Countdown to Christmas 2020 (Thread 10): the one with the Very Important Participants!

[NoWordForFluffy]

Here we go!

I've got a busy day tomorrow, so I'm starting this now, ready for when it's needed.

I was very unhappy to find a few white hairs a few weeks ago Wreck. Luckily they're on the sides and underneath so I can hide them!

Lovely creations Woolly! How did you do the antlers for the reindeer so that they're standing? I don't think I crochet tight enough and struggle with things that small.

I managed bubble stitch so this the cushion so far (the tree is placed on, not sewn on yet. I need to make a bubble stitch trunk and think about decs first but I'm pleased with it.
As much as I enjoy cross stitch, I definitely enjoy the freedom to create something of my own!

I'm totally not creative, so something as 'rigid' as cross stitch suits my personality! I'm shit at designing stuff myself.

I'm getting there with the cross stitch now; it's beginning to feel never-ending, mind you!

Oooh Chocolate Orange Twirls yum Wreck

Love the cushion Crazy

105

Morning!

I woke up for some reason, now can't nod off again. Annoyingly. Probably got myself too excited about our Nectar points total, as our two lots of life insurance points went on today, so we've got over £300 now! We've never been this high before. I think I've gone giddy. 😂

Wreck, I hope your DS is less snotty today, and hasn't tipped into persistent cough territory.

Crazy, I'm glad you started to feel a bit better about work. I love the tree / cushion. All this talk of different knitting stitches is a foreign language to me! 😂

Woolly, what day is your op next week? How do you feel about it?

Morning.
Did you go back to sleep, Fluffy?
I was cold, so got up to make DH is still in bed hurrah so I get an hour or so in the dark before he turns up and puts every bloody light on in the house.
The cross stitch is coming on well. I've had a break from mine but did a tiny bit yesterday - then got a stye on my eye, so stopped again.
I love the bubble stitch! As a non-crochetist it looks quite complicated.

Nope. I'm still here!

I got a MAHOOSIVE stye this time last year. It took months to bog off. You have my sympathy!

Ah yes, I remember that. This one I think hope is going. I did rub it in the night which made it more sore, but at the mo it seems fine.

Hot flannel on it is meant to help.

Woolly, now our third freezer has arrived I can do roast potatoes for Christmas to freeze, as you suggested. Do I freeze them at the parboiled stage?

Ds still very coldy but only intermittent coughs when he tries to clear his throat.

I'm going food shopping today and am so uninspired for meals.

It's not to bad at the mo, mainly due to the amount of sneezing I've been doing. How the hell can I catch a bloody cold when I only go to a couple of shops with gloves and a sodding mask on? I don't stop to talk to anyone or touch anything I don't buy, I wipe stuff, I wash my hands raw, I don't have a "bubble", there's just me, DH and 2 hangry cats 🤷🏻‍♀️🤧🤧
It's not Covid, as I'm not coughing, no sore throat, no temp and I know Charlie has had a 💩 in his tray...

Wreck going to be hot from sunday, so BBQ stuff? Chicken dinner - like a mini Christmas dinner?
Glad your DS isn't any worse.

I'm keeping ds home today. I'm not working today so I don't think it's fair on the teachers to send him in.

We're out for lunch Sunday so won't need Sunday food. Weather is saying 28° but I want chilli and shepherds pie! Definitely bbq type stuff though and salad I suppose. Maybe quesadillas.

I think you might have to save shepherds pie for next weekend. Don't forget Ice lollys medicinal for DS obvs if you can get them home quickly enough or he'll have to eat them in the car on the way back

Morning!

Boots my sympathies. I agree with Fluffy bathe your eye in cool boiled water and see your pharmacist if it lingers. As for your cold I like Halls Mentholyptus (the black packet) - they clear your sinuses.

Fluffy your cross stitch looks ace. The last lot of spuds I did were par boiled, shaken and the roasted for about 20 minutes. Take out of the roasting tin and drain on kitchen paper. Bag up and freeze. They can go into hot oil straight from frozen to finish off.

Wreck I'm with you on wanting autumn dinners. I've just amended my c&c for tomorrow and taken off my roast 😢 We have chilli all year round - just with more salad during the summer. We are having honey and soy salmon and fajitas next week and DH has offered to cook steak for our wedding anniversary I've only just got the internals of the cooker hob clean after the last time he cooked

Crazy would sequins work for baubles? I used mini jingle bells on my chocolate orange covers.

