Its that time of year again!

Well what a week, I have been super busy making gifts for family and friends for Christmas, whilst battling the crippling neck pain and yesterday having a stomach upset meaning I was racing faster to the bathroom than Usain Bolt. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fun. It took a good 12 hours for my tum to stop cramping. Anyway that is enough bathroom talk for the opening paragraph of my blog post.

On top of all of that I have woken up with a very sore finger on my right hand. Its one of my typing finger's so this week is going to be a photo blog , the joint has swollen, I'm pretty sure its my arthritis playing up just for a bit of variety. I haven't shown you any photos for what seems like forever. So here they are.

Last weekend we decided that we would get the Christmas decorations out. It is a little early for us but hubby is out with work this weekend and would have been too delicate to climb the ladder into the loft on Sunday safely. All in all it took 90 minutes which is pretty good going when you think the dresser had to be stripped and cleaned, all the pottery that was coming off wrapped and packed and all the gorgeous Christmas stuff put out.

I've been beavering away making lots of gifts and then I decided why not add to my work load and instead of buying gift bags buy a job lot of plain cotton bags (blanks as they are known by embroidery people! I found that out this week) and thought I would embroider them. That way they wouldn't get thrown away and could used for years rather than one Christmas ( I always try to save gift bags but many of them don't make it through until Christmas having been bashed about whilst being moved trying to find other things.) I bought myself some variegated thread as well, so did quite a few using that.

Sorry the pictures aren't brilliant, these were taken immediately after they were done and needed an iron really. Now they are stuffed with presents. Here are some that I did using "normal" thread and much better photographs

I finally managed to complete Mr Myasthenia Kids advent calendar that I bought in August but had been putting off for months as it had box pleats something I have never done before. To be fair it wasn't too bad. We are still waiting for a dowel to hang it from the lounge door so it's in its temporary location here.

I fell in love with this fabric range from Makower , I have a table runner using this design. On Black Friday I managed to pick up some more fabric in this Christmas range with plans to make some cushion covers. At the time I  thought I may get this done before Christmas then as days passed I did start to wonder if I meant next Christmas as there seemed so much to do ( and I kept adding to it). I managed to knock them up today, which I am chuffed about as I had to use my overlocker to finish the seams to stop them fraying so that they will last and last. I made 4, two of each fabric design

I have two Christmas lap quilts that need bound so that they can replace the current quilts on the sofa. I am hoping I will get these done in the next few days. I will be making a scrappy binding using the off cuts from the cushions and table runner and any other Christmas scraps I can get my hands on. I will get these finished before Christmas, even if it kills me! Which I might do.

Tonight I am shattered, I hope that I manage to get some sleep tonight and stop waking up in a blind panic with all the things I need to do - even though I don't work I find this time of year very stressful. There is so much pressure for things to be perfect even though in reality nothing is. I do have a few things I need to make for other people and I can't let them down as it will mess them up for Christmas. I am feeling the pressure.

Next week I start physio, I am really hoping that we can make some difference to my neck issue.