Round Robins

On Saturday I did one of those things you always dream about doing, but rarely ever do... a FULL ON pyjama day. My reindeer print Primark jamas never once came off, the duvet was transferred to the sofa and the cuppas/hot chocolates were kept on a loop. It was beautifullll. Apart from when I had the clever idea of watching a nice Saturday afternoon film and chose My Sister's Keeper and I disintegrated into a blithering snotty mess.

Despite the pyjama situation, I was pretty productive - (as much as I love a day doing nothing, I can't actually do nothing. If that makes sense. I get too fidgety.) - and so got all my Christmas cards made. What started off as a simple idea steadily became more fiddly and time consuming, so it took me all morning to make twenty, but I'm a-pretty happy with the results!

I printed a template from online, and bought a mammoth piece of brown card. I then used red felt for the belly, stencilled and painted a wing on each, before sticking a card wing on top. I then stitched in the eyes, and just have the ribbon to attach. In total I spent about £3, and I've still got a load of card left over. That sounds like the worst boast ever. Check out my left-over card. Oo-er.

I just need to attach some gingham ribbon in a loop at the top -  the idea is that these can be hung anywhere, so can turn from card into decoration... fancy ehhhh!?

But someone's stolen my glue gun... (ie. I've definitely lost it).

PS How come I've only just got into Pinterest?!

x

Bublé and Baubles

Blog NEGLECT. I'm really sorry! A whole week and a bit. Eep. I had a dream that I'd done a post, which is my excuse for not doing one, as I thought I'd already done one.

But I didn't. So here's a real one! Oh my.

As much as I LOVE Christmas, I'm usually really anti all-things-Christmas until December 1st, but seeing as the Christmas adverts and decorations are inescapable already this year, I too was drawn into a bit of the old November festiveness. Last night my friend Leah and I cracked on a bit of Buble's Christmas album and got crafting. It was magical.

Another reason for the premature festiveness is the fact that I've decided we're going to host a Christmas party. It's our first Christmas in the flat, so I've invited people for 'mulled wine, wine and Michael Bublé.' The only problem is that I've never hosted a party before, and I think I'm taking it a bit too seriously. The food options are already being sourced, the playlist is being compiled and the decorations are being made. I'm seriously considering a pin the nose on the reindeer game. Too much? I'm going to be heartbroken if nobody turns up.

I want to get a real (albeit very small) tree this year, but have no decorations. Soo, to save money I decided to make some baubles! I picked up a pack of polystyrene 7cm balls from an art shop (10 for £3.50 - bargain) and then raided my knitting bag (yes I have a knitting bag) for some wool.

I then popped some glue on the ball, and wound the string around it. Now this is trickier than it looks as the wool has a habit of sliding off the sides. Push a length of wool through some of the wound wool and tie to make the hanger loop. I then decided to sew some mini pom poms on one. It's not exactly festive. Or traditional. But I like it in its own little way! 

Leah showed me up and made this beautiful red one, which reminds me of the top you get on an apple lattice. 

Tonight I'm on to the Christmas cards, and then after that I'm on to paper chains and then after that who knows. Our tiny flat is going to look like Christmas has thrown up in it by the time I've finished.

x

A Little Bit of Life

This post is a bit different to what I usually blab on about, and it's based around four quotes I read yesterday which all really resonated with me. They're all taken from the Twitter account of Nicky Gumbel - Vicar, author, Alpha pioneer and all-round good egg.

I started the Alpha course at Holy Trinity Brompton last month as a chance to try and get some answers; to all those niggly questions about religion and life. The talks have sometimes thrown up more questions then they've answered, but the more I do the course, the more I realise that sometimes in life you can't get all the answers, and never will.

I read an article not long ago about the rise in having a so-called 'quarter-life' crisis, where people (especially in the city) start to evaluate their career, who they're living with and their future. And more often than not, begin to panic.

I'm not saying that I'm having (or beginning to have) a quarter life crisis, but I am worrier and an over-thinker, and all too often find myself whittling about the future and trying to analyse what my life decisions will eventually lead to.

Always remember that your present situation is not your final destination. The best is yet to come.

What I'm slowly trying to teach myself is that I can't control everything. I'm beginning to realise that sometimes it's important to stop, and evaluate what you do have. Some things you just have to go with. I've always been a strong believer in the 'everything happens for a reason' idea, and while I know that this often seems extremely difficult to comprehend at the time, I do believe that eventually things become clear. Ultimately yes, some days are just going to be a whole load of different kinds of rubbish, but that's life.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.

Stay where you are until God calls you into something new. 

God calls us into things, not just out of them.

I also recently read a blog post by athriftymrs.com about the difference between want and need, which I found really helpful. I don't shop in charity shops per se, but the message of the blog is very relevant and I think pretty important. It's so easy to be swept up into this culture of having to have.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything. 

They just make the most of everything.

I really hope this hasn't come off as preachy or clichéd, as I definitely didn't intend it to be. I just wanted to share a bit of optimism, and hope that these quotes might brighten up your Friday.

Have a lovely weekend!

x

I Made Autumn Apple and Cinnamon Mini Muffins!

