Merry Christmas!!

And a happy new year! I hope you all have time to do something you like over Christmas :)

Yesterday was lovely. I had a sewing machine!! Well excited about that, does anyone know of any blogs with sewing tutorials on? I've not used one before so I'm looking forward to doing new projects and learning as I go. There is a dressmaking for beginners course run by the centre where I attend my knitting course, but it's 15 weeks long and it's going to be too difficult for me to rearrange all my shifts in work so that I can attend them all.

I also had a brilliant knitting solutions book (I'll get the proper name soon) which is written by an experienced knitter and is basically full of answers and solutions to problems knitters may come across. I've only had a quick flick through but it does look great - a brilliant Ravelry alternative if I can't get online as well!

My grandfather (who recently had a heart attack) came for Christmas dinner with us, and it was brilliant to see him looking like his old self again pre op (even if he couldn't have pepper on his food because it makes him cough which is bad for his stitches in his chest!). Apparently he's become something of a legend in the hospitals he spent time in - and an ambulance man told him that he was in the small 5% of people that actually survive having a heart attack in those circumstances. It's his 80th birthday this week (he was born on 30/12/1930) so he's doing extremely well. 

Unfortunately 3 out of the 4 of us are ill with something, but it's still nice to be home even if I am ill! Mam has laryngitis, Dad has a chest infection and I've got the beginnings of something (constant headache and coughing). My brother is lucky and so far illness free. Even Tom text me to say that he's also feeling ill, which isn't great :( 

Last night we had some drama with the two cats. I was woken by them screaming and growling at about 5.30am. From what we can piece together we suspect one of the neighbourhood cats tried to get in through the cat flap and they attacked. There were 11 pieces of claw casings (not sure of the correct term, but it's similar to when snakes shed their skin) and lots of tufts of ripped out hair - grey, black, white and ginger. Our two are ginger and white, and black and white. There are 2 grey tabbies in the neighbourhood. One is our next door neighbours, and the other lives on the next street up whom my cats hate. Any bets?!

Anyways, I've had 10 hours of (almost) uninterrupted sleep now and it's gone 12pm so I should really get up and get out of bed! Mam's teaching me how to use the sewing machine today, yay! :)

Merry Christmas xx