So today is finally my last day in work. I've just been really good and tackled a huge pile of paperwork which was residing on my desk so it now looks pretty tidy for a change, a pity it won't stay that way in the New Year. My mum & dad are picking me up from work at 4.30 we are going to mine to catch Mabel (this is possibly going to be the worst bit, she hates her carrier) & then we depart for the frozen (and according to Lindsay maybe without electricity) North. She usually just gets onto my lap and goes to sleep in the car (this is quite unusual for her, as at home she is not really a lap cat at all). She really likes my parents house though. Most of all what she likes is my dad's elderly tabby cat Tinker who she enjoys annoying (Tink coped admirably last year, bless him, mind you she's quite a bt bigger this year so we shall see)
In a way I will be very sad to leave Oxfordshire, I've never had a Christmas here in my own house, but if my parents downsize as is the plan this may well happen next year, I'd like it if they would come to me but we'll see how things work out. I went round to Fi & Nick's last nigt to say goodbye to them (and Alex who was asleep) and to swap presents. Fi made some lovely samony pasta which we ate whilst drinking mulled wine and watching University Challange. Fi is pretty good on almost all the subjects and got all the Archaeology questions right, Nick tried but failed most of the maths and physics questions, I got a few random ones but didn't do that well with the literature ones, there didn't seem to that many or maybe it was cause Fi got nearly all of the rest right. After that Nick got out the port (using the excuse that it doesn't keep and they opened it the other night :-) and stilton and we watched the brothers grimm film then I stumbled back home to pack the rest of my clothes for the journey today (suprisingly jumpers feature quite highly).
So the finishing line is in sight. This may be my last post for a while as it is Christmas and I really should rest a bit and my parents internet is not that great. In case I don't post before the big C may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may you be happy and healthy in the New Year.
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Monday, 22 December 2008
The dark is light enough
So on Saturday we went to see Twilight. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will know that whenever a vampire film comes out I really do have to go and see it (I'm in love with the genre, I can't help it, I won't apologise). I was royally told off by Lindsay for not reading the books first (I know it is the best way to do it) but they are on my holiday reading shortlist (along with about half a library of other stuff, I'll post a complete list as soon as I've whittled it down to 5 books) so I figure I will have caught up by the time the next film comes out. I really enjoyed the film, although I have to say that if you aren't a teenage girl (or about my age) you might not enjoy it as much (there are lots of shots of lead actor and bit of a renard Robert Pattinson (yes he was in Harry Potter but He's grown up a bit since then) looking meaningfully into the middle distance). As I say its great on a purely entertainment level, so go and see it!
As well as hanging out at the movies with Lindsay I finished off my Christmas shopping and went to see Magpie Lane at the Hollywell rooms on Sunday. They were really good but the seasonal cold/horrible throat thing had claimed most of the band so unfortunately the vocal range was not as wide as is usually is. The band persevered on however and a good night was had by all. The Hollywell is a really georgous venue (there is a really good piece about its history here http://www.coffeeconcerts.com/holywellmusicroom.php) and as baby Alex proved the acoustics are awesome. i got coerced into folding raffle tickets and generally mentioning the Oxford folk festival anytime anyone breathed (www.oxfordfolkfestival.com), hopefully we will do okay this year despite the economic situation. But before OFF is even here I am determined to go to one of these http://www.coffeeconcerts.com/diary.php I found the site completely by accident when I was trying to fathom out what time the Magpies were on. They've had some really great ensembles on in the last couple of months but they seem to sell out really quickly, so we'll have to keep our eyes open.
As well as hanging out at the movies with Lindsay I finished off my Christmas shopping and went to see Magpie Lane at the Hollywell rooms on Sunday. They were really good but the seasonal cold/horrible throat thing had claimed most of the band so unfortunately the vocal range was not as wide as is usually is. The band persevered on however and a good night was had by all. The Hollywell is a really georgous venue (there is a really good piece about its history here http://www.coffeeconcerts.com/holywellmusicroom.php) and as baby Alex proved the acoustics are awesome. i got coerced into folding raffle tickets and generally mentioning the Oxford folk festival anytime anyone breathed (www.oxfordfolkfestival.com), hopefully we will do okay this year despite the economic situation. But before OFF is even here I am determined to go to one of these http://www.coffeeconcerts.com/diary.php I found the site completely by accident when I was trying to fathom out what time the Magpies were on. They've had some really great ensembles on in the last couple of months but they seem to sell out really quickly, so we'll have to keep our eyes open.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
And then...
