A trip to Bath and some Christmas preparations

I’ve been a bit quiet this week –  because I haven’t been here!! I’ve been up at Rosie and Dan’s house near Bath having a wonderful time.  I’ve wanted to visit the Bath Christmas Market for years, though somehow it’s never happened .. until this year when Rosie and I hopped onto the Bath park and ride bus and headed into the city centre ….

We had a lovely time wandering up and down between the rows of stalls, packed with all kinds of tempting goodies.  I was very restrained though, content simply to enjoy the atmosphere (and the delicious hot chocolate Rosie treated me to!), but I did acquire some tasty homemade dog biscuits and some outstandingly moreish brownies.  Sadly both the biscuits and brownies have already disappeared so I can’t show them to you.

After an hour or two at the market we headed up town towards the recently opened Anthropologie store – I LOVE Anthropologie with its stacks of pretty china and stylish Christmas displays …

And there I was very much tempted to purchase of all things – a stapler!  My old one was rather wonky and unreliable, and I hadn’t got around to replacing it.  But when I saw this vision of stapler loveliness, I was very glad I hadn’t ….

Seen here on my table, the most elegant spotted dog/stapler I have ever seen.  So much nicer than your standard-issue black plastic version.

The tiny vase on the left of the photo holds a few hazel twigs bearing small green catkins found on a recent walk.  Hazel is generally early of course, but I haven’t found catkins in the first week of December before.  In the front right hand corner is a project for the January issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine – a baby mouse with her mini (1/2″) hexagon quilt.

Then, when I returned home yesterday, after experiencing all the Christmasssy loveliness in Bath I decided to get out my own box of decorations.  Much to the Newfies’ disgust I quickly discovered a pair of canine torture instruments (aka dog Santa hats!).  I got Daisy to try hers on (Ben quickly made himself scarce) – and here she is with a very rebellious expression on her black furry face ….

She’s so totally unimpressed!  And then Rosie sent me a text to say she too was unpacking her decorations – with a little help from Tilly……

What a pretty girl!  It’s her first Christmas of course, so she has no idea what to expect.  Hopefully she won’t be chewing the branches off the Christmas tree like a certain Mr Benjamin did when he was very young!  And thinking of trees … I also discovered the Christmas tree stand cover I assembled from some bits and pieces found around my workroom last year ….

I had intended to take it apart after Christmas last year, but it still looks rather nice I think.  If you’re looking for an easy low-cost way to dress your Christmas tree stand, then please do take a look at my original post when I blogged about how I put this cover together.  I’ve just re-read that post and guess what – I STILL haven’t got around to making a Christmas tree skirt.  Ah well ……..