Friday 15 November 2013

Ch...mas Shopping



It's nearly time to start Christmas shopping . I like to think about it for a while , ponder all the possibilities , ask everyone what they'd like , make lists , narrow it down . Usually by the time I've done all this , it's suddenly nine days before Christmas  , I still haven't bought anything and the shops look as though looters have swept through . So , instead , yesterday I set the alarm and went down to Amsterdam on the first train .
 And now I'm back ... with a pop-up book about  a goose for Small Grandson ....No , not just any old pop-up book . It's in English and from Waterstone's in Kalverstraat  ( only because I temporarily mislaid the American Bookshop round the corner ) . You might think that the language it's written in is of minor importance , given that he's still not quite two , but his big brother felt that it was , so I complied . Of course , I know that he'd really have preferred his own baby elephant and a banana plantation but his parents haven't really got room for a howdah and the neighbours might complain ..
Still , I'd made a start and  after a break for lunch , a bowl of sweet potato and coconut soup ( delicious ! ) and a chunk of homemade bread  in this corner of a tiny side-street cafè  , I


went window-shopping and managed to find a few stocking fillers .





But the real breakthrough present-wise came when I got back to Leeuwarden in the evening . Stowed next to mine in the bike racks was this !


Look! The perfect Christmas present for everyone ... crocheted mud guards . It's enough to tempt me to conquer my inability to crochet


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8 comments:

Friko said...

and there was I, thinking it was the bike you coveted, with or without mudguard, and were about to give it a new home.

Christmas shopping? Mid November?

love those cupcakes said...

Well, at least you've made a start. Me too. I had a day in York and bought a tea towel. As for those mud guards, I don't know anyone with a bike. Now, if only I could find a pattern for a steering wheel cover...

colleen said...

I've long lusted after crocheted mud guards since I saw them on a blog, but I'm thinking maybe they might be better made from plastic bag yarn. Lots of plastic bags though...

rachel said...

Oo-er, a bit alarming, those mudguard covers. I have to wonder what the owner's house looks like if even the bike has to sport crochet.....

Shandy said...

I often do my Christmas shopping while on my summer holiday - all that wandering through interesting shops...

Lucille said...

I haven't had a single idea yet. Except of course for myself! Still it's aaages yet. Not even December.

Marcheline said...

As a crocheter, those mud guards make my shoulders go up around my ears. One mud puddle and they're ruined! All that hard work, and for what? I sincerely hope those are made from plastic bag yarn, because ... ewwwww!

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

No , they were crocheted in cotton ... and were , just slightly , muddy puddle coloured round the edges .