And winter came............

Today is the winter solstice  and the official 1st day of winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. It will also be the shortest day. That means from tomorrow the nights will be getting shorter again..... but summer does indeed seem a very long way away at the moment. We have had some unseasonably cold weather here in the UK and I think sometimes we forget that Christmas is actually only just in winter by 4 days. The likelihood of a white Christmas here is actually a very remote one but this year seems odds on.
Since early December we have had biting cold weather and such heavy snow. Everything really is a true winter wonderland and for once the Christmas cards with their snowy scenes are perfect illustrations!

This is our local church at the ponds and it really looks so festive covered with snow.
I am considering using some of my snowy photos I have taken this year in my Christmas cards next year....they are perfect with the snowy scene!








On Sunday we sang this song at the Carol service. I smiled as I thought how apt these words were!

It is not quite midwinter but the earth is certainly
hard as iron around here and the snow has definitely  fallen, snow on snow. As we came out into the icy darkness
after the service my Hb and I just stood and looked
around, taking in the almost surreal beauty of the
surroundings that  night.





I took some photos, which although I appreciate are a little out of focus, ( it is hard to stand still in the freezing cold until the camera shutter shuts!), I think almost have a magical winter glow to them...

Despite the freezing cold we had walked there and back as our car at the moment is going nowhere. I am actually glad we did as I am not sure we would have realised how beautiful it was outside.

So now that we are in winter I have also had a look at my garden and the local wild life to see how they are faring.

Under all this snow are my violas and snuggling deep inside are the bulbs I planted in the autumn. These are usually very hardy but it will be interesting to see what does emerge next year.

I have to keep bashing the heavy snow off my palm and the weight is almost breaking the branches. I have had this hardy palm for many years and up until now it has survived. I will have to keep my fingers crossed that it does after the extreme temperatures of this year.

Some of the plants are providing welcome berries and of course the viburnum is in flower! I love this shrub in my front garden, even with icicles hanging the delicate flowers are in bloom.








What a plucky plant this is.

  

The local wildlife seem to take the winter weather in their stride, the birds down at our ponds still paddle around in the icy water......

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

I also caught sight of the squirrels playing, they are very well fed with nuts by the local children so have no problems in the snow and actually seemed to be enjoying it.

This one kept running in and out of the trees.

So the garden and wildlife seem to be doing alright out in the winter wonderland...so what about  Billy............how is he faring on this first day of winter.....?

Well he is most intrigued to find that we now have a tree in the dining room.  Now how on earth can you explain that to a cat?

I do hope this winter does relent a little for us here in the UK but wherever you are ......
..................welcome to winter...............

Bye for now,
Jane x

(Remember that my very last **days to Christmas post is coming up on Christmas Eve, so do come back. The big day really is nearly here :0)

21 days til............................

In recent years there has been some debate about sending Christmas cards. At my work place for the last 3 years some people have decided to give to charity instead of giving cards. That is their personal choice and I do respect that. However I chose to do both because I so enjoy giving and receiving Christmas cards. I hang the cards we are sent on  foil strings from the banisters in my hallway. It is always such a cheerful display to greet  us when we come home.
I enjoy the hearing the sound of cards plopping through my letter box, delivered by my trusty postman. Even the stamps issued by the Royal Mail this year are cheerful.  They are the delightful Wallace and gromit. I am not sure if my overseas readers know of these fun characters? Cards also allow me to hear from friends who now live far away and sadly I rarely see. It gives me a great pleasure reading their messages. I have one friend, who is another Jane, and usually hers is the very first to arrive. However due to all the snow we have had our mail has been seriously disrupted and we have not had a delivery since Tuesday! I am sure Jane will not disappoint me. These have been the scenes around here this week, it's not really that surprising my post has not been delivered! You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

It's hard to believe this is Surrey not Lapland! Real picture postcard scenery...I still think it is quite stunning and just so appropriate to this time of the year.

I always enjoy making some of my Christmas cards. As I just don't have the time to make them for everyone I tend to give the handmade ones to my nearest and dearest. This year I tried starting early and I did manage to get some finished in October but as always time has run away and I must now buy a few to complete my list.
I showed a couple my handmade cards on my footsteps in the snow post recently and I just thought I would share a few more.

I bought these brilliant fimo snowmen at a craft fair last year, after I had finished making my cards. So I  put them away to use  this year. I love the snowman image and he is a favourite theme of mine at this time of the year.

I have used other colourways of these sweet snowmen to make some variations. It is always interesting how differently cards turn out even when the same theme is used. Just a change in backing paper or embellishments makes them look completely different.






One really fun card I wanted to share with you is the one I have just made for my dear Hb. You may already be aware that I love pigs. As I could never have the joy of keeping a real one, the nearest I have ever got to this is owning guinea pigs. When I was small, and then also when our children were young, we kept these wonderful feisty little creatures. Wilbur, Fern, Raisins, Roger and Dennis all spent many happy years with us. My husband also fell in love with these very dear creatures, we have such fond memories of keeping them.

