Forever Happy

I have got to learn to stop crying at really happy things. I'm a mess. Sniffling to myself 'it's just so happy' waaaa. Enough of that. But it is amazing, enjoy...

'When I grow up' my tree has to look like a red & gold version of this. It looks like one out of Whoville (The Grinch)! 

Image from Trendy Tree

Big Happy Tears & Giggles

This is so funny and it managed to bring tears to my eyes - big happy Christmas tears.

The crew of the Royal Navy assault ship HMS Ocean sing to Mariah Carey's 1994 hit All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Utterly heart warming.

Jingle Baubles

Much the way that everybody thinks that their Mum’s spaghetti bolognaises is the best in the world, my tree is one of the best I’ve ever seen. I know I'm biased, but there is no other like it, totally one of a kind! No two baubles are the same and each individual bauble is epic. Most of them have come from the states since my grandparents used to go every year and bring back something beautiful, sometimes they symbolise something (for example the millennium bauble) or came from a special friend. If you look closely you can see the one my sister and I brought back from Disneyland Paris.  Anyway that’s enough bragging; I’m just so excited to get home and decorate the tree for Christmas 2011! My wee step brothers are helping too this year which makes it even better.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, hope you aren’t quite as cold as we are in Edinburgh!

Red baubles - http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/post/2133229599/martha-stewart-for-the-holidays, Noel Paper baubles from fleamarketstylemag.blogspot.com, buttons baubles from bonkersaboutbuttons1.blogspot.com, red baubles with stars on the surface - From publicdomainpictures.net, glittle gold baubles - From google.com, candy kane striped bauble - From hiphostess.blogspot.com

The Runaway Child

Pretty much everyone has a story of when they ran away from home. One of my friends made it all the way to the end of the street with a loaf of bread and a pair of pants, my own run away mission was not even that successful. I made it to the back garden with a scarf full of socks, which I vividly remember trying to tie onto the end of a toy golf club since I didn’t have a stick to hand. Then I hid under a hedge until I was cold enough to go back inside. In my mind, my Mum would have been feeling so bad for telling me off in the first place she’d probably learnt her lesson by now, but honestly I can’t remember what it was I’d been told off for that led me to this drastic action.

It didn’t quite go to plan. Nobody had noticed I was gone, mostly because I’d been gone ten minutes, max. What’s more, my genius plan to climb out of the kitchen window somewhat backfired. In my hurried departure, I’d pushed a chair up to the kitchen window, climbed up and over the window sill and taken a plunge about twice my height into the garden. Which now, looking up at the window from the other side with was impossible to climb back up. I made the decision to go round to the front of the house, knock on the door and wait patiently to make my speech. It was something along the lines of “yes Mum I ran away but it was for your own good, you needed to know how sorry you’d be if I was gone, but I’m back now so you can stop your crying, I forgive you.” (I still practice important ‘speeches’ to this day – awkward revelation). It has to be said, she hid her pain extremely well. She didn’t ask me where I’d been or why I was locked out of the house, or even ask about my sad little scarf of socks. My theory is she was in shock. It was absolutely not because she’d been watching my great escape to the hedge and back again from the window. Solid parenting advice to my future self, tantrums don’t really work when you smile in the face of them.

- A slightly random post but I just had a flash back and giggled to myself at how hopelessly ridiculous I was as a kid, well I say 'as a kid', I still am hopelessly ridiculous in my own way. I used to cry in front of the mirror to check I was still cute enough to make people feel sorry for me.That's awkward revelation number 2. Why do I do this to myself? Anyway sweet dreams all. I'm not setting an alarm as I made the mistake of asking a friend to wake me in the morning, she's a 9 til 5 girl, this will not be pleasant. 

Let Them Eat (Christmas) Cake

It is officially my favourite time of year and (if we set aside the ever building family drama and the fact that I have no money for presents) all is well with the world. Very soon I will be driving home for Christmas with my wonderful man/partner/boyf/boy (I'm still deciding on what he should be referred to - ‘Partner’ drives him mad, so obviously it’s more tempting to use.)  It’s actually embarrassing how long I was looking forward to being able to do Christmas blog posts, but now the time has arrived I feel totally unprepared and as usual, I have little to no time to actually write anything!

Anyway, enough moaning about 4^th year. Christmas is coming! And what does that mean? It means advent calandars, Christmas songs, trees, baubles, tinsel, stockings (all of which my super star mum is waiting for my sister and I’s return to put up – bless her!), actually seeing my family and friends, snow in Yorkshire, and the food. Oh the food. So much food. 

 So. Much. Food.

I’ll start there then, specifically, Christmas cake. You can tell all I’ve eaten today is crisps. We’ve seen some absolute beauties in my house over the years from the Grandma’s, my Auntie and my Mum. One that really sticks out for me was my Mum’s creation. A standard white round Christmas cake, but on top were the cutest little clusters of marzipan presents you’ve ever seen. All of them were red and green with bows in alternate colours. I can’t imagine how much time it took making ribbon for all those little presents. And I can’t imagine the inner horror when my cousin Ben ate half the presents off the cake before anyone else even got to see it! True story, and it reminds me of one of my all-time favourite posts at Hyperbole and a Half which I seriously suggest you have a look at for a giggle.

So here’s to cake and to Christmas. If you are a regular you can expect a few more holiday posts over the next few weeks, I’ve got oodles of love for baubles which should make an appearance.

 

Red gingerbread man cake - From cakecentral.com, Xmas cake with holly and red ribbon - From google.ie, Ruffle white with trees - From iammommy.typepad.com, Big bow and robins xmas cake - http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/, Christmas tree cake - From familyfun.go.com, Snowman cake pops - From grinandbakeit.com

A Piece of Me

Today I’m mourning a side of me that I feel is wasting away; my creative side. It seems hard to believe I once had the time to make scrap books, write letters to my friends, keep a diary, make paper flowers and friendships bracelets for the hell of it. I don’t even read books anymore, just journals or text books for my course. I miss being creative! I even miss having time to stumble other far more talented and creative people. Now it’s all about science, reports, dissertation, presentation or if I’m lucky a job application. No fun at all, damn final year.

Having said all that I have had a very productive day and I’m pleased with what I’ve achieved. So, now as we literally just hit 2300hrs and I’m chilling in the library as per usual, I’m going to make a little inspiration board of creativity as a shout out to my formally creative self. 

 

Home made porcelain - From thejunkwave.com, Bunting - From tlbc.com.au, Classic books - From weheartit.com, Finger painting - From browneyedbellejulie.blogspot.com, Scrap book - From yumcity.tumblr.com, glitter pots - From tumblr.com, Friendship bracelets - From honestlywtf.com, Paper flowers - From 3.bp.blogspot.com, Paint brushes - From missmustardseed.blogspot.com