Friday, December 19, 2008

What I wore 12th – 18th December 2008

What is it about this time of year? I can go all year buying only three items of clothing and then December appears and in addition to my planned purchase of boots I find I need some green shoes to make any of my party dresses work! Clearly I spend far too much of the other 11 months of the years in very casual clothes. On the plus side at least I haven’t wasted weeks planning my outfits – I’m just soo laid back about such things these days.

Friday
Black leggings, new black buckle boots, emerald green vest worn under long sleeved grey knitted dress, black and green necklace.
I swapped the knitted dress for a lighter grey and black one when I went out to a pub for a hour or two.

Saturday:
Brown boots, skinny jeans, grey pillowcase top, grey shrug, spider necklace, black rubber bangles.

Sunday
Black leggings, new black buckle boots, emerald green vest worn under long sleeved grey knitted dress

Monday
Skinny jeans, turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, brown boots.

Tuesday
Mens jeans, white vest, grey wrap cardigan, black DM boots.

Wednesday
Mens jeans, green jumper, brown boots.
Black swimsuit, white robe and slipper (spa day)

Thursday
Black dress, green cardigan, black leggings, green and black necklace, new lace up black boots.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Things I Love Thursday

 Spa days – One of my dearest friends was bought a spa day by her husband for her 30th birthday. He was sweet enough to say that he thought she would enjoy it more with some company and invited myself and another chum to accompany her. Despite the dreadful cold I have at present we had a really lovely day. It was so nice to have time to sit and chat with lunch and treatments being the only interruptions. Obviously when she thanked us for joining her we explained what a test of our friendship it had been to have to endure a spa day!

 Discovering facials are not as I thought they were – I always imagined that during a facial you would sit in a dentist type chair while someone in a white outfit examined your face under a magnifier and bright light and made mutterings about enlarged pores. Imagine my joy to discover that it more like a massage in a candle lit room while snuggled under towels.

 Wet look leggings – I thought I was too old for these but to my astonishment they look pretty cool in a rock chick kind of way. I wanted a pair of wet look jeans when I was about 13 but I never actually got round to visiting the shop that had them. Clearly instead I needed to wait a couple of decades for these amazing things. Expect them to feature heavily in my 2009 wardrobe. My only sadness is that they don't go with my silver sequin dress.

 Having a grand weekend with my family – My sister and I did our annual Christmas shopping day and managed to add the weekend on so that we visited our grandparents and parents. Totally different experiences with each group but good fun. I would never otherwise have watched and laughed about The X factor final or have experienced what is in reality a working men’s club.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

What I wore 5th – 11th December 2008

I have been wondering why on earth I post what I wore on a Friday when the day is not yet an end. OK my life isn’t that unpredictable and exciting that I might wear something really wild – but it could be. Hence ‘what I wore this week’ posts will now cover Friday to Thursday. I’m early this week because I’m anticipating busy as well as out and about over the weekend, starting early tomorrow.

Friday
•Black tights, new black buckle boots, black vest worn under long sleeved green knitted dress, black scarf.

Saturday
•New black buckle boots, black tights, grey and black dress, green pendent on green ribbon, long charcoal coat, green and yellow scarf.

Sunday
•Allotment clothes
•Old jeans, long black dress with v nck and hood, green slippers

Monday
•Black leggings, long black dress, green cardigan, new lace up black boots, black and green necklace.

Tuesday
•Mens jeans, turquoise vest, grey wrap cardigan, brown boots.

Wednesday
•Black leggings, green wrap dress, white vest, stretchy black boots.

Thursday
•Mens jeans, Feeglespotting tshirt, green cardigan, brown boots.

