It’s the first Tuesday in the month so it’s time for Wild Daffodil’s photo challenge, this month the theme is Glitz so lots of sparkle and glitter (well maybe not glitter!)…On the whole I’m not a very glitzy person, but at Christmas I do like a bit of sparkle, however glitter and tinsel are not allowed in the house and I had to smile the other day when I got a message from my daughter at uni, ‘I can see why you banned glitter…’ a photo showed it all over their flat, trodden into the carpet!

This is my bare Christmas tree, it’s a twisted hazel from the garden, it’s not very big, probably about 2′ tall. I got the idea visiting Castle Howard a couple of years ago, where as it happens I am visiting again today! I just have gold and silver decorations with simple white lights, it looks ever so pretty. It sits in the conservatory where it’s a bit cooler.

My Christmas fairy had a make-over a couple of years ago, she now has an embroidered, mirrored golden skirt with sparkly beads, golden wings and a shiny silver buckle!

This was the first Faby Reilly humbug I made, it’s a very pretty design of mistletoe and sparkly gold ribbon, last year I made the holly one to go with it. This year of course I’ve been following Faby’s Christie SAL and made three gorgeous sparkly decorations. The pattern for the last one has just been released!

This is an embroidery from the first round of Travelling Sketchbooks we did at my Embroiderers Guild. I had to do an embroidery on the theme of astronomy, so I used shisha mirrors, sparkly beads and silver thread to make a stylized night sky.

Just to prove I do occasionally wear sparkle and glitz!!This is the sort of impulse buy you make when you go fabric shopping with a 20 year old in the Birmingham Rag Market…’it’ll be great for Christmas’ she said! Well it didn’t quite make Christmas but it did make a perfect dress for a charity ball I went to with work colleagues. I was picking up sequins for weeks (and so were some of my friends as I sewed round there too!!)

This is probably my oldest make that is still occasionally in use!! I made it about 30 years ago and whenever there’s a glitzy do it comes out, this time it was for a 1920’s evening. The advantage of a cape is that it fits all sizes! It’s probably the most glamourous garment I have, it’s always admired whenever I where it!  It’s made from a beautiful midnight blue velvet which was made up at Denholme Mills, not far from here, I bought it at their factory shop. It’s lined with a turquoise satin which looks gorgeous but was a complete nightmare to stitch in! The finishing touch is a single huge sparkly button. Even now it’s the most expensive button I have ever bought!! It was from Duttons for Buttons and cost me £10 all those years ago…but just look at that sparkle!!

This photo challenge is organised by Wild Daffodil, it’s been great fun to take part each month, so thank you, Next year the format is changing slightly, the theme is going to be windows for the whole year, so if you fancy joining in just pop over to her website, there’ll be lots of sparkle and glitz there too.