.: robin

I had a suspicion I was in for a rough few days when I looked out of my bathroom window first thing last week and saw this guy sitting on the roof outside:

One for sorrow. I looked around desperately for his mate, but the garden, trees and sky were empty. Ohhhhhhh dear!

Downstairs, I was greeted with a broken down washing machine still full with water, suds and clothes. Took me the good part of an hour to get the water drained and the door open so I could rescue the clothes inside. The machine had been quite ill for a few months and as it was an old lady, I decided to put her out to pasture and order a new one. Express delivery. Cost me an extra £20.

A couple of days later I had a trip to the dentist where I had a wisdom tooth extracted. I kept the tooth (Alas the Tooth Fairy didn't call. I'd hoped for paper with a nought on it. Damn that magpie!) and I thought about putting a photo of it here, but didn't want to spoil your breakfast.

Sunday I hunted for a pattern to make a robin. I could only find a regular bird pattern at Spool and my first attempt looked rather like a very sad and lonely budgie:

So I adapted the pattern to make the neck and tail shorter:

Slightly more the shape, but still not right. The poor thing looks one tweet short of a song, doesn't he? And is that what's called a Roman nose?

Third attempt, and I think we're getting closer to what I had in mind. Got to get some decent eyes:

And hearts. I had a go at some hearts. This is the only one that came out well enough to be shown. It was supposed to be snowy/Christmasy, but I think it looks more like a wedding heart:

Oh, and my cooker broke down. They're coming to fix it tomorrow. It's an Aga and the kitchen is so cold and sad without its constant heat. Can't wait for it to be fixed. HOWEVER, looking on the bright side, I now have the chance to give it a thorough clean while it's cold - something that's difficult to do when it's working. And....

The magpie's mate appeared! Hallelujah! Nice things began to happen.

Through the post came a parcel from Sarah at The Blueberry Patch. It was the lovely reindeer I'd ordered and he just looks great on my mantlepiece along with the Cinnamon Colonial Candle I found in TK Max (am I being stupid or is Colonial Candle almost impossible to find in the UK?)

Another parcel in the post was this lovely snowglobe advent calendar that I also saw on Sarah's blog site and immediately sourced it and bought my own:

Then, for the first time since I was small my mum bought me an advent calendar. So now I have two! This one is from PastTimes and is the real old fashioned type that you stick to the window and the light shines through the little pictures and illuminates them:

And today my copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas arrived. This is the original version with Boris Karloff narrating. I've never seen this movie so I'm really looking forward to a cozy afternoon with the kids next weekend, by the fireside, homemade cake and possibly hot chocolate:

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas! Happy December! And God bless us, every one.