With you in spirit...

....if not on the blog! I'm sitting here wearing two fleece jumpers, with a fleece throw wrapped around my lower half, and feeling as though I've got ice cubes at the end of my feet instead of toes! The heat from the radiator never seems to penetrate under my desk. On top of all that I've got a streaming cold! Some of our windows are not double glazed, and this morning we woke up to find ice on the inside of them. I remember that happening a lot when I was a child, but not since then. The temperature outside here last night dropped to about minus 9, and it didn't get much above that during today. I know that some parts of the country were a lot colder still, but minus 9 is quite low enough for me, thank you very much! They say that come the weekend we may get up to plus 5! It will seem positively tropical!

The reason for my absence yet again on the blogs is that sadly, my father-in-law died very suddenly a fortnight ago. It was a great shock to us all. We had seen him a couple of days previously and he seemed fine, but he had a massive heart attack and although the paramedics arrived within a few minutes, it was already too late. We can only be thankful that he went so quickly and didn't suffer. I guess if we had a choice, that's the way we'd all wish to go.

The funeral was yesterday, and most people managed to get there in spite of the weather. My daughter  and family came down for it from Scotland on Friday evening without major problems, and it was lovely to have them here over the weekend.

The boys helped to take our minds off things a bit. They and Grandad made a snowman in the garden. He was a very upright sort of character at first, until a slight thaw made him somewhat tipsy! Fortunately he froze again before he reached the point of no return, and is still regarding us with a rather quizzical expression, as if he's trying to work out his next move.

This time last year I said that I couldn't wait for the new year, as it couldn't be as bad as the one we'd just had. I was right. This year has been even worse. So this time I'm saying nothing! It's a good job I got the majority of my Christmas cards made when I did, because just at the moment I can't summon up much enthusiasm for crafting.  I've been lurking a bit on the blogs, to try and keep up, but I hope you'll forgive me if I haven't had time to leave a comment. Being so busy at work just now doesn't help either. Roll on the Christmas hols, when with a bit of luck I will get a chance to recharge my batteries and get back to something approaching normal!

Keep warm, everyone, and I hope to see you soon!

Post-Christmas blues (& sneezes!)

Well, after a relaxed & enjoyable Christmas up in Dumfriesshire, I've been stuck inside for the past three days with the worst cold I've had in years. Must be a Scottish bug. After 25 years working in Nottinghamshire schools I reckon I've built up immunity to most of those down here.

Anyway, at least I've managed to use the time productively and made a nature themed calendar. I made an A-frame out of thickish card for the base and decorated the pages with stamps from various companies, mainly Crafty Individuals and Graphicus. Most of the Graphicus stamps are from their new "Nature Table" and "Autumn Hedgerow" themeplates, which are simply gorgeous. The month names and numbers were a set from Hampton Art's Creative Cafe collection. I then used my Bind-It-All to assemble the calendar.