About new music, cupcakes, pompoms, edible glitter, ice-cream and more. But mainly those things.
November 4, 2010
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Success is a finger thimble…
I’m very excited, not only is it fireworks night tomorrow and we are actually going to a display this year (in Sonning, with mulled wine!) but I got the magical email from Western Computers to tell me that my shiny new broken iMac is now my shiny new fixed iMac and will be ready for collection on saturday! Yay! I actually cannot wait.
Another thing I cannot wait for is Christmas. I have always loved Christmas, but this year it is something different. I am happy that the shops already have Christmas goods in, I think the house down the road that has already put their decorations up is wonderful and embracing the ‘spirit’ (there is a chance they they haven’t taken their decorations down since last year…but lets not break the dream) and I am anxious to start my Christmas shopping.
So why am I so excited? I put it down primarily to two things. Firstly this year we have finally seen through on the family plan to have a BIG Christmas in the Lake District. We are renting a 6 bedroom house is Keswick for the Christmas week, the house is awesome and even has a games room! There will be 13 of us staying there with an age range of 2 to 80 years old. We are going to go for hikes in the most beautiful scenery in England, followed by village pub lunches. We are going to play board games and eat and drink, and eat and drink. It will be the Christmas of all Christmasses!
Secondly I have been working on Christmas since April. I should probably explain that I work for a mail order catalogue and we were almost finished working on the Christmas gift catalogue in April, when I started. This was of course necessary when the catalogue went live in August to give all the Christmas shoppers time to get their orders in however for me it has just forced me to be thinking about Christmas gifts for the past 7 months. I’m not complaining though, it has been nice.
So anyway…
Success is a finger thimble? Yes it is, but you really had to be there.
November 2, 2010
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Two homemade filo pies with different fillings? Coming right up!
Ok so the filo wasn’t homemade but the pies were. I got in from work, and made Adam a beef, sundried tomato and brie pie (I am told it was delicious), and I made myself a spinach, sundried tomato, onion and feta pie (I told myself this was delicious). Oh and did I mention I didn’t even use a recipe…?
I know I am being a bit too self praising , but I am so pleased with myself. I feel like a proper housewife!
There would have been a photo to share with you but I was super hungry…so no photo!
Today has been a very good day, not only did I make the pies and drink red* wine whilst doing so (a la Floyd), but I also fell in love with a band (The Spills), I got three new pens for the princely sum of 80 pence (my work colleagues didn’t know what to make of my joy when I walked back into the office after lunch exclaiming this, but you know how some people buy themselves clothes to make themselves happy? Well I buy pens) and la pièce de résistance…I got my Fujifilm Instax! My premature excited waiting totally paid off!
So where does this all leave me? I plan to eat chocolate, drink wine, play with my camera…Yay - Tottenham just scored a goal! Go Harry I totally Heart you!
*It amuses me that before the edit this read: ‘drink wed wine’
November 1, 2010
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Instant Inspiration
I’m very excited. I am awaiting the delivery of my new Fujifilm Instax 210 camera and even though it was only dispatched on Sunday using standard delivery, I managed to convince myself all day today that it was going to arrive. It probably won’t arrive until Thursday, but tomorrow I will do the same.
I already feel inspired by the arrival of the instant camera - which is saying something. I honestly can’t say I have felt truly inspired to take pictures for months. I guess this is for a combination of reasons - partly because the final year of my degree sapped the energy from me and partly because I just don’t feel the affinity with digital photography that I do with film and in the last 3 years 70% of the photographs I have taken have been digital.
I’m not the first person to question the value of the photograph and how it is decreased in the digital ‘throw away’ age, but I am so excited about really having to think about every picture I take - when 20 shots cost £17 I can’t just mindlessly snap away. Film photography is so tactile and honest, and (for fear of sounding like a pretentious fool) it has so much more soul than digital ever could.
I am looking forward to getting out and taking pictures of things that interest me, that I find pretty, beautiful and magical. I cannot wait.
