In which I have many Christmasses and one New Year

Happy New Year and Happy Christmas!

I took Christmas and, let's be honest, most of December too, off from blogging. I rarely touched the Internet whilst I was in the North so I missed sharing the joy of Christmas with my blog-reel back then. I would like to do it now: Happy Christmas!

I was having a wonderful time hanging out with family and doing all that traditional stuff. It was the first year that Andy and I celebrated Christmas day in the same place and so meant a lot to me. We didn't just have one present-opening-ceremony-day though: we managed to have four! Oh I know, it's not all about the presents before you spot my self-interest. I love the family and the food and the endless board games (even if trivia games make me feel sulky.) Why should I know the Australian Prime Minister in 1991? Or which bottle of beer has a 'laughing cavalier' on the bottle? I do hate games where the outcome is predetermined. Where one person has all the knowledge and no amount of skill or luck will let you overtake them. I do LOVE board games though and we did play many others and even got four more for Christmas.

Anyway, the point is I'm not going to pretend not to love getting presents either. I do. I am unabashadly materialistic and capitalist at times. I love ripping open Christmas paper and seeing what joy lies beneath. And I revel in the happiness of friends and family when you get them something perfect, that spot-on gift you were searching for.

So we had Christmas #1 at our house, before travelling northwards to my parents. As we were going to spend the 25th with my clan Andy's parents gave us presents in advance. Rather than carry them all the way to Yorkshire to open on the day and then bring back down -when our suitcases are going to be full anyway - we decided to make a thing of opening them the night before we travel north. Hence, Christmas number 1.

I wanted us to have a special romantic night opening up there presents and celebrating the last year. We wanted to buy a tree and loads of decorations and go the whole hog, but despite both having jobs at last we couldn't really afford to do that, and we ended up not even having time. So (as I work part time) I set the scene up for Andy coming home from work with just a few sprinkles of Christmas about the place.

I had two Playmobil Christmas set-ups. One in the bedroom: the modern Christmas family, shown above. One in the living room: the nativity, shown below. It's the first time I have put all these bits together like this.

 

We didn't have a tree in the end. So I put my little Playmobil one in the middle of our presents at our house...

...and shown again to scale

Bannan-splits for dessert. The plates are from a dinner set I got in the presents shown above. Put to use immediately!

I cooked us spaghetti carbonara and had red wine for me and root beer and cream soda for Andy. It was such a wonderful romantic evening. I think we played Magic: The Gathering after dinner and felt like real grown-ups.

Then we had Christmas Day itself: with all the carol-singing, royal-speech-watching, Doctor Who-squeeing, cake-baking, mulled-wine concocting, roast-turkey-dinner eating and Articulate-playinga person could wish for.

I then got to see my extended family for another massive Christmas-type dinner at a carvery (with some more presents).

Plus yesterday we went off to Andy's folk for New Years (and some more gifts) and being sorely beaten at Canasta.

I apologise if this particular blog entry feels more like a child's 'what I did on my holidays' school project than an entertaining read ("Then I did this, then I did that"). I didn't even touch on quite how much baking I did or go over our family traditions for the season. However I guess I just really wanted to put the words down and the pictures up because it really was a great time and I want to remember it.

And it is work again in the morning tomorrow, so it's all over now! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too and have a great year.

P.S. I shall probably do a Christmas haul post in a couple of days. There seemed to be a theme and I want to take some interesting pictures of some of it. I did get one thing that was on my list way back for my birthday and is pictured above. Gandalf and his fireworks. 

In which I am already thinking about Christmas

 We took a lot of photos in the park the other day and when I went through them all I look Exactly the Same in nearly every picture. My expression doesn't change and my pose only goes as far as standing up or sitting down. That's because it was actually really cold! I also wasn't feeling particularly enthusiastic about the outfit. Obviously I am sharing the pictures anyway, but it is by no means my favourite of things I have worn lately. I've also shared pictures of most of the separate bits before, but it's always good to try new things. I think the black and white skirt is going to be great in winter because the print is kind of Christmass-y as is.

Talking of Christmas I am so excited about it now. I know it is really far away but Paperchase has a big display of decorations which have me squeeing all over the place. I am a massive Paperchase fan, sometimes I just go in and look at all the pretty lunchboxes to cheer me up on a sad day. Although the two of us have lived together with housemates before, and spent Christmas at my parents together before this is the first time we have a place of our own at this time of year and Andy has suggested that we get a tree and decorate! I hadn't thought about that at all until this week because we had spent so much time thinking about which parents to go to. Now that he has said we should decorate our home too Andy has unleashed the gates of excitement and now I just want to buy loads of little wooden figures and snowflake decorations and the whole thing! Bit too early for all this enthusiasm I know, but I do just love Christmas.

This is what I want for our yet-to-be-bought tree. I love this style of decoration.