Things I Love Thursday

Finding new blogs – I love finding new blogs and the comments of blogs I already love are a great place to locate them. Last week I discovered casey paper rock and Pixie Kisses. It’s so cool to find out about other people in the world.
Magnificent, seedy wine bars – We went out in London for Dear Heart’s mama to celebrate being 60. Among a load of other tourist type stuff we went to the Gordon’s, a magnificent, Dickensian wine bar (no beer, no spirits – only wine) by embankment tube. My sister took me to this place last year which in all honesty looks like it isn’t open. I love well know n secrets almost as much as I love drinking in dives.
Wrapping stuff for Christmas – I’m almost done with wrapping my presents for Christmas in a mixture of fabric bags, recycled papers bags and, new for this year, cloth wrapping ‘paper’. My gift tags are made from last year’s Christmas cards. I want it all done by my spa day next Wednesday so I can begin to celebrate in earnest. I’d like to comment on the gifts I have bought but don’t want to spoil the surprise for any of my nearest and dearest.
Anticipation of seeing family – My sister and I have our annual Christmas shopping day tomorrow. Who knows which relatives we might hook up with up while out and about???
Fry’s peppermint cream chocolate – since Black and Green is no longer definitely vegan I’m exploring other possibilities. I’ve got some stuff that I’m saving for Christmas (it involves caramel and raspberries) but my treat this week has been the widely available Fry’s peppermint cream. Apart form anything else it takes me back to my childhood.

Apologies for lack of links. Either Blogger is having some kind of non-cooperative hissy fit or my computer is.

Syllables

I’ve never been very comfortable counting syllables. This means that although I love the idea of Japanese Haiku I’ve always been a bit nervous about writing them because it reveals my ignorance of such things.

The competition on Icing asking for a Haiku about a friend has forced me to action though. I’ve read up on how to count syllables and believe that I can now count syllables. Yipee. It’s all to do with the vowel sounds apparently.

My suggestion for you to do today:
Think of something that you want to understand but keep putting off and have quick look at sources of illumination on the Internet. Use wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia or bulletin board. Just answer that craving for knowledge. Believe me, you’ll feel better for it.

Friday, December 05, 2008

What I wore 29th November – 5th December 2008

I have made a real effort to wear my lovely new boots. I didn’t want to wear them in case they got scratched or something which is so ridiculous. Maybe that’s a point in the favour for second hand gear – it’s already ‘broken in’. I seem to be developing a thing for wearing vests under dresses and tops that goes way beyond my existing pairing of them with wrap dresses/tops.

Saturday
•Walking clothes
•Mens jeans, black vest, long sleeved green smock top, brown boots

Sunday
•Turquoise vest, grey long sleeved knitted dress, black tights, brown boots.

Monday
•Wide grey trousers, emerald green vest, pale green long sleeved top, short black boots.

Tuesday
•Turquoise vest, grey wrap dress, skinny jeans, brown boots.

Wednesday
•Black leggings, long black dress, green cardigan, new lace up black boots, black and green necklace.

Thursday
•Skinny jeans, grey pillowcase top top, grey shrug, spider necklace, green bead bracelet, brown boots.

Friday
•Black tights, new black buckle boots, black vest worn under long sleeved green knitted dress, black scarf.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Things I Love Thursday

 My new boots – I got two new pairs of black boots from Bourgeois Boheme at the Christmas without Cruelty fayre on Sunday. They are fab. Alas I am now nervous about wearing them for the first time. I bought them for every day wear and not a special occasion so why am I procrastinating?

 Painting my nails with different shades of green nail varnish – I used to collect green nail varnish and had over fifty different shades of green at one point. I only used to paint my toe nails and one nail on my left hand. Hence the bottles got sued up very slowly. Today I have rediscovered the joys of painting random nails different colours.

 Beetroot with chillies – I keep buying bug bags of local veg which of late have included lots of beetroot. I’ve been trying different ways of eating it and discovered that boiled and them sprinkled with dried chillies is my absolute favourite.

 Making lists of things to do – Planning what tasks I will carry out over the next few days is a real pleasure. I always feel very happy and energetic when I am planning. The trick is not to get carried away with this feeling and plan more than you will do.

 Dark cherry mocha from Starbucks…I love cherry flavoured things and made with soya milk and no crème this is suitable for vegans.

 When drunk with friends on a Friday – One of my friends and I went for coffee after work on Friday and it was the nicest thing. It felt so sophisticated and Christmassy. We had the loveliest chat. She also advised asking for one shot more cherry and one shot less mocha.