I have to say today seems a little anti climatic. Yesterday I sent off my final lot of print files (although I've got a stack of online files to check) and this morning I did my annual mince pies instead of Christmas cards round (better for the trees) AND we've had the production raffle AND we are singing carols at lunch. Maybe its not lack of Christmas cheer maybe its just the sheer amount of work... Plus I've just finished co writiung the football review of the year for the work league. The picture is my wonderful team (big Guns 'N' Roses vs terrible Lloyds team (Lloyds back door pharamacy). Lloyds team beat top of the table AC a-little silloutte-of-Millan to put us back in the race for the title (we were second but had the blues won it that would be the end of it) so a couple of words only COME ON TEAM!!!
Yesterday I finally did something I've been wanting to do for ages (steady). I bought one of the needlefelt scuptures for this very clever lady here http://allaroundus.blogspot.com/ . The one I bought is called Minxie and is a little red develish cat (I though her and witchcat would complement each other perfectly). Its being posted across the county as we speak and I can't wait for her to reach us. In the meantime I should be tidying up the house, it looks like a festive bomb has gone off and my parents will be dropping round on Friday night for a cup of tea (if its still in the state that its in at the moment that won't be good).
Mel and I watched River cottage last night (oh Hugh, you are so wonderful) and then I started making pastry whilst the crazy chocolate man was on. Unfortunately due to the amount of aforementioned mince pies it took me till midnight to finish. Hence I haven't got any further with current read Corvus - my life with birds. Annoying but I do plan to get a heck of a lot of reading done over Christmas (when I'm not writing that is) and I've now started a list of books I'm going to take with me on holiday in Jan.
Its the Morris dancers Christmas meal tonight (and you know what that means? Tunes and real ale long into the night) and also a welcome chance to catch up with Fi after not seeing her at all last weekend so roll on tonight.
Yesterday I finally did something I've been wanting to do for ages (steady). I bought one of the needlefelt scuptures for this very clever lady here http://allaroundus.blogspot.com/ . The one I bought is called Minxie and is a little red develish cat (I though her and witchcat would complement each other perfectly). Its being posted across the county as we speak and I can't wait for her to reach us. In the meantime I should be tidying up the house, it looks like a festive bomb has gone off and my parents will be dropping round on Friday night for a cup of tea (if its still in the state that its in at the moment that won't be good).
Mel and I watched River cottage last night (oh Hugh, you are so wonderful) and then I started making pastry whilst the crazy chocolate man was on. Unfortunately due to the amount of aforementioned mince pies it took me till midnight to finish. Hence I haven't got any further with current read Corvus - my life with birds. Annoying but I do plan to get a heck of a lot of reading done over Christmas (when I'm not writing that is) and I've now started a list of books I'm going to take with me on holiday in Jan.
Its the Morris dancers Christmas meal tonight (and you know what that means? Tunes and real ale long into the night) and also a welcome chance to catch up with Fi after not seeing her at all last weekend so roll on tonight.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Sylvia Plath
I have had some very good news, some news which if anything seems quite incomprehensable to me, even now, so I just had to share it here. I have been asked by a friend to write an article for a magazine she works for. Not only will this be all my own work and be published in a magazine with a worldwide readership but my name will actually be in print!!! (I think a party might be called for here). This seems somewhat of an early Christmas present. Beth L and I decided to write our 'things to do before 2010' list the other day(its better than resolutions we feel, more realistic). This is what mine looked like (you have to do 5, no more no less)
1/Get published in something other than the work mag/my blog.
2/Set up my own company, properly
3/Find some Aracana's and start keping them.
4/Finish decorating my room and set up a study in the sun room.
5/Play more music with other people/try to play more violin in sessions etc.
So 1 down only 4 to go before the end of 2008 is pretty good going. The article is going to be 600-850 words on my experiences as I beginning spinning my own wool. My wheel is nearly fixed, Liz at leather shop Kelso provided me with a replacement bit of leather (its good to have handy friends, you can commission her (http://www.efleathergoods.co.uk/2.html) so now the treadle works properly. Wooo! (I'm going to ask my dad to check that this is all properly aligned the next time he is down, he's very good at alignment and the like but straight lines have always been a problem for me, maybe its the synaesthesia, maybe its just something I'm bad at).
