Christmas Wrapping.

Thank you. Thank you, for all your kind comments regarding the late Manky Cat. It was sad to lose him, but there is an up side. I can now leave the cushions on the rocking chair in the kitchen, safe in the knowledge that they won't be covered in cat hair! And I won't be discovering that someone has had a sneaky wee on the clean laundry folded in the laundry basket in the utility room! Or come down in a morning to someone laying on my kitchen tablecloth expectantly wanting breakfast! Yes there a lot of things I'll miss about Manky Cat and quite a lot that I won't. The joys of pet ownership, eh!

Talking of pets, I thought you might like to see Sneaky Dogs latest 'favourite' spot.

This is up in my attic, underneath my sewing table, squeezed in the few inches between my legs and my new electric HEATER. You can just see her collar under the edge of the table. (she looks like she's in a tanning booth!)

Now Sneaky Dog is not small by any stretch of the imagination, in fact she is on a strict diet now that Manky Cat has died and there is no cat food for her to steal. (hence the sneaky dog title!) But somehow she still managed to squish herself down into a more comfortable lolling position, while my position had to become, more of a, knees under my chin, kind of position!

Aww. That face says it all, doesn't it?

"Yeah, but you love me mum."

This is another favourite spot.

In front of the fire. The head end is a bit blurry as there was the important business of bone chewing to be done.

On the subject of important business, I've been wrapping Christmas presents.

And I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I love brown paper and try to recycle as much of my gift wrapping as possible.

For example, my mum always wraps my gifts with beautiful ribbon, which I squirrel away to reuse another year.These silky ready cut strands use to be a tassel on a cushion. They fell out in clumps and now have a second life as the little strings for my gift tags.I like to make my own gift tags if possible, and one of my best craft investments is my tag shaped punch. Another little recycling tip is to cut those little folding gift tags (like the gold one above) in half, so you have twice as many. This can also be done with pretty gift tags received from other people (like the holly wreath one), cut off the used part and just write on the back of what used to be the front.

Adding peel off stickers and ribbon to plain tags makes them more personal and can help to co-ordinate the look.

Here are three little boxes I made from scrap booking papers, stacked and tied together with gingham ribbon and a little tinkly bell. To finish off, a homemade gift tag.

Or maybe... I just like faffing!