New to Me and You!

Merry Christmas and welcome to the final New to Me link party of 2016.

I hope you have all had a happy and peaceful (!) day, however you chose to spend it.

As ever, it is the time of the month to reflect on anything that we have tried for the first time this month, whether ultimately successful or not. So, if you have attempted FMQ'ing on a handmade Christmas gift or tried a new recipe for your Christmas cake link up and give yourself a pat on the back for moving out of that comfort zone :)

My New to Me's are an eclectic bunch to end the year with.

I visited Hamburg for the first time to enjoy the delights of the Christmas Market where, as you can see, Santa made a flying visit complete with a reindeer-drawn sleigh!

I created another new tutorial for the blog on the, by now, well worn theme of Christmas Puddings :)

The most daunting New to Me though is this scary looking overlocker that has taken up residence in my sewing room.

My friend rang me one afternoon to tell me that she was in Lidl and they had just taken delivery of these overlockers if I was interested. My initial reaction was not at the minute. Then we had a couple of hours to spare before the rugby game we were going to was kicking off, there  was a Lidl within two miles ( I might just have checked!) and it wouldn't do any harm to have a look, would it??

You can see where that line of thinking got me!

So far, all I have done is take it out of the box, contemplate how scary looking it is and put it back but, hopefully, in a quiet few hours over the holidays I might manage to give it a go. All tips gratefully received :)

So, that's my New to Me for December now it is your turn.to link up and celebrate the trying of something new. Of course it would be nice if our something New's were successful, but you are amongst friends here. We know that it isn't always the case so, hey, we are here to celebrate anyway the fact that we tried :)

As ever please help to spread the word by linking back to this post in your post and/or adding the blog button to your sidebar.








Check out the other links too and, maybe, leave an encouraging comment along the way. The emphasis of this link party is to celebrate the trying so a little encouragement here and there would not go amiss! 
The link will remain open until 23.59GMT on December 31st, so if you found some exciting new kit or notion under the tree today, get it out and give it a whirl and link up and join the party :)

An InLinkz Link-up

A final flourish

Well the big day is nearly upon us and the time for creating handmade gifts is almost gone, but I have managed to add one more gift to the pile under the tree today.

After ignoring it for weeks I have finally managed to sit down and finish the last of my beadwork animal kits from Ann's Orchard Needlework. I give you Hetty the Bantam.

Hetty has been framed with her partner in crime, Lettice the rabbit to round off the set.

 Basil and Hilda

Daisy the Cow

 Cheddar the Mouse

I thought that I had a photo of Daisy and Cheddar framed but I can't find it so you will just have to take my word for it that they have been, honest :)


I have really enjoyed working on these little kits, the quality of the materials and instructions have been excellent. Emma has a lovely robin embroidery pattern available to download on her website. I might tuck it away for stitching later!

If you have whipped up any last minute gifts don't forget to link them up to this month's Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party here for a chance to win the giveaway prize.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts   

Hamburg Highlights Part 2

It is always fascinating to me to see how modern cities blend the old and the new, and in nowhere I have been was this more impressive than in Hamburg.

The main building in this photo is the newly opened Elbphilharmonie, the newest concert hall in Hamburg. As you can see the building is made up of a modern top upon an old warehouse base. The sides of the building have been designed to represent fish scales and at 110m high it is now the tallest, inhabited building in Hamburg.

I think it is probably a building that you either love or hate, I loved it but my husband hated it!

The construction of the concert hall certainly disproves all those myths about German efficiency as it overran the original completion estimates several times and cost significantly more than the original budget :)

From the site of the Old Fish Market across the harbour, you can get a better impression of how impressive the building is. Of course, a close up view would be even better and as there are 45 apartments in the building, if we ever won the lottery we could have that too!

From one extreme to the other! Shortly after leaving the Old Fish Market area we came across the Strand Pauli beach club, which is apparently open all year round but not at 10.00 a.m. it seems :) I suspect that the type of person who is wandering around taking photos at 10.00 a.m. is not really the clientele that the Strand Pauli is aimed at, don't you?

I hope you have enjoyed this whistle stop tour of Hamburg, it is definitely a city to add to the bucket list.