I'm also cracking on with the other resolutions, I found a really handy article in online magazine UK handmade (http://ukhandmade.co.uk/UKHandmadeWinter.pdf) about small business and the tax man (you have to register and self assess yourself. I feel the actual tax return may be a good job for my mum, but if I keep detailled records that's sure to help). Also I'm swapping presents with Fi, Nick & Alex soon so and I'm hoping on the same trip I can go and talk serious chicken plans to their neighbour (He said he's help me build their run at Fi's wedding, his wife is an environmenatal science teacher & we got on like a house on fire, plus she showed me a weavel for the first time at the wedding, it had crawled out of the flowers) . Clearly I am way too excited about all of this. I should really email back and say I accept. The deadline is March which seems a really long time as I usually only get 2-3 hrs for in house stuff. I must get this started soon though...
1/Get published in something other than the work mag/my blog.
2/Set up my own company, properly
3/Find some Aracana's and start keping them.
4/Finish decorating my room and set up a study in the sun room.
5/Play more music with other people/try to play more violin in sessions etc.
So 1 down only 4 to go before the end of 2008 is pretty good going. The article is going to be 600-850 words on my experiences as I beginning spinning my own wool. My wheel is nearly fixed, Liz at leather shop Kelso provided me with a replacement bit of leather (its good to have handy friends, you can commission her (http://www.efleathergoods.co.uk/2.html) so now the treadle works properly. Wooo! (I'm going to ask my dad to check that this is all properly aligned the next time he is down, he's very good at alignment and the like but straight lines have always been a problem for me, maybe its the synaesthesia, maybe its just something I'm bad at).
I'm also cracking on with the other resolutions, I found a really handy article in online magazine UK handmade (http://ukhandmade.co.uk/UKHandmadeWinter.pdf) about small business and the tax man (you have to register and self assess yourself. I feel the actual tax return may be a good job for my mum, but if I keep detailled records that's sure to help). Also I'm swapping presents with Fi, Nick & Alex soon so and I'm hoping on the same trip I can go and talk serious chicken plans to their neighbour (He said he's help me build their run at Fi's wedding, his wife is an environmenatal science teacher & we got on like a house on fire, plus she showed me a weavel for the first time at the wedding, it had crawled out of the flowers) . Clearly I am way too excited about all of this. I should really email back and say I accept. The deadline is March which seems a really long time as I usually only get 2-3 hrs for in house stuff. I must get this started soon though...
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
And the beat goes on
Right so its Tuesday, four whole days on from my last post when I said that by Monday all would be finished I would not be stressed life would be peachy. Why then am I still waiting for 3 sets of print files? This has to be the worst bit of publishing, I am so nearly to Christmas and lo, yes here comes the sore throat just in time to get me for my time off. But not even a sore throat can bring me down today, oh no. Sam is coming round tonight to make mince pies and watch films in the warm, tomorrow night is my last violin lesson of the year and at this very moment half my Christmas shopping is done & wrapped (smug? Yup, you said it).
The weekend was fantastic, the P party (I did go as xml in the end despite how great it would have been to pull off the pologiest get up) was cool. Best costume had to be a toss up between the girl dressed as the pack of cards (white dress with playing cards stapled to it in an alice in wonderland style) and the prawn (genius, just pure simple genius). Sat morning, early I end up waking up next to a purple sparkly hat as worn by Tom (nice biologist who I met at the party, he shares a house with Matt and was dressed as a pimp at the party, obviously with him being a bioligist we talked woodlice (I did environmental science at A level, what I don't know about woodlice isn't worth knowing), what's the bet he thinks I'm weird now?!). Swear to return the hat. Saturday morning a bit later Barney is stuck on a train about 1/2 a mile outside of Oxford. Grrr trains. When he finally arrived I attempted to show him the city of dreaming spires... As it was drizzling this wasn't a special as it could have been and we retreated to the vaults (awesome food, I wish it was less rammed with students more often, usually you just can't get in). We looked round the indoor market and ran into old festival friends Sly & Mel who wished us a Merry Christmas, and then onto the Grande Cafe which unsuprisingly Barney liked (who wouldn't). A swift glass of Merlot later we were on the bus heading home to get ready for Meg's Christmas party. Got home, changed, ate, made Barney watch Merlin (talking dragon = essential viewing) went out again. Meg's house had been transformed into a Christmas wonderland, there was festive music, quality street and enough booze to sink the Titanic. We ate drank, made merry. Barney managed to crack walnuts with his bare hands. He will live on in the memory of my Oxford friends for quite some time because of this trait. Midnight, we went home and straight to sleep.
