Christmas Is Coming

The run-up to Christmas is always extremely hectic at work and this year it was no different - I clocked up 80 hours over Halloween week, took a mild breather at the start of November and then it was full festive steam ahead, culminating in several 15 hour working days. Oof.  The plus side to all of this is that we shut up mid-December and I get to use up my annual leave by having three weeks off over the holidays.

It's not exactly peaceful to start with - I get no chance to do anything at home when I'm basically at work all the time, so when I'm finally off there's a lot of housework to catch up on! Also I don't know why but I always manage to forget about the pre-Christmas socialisation. I've been out for a party, a retirement meal, brunch, pub dinner and a birthday meal in the past six days! For shy old retiring me, that's quite some effort.

But the house is finally ready for Christmas and even if I do say so myself, it looks awfully pretty. My endless to-do lists are nearing completion and I am very much looking forward to a relaxing, fun, family time.


My stash of books to be read on Christmas Eve are waiting for me.



As it consists of Wodehouse books this year, I've christened my book tree the Whathohoho Tree.



I've even put baubles in the bathroom. Well, why not?



The stairs are garlanded



Appleyard London sent me this gorgeous Advent Bouquet which is brightening up the hall a treat. This is my usual spot in the house for fresh flowers but I was despairing of finding a Christmas bouquet I actually liked. This one is beautiful - the perfect solution!




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Advent calendar has nearly all been scoffed



Cards are up wherever I can fit them and Father Ted is being brightened up by some holly lights.




Altogether, things are looking festive and jolly.





I'm now ready for a whole lot of loafing around, snuggling with Phil and reading books. Bliss.

Party Time

Despite being a big old introvert who doesn't like parties, I made an exception for the work Christmas do. Well you have to, don't you? My colleagues are a lovely bunch, plus there was an open bar. Yoicks! I frocked up, whacked on some red lippy and went out.

If I were a proper organised sort of blogger, I'd no doubt have scheduled in a separate photoshoot outdoors, in daylight, in front of a colourful doorway to show off my outfit to optimum effect. Instead I completely forgot, got drunk and then flung my phone at someone at the very end of the night and shrieked "Don't take any pictures where I look fat!". Classy.

(Why, oh why, is red so hard to photograph? Admittedly we were in a fairly dark hotel lobby and both the photographer and subject had had a shandy or twelve but still, grrr.) This frock is the absolute perfect shade of red and I love it. You may have to see it in real life to appreciate what it actually looks like though.

London skyline tights FTW.

Dress - Dorothy Perkins
Heels - Shelly's, Spartoo
Bag - gift
Jacket - vintage, from Kinky Melon
Tights - can't remember! They're epic though.

Despite my antisocial tendencies, I had a lovely night. 

#photoanhour - A December Day

Finally! I've been meaning to join in with #photoanhour for flipping ages now but I always manage to either only realise it's on at about 4pm, or I have the world's most boring day, in which case there's very little point recording it for posterity.This weekend I woke up at a reasonable hour, checked Instagram, realised that Janet was taking part and decided to join in with the fun for once!

8.55am - I didn't really want to get out of bed so I spent a lazy quarter of an hour playing Hay Day on the iPad. That farm won't run itself y'know!

9.55am - Quick trip to the sorting office to collect a Mystery Surprise Parcel. It turned out to be a pair of earrings I'd forgotten that I'd ordered for my mum. Not quite as mysterious as I'd hoped for, but hey, at least that's all the presents here in time for Christmas.

10.55am - Char had arrived by this point, so we set out to Lark Lane for brunch at The Moon and Pea, one of my favourite places. They're fond of a kitsch decoration at the best of times so this rather fab tree fitted in nicely!

11.55am - Brunch! (ok, may have fudged the timings slightly on this one - it didn't take an hour to arrive. But full plate is more scenic than empty plate.) Char and I are both big proponents of the two-drink brunch.

12.55pm - Home, and Char was busy making friends with Phil.

1.55pm - It was a lovely peaceful sort of afternoon and evening, deliberately so. We were both much in need of some quiet time after a hectic few weeks, and I was desperately trying to crack on with my knitting. This jumper is taking so much longer than I expected. I basically knitted for 9 straight hours and only managed about 8 inches of sleeve.