October 31, 2010
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Halloween and Getting Old
We have had Nick over for the weekend, and as it is Halloween I decided to carve a pumpkin…
Now, as usual for our weekends with Nick we have been playing lots of board games and drinking and this weekend more than most highlighted that I am getting old. On Friday night I fell asleep in my chair, in the middle of a game, 2 minutes after being asked if I wanted to go to bed and sprightly replying that I didn’t. To be fair, I had won a few hands of Phase 10 and so had to drink more than everyone else (reverse rules drinking games - you win you drink, this does somewhat mess with ones sense of competition), but none the less isn’t falling asleep in your chair at the table something old people do?
Also I started my knitting project (thank you Charlie!). In itself this is not particularly geriatric behaviour, but taking it to the pub to do whilst the boys watch the football?
Anyway, here is my progress thus far…
It is going to be a scarf, not because I need another one (I don’t) but because it is straightforward (what can go wrong in one long strip of knitting?) and quick. I think I am allowed to go for something simple for my first proper knitting project.
Anyway, I digress…back to getting old.
On Saturday night I fell asleep at 10:30pm and worse than that, I had wanted to go to sleep for at least an hour before that, worse still I was grateful for the early night and the subsequent lack of drinking because I felt good this morning and I could make the most of my day.
So, good people of the Interweb, am I getting old?
October 29, 2010
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Jumbled screen of unhappiness
My iMac has died. My brand spanking 2 week old iMac. What started with a thin black line quickly deteriorated into a jumbled up, pixelated screen of unhappiness. I am devastated.
From bad to worse…
We called the support team who talked us through some steps…and now it won’t turn on at all.
So this is why I find myself at 8:50am sitting in Starbucks in the middle of Swindon waiting anxiously for the Apple Authorised Reseller to open (the man on the phone told us that they can fix the imac, he better not have been lying or I WILL cry again). Anyway I shall keep you posted.
My friend told me to not get too upset because it could and would be fixed but I think he missed the point. Of course I was going to be upset, my brand new, beautiful piece of kit has broken after only two weeks of glorious use. I don’t want to go though the hassle of getting it fixed and I certainly don’t want to go another day without using it. I know that I am probably sounding like a spoilt brat at the moment, but when you spend £1000 on a piece of equipment you expect more life than 2 weeks out of it. I am not going to start some ‘Apple products shouldn’t do this’ rant, because I happen to adore Apple products and whilst they are a shining example of where consumer computing should be they are not infallible. Machines are machines and occasionally they break. I’m just sad that it was MINE that broke.
Anyway, my coffee cup is empty and the store opens in 2 minutes. Time to go.
Wish me luck!
October 27, 2010
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Exciting arrivals, Striking blues and Pumpkin
I am so excited, my Pompom maker arrived in the post this morning! (see image) It makes 3 different size Pompoms and it is re-usable and not made of cardboard! Yeaha! Now for that sparkly wool…a trip out this weekend might be in order.
So, Adam is due back tomorrow (Cheer!) but the French striking mean that he might miss his flight (Boo!). I am very much looking forward to him coming home, we are going to go to the cinema and maybe even Pizza Hut, it will be a proper date! And this means that I can finally update our blog again!
On a slightly different note…
I bought a pumpkin ready for halloween today, I was gonna buy it yesterday but I was upset with the shoe situation and ended up taking it out on the pumpkin (by not buying it). I’m not entirely sure what I achieved, but meh, I can cut my nose off to spite my face if I want to. I think I will carve it on Friday, ready for Nicks visit. I should also buy some sweeties for trick or treaters, but we live in a flat with a buzzer entry system, so to be honest we probably wont open the door to them anyway.
Oooh I have a question…is second hand leather against my vegetarian beliefs? On the one hand buying it doesn’t exactly contribute to the industry, but on the other hand I would still be wearing cow skin on my feet. I am not sure I can overcome this, but damn it, I want a decent pair of shoes!
