WOYWW #290 Christmas Eve

Happy WOYWW peeps who love to peep! I have been slightly bemused by the embedded word verification thing that has appeared in comments on blogger, and worked out that we all have it. I can't find out if I have it myself, but I guess I must do. However I chanced upon a comment saying that if the blogger has verification turned off, as I do, you can ignore it and just post your comment! I tried that on a blog just now and it is true, you can ignore it and the comment will post anyway!

On Sunday we visited Tyntesfield House in North Bristol, which is a National Trust property. Although I was already panicking about getting everything done for Christmas I really wanted to go and see it all decorated up.
The following photos were taken in very dark rooms, and no flash is allowed so the quality isn't the best.

See what I mean? All of the volunteers were dressed in Victorian costumes.

The thing that was really missing for me here was a roaring fire, I guess it damages the artifacts too much! A fake fire would have been good though and it was pretty cold.

Must have had camera shake here.

This one has logs, someone find a match!

This lady came out well, and she is so smiley!

There were stockings on all the bedroom doors, fake presents lol!

This lady told us she didn't look authentic!

In the chapel.

Here is the desk, not a lot has changed from last week, except there is a Christmas card in progress on it, probably will be for next year now. It is using the stamped and coloured images I did last year, and this one is a Unity stamp. Still not fixed that handle, hopefully I will when I stop panicking about Christmas. The card standing up has a pretty die cut snowflake panel, the die is Spellbinders and is my newest die. I cut it using the eBosser, which was hard work as I had to cut it, then take the die cut and die and turn it 4 times, and send it through about 6 times before it cut all over, then emboss it. I hope the Cheery Lyn machine will do it better than that when I fix the handle.

I have made a list of things that I needed to do yesterday and today, and although I didn't stop all day  yesterday I was only able to cross off one thing, the rest I had forgotten to add to the list! Yes I am panicking, but it will all be over in a couple of days and if it didn't get done there is nothing I can do about it.

I have to bath the dogs, clean the bathrooms, wash the towels, clean the kitchen, finish addressing the cards, make 3 birthday cards, and make tags to go on the presents - they are all wrapped just about but no tags on any of them! Lets hope I get it right!

Jumper is finished! Ready for Christmas, do I look like a Teletubbie then?

Sorry about fixed grin! This really sparkles, not sure you can tell but it has sequins all the way through it.

I just have to decide on my next crochet project now, do I fix that cardigan that has a pattern full of errors, the whole back is wrong and needs redoing, or do I start the jacket for my grandson, or another one of these in different yarn? Decisions, decisions! This is lovely and warm by the way, it contains some wool.

A funny thing happened last week, we had a hand delivered card addressed to Viv, well it looked like it could be our surname, how rude to address a card to a surname! I opened it, and it was to Viv and Ralph from something that looked vaguely like Barbara, or Braba 2, the writing wasn't great.

We don't know anyone called Viv, Ralph, or Barbara and it was not any of our neighbours so I thought I would put out an enquiry on facebook, on the local town for sale groups. Bit of a long shot, but Viv and Ralph's daughter saw it, told me where they lived (someone had clearly turned off too soon, it was the next road), and I popped the card round the next day! By then the sender had realised what she did and told Viv, who thought her friend had sent me, the daughter hadn't mentioned it. Happy Ending!

I have just found out that Alfie dog is so deaf he can't hear the Christmas singing toys! He used to hear them in any room in the house and rush to that room to kill the thing singing, and if he couldn't get to it he would grab the nearest garment, soft toy or cushion and savage that to death! I tried a singing dog, and then a singing reindeer right in front of him today, he just sniffed at it in a disinterested fashion!

Spagetti Squash update:

This was my sauce in progress, mushrooms, shallots, courgettes and tomatoes, in a ceramic non stick pan with nearly zero oil, and I have been very happy with the results each time as well as the ease of cleaning it afterwards.

I did take a photo of the whole baked squash (thank you Sandy for telling me how to cook it) but managed to accidentally delete it so here it is split open, it is some kind of crazy vegetable I think, how can it end up in strands like it does?

 When I first started eating it I started to asphixiate because I didn't take out the horrid netty bit that the seeds were in (other squashes are easier, you can see the bit that needs to come out and it doesn't blend in with the bit you do want to eat), only the seeds. It seems you shouldn't eat that nasty stuff, and I was gagging on it, not able to swallow or breathe, but eventually managed to get it back up (sorry for the detail). I was on my own as well, it was very scary and put me off the squash slightly but...

here it is mixed with the sauce....

....this was how much I had left, I felt obliged to eat it, this is an organic squash after all, and it took me from Thursday to Monday to finish it. Shaun wouldn't try it but I sneaked some into some noodles I cooked with left over chicken curry, and he liked it!

To join in the biggest desk hop on Wednesdays, hop on over to The Stamping Ground where Julia Dunnit will explain it all.