December 24th

I'm old school when it comes to advent calendars, they end on December 24th, after all we get plenty of excitement n the 25th.
I'm also traditional when it comes to my advent calendar blogposts. I always finish the posts with a bit of a request.
In this most commercial time of year, take a look at the world around us, appreciate how wonderful it is.



We live in a beautiful planet, do your bit to help. Walk instead of drive, buy less stuff in packaging that can't be re-used or recycled, volunteer your time to help others less fortunate than yourself.

If you can't do any of that, and feel like Christmas has been generous to you and yours maybe spare a bit of cash for your favourite charity. You may have your charity of choice you donate to, and that's fab, but if you've enjoyed the last month of posts then I'd love it if you donated something to the p/hop project, there's a little widget over on the sidebar to the right, and all the money goes to MSF, a charity who I trust to spend my cash wisely, to help as many people as possible.

December 23rd

Right about now I'm settling back with the cooking, my favourite drinks, and some Christmas TV.
I'm probably also thinking what I might get for myself for Christmas (lets face it, sometimes some lovely relatives choose to give much welcome cash rather than a gift, it only seems right to spend it on something nice!)
I make no secret of the fact that I love my Knit picks/Pro interchangeable needles, I bought them when I first started knitting, and I think they're one of the wisest investments I ever made.

However the case supplied is a but "meh" it does the job, but it's not pretty.

The wonderful picperfic makes beautiful needle cases, so much detail and thought has been put in to these, they'd be something to bring you pleasure for years to come.

December 22nd

Today I'm going to share a couple of my photos, Meg is your classically beautiful border collie, and she loves the snow.
This is her and Gwen last December, when they had a whale of a time in the foot of snow we got.

We had some of these pictures made in to cards to sell on our market stall in Machynlleth, Meg goes with us, and people get a bit of a shock when they realise the dog peeking out from under the stall is the same as the one in the cards!

Meg and Gwen love playing in the snow and while this year isn't looking like being a white Christmas, here's hoping we get some snow, because I can't wait to watch them playing.

December 21st

What's not to like about these pretty flowers, done in red they'd look like Poinsettia flowers, done in white they look sort of like snowflakes.

You can find the link to the blog for instructions here.

The last fresh fibre for this year went up on Etsy last night, I shall be posting parcels on the 22nd December, and hopefully on the 27th (though I'm not 100% certain my post office will be open). I'll also send them on the 29th, things will get back to normal on the 3rd January.
First thing on my list will be the fibre for the first Fibre Club parcels.
Merry Christmas everyone, and thank you for helping to make HilltopCloud such a success this year.

December 20th

We have 2 bird feeders hanging outside our window, we get so many birds coming to them, that it makes for great entertainment. At this time of year it tends to be flocks of blue tits and great tits, later on in the year we also get visits from siskins, and our family of woodpeckers.
We sell handmade bird feeders on our market stall, and they make a great present for people who are hard to buy for, these treats don't need a bird feeder, though as the recipe is from an American sit I'm not sure how well they'd cope with getting wet.
You could probably apply the same idea to making fat balls, but in a pretty shape.

You can find the recipe here

December 19th

These look delicous, though I think I might leave out the bacon part.... however I'm a sucker for marshmallow goo, chuck in some whisky, and I'm happy!
You can find the recipe here

December 18th

I mentioned Paper snowflakes a few days ago, but I've long since lost my link for the site where I found the print outs you can use to make them. However I've managed to track down some different tutorials. Making the snowflakes this way is super easy, it tels you how to fold the paper, and you just cut along the lines.

You can find one set of printouts here, and some more here