7.30am Sunday morning I am woken up by a paw in the face, Mabel is awakee and wants feeding. I feed her got back to bed. 8.30 am Sunday morning I am woken up by paw in the face, Mabel is awakee has finished destroying the Christmas tree and wants to go out. 10am get Barney up and make him breakfast of croissants and proper coffee, am nice friend. We watch countryfile (John Craven = god amongst men). Barney is heard to utter the phrase "so this is how country folk live". Hmph. Put Barney on a bus back to Oxford & rush back to house. Its 12, am supposed to be round at Beth & Nick's at 1.30, ooops. Make rum truffles, mixture goes everywhere, oh really. Get showered, apply makeup, gather foody offerings and secret santa present and rush round to Beth & Nick's to find I am the first one there. Relax as the first glass of wine mysteriously enters my hand. When we are all assembled we sit down to a proper festive meal of turkey with all the trimmings. Beth likes her present of a cat mug with a beanie cat and I am equally thrilled by my paint your own santa kit (which I later find out is from Beth). It starts to get messy as the drinking games are brought out (you have to blow only a couple of cards from a deck on top of an empty wine bottle, who knew it was this hard?) but the evening ends quietly enough with us all falling asleep in front of match of the day 2. Hartley & Smitho head back to mine to get some sleep and arrggghhrrr its Monday again!
Friday, 12 December 2008
Deadline days
Okay so yet again I've been v.bad and not blogged all week. The reason is, as usual work and the fact that this is the crunch for all my end of year issues. But as of Monday all this horror is left behind and I get to look forward to Christmas proper. Trust me when I say I have had enough of the stress. As well as work though I seemed to have managed to fit a heck of a lot in. Last night I babysat Alex, alone, for the first time ever. What can I say the boy is awesome. He woke up twice, the first time his gums were hurting & I managed to get him back off to sleep really easily. I was beginning to think this might have been a fluke the second time as he was crying properly (read screaming the place down) but yet again he went back to sleep & stayed asleep till Fi & Nick came home (they had been to see Jon & John & and an orchestra in Oxford, as it was Nick's birthday, happy birthday Nick). This morning Fi drove me into work (we had to ask over the back fence to feed Mabel) and at lunchtime we went to see the football. Thanks to the greens (the colour, that's not the name of the team) my team now have a very good chance of winning the league (I would like this v.much but am not going to get competitive...not again).
Tonight I'm off to Matt W's P party. The best P we came up with was poltergeist but we weren't sure how you translate that into fancy dress. Instead I decided to be quite literal and am going as HTML coding of the letter P. I hope to post photos and it should all become clear from them... Tomorrow, day, Barney is coming down at an unusual hour of the morning (I haven't seen him for at least a year) and I will be showing him the delights of Oxford (I'm thinking get into one of the Morse pubs and stay there, 'cause town will be heaving) and we are hitting a festive party tomorrow night (is it wrong that I really want a night in at the mo?!) and then on Sunday we are having a friends Christmas dinner (I'm providing coffee & choc's, homemade run truffles, for after the meal. So really as usual, it never stops. The house is trashed cause I haven't been in it to tidy it & I can't blame Mel cause she's in Finland till Thurs. Aggrrhh right better go, I've got a few more emithers & then it's home time. Have a good weekend everyone.
Tonight I'm off to Matt W's P party. The best P we came up with was poltergeist but we weren't sure how you translate that into fancy dress. Instead I decided to be quite literal and am going as HTML coding of the letter P. I hope to post photos and it should all become clear from them... Tomorrow, day, Barney is coming down at an unusual hour of the morning (I haven't seen him for at least a year) and I will be showing him the delights of Oxford (I'm thinking get into one of the Morse pubs and stay there, 'cause town will be heaving) and we are hitting a festive party tomorrow night (is it wrong that I really want a night in at the mo?!) and then on Sunday we are having a friends Christmas dinner (I'm providing coffee & choc's, homemade run truffles, for after the meal. So really as usual, it never stops. The house is trashed cause I haven't been in it to tidy it & I can't blame Mel cause she's in Finland till Thurs. Aggrrhh right better go, I've got a few more emithers & then it's home time. Have a good weekend everyone.
