Peapods

A HAPPY NEW YEAR...

... to everyone!

Toast Sale

This is just a quick heads up for any other Toast devotees out there that the Toast Sale is now on in the stores with the online sale beginning on 5th January. I bought three very beautiful nightdresses but restrained myself from anything else for now. It is so difficult to find nice nightwear I think, but these are just perfect. I had been thinking about buying these before Christmas at the full price so am very happy to have found them in the sale, isn't that just one of the best feelings to find something that you already really wanted (and in your size) in the sale?

I am not going to do any other sales shopping. I have been having fun cutting up clothes that my sister no longer wanted and making them into new things. So far I have made a top out of a skirt and I have reworked a dress. I am going to wear it out on New Years Eve so now it occurs to me that I will be seeing in the New Year in reworked/recycled clothes which seems auspicious somehow :)

woodland

In this holiday I have been re-reading the Narnia books at a rate of one a day, aren't they great! :) They are such slender books that manage to fit so much in. I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books but they are such doorstops in comparison.

here boy

It's good to make friends :) I took this picture in the doorway of Dorchester Abbey.

VR

This is an old Queen Victoria postbox. I saw it in the village of Little Wittenham (a small cute village that some people might know because it holds the Annual World Pooh Sticks Championship). I think this kind of Victoria Regina postbox is quite rare? It is nice that these old things are still in use.

Secret Santa

Oh one more Christmas thing! I was given this very cute Christmas Dutch Doll set from my work 'Secret Santa'. Such an apt and cute gift for a 'Secret Santa' gift! I hear that the gift came from here. If you don't know what a 'Secret Santa' is, it means that a group of people (in this case my department at work) put their names in a hat. Then we each pull a name out of the hat and have to buy a gift for this person within a fixed money limit. Thus everyone gets one gift from someone else. It is a fun way to do things. I bought my person a nice bottle of Shiraz.

Christmas pictures

These are some of my favourite pictures that I took this Christmas. The weather has been so bright, crisp, and clear lately that it has been so lovely to go outside.

I have been trying out Poladroid which is a neat and easy tool.

for me

Finally after about 6 months of losing in bidding wars I won a Duaflex on Ebay, I paid about £10. It is the cutest little thing.

The Chanel is a birthday gift to myself. If a girl couldn't treat herself a little on her birthday then it would be a sad life.

sheep grazing

Sometimes I think I am a countryside person and sometimes I think I am a city person. Hmmm. Ideally I would live in the country but have a driver who could drive me into town for socialising ;)

pink and green

We went back for more leftovers at lunchtime today as I had accidentally left some clothes and books behind at my father's house. We had so many good eats over Christmas that I think I need to go on some kind of recovery to get over it :)

Each year I try to make the Christmas dinner taste better than the last. It is also the only time of year that I handle and cook meat. I ask my sister to do the chef's tasting of the meat dishes for me :) I cook a bronze organic turkey, sage and onion stuffing, roast carrots, roast potatoes, mashed parsnips, boiled Brussels sprouts, gravy, and bread sauce. My mother brings over a big ham and a non-meat main for me. I make zabaglione to have with our Christmas pudding, I think this is our family's own tradition as I haven't come across anyone else doing this? Christmas dinner is definitely one of the great meals of the year. I don't mean that at all in a boastful way about my own cooking, I mean it is just so great to have everyone around the table having a hearty nosh!