I knew where all her tools and rollers ended up......and how special it would be to have her here so she could see what I was doing.......

Beau is now on school holidays so we had a sleep over last weekend with a visit to a nearby playground the next morning that included a pre-Christmas bakery treat. The "Happiness is" quote from my calendar was most appropriate for the weekend!......

Sugar overload for the kiddies and a festive cappuccino for Larry..........

During the week a visit to Santa was on the calendar but Maisie wouldn't have any of it. She sat on the sidelines with Poppa......at four and half she is still not so sure about the big man in the red suit........

Outside one large store we noticed an advertising board for personalised chocolate bars and lo and behold it was Emily and myself on the placard.....such a strange coincidence but of course Michele had the usual spelling with two "L's" that Beau is trying to obliterate!.........

We caught up with the family during the week for my birthday  - in fact just last night with one side so it has been a lovely long birthday this week......

And of course a blog post would not be complete without images of the littlest member of the family seen here at the beach with his Mum & Dad recently.......

 Also this week I received a delightful but intriguing gift in the post. Larry and I 'puzzled' over it for a while thinking they were jigsaw pieces but none of them fitted. I also noticed that some images were from my very first fabric collection - 'Adelaide'  that was released with Jason Yenter of In the Beginning fabrics way back in 2010 - I cannot believe it will be 9 years next May! I certainly didn't blog as much as I do now as you can see on THIS LINK. Anyway I sent a thankyou card in the post and then heard from the giver of my gift who explained they were thread holders!! How absolutely wonderful and she made them herself - thankyou Darylin xx

 So the house is now ready for whatever Christmas brings. It is still lovely to get cards in the post but I am not sure that so many of us do it like we used to. I still get pleasure and some cards make me smile..........

 So huge hugs to all of you "out there" that might be reading this. A very Happy Christmas to you and your loved ones from our house to yours xx