Friday, 5 December 2008
Ta daaaaaaaa
The title of this post obviously refers to the dress (as seen above, I'm the one on the right the other two are long suffering deskmate Lindsay and James from marketing, (incidentally the copyright on this photo is owned by top photographic chum Mel Cunningham, commission her, you know you want to... www.melcunninghamphotography.com)). The party was great fun, its amazing how different your workmates look when they are all dressed up. The party was held in Oxford's Town hall which meant that all the stewards kept on saying hello all night as they remebered me from the folk festival. The theme was, bizzarely, the titantic (I don't know why, we've been trying to work it out, but so far nothing has sprung to mind).
There was celigh dancing early on and this was replaced by the celigh band doing some covers before Jeff Buckley was put on, to presumable clear the building. It didn't work and I have to say that half the office were still going strong come midnight. I stayed over at Sam C's in Oxford and we got cheesy chips on the way home still dressed in our finery. After a mere 6 hours of sleep Sam got up, thrust a cup of tea in my general direction (you see? She knows) and went to work. I still had half a day's leave to take so I spent the morning recooperating and getting some of the dreaded Christmas shopping done in Oxford and then home to get changed ready for work.
Because I wasn't on my usual bus somehow the thing never came so I had to phone Fi & beg for a lift to work. Being the top bean that she is she plied me with dark choc fingers, cups of tea and a very drooly Alex for a good half an hour & then we set off to work. Suffice to say the office is like a ghost ship today, everyone else is way more sensible than me and has stayed at home, but I'm glad I got to check up on Sam, having inbibed her own preffered caffine stimulant (coke) she loooks a lot better now :-)
There was celigh dancing early on and this was replaced by the celigh band doing some covers before Jeff Buckley was put on, to presumable clear the building. It didn't work and I have to say that half the office were still going strong come midnight. I stayed over at Sam C's in Oxford and we got cheesy chips on the way home still dressed in our finery. After a mere 6 hours of sleep Sam got up, thrust a cup of tea in my general direction (you see? She knows) and went to work. I still had half a day's leave to take so I spent the morning recooperating and getting some of the dreaded Christmas shopping done in Oxford and then home to get changed ready for work.
Because I wasn't on my usual bus somehow the thing never came so I had to phone Fi & beg for a lift to work. Being the top bean that she is she plied me with dark choc fingers, cups of tea and a very drooly Alex for a good half an hour & then we set off to work. Suffice to say the office is like a ghost ship today, everyone else is way more sensible than me and has stayed at home, but I'm glad I got to check up on Sam, having inbibed her own preffered caffine stimulant (coke) she loooks a lot better now :-)
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Finally finished
The dress is finally finished, although the title of this post could also refer to the fact that I am feeling a little the same way (completely and utterly shattered). This week has beenvery busy out of work as with it being December everything seems to be happening at once. But first the dress. Thanks to the friendly sewing fairy (read long term friend and surrogate mum Trish W) my dress is finished. She turned up last night for a quick glass of wine, we pinned the straps (they are cording material and cross over at the back) having sorted out the hem on Tuesday night just after I got back from my folk festival meeting and just before I made the pastry for the mince pies (I wasn't joking, there really hasn't been any downtime at all of late). When I tried it on it fitted perfectly, so probably just as well we decided against the corset, I don't think it would have fitted in! I've got to get into Oxford for 7 tonight to meet everyone before we head to the party en mass, so hair & make up and all that stuff that I'm not too hot on will be even more fraught, but nevermind the dress is done.
Onwards to the highlights of the mince pie party, quite a few people came and it was a nice mix of people, a few neighbours, people from both buildings at work & Fi, who alas wasn't joined by Nick as he has the lurgi, a shame as its nearly his birthday. We drank (seven bottles of wine by my quick count up in the kitchen this morning, half a bottle of sloe gin, brandy and some strange liquor stuff that someone bought), we ate, nibbles and mince pies (made just in time after I got in from work) and made incredibly merry. The award for most committed party goer has to go to Beth L who left at about 2 minutes past midnight, despite the fact that she has the work Christmas party to organise tonight, that kind of commitment to party should truly be commended! Work today isn't going as I envisaged, after being out the office yesterday on a training/legal copyright thing and being fairly shattered I just don't seem to be able to settle to anything, plus I've just been asked by two work colleagues if I would mind doing a workshop on updating clothes and teaching one of them to crotchet (I love the fact that people are now seeking me out). The workshop idea is a great one but I think I need my studio at home to be finished first and then the crazyness can be contained in there, rather than taking over the whole house. Its exciting to know though that other people are interested in doing this kind of stuff, incidentally it seems that our local wool shop have taken up my idea of running classes and they've been really popular, I think they could do much more if they put their mind to it, oh to be the owner of Mason's, that would be truly great. Right stop daydreaming WORK!