The bench is weird. With it's weird creepy hands and various carved faces. I have no idea what it is about.

soft, soft, soft, soft. Mmmm. The scarf is the cuddliest thing yet.

The matching hat to the scarf has not won my love yet. This is me kind of unconvinced by it.

Before getting this close to the plant to take photos I never realised that poppys were so sharp.

I'm cheating and using the settings on my camera which exagerate colour, but wow this was beautiful anyway.

In which there is Science and Ice Cream

I am trying to make September a frugal month. After weddings and parties and holidays for August (good times) it was/is really necessary to be a good person who stays in and watches videos on the internet for a month. So after that well-meaning resolution, yesterday I had a day out in London! Woop Woop. Well. This is the joy of living near London me and Andy had an Amazing Day and spent less that £30 –including travel and snackerals. I call that a win. It was one of those perfect days when you can push aside all the things you are worrying about (aaah jobs/money/reallyneedtogetthatmarriageliscense/whyareotherpeoplesoawesomeandiamnot) and just go Look At the Science, the Views and the Ice Cream.

It’s also a silly detail but before we left we tidied the whole house so it meant that I was in a really calm frame of mind. It’s a funny thing because our house is often cluttered, but whenever it is tidy I find myself just feeling better about the world.

We took a train into London and went to the Science Museum. It’s surprising, but I had never been there before. I have been to the V & A more times than I can remember and seen the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and all the other major art galleries about a dozen, but I thought it would be fun to do something non-arty.

 Ironically the part I enjoyed the most was the history of drawing instruments and mathematical designs. I learnt about Klein Vases – inspired by the Mobius strip (and shown below).  Beautiful twisting glass shapes. They are explained with the concept of an ant walking along the surface, it will return to the starting point having covered the whole surface area without ever crossing an edge. Amazing. I mean we spent hours there and read lots, especially in the space section where I took no photos at all, but I know that most of the dates and names will be forgotten instantly so I am clinging on to these amazing shapes as the bit I am taking from it.

Klein Bottle.

Display of polyhedrons.

Beautiful

I took photos of the vehcles in the next section, but the display was actually on our changing relationship with machines, leading up to 'The Age of Ambivalence'. It was actually really interesting to read about how the way we think and react to new inventions has changed. 

Close up of traction engine

Original Ford

 We then headed up to the ice cream bar and it was like the Marble Slab in America. Tucked away inside the Science Museum, and mostly deserted was this amazing bar. They had tons of flavours with toppings and milkshakes and mini oreo buckets for sale.

My ice cream: Blueberry and Chcolate. Look at the scale of this!

Andy's ice cream: raspberry sorbet and rum and raisin

After ice creams and some card games in the cafe, we got a tube to Embankment just to watch the sunset over the Thames. After living near the sea for four years I miss large expanses of water and good views. This is the best I am going to get. 

What I wore. Long t-shirt, felt necklace, Andy's purple shirt, Polly's satchel and my turquoise usn hat.

London skyline

Beautiful blue skies

I call that a good Saturday. Plus there was Doctor Who to watch when we got in. What did you get up to? Enjoy the lingering summer?

In which Edinburgh is a land of books and magic

I have recently returned from a delightful holiday to Edinburgh. If you have been following this blog for some time you may have observed that every year I go to the Edinburgh Fringe on holiday. For some time I have written short reviews of everything that I have seen and mused delightedly on the whole experience. Every Fringe is different and this one did feel a little at odds with some of the others. Not that we didn’t have a great time, it was just a slightly different experience. For a start we spent just a little less time at shows and a little more exploring Edinburgh. There was more sunshine in the three days we were there this year than all the other times combined. It was hot. And gloriously so. On the last morning we sat on the roof of the National Museum of Scotland and, side by side, with a view of all the city in front of us, snuggled into our new books.

Edinburgh hosts numerous festivals throughout the summer, one of which is the Book Festival. Despite never having been (and really considering it for next year) our trip this time felt a bit more like that was our focus. I spent about an hour in the children’s bookshop with the appropriate amount of innocent happiness. I collect Bunty annuals which are a rare enough find that I couldn’t resist buying one, or  a Folio edition of the Just So stories in a mint condition box. I was wandering round the shop with an ever growing stack of books, constantly dragging Andy to a new section with ‘Look at this! Girls Gone By books!’ And you can replace that with shelves of folio books/first edition Chalet School/Noel Streatfield books I’ve never seen before/Doctor Dolittle books… It was my kind of special place. We similarly devoured a fantasy bookshop with an unusual toy section. Once more it held hoards of undiscovered books –and one little section of stuffed tapirs and armadillos. I browsed the shop with a soft and squishy sloth tucked under my arm, but couldn’t actually justify the cost in the end. We also visited the Children’s Museum and saw bits of Edinburgh after all this time that we had never explored. It was wonderful to have that time with the two of us, just going slowly. Whilst we still saw about thirteen shows for three days  it was all at a beautiful leisurely pace and with a lot of time sitting on steps with our books or the hour I spent reading Just So stories aloud to Andy sitting on golf course.

