Christmas presents...

with it being well past christmas (and the fact that i have given them to the kids) i thought i would share the gifts i made for my sisters children this year without fear of spoiling any surprises.

benjamin is now 11 (very soon to be 12 - feeling a bit old) and as much of a doctor who freak as me and therefore deserving of his very own dalek (similar having been previously shown) and for jessica i thought a pink rabbit (and why not). in fairness anything pink would have sufficed.

having squandered my free time whilst being unemployed on volunteering the new challenge was to get them made before christmas, thus revealing my crafty side to my work colleagues and the builders on site.

as a side story this caused an amusing incident of ageism but i digress.

the dalek production went swimmingly, but as christmas drew nearer the demands on my time exceeded crafty limits so by the time we were on our way to the folks it was still not done. luckily it was constructed in parts and i was still able to continue production whilst joining in with family games on xmas eve.

inevitable drinkies were consumed and wool started running out so amendments were made to the pattern resulting in a rabbit that looks like he has had a hard life, but i think he is great, and so does jess

and so, without further ado may i present...

Hop

A new home

Having wanted to build a gingerbread house with me niece and nephew at Xmas, and not being able to get near the oven, my sous chef (husband) decided we would do it today, Yay!

After running out to buy ingredients we cracked on, i was busy doing the washing up, cleaning the kitchen and supervising the process whilst Paul was in charge of mixing, and rolling. A fair division of labour.

Unfortunately there was a small incident or two with regards to walls falling apart, but nothing a lot of icing can't fix, more problematic is the curvature but I am nothing if not obsessive about details, and I find all old buildings to have similar problems :)

Construction complete, it was time to decorate, but having quickly got bored by this (I must be coming down with something) we decided that we should just eat it.

Yum Yum Yum ...

(i know these pictures are out of order, it wont let me move them, but you get the point. finished product - as far as it is going to get - is picture 3)