Onwards to the highlights of the mince pie party, quite a few people came and it was a nice mix of people, a few neighbours, people from both buildings at work & Fi, who alas wasn't joined by Nick as he has the lurgi, a shame as its nearly his birthday. We drank (seven bottles of wine by my quick count up in the kitchen this morning, half a bottle of sloe gin, brandy and some strange liquor stuff that someone bought), we ate, nibbles and mince pies (made just in time after I got in from work) and made incredibly merry. The award for most committed party goer has to go to Beth L who left at about 2 minutes past midnight, despite the fact that she has the work Christmas party to organise tonight, that kind of commitment to party should truly be commended! Work today isn't going as I envisaged, after being out the office yesterday on a training/legal copyright thing and being fairly shattered I just don't seem to be able to settle to anything, plus I've just been asked by two work colleagues if I would mind doing a workshop on updating clothes and teaching one of them to crotchet (I love the fact that people are now seeking me out). The workshop idea is a great one but I think I need my studio at home to be finished first and then the crazyness can be contained in there, rather than taking over the whole house. Its exciting to know though that other people are interested in doing this kind of stuff, incidentally it seems that our local wool shop have taken up my idea of running classes and they've been really popular, I think they could do much more if they put their mind to it, oh to be the owner of Mason's, that would be truly great. Right stop daydreaming WORK!
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
That festive feeling
With yesterday being the first of December Mel and I dutifully put up most of our Christmas decorations last night (I say dutifully what I mean is that I had been itching to put them up since the 1st of November and last night it being the 1st of December Mel agreed). I stuck on the muppets Christmas Carol on the DVD player (its a bit of a tradition to watch it at home with middle brother Kip & it always puts me in a Christmassy mood).We decided to put the tree in the corner by the window this year on top of a small table (Mel voiced concerns over the stability when attacked by Mabel but we tested it and it looks to be stable enough. we Fixed it all together, added light, baubles and tinsel and stood back to admire.Within literally minutes Mabel had tackled the ascent, and had suceded in pushing the angel (kindly made by Fi last year) off her branch to the floor (somewhere during this she also managed to loose her collar, where I don't know, we still haven't found it yet).
Apart from the Christmas tree however, which is looking worse by the second as more things are carried away for further inspection by witchcat, the rest of the front room looks truly magical (just in the nick of time for the annual Abingdon Sherry & Mince pie party tomorrow). Lindsay and I made some of the traditional paper snowflakes (if you input 'paper snowflake templates' into google there are a lot that come up and its so much easier than just randomly snipping away). I also arranged my new 'in a Dickensian style' carol singer ornaments purchased in Stratford upon Avon, and our usual foily type decorations are hanging from the centre of the room.
With all the preparations nearly complete I can safely turn my attentions to the dress (now refered to as the dress of doom, I am fed up with trying to finish it now, possibly should have started it earlier, meh). We thought that we might finish it last night and although I am thrilled to report that the zip is safely installed, and indeed it looks like a dress and fits like a dress (I tried it on & its quite a good fit actually) the lining isn't in, the hem is still not started and the straps need to be dealt with, oh dear I hear you cry. Well I have absolute confidence that I will get it finished (and won't sleep till it done)!
Apart from the Christmas tree however, which is looking worse by the second as more things are carried away for further inspection by witchcat, the rest of the front room looks truly magical (just in the nick of time for the annual Abingdon Sherry & Mince pie party tomorrow). Lindsay and I made some of the traditional paper snowflakes (if you input 'paper snowflake templates' into google there are a lot that come up and its so much easier than just randomly snipping away). I also arranged my new 'in a Dickensian style' carol singer ornaments purchased in Stratford upon Avon, and our usual foily type decorations are hanging from the centre of the room.
With all the preparations nearly complete I can safely turn my attentions to the dress (now refered to as the dress of doom, I am fed up with trying to finish it now, possibly should have started it earlier, meh). We thought that we might finish it last night and although I am thrilled to report that the zip is safely installed, and indeed it looks like a dress and fits like a dress (I tried it on & its quite a good fit actually) the lining isn't in, the hem is still not started and the straps need to be dealt with, oh dear I hear you cry. Well I have absolute confidence that I will get it finished (and won't sleep till it done)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
