bookcase

I am thinking of making this bookcase my new project. How hard can it be? I'll buy 50 metres of plywood, a saw and we'll see how it goes!

image via studiomama

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, comrades!

image: Soviet Christmas cards, via mazaika

sledging

Went sledging with my brother's family this afternoon. Man, is it cold out there. We only managed four slides before we gave up from the cold. It was particularly beautiful - look at that blue sky!- so I was glad to stand on top of a nursery slope and take it all in.

calendars

Calendars are just an annual excuse for me to indulge in my stationery ('e' for pencil, as I now remind myself) obsession. For 2010 I have four calendars and yes, it is completely unnecessary to have that number of calendars. There are two of them in my tiny kitchen.

So this year, I'm aiming to contain myself and only buy one for my office and one for home. I spent a delightful hour trawling design and stationery blogs to pick my favourites and here are the ones in the running to become Sarah's next top calendar.

from top:

hand silk screened lunar calendar by sunken treasure

wooden rabbit calendar by the paper thieves

laser cut calendar by rob ryan

poster calendar by yellowlion

cat calendar teatowel by kauniste

poster calendar by caitlin keegan (extra points for writing space)

'hooray hands' desk calendar by curious doodles

astrology calendar by prismatic

snow

Scotland is covered in snow right now and we got some in our little village too. Normally it misses us out, but the sky was banked with snow clouds and it fell for hours. It looked really pretty, which almost makes up for the total havoc it caused.

I took these photos from my garden. I thought the church spire looked particularly spooky.

shetland wool

I just bought heaps of shetland wool the other day. It's a really lovely yarn - soft, but holds well, lightweight and very warm. It is not as soft as cashmere or merino, but it wears much better than either with no bobbling. Sometimes I prefer seeing a big basket full of wool than actually knitting it. With a basket full of wool, you can still dream about all the amazing things you will make...whereas knitting is all about losing count, cursing and unravelling.