Wednesday 30 December 2009

It's a toss up between when Santa burned his bum coming down the chimney or when we dared to diss Delia...

Greetings blog readers! Hope you all had merry merry times over the festive period. I'm not quite sure how it happens but there is of course, a tale to tell from Dizzland. And here it beginneth...

It should probably begin with a quick point that Wavey and I have become roomies. Yep, on Christmas Eve I began the (still ongoing) move from my house to his. It's not far. About 3 minutes walk so the moving is not really a great hardship. But it is hugely exciting! We're having a lovely old time, 6 days in and all is rosy (insert big wide grin/barf in sick bucket here at loved up bliss)

Christmas day rolls around. This is a big day. The Dizz parentals are coming to the Dizz/Wavey house for the festive dinner. Proceedings are expected to kick off around 12.30pm. Except that proceedings kicked off around 6am when the heating very loudly announced itself with the biggest loudest GURGLE you have ever heard. Of course it woke us up and we did that thing where you look quizzically at each other, shrug your shoulders and go back to sleep. Perhaps we should have paid more attention.

I'd watched about a gazillion cookery programmes so had all these exciting plans afoot for the big meal. And not a lot of them involved Delia. I'm sure you'll remember a couple of years ago the gruelling Delia schedule that involved getting up at stupid-o-clock and doing untold things to the turkey and its backside. So this year I was going rebel. Not following Delia. This was a bad bad thing to do.

Around 9am we noticed that the house had started to become rather chilly. Oh no bother we say, we'll just boost the heat up. Presses button. Not a lot happens. Let's not worry too much, we'll just carry on opening presents and drinking tea. About an hour later Wavey was off visiting his family peeps when the scariest noise I have ever heard shrieked its way out of the utility room. And I exaggerate not when I say shrieked. The boiler was literally squealing. I was, to put it politely, shit scared. I ran in there and just looked at it hoping for some divine intervention. As none was forthcoming (perhaps it was the repetition of the words shit shit shit that put them off...?) I did what seemed the best option, hit the off button and ran away from the boiler eeping and eeeking and grabbing for my phone to text Wavey telling him to come home RIGHT NOW as the boiler was having a meltdown.

So summing up. Christmas Day. Parentals coming for lovely dinner. Boiler broken. Snow on the ground outside. Temperatures below zero. Boiler broken. No heating. Hmmmm. But would we be beaten? Would we heckers! I texted my ma alerting her to the loss of heat, told her to pack her extra vest and slippers and valiantly carried on! Much to the delight of us all the dinner went perfectly, the soup rocked, the turkey was possibly the best looking bird at the party, my chuck it all in and see what happens trifle was deeelish, the mince pies were cooked to perfection, the coffee was good (cheers Pops!) and the port was, erm, very warming! My dad had about 3 helpings of everything and proffered the rarely given 7 out of 10 mark, wow-sers! My ma claimed the best seat in the house, right in front of the roaring fire, and a jolly good day was had by all!


Due to the many Bank Holidays that mean we get lots of yummy holidays from work, we had to wait until today for the boiler man to arrive. In the meantime we spent a lot of time snuggled up by the fire (grin/barf...you know the drill) I've cooked up some cracking warming food, including my curried turkey broth on Boxing Day which was blooming deelish - the pan was almost licked dry!

And we've just got on. To be fair, I wasn't really expecting to move into an igloo. But it's been lots of fun. Our nearest and dearest have enjoyed lots of our company as we've popped round saying ooooh warm house everytime we've walked in a door. But you know what? It's been absolutely deeeelicious having the heating on today. All day. Oh yes! I was even, oh wow, sat in just a vest top this evening after dinner as was experiencing a rather rosy glow! Amen to that boiler man, he might just have been the best Christmas present ever. Then again, no, greatest thanks be to my kind friends the Cullens, who bought me the things that have truly kept me toasty roasty warm - the funkay bootie slippers that are all the colours of the rainbow in spots and stripes. I would insert a photo but Wavey's pc just crashed at the attempt so perhaps not eh?

And thus endeth the tale. It all worked out just dandy in the end. But just in case, we're very sorry Delia. We will always ALWAYS follow your Christmas dinner schedule from now on. Without fail. Please don't steal the heating anymore...

Happy New Year everyone!

Thursday 24 December 2009

Merry Christmas

I'm so lucky! I just had to boast about how gorgeously cute my new puppies are. Dizz and Tizz met them yesterday, as did Wavey, and there was lots of girly squealing, although not from Wavey of course. Words don't do their cuteness justice so here are more photos.

This is Basil playing tug-of-war
Basil


This is Chewbacca just being cute
Chewbacca


and this is both of them killing a toy cow.
Basil and Chewy


I'm in serious danger of becoming a puppy-bore, which is like a baby-bore, but without the agonising hours of labour to justify it. Basil does this really adorable thing when he forgets to put his tongue back in, and just leaves a little bit sticking out. He's really fiesty and inquisitive, where Chewy is totally chilled and laid back. They had their first injections yesterday and neither of them cried at all. I was so proud! Ridiculous really, but just take another look at Chewy's photo and tell me you wouldn't just love them to bits too!

Anyway. Ahem. So it's Christmas eve, and I've got a most excellent day planned for tomorrow. I bought a lobster and some crusty bread and I'm going to have a lobster butty for lunch. And probably another one for tea. Call me a heathen, I don't care, none of your turkey and trimmings or Christmas pud for me. I intend to enjoy the decadent simplicity to the max. I'll watch all the corny old films on telly, play with the pups till they're falling down tired, then do the pressie thing later on.

