First, a confession: I haven't stitched a single stitch on any of my "ongoing" long-term works in progress.

But, I have been busy. You see, there are two Christmas markets just around the corner, and a whole heap of Christmas Presents that need to be made.

Yes, still.

This is my sewing table at the moment. It all looks a bit chaotic, but I know what's going on.


I've been really enjoying making over-sized, ridiculous buttons for Christmas. My favourite motif is the gingerbread man, and he's been making appearance all over the place (did you notice the ribbon above?). I particularly enjoy these because they really do look like real-life honest-to-goodness I-want-to-eat-them gingerbread cookies. But they're not. They're polymer clay.


Once they're iced, they look a little like this. This happens to be in a neater, more organised corner of my sewing table where bobbins, paintbrushes, buttons and fabrics congregate to be admired.


I've also been sorting through my knitting needles as I'm about to cast on for another small knitted gift. This time, it's for a little boy. We're having our monthly Knit & Natter tonight, so hopefully there will be some progress on this after this evening.


This is an oh-so-secret close-up of a gift I've made for my very lovely friend in New Zealand. This one took ages to make. I'll show you all once I've posted it so it won't spoil the surprise. I finally finished it this week and it's ready to pack up and travel East.

With all these gingerbread men running about the house, I'm definitely going to have to make a batch this week! I also bought the Great British Bake Off book this week (Christmas sale, who could resist?) and there are promises of amazing gingerbread results from a recipe therein. Watch. This. Space.