When I spotted Zoe on Etsy, who paints the most true to character guinea pigs, I just knew I had to commission her to paint me this little fellow for Christmas to use for my Hb's card.

He very much resembles our Roger who was one of the cheekiest guineas we every owned!
I decided to use him as the centre piece for the card.
I used some green holly embossed card to make a "parcel" cross and added glitter snowflake stick ons. I cut out a matching green tag which I attached with snowy ribbon and here it is......

 Inside I used some fun peel offs and made a holly border with a green strip underneath to highlight the cut outs.





This shows the inside where I will write my Christmas greeting to him ♥

So as you can see I often have very random themes for my cards but I think it makes them even more special and after all ....just how many guinea pig Christmas cards can you find on the shelves of the shops at the moment........................................................??!! ;0)

I suppose I must crack on with finishing writing my Christmas cards now and get them all in the post so that they can be delivered in plenty of time.

As I cannot send all my blogging friends real cards I hope you have enjoyed looking at these and if I was to put a verse inside to send one to you all .....this would be my choice.

There's more, much more, to Christmas Than candlelight and cheer;

It's the spirit of sweet friendship That brightens all year.

It's thoughtfulness and kindness, It's hope reborn again,

 For peace, for understanding, And for goodwill to men!    (Anon)

.......and women of course ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

33 days til..............

Before I start this  latest post I really wanted to thank everyone for the kind comments they have left. I really had no idea  that I would find so many like minded Christmas lovers out there. I really appreciate people taking the time to leave their comments and for joining me on my hopefully, lighthearted, fun journey towards 25th December. Time really is ticking on now with only 33 days to go....

For my 3rd countdown to Christmas post I thought I would share with you some of the Christmas jewellery I have made. I love to wear seasonal jewellery. I suppose that is a perk of being able to make you own, if you see an inspirational bead then you can make it into something or I can use my silversmithing skills to fashion something out of silver. I would never wear more than one piece at a time, that would be overkill, but I always find that if you wear something Christmassy it is a great topic of conversation and can even be a great ice breaker at a party.

As you already know I do have a slight addiction to buying rather expensive one of a kind lampwork glass beads, I showed my autumn goodies in a previous posting.

These are some of the Christmas pieces I have made over the years....one of my favourite is this snowman bracelet...

It totally screams Christmas and is deliciously over the top.
Whenever I wear it I always get comments and smiles. It cheers everyone up! I teamed the beads up with some very festive snowflake charms I bought.

(Remember you can click on any of the photos to see the details).

Being a greedy girl I also have a second snowman
bracelet which is smaller than the one above and
a little more subtle, I also love the little Christmas trees on this. I also managed to source some matching holly green and deep red beads to match.

A third (well a girl can never have too many, can she..??) bracelet I enjoy wearing is this more delicate floral bracelet which I teamed with rock quartz and lovely sterling silver pine cones...I do sometimes wear this piece during the year as it is not obviously a Christmas bracelet.





After bracelets I obviously needed a necklace and I have a real favourite one....

This lovely necklace has beautiful one of a kind Christmas roses lampwork glass focal beads at the front and one of a kind white ribbon glass beads, together with some rock quartz. I often wear this for my Christmas parties as it is very subtly Christmas and goes with everything especially the LBD (or little black dress!)

Also you may remember that at my visit to Bead Heaven (aka the Big Bead Show in October) I bought some very sweet Rudolph  the red nosed reindeer one of a kind lampwork beads shown here on the right...

You may be interested to see what I did with them.......................................

Here they are...I bought some pretty sterling silver snowflakes and wire wrapped them using Swarovski crystals and some unusual new ear wires.

I have not worn these yet but I am sure they will cause some smiles...such happy, fun earrings.







So as you can see that I have a good selection of Christmas jewellery to choose from and yes I do also have some other Christmas beads in my stash which have not yet been more than admired in their box!

Does anyone else have Christmas jewellery they enjoy wearing? I would love to hear about it if you do.

As this has been a light hearted Christmas piece I thought my verses today should reflect the same ..so  here are a festive joke or 2...enjoy!! ;0   (groan!)

The Last  Reindeer
A reindeer walked into a pub, strolled up to the bar and ordered a pint of lager.

Completely unfazed, the barman poured out the lager and passed it to the reindeer, who handed over a ten pound note.
As he handed over the change of a few coins, the barman said "I have to say, you're first reindeer I've seen in here."
The reindeer studied the change very carefully and said. "Tell you what sunshine, as these prices I'm also the last reindeer you're going to see in here."

And these are so bad they made me laugh...

What do you call a reindeer wearing ear muffs?

Anything you want because he can?t hear you!


What do reindeer always say before telling you a joke?
This one will ?sleigh? you!

How does Rudolph know when Christmas is coming?
He looks at his calen-?deer?!

I hope they made you smile...;0)

I have just returned from  a wonderful weekend in York and will be back with a "Yuletide York"  post at the weekend..it looked so pretty with all the Christmas lights and decorations up.

Bye for now,

Jane x