On the Fourth Day of Mario...

...my Nerdness gave to me...



...one Yoshi egg...



...a litle angry bird thing and a question block...



...one Italian plumber...



...an uncompleted border and some temporary tacking!

On the Third Day of Mario...

...my Nerdness gave to me...



...a litle angry bird thing and a question block...



...one Italian plumber...



...an uncompleted border and some temporary tacking!

Project 200 - 68/132

A neat little Christmas tree :-) Maybe I should have put eyes on it?



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On the Second Day of Mario...

...my Nerdness gave to me...



...one Italian plumber...



...an uncompleted border and some temporary tacking!

On the First Day of *still censored"...

...my Nerdness gave to me...



...an uncompleted border and some temporary tacking!

Tune in tomorrow for the first proper picture and the removal of the censoring.

My Christmas Post

So... are you ready for a nice picture-intensive post about my Christmas day? No? Tough :P

I started off the day with some delicious Sausage and Cheese muffins...



Then I put my prepared-on-Christmas-eve turkey in the oven and spent a few hours staring wistfully at my pile of presents.



Actually, I watched The Santa Clause and did some crochet, but I just wanted to show off how many presents I had :P

My turkey was a magnificent success!




The kitties enjoyed it too.



Lexie wasn't too happy with the hat from her cracker though. Hehehe



Then it was time for presents! And my god, I was spoiled. Aside from books and chocolate and teddy bears...



... and jewellery and socks and monkeys and candles and soaps and bubble bath... I got 34 balls of yarn! 34!!!



They varied from small balls of toy yarn, to huge expensive hanks of yarn that were specifically dyed for me. Look at them!






And I got this amazing little angel ornament that someone made for me.



And oh oh oh! One of the partners I got in a swap makes a living from handmaking colourful accessories and things. She made me this cute little Slytherin bag...



Check out the label she put in it.



Even the cats got presents. Quite a few actually. Here's one of their favourites.



And finally, just before the Doctor Who Christmas special, it was time for dessert. When we were little girls, Dad used to make Jennie and I a baked alaska for Christmas dessert, but once Tracy and the boys came along, it just wasn't possible. So this year I made my own.



That's chocolate cake, with mint choc chip ice cream on top, covered in meringue and stuck under the grill to brown. It was delicious, but took a bit of a strange effort to make.



Lol.

I hope you all had a lovely day :-)

A Christmas Prayer

I'm not a religious person, but I do consider myself to be kind of spiritual. I don't believe in God, but I believe in an unknown higher power. And I'd like, now that I've finished with all the food and the presents and the Christmas tv, to take a minute to send out a virtual prayer-type message.

I've been incredibly blessed this year, by all the generous people on Ravelry who've sent me enough presents to keep me occupied unwrapping for hours. And there are over a hundred Christmas cards adorning the walls of my home. A lot of the time I feel so very lonely, and it's times like this when I realise I'm not. They may not be next door, or even a text message away, but there are a lot of people out there who care what happens to me. And I am so immensely thankful to that unknown higher power for that.

I'm thankful for my family. Even though we've become even more fragmented in recent months, I still love my family, and I know that they love me. And I'm thankful for my friends. Consistent friends, friends who drifted but are returning, and brand shiny new ones. All of you are amazing, and you keep me going.

I'm thankful for the Internet too. As a depressive shut-in, the Internet is my lifeline. I don't get a thousand visitors a minute on this blog, but just knowing that my words are out there and have the possibility of being read by anyone, makes me feel important.

Merry Christmas to all you people out there. I hope you've had a good day, and I hope that tomorrow is good, and the next day and the next day. I hope that you are loved, and that you love. I hope that you enjoy what you do, whatever you do. I hope that you can smile occasionally and realise that perhaps life isn't so bad after all.

Project 200 - 67/133

For this one you very nearly ended up with a picture of Lexie. She ran off with it overnight. The only reason you have a picture now is because she stupidly brought it out to play with just now and I could rescue it.

Have a very seasonal Christmas angel.



This is the second of a two-parter. It goes with the Devil from
here.

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Project 200 - 66/134

A piece of filet crochet. Or fillet crochet. I never know how to spell that.



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A tiny heart-warming moment

It's 4 o'clock in the morning and I'm awake not because of my stupid timetable. I've actually been managing to keep to a fairly decent schedule recently. I'm awake because I'm having another attack of that back/stomach pain thing again. I don't know if I mentioned it on here.

I took some painkillers and sat in the only position that doesn't hurt - sat at the desk and hunched over a pillow. I put on my favouritest Christmas movie ever - The Santa Clause, and I waited for long few hours ahead to come to an end.

Once the pain started to ease a little, I sat back, and leaned my head against the wall behind me. Next thing I know, I'm watching a Christmas movie with Smudge curled up on my chest, and Lexie curled up on the desk just in front of me.

I enjoyed the cuddles, and enjoyed the moment. I have a large family, even though I'm not particularly close to most of them. Even those that I am close to, I'm geographically far from. This Christmas, Smudge and Lexie are my family, and it was really nice to be curled up with the two of them watching a Christmas movie.

Just thought I'd share my little middle-of-the-night heart-warming moment.

Project 200 - 65/135

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Only 5 days til Christmas!!!



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Discworldathon

Do you know who this man is?



Do you know where this is?



That man is Terry Pratchett. He is the creator of that wonderful place: The Discworld. His novels and stories of the occupants of Discworld are amazing, and they've just kept coming and coming for as long as I can remember.

The future of Discworld is now uncertain, because Terry Pratchett has Alzheimers disease, and in the years to come he will suffer (among other things) confusion, trouble with language, and severe memory loss.

In an effort to pay tribute to this incredible man, I'm partaking upon a Discworldathon. In the year 2012 I intend to read all 39 of the Discworld novels, in order to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK.

Please sponsor me. As little, or as much, as you can afford. Every penny will help.

http://www.justgiving.com/Colette-Horsburgh

And please pass on this news to your family and friends and colleagues. Spread the word, and help me support Terry Pratchett, Discworld, and Alzheimer's Research UK.

Coming soon...

One of my Project 200 pieces is a big piece with lots of littler pieces. I'm not sure why, but I got the idea to do them in a series, after Christmas, in a blog special.

Project 200 - 64/136

I've done another one. This one will be made into a Christmas card and sold in my Etsy store.



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Project 200 - 63/137

Duh... duh... duh... Another one bites the dust!



Two pinwheel placemats and coasters. I'm gonna use them for Christmas. Well, one set at least.

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Celeena Cree Creations

Guess what I got in the post this week. Well, aside from a bunch of Christmas cards and a couple of swap packages (now residing under my Christmas tree)... these arrived.



The official open date for my Etsy store is January 1st 2012. Plans for this month include finalising the PDFs for the patterns I've created, nagging Cayden until he gets round to giving me the things he's made for the store, finishing off some beading pieces and photographing everything on our nice background.

I'm very excited :D I'm not expecting to make millions, but I'd like to get some business at least. Pass on the word!

Project 200 - 62/138

And another one..



My plan is to hit 75 by the New Year. That way at the halfway point I'm halfway to the minimum needed for a pass. Which means I need to do another 13. It's doable. I've got one that's finished already, it's just blocking. Another should be finished either tonight or tomorrow. And there are four mini Christmas cross stitches I want to do. We'll see how it goes.

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