Merry Christmas

I'm so lucky! I just had to boast about how gorgeously cute my new puppies are. Dizz and Tizz met them yesterday, as did Wavey, and there was lots of girly squealing, although not from Wavey of course. Words don't do their cuteness justice so here are more photos.

This is Basil playing tug-of-war

This is Chewbacca just being cute

and this is both of them killing a toy cow.

I'm in serious danger of becoming a puppy-bore, which is like a baby-bore, but without the agonising hours of labour to justify it. Basil does this really adorable thing when he forgets to put his tongue back in, and just leaves a little bit sticking out. He's really fiesty and inquisitive, where Chewy is totally chilled and laid back. They had their first injections yesterday and neither of them cried at all. I was so proud! Ridiculous really, but just take another look at Chewy's photo and tell me you wouldn't just love them to bits too!

Anyway. Ahem. So it's Christmas eve, and I've got a most excellent day planned for tomorrow. I bought a lobster and some crusty bread and I'm going to have a lobster butty for lunch. And probably another one for tea. Call me a heathen, I don't care, none of your turkey and trimmings or Christmas pud for me. I intend to enjoy the decadent simplicity to the max. I'll watch all the corny old films on telly, play with the pups till they're falling down tired, then do the pressie thing later on.

A merry, merry, safe and happy Christmas to all you lovely peeps in blog land.

12 days of Christmas

That would be 12 days holiday. Beginning at 4.30 this evening, I will be literally running out the door, possibly woooooping with joy at the prospect of 12 whole days off from libraryland - truly, is there anything better? And in that time there are BIG plans afoot (but more about that in another post) First and foremost I'll be spending lots of time with my loved ones. I'll be going to Fizz's to meet the new pups (so excited and trying to contain the squeals of SO CUTE that will inevitably escape), Tizz is coming home for a whole week - woooooop! There are exciting films coming out at the cinema (Sherlock Holmes anyone - Robert Downey Jnr, oh so dirty yet oh! so! gorgeous!), there'll be presents (if I've been a good girl - snicker snicker) and too much food and lots of being drunk...ain't holidays grand!

In case I don't get a chance to blog again here's wishing all you lovely readers the most Happiest of Holidays, have fun relaxing times, mwah! X

Oh woe is me

Today is really sucky. In fact that doesn't even begin to cover it. It's beyond sucky. Uber-sucky. Think about the suckiest ever and multiply it. I woke up with a slight tummy ache, didn't think too much about it as that often happens, usually because I've slept a whole 8 hours and am so starving I could eat everything in my cupboards. But today it didn't go away. I carried on my normal day though as today was my team Christmas lunch at work and I was so looking forward to it. Bangers'n'mash followed by apple crumble and custard, an alcoholic beverage bought by the boss, sitting with my lovely team peeps chitting the festive chat...until I had to get off the bus and throw up in the street. Yep, you read that exactly right. HUMILIATED!

I'm sat on the bus in this giant queue of traffic, bored, staring out the window, listening to my ipod as usual. Until I went really hot. Then really cold. Then I knew I was going to be sick. Except the bus was stuck in the traffic light hell that is the new system. So I'm pressing the bell, doing deep breathing trying to calm myself down. As we approach the bus stop I'm feeling really green, the bus is packed so I'm squeezing my way past all these people who aren't moving when my ipod buds are ripped out of my ears as they get stuck round some random man's jacket buttons...and all the while I'm silently saying don't throw up yet, don't throw up yet. I finally managed to get myself off the bus in sufficient time to do said up-chucking. As if the act itself is not traumatising enough, to have no choice but to do it in the street is just beyond hideous.

Shaken and nearly crying cos I really really hate being sick , it dawned on me that I wasn't going into work today. Which meant missing my much anticipated Christmas festive fun. Bum-mer. And as if that wasn't bad enough, my kindly ma, ringing me up to see how I am, has just managed to frustrate me to the point where I snapped so now I've upset my mam. This is just not acceptable. Today is awful. Can I send it back and get a refund please cos it doesn't fit very nicely at all.

Before I do any further damage I'm switching off from the world. Here's to a better tomorrow. Please. With a cherry on the top.

Teeny Dalek

Lookee what I made. It's teeny, only about an inch and a half high. I love it! And so easy to make, it's just felted wool. Just had to share it with blogger-land.

Puppy Update

So many things to blog about! I followed Dizz's lead and made some things for Upcycle Christmas, nothing as gorgeous as Dizz's creation so I won't shame myself by blogging them. If you're interested my Folksy shop is called NothingNew.

Anyway, the reason for the blog is I went (by train via Newcastle) to visit my brother yesterday and of course saw the soon-to-be-mine puppies. While I was there my sister-in-law's friend Tina came round. Bear in mind I had never met this woman before. She gave me the cutest little house for Basil and Chewy! I couldn't believe it! Apparently she had been thinking about taking one of their sisters, and had bought the little house for her, then decided against it. Bless!

So here they are trying it out...


Note to self: never travel by train through Newcastle on a Saturday night again.

Christmas busy-ness

This year it's all about the Christmas baking and cooking. I don't know what it is but I'm so into it, I'm making as many yummy treats as I can find. The first one had to be the Christmas cake as it's the one that needs to be "fed" the brandy to make it taste extra yummy. I made it in the middle of November and this week saw the icing of it. Luckily I had the lovely T to help me come and do it. First up was the unwrapping of the cake:



The next thing we had to do was patch up the cake with the marzipan. It was sheer coincidence that we had bits left at the end that just had to be eaten!



Here's the cake fully covered in its marzipan coat:



The most fun of all was colouring the white icing. During the red I really wanted someone to take a photo and text it to Wavey saying nooooo Dizz has been cut! But no-one would. I still think it looks like blood though:



To make the icing stick to the cake you have to melt apricot jam and paint it on:





Several hours of concentration later, we had one sparkle mountain, two ski-ing penguins, one drunk snowman, one fabby Christmas tree, several presents and boootiful snowflakes all round the edges - ta dah!

Upcycle Christmas

A few weeks ago I blogged about the Upcycle Competition. The concept behind the idea was that you collected 5 items from your local Sue Ryder store for free, upcycle them into something fabulous, sell it on Folksy and all the proceeds go to the Sue Ryder charity. I thought that was a truly great idea so set about getting my stuff and making it fabulous. The end result is now ready and is awaiting the start of the auction to see if anyone else will think it is. I would describe it as a bit out there, but it's along the lines of the kind of things I love to wear so I'm hoping that there's someone out there just like me (except they're a size 10 cos that's what size the skirt is!) But enough chit chat, here come the visuals!






So there you go! Please be kind should you be inspired to comment...