 My hairdresser – I got my hair cut last night by my wonderful hairdresser, Lisa. Hard to believe that two years ago I hadn’t let a pair of scissors near my hair for a decade. My hair has been so good this year. I love the way that Lisa lets my style evolve a little bit each time.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

A patchwork mind

I’ve got all kinds of things going on in my head at present. I’m still finishing the ‘wrapping’ of my Christmas gifts. I’m experimenting with a new design for the drawstring bags that I put gifts in. I’m also trying out an idea about making fabric gift wrap. Hence my study is littered with bits of ribbon and fabric, buttons, beads, sequins and other frippery for decoration. I kept re-arranging it all in boxes or shoving it into cupboards in an effort to keep things tidy and under control.

I think the biggest issue is all the small bits of left over fabric from various projects. Those pieces that are too small to throw but not big enough to do stuff with fill several bags. Sure some of them do for decorating other things. But the quantity is only going to increase with every new project. I’ve begun thinking about patchwork. I’ve done a very small amount of research and discovered that fitting together small randomly shaped pieces is called ‘crazy patchwork’.

I reckon that I have easily enough for a quilt. This would please Dear Heart, who seems like that kind of thing and comes from a family who seem to feel the cold. So I guess that will be one of my 2009 project. Apart from anything else the idea of having some space in my fabric cover really appeals.

Then I’m trying to work out what to wear to a dinner/dance thing the Saturday before Christmas. Dear Heart surprised me on Sunday by showing me an article on Party frocks and suggesting that numbers 1, 6 or 7 would be right for me. I’m thinking of wearing the silver sequined dress that I bought last year. I wore it at new year, but it certainly needs another outing. I just need to decide what to wear it with.

Also there’s birthday presents to sort out, a date for Christmas decorating to schedule and Dear Heart making some kind of final decision over where we are actually going to spend Christmas. Will it snow? How many boxes of frozen party snacks do we need to survive the festive season?

I think I need to chill out a bit. Maybe listen to some festive songs while sitting by the fire.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

It’s Neet

The December issue of N.E.E.T. magazine is online. I don’t buy magazine as a general rule. I subscribe to Easy Living which I’m uncertain about continuing with. When Easy Living first came out I think I probably was right in the middle of their target demographic. It felt like the whole thing had been written just for me. However I don’t always find that I relate quite so well these days. I loved the whole small change, big difference feel of the early issues. I liked the articles about things that I didn’t read elsewhere in glossy magazines like women who made their own clothes or talking about why they still had long/punk/green hair at seventy. There was less celebrity. Lots of articles offering life tips from real women who ran their own businesses. I still think about planning my clothes a week in advance if I know that I will be busy. Or I remember to take food (whoever it was described it as ‘a picnic’) so that I don’t have to eat a pre-packaged sandwich when I could be consuming something delicious.

The thing with Easy Living is that every time I decide that it is no longer for me an issue comes out that seems just right. Anyway I digress, back to NEET.

I think this was the first place I ever came across the phrase ‘upcycle’. This issue had a guide to 2009 – just the place to seek inspiration for what to do with what you’ve already got. I was surprised by the number of UK contributions. So many times I come across something cool and then discover that it’s all about the USA.

To my disgrace (or maybe not) I cannot recall what lead me to N.E.E.T. in the first place. Whoever wrote the blog that led me there – thank you. I shall just enjoy.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Back to the plot

With my novel completed I’d thought that December would be an easy ride with evenings of putting my feet up and reading with a cup of tea/glass of wine.

However, when I began to idly compile a job list I was amazed by how many things were on it that need to be done in the next two weeks or sooner.

The challenge of writing set number of words everyday didn’t seem that tough at the time. It was just a case of plugging away. I do think though that as the month went on while the writing got easier in some ways, it got more difficult in others. There were plot lines and character names to keep track of. During the final week I knew what I needed to cover to get to the end and found myself trying to pace the action to be covered in the remaining words.

Although it feels strange not to write, I won’t miss waiting for my laptop to boot up and trying to write in between cooking dinner. Final Christmas gift prep, a mound of post, cheques to write and a round of family related stuff have moved to the very top of my list.

I’m trying to apply the main lesson of NaNoWriMo which is that you can get it done, whatever it is. You just need to break it into small portions, make sure you do a portion regularly and keep an eye on milestones and deadlines.