The Red Wren

I started to pan-ic…

Today I saw a post from Liesl from Hoppo Bumpo that among other things said “Christmas decorations should be … (c) taken down by Twelfth Night (5 January) to avoid bad luck” . I immediately thought ‘No – it’s the sixth of January to avoid bad luck isn’t it? Isn’t it? (with rising hysteria).

A quick Google yielded even more alarming results;

“Twelfth Night (5th January) is when all Christmas Decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If decorations are not removed on Twelfth Night, they should stay up all year.*

All year? All year? Now don’t get me wrong, I am mad about Christmas decorations and as you will have seen from previous posts go a bit loopy with decorating but I certainly don’t want them up all year round. So tonight they had to be taken down. It took over three hours, but we are now Christmas free (except a sweet little toadstool that isn’t really Christmassy..)

Next up, I opened up the latest copy of Better Homes and Gardens which arrived today. It proved to be a good omen that I will not be having bad luck this year; look!

It’s all things I want to read about right now! BBQ recipes – well we just get a new BBQ. Storage ideas! We’re about to build shelves! Cross Stitch!! Refer to previous posts! Get fit, slim and fab! Yes please! And there’s more -  Lose the lawn (hubby hates the lawn), make jewellery, decorate with colour… I swear this month was written for me!!

So bring on more of 2010 as it’s looking pretty good already**. I’ll leave you with a photo of my new salt lamp with my mini Empire State Building in front.

*Source – British Life and Culture

** I will share with you that my Great Uncle Ray passed away on Boxing Day. I attended his funeral yesterday so while 2010 looks promising, losing Ray was sad. However he lived to the wonderful age of 92 and up until the last couple of years was still gardening, re-stumping the house and climbing ladders.

For nearly two months I’ve been harping on about my craft room; I’ve finally finished it. There was a moment while looking at photos of other people’s craft rooms -see previous posts- when I lost all motivation, but once I accepted that mine will never be 100% perfect while I still have too much stuff I got over it and finished.

I still have to paint, but I’ll save that for a warmer month and I’m not entirely happy with the printer/computer arrangement. It’s still a huge improvement on what it was though- which was basically a study with half a trestle table to sew on.  The trestle you see in the photos is much bigger than it looks. My machines are stored underneath along with other sewing supplies.