Living on top of a hill has advantages...

when it has rained (heavily) every day this year. We have had puddles in the garden, but living on chalk has advantages too - they drained away very quickly.

There was one sunny day, although even that turned wet by evening. Fortunately it was the day we had the little guys, so we took advantage of excellent visibility to take them to the Spinnaker Tower. The VHC loves boats, and it took a lot of encouragement to to get him to turn his back on the waterfront and go into the tower. 

But when he got up to the top he was mesmerised, as was Babybel. 

As we left Babybel said 'I had a really lovely time in there', and we all agreed.

Of course, weather like this should have allowed me to make good progress on the Chair's Challenge, but for one reason another, mainly lethargy and procrastination, not much has happened - and 50% of what I did try went wrong.

The phone camera struggled with these in artificial light, but I hope you can get a feel for them. Just like my summer efforts with 'Repetition', I've been experimenting and trying to use stuff up. 

Top left, out of focus, is machine embroidered and zapped felt - my second attempt. This will get some shrink plastic stars, which I forgot to photograph, in due course.

Top right is stitched and Rub-Onned hand-made (but not by me) paper. The backing is two of the things which came in my challenge bag - some very wide wired silver ribbon and some leather binding.

Bottom left is the twig star I showed last time, and bottom right is some foiled black velvet. I had used the silver previously to foil stars, so there were star shaped holes in it. I ironed the red foil over the top to fill in the holes - and then added some black FuseFX to calm it down a bit. I think I shall use this to back some Hearty Clay stars, which I also forgot to photograph...

I seem to have spent more time knitting socks than anything else (more tonight as 'The Bridge' is back!).

I finished Wensleydale's grey pair but didn't manage to photograph them before he took them away.

So I made sure these were snapped before he snapped them up. (Sorry! )

Although I have a lot of sock wool, there is not enough of most of it to make a complete pair - hence th stripes. I suspect they will get even more bizarre as I get further down the stash. But W. doesn't seem to mind, and his socks are usually hidden by his Docs anyway!

Keep warm and dry, everyone! The weather must get better soon, mustn't it?