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.

The Chop

I braved hell last week.

I haven't been to the hairdressers for I don't know how long. 18 months? Probably longer than that. I hate people touching my hair and I can't abide small talk. I'm sure some of you can think of nothing nicer than being faffed over but I loathe it. Two of the hairdressers came over and stroked my hair and said how lovely it was. TWO. I genuinely had to fight my punching impulse. Uninvited hair-stroking is not ok, people.

Also did I mention I hate small talk?

The deed had to be done though. I have quite a lot of hair and it's also incredibly tatty. I don't have to do anything, it just gets into enormous (and painful) tangles. When it's as long as it was, it was a neverending battle to de-tatt it. And yup, it had got quite long.

I got it chopped.

Better pictures will follow at some point but for now, yay, hair chop!

The Reason I Don't Do Daily Outfit Posts

Pretty simple really. Most of the time I do not sport nice frocks, elegant heels or interesting/blogworthy outfits.

Most of the time I wear jeggings and slightly ratty Converse:

Cosy jumpers:

No accessories whatsoever:



No makeup. Oh and I don't brush my hair that much either:

I wear odd socks though. Gotta keep that personal brand strong:

The Summer Party

Last Friday saw the work summer party arrive. Planned by moi and my ever-awesome pal and colleague Catherine, it was a bit of a new venture for us. We have our respective Christmas parties for staff and volunteers but this was a chance to have a great big mid-year thank you for all our fabulous team and get all the staff and volunteers together in one place. We had a cracking year in 2014 and this year is shaping up to be even better (fingers tightly crossed for the next four months, obvs) so it definitely seemed like party time.



Look at that lovely lot! Volunteer management is not the easiest thing in the world but it's very good fun at times like these. The amount of conversations I had about petticoats was fantastic!

We had a photographer there to record the evening which was amazing (only partly because he captured the funniest photo ever of my boss) but on the unfun side, I loathe all the photos of me and have basically been looking through them in absolute horror about how much my arms look like ham shanks. 

Note to self, don't stand between a glam babe of a professional singer and a glam babe who's the pretty brunette at work.

Oh well. My new dress is nice, right? And petticoats and snazzy green heels always make me feel spiffy, even if the pics don't reflect that.

We even had our own bakeoff competition but I was so busy hostessing and compering that I didn't get any cake. WAAHHHHHHH. This is most unfair.

I made one, mostly so that the fellow special-needs-food people could have something to eat, but I didn't get any of that either. Instead I got to do some tidying up and then get changed out of my party frock and go and scrub the loos with Catherine. Oh, it's a glamorous life...

Sparkly frog shoes one minute, scruffy Converse the next...

Dress - Lady V London
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Party shoes - Irregular Choice

Feeling Sad

Although I've always been the soft sap who gets leaky-eyed at sporting triumphs and moments of high excitement, I've never been much of a crier. In fact, I always thought I was pretty stoic. The sort of person who if they do ever need a bit of a weepy vent, would rather go and lock themselves in a cupboard than hug it out with a friend and sob on their shoulder. I am more likely to get narky with said friend due to the embarrassment of them seeing me in a moment of weakness.

There are constant triggers. We've all got them. (This Year's Love by David Gray, FYI. Nasty, painful breakup a long time ago, still can't listen to it. Uck.) On the whole though, I am fairly tough, or so I thought until recently. I don't know what's going on with me. It's been a fairly difficult 2015 so far at work and I am very, very tired all the time, so that may explain the emotion. Might just be me going soft in my old age. Either way, open the floodgates and pass me the tissues.

Here's a list of things that have set me off in the past couple of weeks:


Hippo being walked down the street after the floods in Georgia:

(I tear up every time I think about this. It's become a running joke in work. I don't understand why it makes me sad. They are being KIND to the poor hippo and taking it back to safety.)


The Lloyds Bank advert. Although not the sad WW1 bit, the part at the end where you see just how liberating horses can actually be:

A bit in Song of the Sea where the spirit of an ancient warrior is released from a stone. Why that bit, I have no idea. The film is quite breathtakingly beautiful though so I thoroughly recommend you watch it.


24 Hours in A&E. 'Nuff said.


Sad Kermit:

The end of Labyrinth. "Should you need us..."


McGonagall at the Battle of Hogwarts:

Oscar. It hasn't stopped hurting yet.

S'alright chaps, I'm not depressed, just a touch on the gloomy side of things. Venting helps.