2.55pm - We managed to get through an impressive four films. Home Alone (which Char had never seen), Pretty In Pink (which I'd never seen), Cube (which was amusingly rubbish) and then About Time (awww).

3.55pm - Are you starting to tell that I didn't move off the sofa all afternoon? Phil came for snuggles (and to kill my tape measure).

4.55pm - WHY WON'T YOU END?? Oh god, it feels like I've been knitting this jumper my entire life. I am so slow. It's not going to be done for Christmas. Still 1 1/2 sleeves to go, a neckline, and an initial on the front.

5.55pm - I removed myself from the sofa and put up some cards. This glittery beauty is from Lucy.

6.55pm - We were onto About Time by this point. Coffee, films and good company make for a very pleasant evening.

7.55pm - I'm such a rubbish hostess.

Me: "I totally can't be arsed cooking. Takeaway?"

This is Char's Pizza Consideration face.

8.55pm - Pizza was such a good call. And garlic bread. And sweet potato fries.

9.55pm - PRESENTS! I love seeing them all jaunty and colourful under the tree.

10.55pm - Still at the bastarding knitting and watching Match of the Day.

I did end up staying up for another couple of hours but it would have been exactly the same as the above photo, just with Hugh Grant's face on the tv (curse ITV for putting Notting Hill on at stupid o'clock). So there you have it: half an interesting day. Lots of knitting.

Nearly Ready For Christmas

Minor Christmas tree fail the other day. I wrestled it into the tree stand (not that easy to do by yourself) , got decorating and was most pleased with my efforts. Doesn't it fit nicely into the alcove?



Then I went out and came home a few hours later to see this:



TREE DOWN!!!! Nooooooooooooooo.

I was lucky that only one thing broke but it had to be the biggest, loveliest vintage bauble didn't it? Smashed to smithereens. Minor waaaah-ing took place but the tree was propped back up and doesn't appear to have made another bid for freedom. The massive stack of presents is probably helping keep it upright!







I'm having great fun decorating the rest of the house too! The living room is obviously Christmas Central:





But in the library I have advent corner:



With my truly beautiful advent calendar:



I pinched a leftover floral decoration from work to liven up the hall:



The stairs have been garlanded:



I've even decorated the bed!



Just need to have a quick hoover round the place and then I'm ready to put my feet up and dive into my stack of special festive books. Can't wait! I chuffing love Christmas.



Merry Christmas everyone. I'm signing off for a week or so - I like my time offline over the holidays. Hope you all have a lovely time, full of as much food/drink/presents/family fun/peace and quiet as your heart desires.

A Festive Frock

I made my Christmas party dress this year. Hark at me!



Mooching around Dunelm in October, I came across Christmas fabric and rather fell in love with this vintage inspired print fabric. I pondered hard - the house is sucking up all my spare cash at the mo and really, I could have just worn a frock I already had, couldn't I?

However, Christmas needs new clothes. It's the law. Honest it is. New pjs for Christmas Eve are an absolute must (this may perhaps be a Scouse thing but I reckon it should be an everyone thing) and you have to have something pretty to wear on the big day itself. Same rule kinda applies to the work do.

T'was an excellent bargain as it turns out. The shop assistant and I were both in rather dozy form and I waltzed out of the shop, went home and only then discovered that although I'd asked for 3m, she'd given me 4m and only charged me for 2m!



As for the final result, I freely admit that the satin trim did not work properly. I might have had plans for the frock in mind since the autumn but I wasn't organised enough to buy any proper bias binding and this ribbon did not want to get pressed into service as makeshift bias binding. I ended up just stitching it straight on and it's gone all wonky. The girls assured me that it looks like it's meant to be a ruched sort of trim neckline and I'm going with them on this.

I made it in a day though, minus the time spent going into town for lunch and to watch a live screening of The Crucible (and holy heck, that's a long play!) and I'm pretty impressed with myself for that. I haven't sewed anything for months and I thought I might have forgotten how to do it.




Dress - handmade, Simplicity 2444
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Heels - Shelly's



Also, yes, not great pics. I take so flipping long to get ready for a night out that there's never any time left to set the camera up and take proper outfit photos.

The frock goes smashingly with a beard though!