A merry, merry, safe and happy Christmas to all you lovely peeps in blog land.

Tuesday 22 December 2009

12 days of Christmas

That would be 12 days holiday. Beginning at 4.30 this evening, I will be literally running out the door, possibly woooooping with joy at the prospect of 12 whole days off from libraryland - truly, is there anything better? And in that time there are BIG plans afoot (but more about that in another post) First and foremost I'll be spending lots of time with my loved ones. I'll be going to Fizz's to meet the new pups (so excited and trying to contain the squeals of SO CUTE that will inevitably escape), Tizz is coming home for a whole week - woooooop! There are exciting films coming out at the cinema (Sherlock Holmes anyone - Robert Downey Jnr, oh so dirty yet oh! so! gorgeous!), there'll be presents (if I've been a good girl - snicker snicker) and too much food and lots of being drunk...ain't holidays grand!

In case I don't get a chance to blog again here's wishing all you lovely readers the most Happiest of Holidays, have fun relaxing times, mwah! X

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Oh woe is me

Today is really sucky. In fact that doesn't even begin to cover it. It's beyond sucky. Uber-sucky. Think about the suckiest ever and multiply it. I woke up with a slight tummy ache, didn't think too much about it as that often happens, usually because I've slept a whole 8 hours and am so starving I could eat everything in my cupboards. But today it didn't go away. I carried on my normal day though as today was my team Christmas lunch at work and I was so looking forward to it. Bangers'n'mash followed by apple crumble and custard, an alcoholic beverage bought by the boss, sitting with my lovely team peeps chitting the festive chat...until I had to get off the bus and throw up in the street. Yep, you read that exactly right. HUMILIATED!

I'm sat on the bus in this giant queue of traffic, bored, staring out the window, listening to my ipod as usual. Until I went really hot. Then really cold. Then I knew I was going to be sick. Except the bus was stuck in the traffic light hell that is the new system. So I'm pressing the bell, doing deep breathing trying to calm myself down. As we approach the bus stop I'm feeling really green, the bus is packed so I'm squeezing my way past all these people who aren't moving when my ipod buds are ripped out of my ears as they get stuck round some random man's jacket buttons...and all the while I'm silently saying don't throw up yet, don't throw up yet. I finally managed to get myself off the bus in sufficient time to do said up-chucking. As if the act itself is not traumatising enough, to have no choice but to do it in the street is just beyond hideous.

Shaken and nearly crying cos I really really hate being sick , it dawned on me that I wasn't going into work today. Which meant missing my much anticipated Christmas festive fun. Bum-mer. And as if that wasn't bad enough, my kindly ma, ringing me up to see how I am, has just managed to frustrate me to the point where I snapped so now I've upset my mam. This is just not acceptable. Today is awful. Can I send it back and get a refund please cos it doesn't fit very nicely at all.

Before I do any further damage I'm switching off from the world. Here's to a better tomorrow. Please. With a cherry on the top.

Thursday 10 December 2009

Teeny Dalek

Lookee what I made. It's teeny, only about an inch and a half high. I love it! And so easy to make, it's just felted wool. Just had to share it with blogger-land.

Photobucket

Sunday 6 December 2009

Puppy Update

So many things to blog about! I followed Dizz's lead and made some things for Upcycle Christmas, nothing as gorgeous as Dizz's creation so I won't shame myself by blogging them. If you're interested my Folksy shop is called NothingNew.

Anyway, the reason for the blog is I went (by train via Newcastle) to visit my brother yesterday and of course saw the soon-to-be-mine puppies. While I was there my sister-in-law's friend Tina came round. Bear in mind I had never met this woman before. She gave me the cutest little house for Basil and Chewy! I couldn't believe it! Apparently she had been thinking about taking one of their sisters, and had bought the little house for her, then decided against it. Bless!

So here they are trying it out...


Note to self: never travel by train through Newcastle on a Saturday night again.

Saturday 5 December 2009

Christmas busy-ness

This year it's all about the Christmas baking and cooking. I don't know what it is but I'm so into it, I'm making as many yummy treats as I can find. The first one had to be the Christmas cake as it's the one that needs to be "fed" the brandy to make it taste extra yummy. I made it in the middle of November and this week saw the icing of it. Luckily I had the lovely T to help me come and do it. First up was the unwrapping of the cake:



The next thing we had to do was patch up the cake with the marzipan. It was sheer coincidence that we had bits left at the end that just had to be eaten!



Here's the cake fully covered in its marzipan coat:



The most fun of all was colouring the white icing. During the red I really wanted someone to take a photo and text it to Wavey saying nooooo Dizz has been cut! But no-one would. I still think it looks like blood though:



To make the icing stick to the cake you have to melt apricot jam and paint it on:





Several hours of concentration later, we had one sparkle mountain, two ski-ing penguins, one drunk snowman, one fabby Christmas tree, several presents and boootiful snowflakes all round the edges - ta dah!



Upcycle Christmas

A few weeks ago I blogged about the Upcycle Competition. The concept behind the idea was that you collected 5 items from your local Sue Ryder store for free, upcycle them into something fabulous, sell it on Folksy and all the proceeds go to the Sue Ryder charity. I thought that was a truly great idea so set about getting my stuff and making it fabulous. The end result is now ready and is awaiting the start of the auction to see if anyone else will think it is. I would describe it as a bit out there, but it's along the lines of the kind of things I love to wear so I'm hoping that there's someone out there just like me (except they're a size 10 cos that's what size the skirt is!) But enough chit chat, here come the visuals!






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