The latest instalment in the 'I Made' series comes in the form of something edible that actually worked! It's a mini muffin miracle.

I LOVEEE cinnamon, and would quite happily liberally sprinkle it on anything, so I've taken to carrying around a small pot in my bag incase of emergencies. 

The latest emergency was a forlorn apple that needed eating but looked pretty boring on its own. So, I adapted several recipes I found online depending on what I had in the cupboard, and came up with apple and cinnamon mini muffins. I only used one apple in contrast to quite a lot of cinnamon, so you might want to alter those quantities depending on how much you like each! These are perfect with a good old cuppa and a Christmas song sing-along. (It's never too early).

These were only mini as I only had cupcake cases... Otherwise they'd have been muffin muffins :) They're SO easy to make, and come out ridiculous light and fluffy. I added a cinnamon sugar topping, but reckon they'd be pretty and pretty with a vanilla glaze too...

To make 12 muffins (16 mini muffins) 

You will need:

80g brown/golden sugar (gives them a nice brown Autumish feel)

80g caster sugar

150g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

115ml milk

1.5 tsp ground cinnnamon

1 egg

85g melted butter

1 large apple (grated)

For the topping:

3 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

What to do:

Preheat oven to 185c (not sure what that is in gas, sorryyyy)

Combine the sugars, flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl

Mix in all the other ingredients

Spoon into cases

Bake for around 16 mins or until golden on top

Pop the kettle on and leave to cool

Combine the sugar and cinnamon and either dip the cakes in, or sprinkle on top and shake off the excess.

Eat at least three of them.

x

80% Full Of Wine (And Some Fireworks)

HAPPY MONDAY. This needs capitals so you shout it in your head, and then therefore believe that it is in fact a happy Monday. :)

After a lot of brain work, I concluded that at the peak of this weekend I was approximately 80% full of wine. It all stared on Friday with a work lunch at Homeslice, with the biggest pizzas and even bigger bottles of wine. Nobody decided do tell me that they measure how much you've drunk, and charge you by the ruler, as was. Therefore I thought it was rude to be bought wine and not attempt to finish the bottle. Nightmare.

Wine-gate continued on Friday night, where we went back to Steve's house and had a meal out with his parents. I LOVE visiting their house, not least for the fact that they have two of the most incredibly brilliant dogs I have ever known...Basil and Hector. They're two unbelievably fluffy and daft labradoodles who are just far too brilliant. 

Steve's mum has been doing some decorating, and bought this beautiful chair from eBay which can be customised with the fabric of your choice. Straight on the wishlist.

Saturday night was a house warming/fireworks party. Being a massive nana, I had half body outside the house, half body inside the house, to enable a swift leap to safety in the probable event of a wayward firework. With a small wine in hand to calm my nerves, naturally. Apart from on over-excitable catherine wheel it was alllll fine.

Sunday afternoon included lovely little wander from central London to South Kensington via the incredible lights of Harrods. It's kinda hard to miss them. It's officially Christmas!

If you've got a cuppa on the go, take 2 minutes and check out Them on YouTube... it's a brand new channel bringing you all the goss from Youtube's finest (and I also may or not present it!) It would be lovely if you had a watch though. Thank you love you and bye!

x

What's In My Bag?

There are a lot of posts floating around similar to this, where people add up the worth of the contents of their bag/makeup bag/face. This is similar, but with a twist...

I'm doing a post on what's in my bag, compared to what I'd like in my bag. (And what most normal people have.)

So, here's what is currently festering in my everyday Zara work bag...

A selection of the treats

Normal Stuff

Urban Outfitters makeup bag and mirror

iPad

Ted Baker purse

Primark umbrella

 Gorjuss flip notebook

2 x pens

Earphones

Receipts

Label M Dry Shampoo

Label M shine mist

1 x bobble

1 x hair grip

Mints

Teenie bottle of Givenchy perfume

Nearly Normal Stuff 

Multivitamins

A scraggy old shopping list

A scarf

Elemis mattifying moisturiser

Batiste plumping powder

One manky plaster

7p

Not Normal Stuff

A Safari finger painting kit

A paintbrush

Elemis exfoliating face wash

3 x mini pompoms

An empty tube of Maybelline concealer

Glue gun stick of glue

3D glasses

3x batteries

My excuse for the last category is that you never know when any of these items may come in handy...

So then this is what I'd like my bag and contents to really look like:

See, I really don't ask for a lot! No need for a paintbrush or 3D glasses in sight. I LOVE this bag too. It's only £29.99 from Zara and is now firmly cemented on my Christmas wishlist.

1. A good book to save me from horrific London tubes and to make me look all intellectual if it falls out of my bag.

2. A decent sized bottle of perfume. I'm not a massive perfume girl but love Black XS.

3. An any-time plane ticket to somewhere wonderful. (See, don't ask for much).

4. A whole load of nice makeup for emergency touch-ups

5. Face wipes. Something I NEVER have and ALWAYS need.

I'm really sorry if this has done nothing to enhance your life, but I feel so feng-shuid and de-cluttered it's actually brilliant. If your contents are as awful as mine, I can seriously recommend a virtual bag clean.

x