So like any good blogger I have photos to share. Other than the stack of books, my favourite purchase for the trip was this new skirt from a little boutique shown in the photos below. I am wearing it over the tops of a dress which is something I never would have thought of before reading fashion blogs, but I think this really worked.

I got Andy a pack of curly straws for his birthday (amongst other things) and this is one such straw.

Edinburgh Castle

Swan sculptures by a canal we didn't even know existed

Canal at sunset

This is very unusual for me, but I have my hair tied in a plait

Close up of the pattern on my new skirt

I think this is my favourite photo of me for a long time

Giving it the spin test

In which my camera is fixed

A very quick note to say Huzzah! Hurrah! and other such happy sounds. Here is a little story behind my current happiness. My camera was not working at all. I thought I would have to buy a new one and it was all annoying, but the guy at the camera shop suggested it just needed a new battery. One arrived this morning and here we are! With photograph-taking abilities all over again.

(Hurray for helpful people)

I am now going to rush all round my new flat (2 months now, so new-ish) and at last take pictures of it all.

To celebrate here is a picture of me being ridiculously happy in some snow:

In which I have leapt into Christmas

I must begin by apologising for not blogging. This has been the longest blogging gap since I began it and there are a number of reasons for it, but I am not going to be too guilty. The main one is I have been exhausted. My job has been hectic and the trains have been unreliable. I am getting in at around 7 after getting up at 7 and I just have no energy to do much in the evening except play Civilisation IV and watch NCIS. I know that blogging doesn't take much energy, but on the fashion front I am generally wearing office clothes and changing into pajamas in the evening, with dark hours all around. I do have some nice office clothes now though so when I get the chance I may take the boy into the garden and demand he capture them on the camera.

I have also then been filling my weekends with Christmas fun. I thought I would give you a quick update on the interesting winter events in my London life.

Christmas Market with mulled wine
Giant baubles in Covent GardenLego baubles in St Pancras

Reindeer in the shopping Mall
St Paul's in the evening light


I am also sorry that I haven't been commenting on your blogs. I have a terrible habit of this. When I am bad at blogging I feel a little ashamed and hide from the blogging world. It's not simply guilt at not updating, it is more that I feel if I draw attention to myself by commenting then people may go to my blog and notice how much I dont post and judge me as a terrible blogger. Yes I am that insecure at times. I worry that the Internet is judging me. I haven't forgotten you though. I read them still, but in a secretive furtive manner...

In other news, I bought some boots during my lunch break today. I discovered there is an Office with a capital O of the shoe-selling type a little walk away. If I step out the building it is Waterstones and books on my right and Office and shoes on my left. So this is how it begins. :)

In which I am amazed by mushrooms and nymphs

Warning: This post comes with a lot of pictures of mushrooms.

I have had a perfectly autumnal weekend. I love Autumn. It is my favourite season of the year. I love the mist in the air and the bright evening light shining on yellow leaves that seem to glow, the clear skies and the smell of the air –and the outfits. Autumn is my favourite time for clothes too. I can wear summer dresses with thick tights and big boots with berets and scarves. Just the right amount of accessories and I am not too hot and not too cold. Perfect.

So at the weekend I went for a couple of autumnal walks and came across some truly beautiful sights: both man-made and natural.

On Saturday I went with a friend for a walk and round the corner we came across this statue:

It is beautiful and yet kind of creepy. It’s not just an elegant Venus but some really razed out Oceanides. I love the expressions and the posture. I am afraid that on this occasion my camera battery died so the photos are taken via my friend’s camera phone and from google images.

Now I didn’t realise that I really cared about mushrooms until yesterday. Admittedly on my previous blog post I put up a picture of one, but this time I am going overboard. Apparently I really care about mushrooms. I was walking along and came across this:

Crouching down I took some photos of it and amazed at its morpheus shape. Then I walked just a few steps further and came across these:

The same mushrooms but more neatly formed. But then just a few steps later were fairy ring mushrooms, shining in the light and covering the patch of ground like an invasion.

I had to take more photos!

Just a few paces more I found white mushrooms and layered brown ones. The light was amazing and there was another photographer in this one patch, also crouched down (with a far better camera) and we shared a smile of shared joy at this one little area being covered in so much beauty.

#

I was too busy taking photos of the scenery to do my outfit (and there are enough pictures for now) but I was also feeling particularly cute. Purple docs, brown lacey dress, grey tights, black beret and my big green coat. I was bouncing with confidence in the wonderful combination of lacey dress and chunky docs and then couldn’t stop grinning at how beautiful the park was. I call that a good weekend.