Tis The Season To Be Jolly....

 Not that I'm feeling all that jolly at the moment - weary I think is the word!  Not much crafting going on this week due to Christmas preparations and the new addition to our family.  I did knit the 'Christmas tree' neckwarmer in a different yarn, Jester, which has integral bobbles.  Not sure I am quite so keen on it - I think the yarn has to be quite thick for this pattern to really work.

Yesterday was spent doing a bit of baking - mince pies to last us over the next few days and some stollen muffins using a recipe in December's Simple Things magazine.  I can highly recommend the muffins, absolutely delicious, although I wouldn't like to think of how many calories are in them...

The Christmas cake has been iced as well, but not fully decorated as yet - thinking the decorations need replacing, so yes, the day before Christmas Eve is the day to look in the shops for cake decorations, isn't it!

Thankfully I managed to complete all Christmas commissions in plenty of time, and now just have the one to work on over the next few weeks.  I'm having to make up this composition from many photos, age the children, add the dogs and hope to goodness it all pans out in the end.  I have the finished picture in my head, so that always helps, I'm not working totally without a clue!

In the meantime, Daisy, our new dog is settling in well.  Apart from an incident on the second day concerning the postman - which I don't want to talk about just yet - she is a cracking little dog.  It took a few days for her to calm down, but that's understandable when you have been brought up in a home then suddenly put into boarding kennels and then into an RSPCA rehoming centre with all the big scary dogs.  She's clean around the house, very friendly and loving, had absolutely no manners at all but in the space of a week has learned to sit quietly while her harness is put on, stop pestering for food at mealtimes (well, almost) and that no-one will play with her unless she drops the toy nicely.  Pretty good going so far!  Our resident hound, Clovis, has been remarkably tolerant - he tried ignoring her in the hope she would go away and that didn't work, so now he is allowing her to sit next to him on the sofa, sniff his sniffs on walks, and hasn't shown any signs of jealousy.  Well done old man!