I was going to get steak but then checked the bank account and I need to stick to budget for the next two weeks! So poor right now.

You were up early Fluffy, understandable though with such Nectar point excitement on the cards. I woke up early needing a cuppa and we have the closomat engineer coming shortly - yes we are living life on the edge here. Woolly feel free to wander across to pick up on the total dream vibes going on at Chez Why 😂

Fluffy Your cross stitch is flying now, you'll be done soon.

There must have been something in the air as I was up at 3:45 for an hour. I feel all over the place now though.

puss the bubble stitch was surprisingly straight forward but looks complicated which is always good.
You have my sympathy with the stye. I've never had one by my dad gets them from time to time.

Wreck since lockdown, DH has taken over meal plans and shopping and its brilliant. He's much more organised than I was with it. He keeps a joint note on his phone to update the freezer / shopping list / meal ideas.
This week we're having homemade burgers, tomato risotto, hunters chicken, pasta & pesto, some fish dish he's cooking (he's trying to get me to eat fish) and ham, egg, salad & jacket, and goulash. I'm hoping my mum will do a roast on Sunday!

Woolly I'm looking at either sequins or beads (on a string, added like tinsel) to decorate the tree. I'll have a play with it later and see how it goes.

Boring (and hopefully quiet) work day today, which I need after yesterday because I have loads to do.
Going to pop some Christmas music on and work my way through my to do list

I was thinking about vegetarian chilli yesterday , need some Scotch Bonnet Chillis but I have everything else .
I usually slice and roast a load of onions then freeze in batches to go in the SlowCooker .

I'm off out with DD , just drinking coffee , off for a shower then away .

(Might squeeze in a visit to Marble Arch M&S , see if they have That Cushion ......................................... mwah ha ha!

Noooooooo! You do know you have to buy 10 and distribute them round the group if they're in stock plus that duvet cover (king size) for me too.

I don't know what woke me, but I then did get a bit excited by the Nectar points! 😂😂 I went back to sleep for about an hour, thankfully.

Why, your life is as exciting as mine. I cleaned the upstairs windows and dusted before work. Being a 'windows open' house = being a dusty house!

Woolly, thank you for the potato tip. I'll get onto it! 🥔 🥔

Crazy, sorry you didn't sleep well too. Definitely something in the air (I assume no Nectar excitement at your end?!).

Crazy I saw thesee* in The Works. They'd look ace threaded on metallic cord.

Morning all, new job already impinging (I don't start that section until Monday....meh, old job doesn't need me to do much anyway...). Newest XSt bookmark started (finished caravan last week), 2 sail boats on waves this time. I was going proper sewing last night but DD came home early from school with her shoulder and needed me to get icecream for her. I've started another scarf to knit, which is handy for waiting in the car outside school for her in the evenings. Cub leaders decided to cancel camp as numbers rising locally, and expecting Govt announcements on Tuesday which would likely stop us anyway. DH has been enjoying himself researching and then doing the work to fix my mini-torch which had a battery leak and jam the compartment - lots of banging on his desk in the room next door but I think he's cleared it (and he's been in a meeting all the while, just on mute ).

I'm loving all the craft pictures. You're all so talented!!

I've spent too long on the Christmas board this morning to distract myself so better get stuck into reading things for a VC this afternoon (I've also got a good line in faking it, but I need to do some prep still...)

I'm back. Spent £68 might not be the healthiest a of weeks though I also got these...

Crazy I have loads of sequins - if you want them PM me. Commiserations on the Fish. Unless it's a finger I won't touch it

70 That really is just cruel. Taunting your thread-mates with a cushion.

Fluffy or Woolly can you freeze home made mash/and how? I may have bought too many spuds, they're v nice and I don't want to waste them

Biddy I didn't realise Ice Cream had similar pain-killing properties to ibuprofen

Wreck nothing wrong with a nugget (or 6) the KitKat Santas however...v naughty

My stye seems ok now - I think chopping up a couple of strong onions and the associated 😭 may have done the trick tbh.

Boots I freeze mash on occasion, if I know it will be frozen (not just unexpected leftovers), I make it with powdered milk not fresh - it absorbs the water when defrosting and is then not so mushy. You can always add a bit more fresh milk if needed when reheating after defrosting.