Having fun

The weather in the UK has been behaving most oddly in the run up to Christmas. Last Sunday it snowed and settled here in London, but only for a short time before turning to rain. The temperatures have been all over the place with some a couple of degrees below freezing and then up at 10+ degrees C. I'm not sure if it's because of the way the weather is but one evening earlier this week there was an amazing sunset before I left work.

Our campus building has floor to ceiling glass and gives fabulous views across London. Unfortunately as well as being a great sunset it was also raining. It was fascinating to watch the sunset develop and then fade away. Those of us in the office stood around admiring the colour changes and delayed our leaving so we could watch it all.

Yesterday John and I went into central London as we needed to do some Christmas shopping. We avoided the main west end and Oxford Street as we had specific shops we wanted to visit elsewhere. One of our stops was on the Strand and I remembered to take a quick photo of the lights.

Even though I was concentrating on the shops I wanted to visit I spotted a green plaque out of the corner of my eye and made a detour to investigate.

I cut the top of the plaque off as I wasn't tall enough but here's what it's commemorating.

The Hotel Cecil was a grand hotel built 1890–96 between the Thames Embankment and the Strand. It was requisitioned in 1917 for the war effort and the headquarters of the newly formed Royal Air Force took up part of the building in 1918 to 1919. Most of the hotel was demolished in 1930 but the facade on the Strand still remains and is occupied by shops. 

The Royal Air Force is the oldest independent air force in the world and played a significant role on World War 2. It's most famous campaign was the Battle of Britain.

As we walked around the shops we spotted lots of beautifully decorated Christmas Trees and shop windows. I'd forgotten the fun of visiting the London shops in the run up to Christmas. You do have to allow plenty of time as it's very crowded but we planned in breaks for teas and coffees and enjoyed people watching along the way. 

This afternoon I finally cut the curtain fabric. The plain fabric was easy but the patterned fabric has a pattern drop of 80 cm and the match is then a few centimetres in from the selvage edge. I still have the lining to cut but at this point Picasso decided he wanted to play and wouldn't leave the fabric alone. As he made a grab at the fabric he caught my hand instead and I ended up with a nasty scratch that was bleeding  so I put the fabric away for the day. 

Having played with Picasso I am now ready to get my hand stitching out. I've done a little work on Earlene every night this week 

I've done all the dress outline and her basket. Tonight I'm working on her tote bag. I linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching  I really like this  bag lady and I can't wait to stitch her quilt. Why not pop over to Kathy's to see what hand stitching everyone's been working on.

I have work tomorrow and Tuesday and then I'm on holiday until 2nd January. I still have some Christmas shopping to do  and I need to do some grocery shopping. It would be fantastic if I could make my curtains before Christmas but I'm not going to rush them as I don't want to make any mistakes. I'll let you know how I get on.

Lyndsey