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A frosty morning on my way to work a couple of days ago.
October 26, 2010
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I want a pair of stylish flat shoes that are not pumps or brogues, are suitable for work, can be worn with socks and are vegetarian. Why are they so hard to find?
I want, no NEED, new shoes.
Problem No1: I don’t wear leather (it is times like this when I curse being vegetarian)
Problem No2: I want flat shoes (I walk 2.8 miles to work every day, heels just don’t work)
Problem No3: I don’t want pumps (it is cold and socks just don’t go - I’m not stylish enough to work THAT trend)
Problem No4: I don’t want Brogues (I’m not stylish enough to LIKE that trend)
Problem No5: All the above problems render the ‘perfect’ shoe non-existent
So with that in mind, I am drinking red wine and scouring the internet for a shoe that doesn’t exist. Wish me luck.
A sidewards glance at my glass and then the bottle is telling me that the red wine is nearly gone and I don’t have any more. I am not sure I can get through ‘Never Been Kissed’ without it, but we shall see.
Holy Moly, Drew Barrymore has just entered a classroom for the first time and I SWEAR that it is the same classroom that Cher was in during the infamous ‘my foot hurts’ scene in Clueless (the film…of course). If only Kate was here to back me up.
Anyway, enough is enough. Let me tell you about my day. My cake went down well, I want to live on a narrow boat, I need to find a stockist of ‘Blue Monday’ cheese, I want to paint my guests faces at halloween and I need to master the art of sneezing quietly. That pretty much sums it up…well that and the aforementioned shoe problem.
October 25, 2010
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Old friends, Wine and Knitting
I saw a friend tonight who I havent seen for a couple of years and I had such a lovely time. We knitted, we drank yummy red wine and mostly we talked…we talk about everything and it was so nice. I should be in bed now really but I am waiting for my lemon drizzle cake to cook for Janet at works birthday.
I must confess that whilst I may have awoken at 6 am this morning for my bike ride, I subsequently went back to sleep until 7.30. No bike ride happened, I had to rush to work, and on top of that I have now cracked into the tub of Phish Food that I swore to myself I would save for adams return. But then I’ve had some red wine - is it really fair to expect anything less?
I had a couple of thoughts today (yes yes, just a couple…), the first was that if you covered the world in glitter then it would be magical. If glitter makes the world magical, then glitter is magic…thus glitter proves the existence of magic. I know I am right, I can feel it.
The second thing I thought today is that people who call their 3 year old daughters sluts shouldn’t be parents. Enough said.
October 24, 2010
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Cakes, Harry Potter and Musings
I feel full. Pretty sick actually. I just made some cakes and whilst delicious (if I do say so myself) the massive lunch I ate, followed by a sandwich I didn’t need for dinner, followed by ice-cream ( I can NEVER resist ice-cream) and then testing the cake mix (delicious - made a simple chocolate sponge but grated dark choc into it, sooo moist and yummy!) and eating the trimmings…a whole cupcake on top of all that has finished me off. I was only going to eat half as well.
Its ok though, I’ll get up at 6am tomorrow to try and fit in a bike ride before work. That should help burn off the obscene amount that I have eaten this weekend.
I have been watching Harry Potter all evening (Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban). I still really like these films. The special FX don’t look as good in hindsight, but meh I love the story (I have read all the books…a lot, and I prefer them but I still love the films). I absolutely cannot wait for the last installments, the last book is my favourite. I am a bit scared about what they will have cut out, but as with all the films that went before - as long as I put the books to one side when I watch the film then I will enjoy it. I am also sad. Very sad that after these installments there will be no more Harry Potter. I was pretty lost when the LOTR trilogy ended and that was only 3 films/books, Harry Potter has been with me for a fair while now and every time I watch it I want, no, NEED to be 11 and getting my letter.
I am struggling to find sparkly wool in christmassy colours. This is not an ideal situation for my plans. Tssss.
