Cheers!

Happy Anniversary..

A surprise will always go down well in my world - as long as it's a good one! It's been a full year since me and Nick met so in  my desire to create milestones in my life, we celebrated with a meal and a night at the Howard Arms at Illmington. It was fab!

The garden room was spacious and cosy, which was very welcome on such a dull, foggy, slushy night. Nick surprised me by choosing where we were going to celebrate our first anniversary and it was exactly the place I had wanted it to be. It's got some special memories and it was nice to return. It was slightly busier than it looks from this photo!

The glorious satnav managed to send us down the snowiest, most slippery, narrow roads to get out of Illmington. Thankfully, we also had a map to hand so we could find the closest main road which would be much less like driving on the North Pole!

Boxing Day Bonus... !

Christmas Festivities..

My journey to work...

The Mill is looking like a homemade Christmas cake where someone has been extremely over enthusiastic with the icing sugar shaker! It looks beautiful and the snow is very pretty but... my little min just can't cope with all that snow and ice. I donned my boots this morning and headed up to the pub where I've abandoned my car. The roads are still covered with snow and it's a first gear crawl back to Nailsworth but they improve from then on so once I'd reached the M5, all was running relatively smoothly.

I watched a 4x4 going backwards down the hill yesterday and decided I'd made a good decision not to take my car snow-sliding!

Festive fun at the Richardsssssss

Dig my fluffy slippers! After a lovely yummy lunch and more than one glass of vino, we took some time out to enjoy the rest of the evening at Lisa's mom's house.

I'm taking as many photos of trees this year so I can vote for my favourite. Lisa's moms comes pretty close to the top, don't you think?!

I couldn't resist a photo opportunity in town standing on one of the traffic islands :) though to be fair, town is almost deserted so there's hardly a car in sight due to the hazardous conditions on the roads.

Lovely tree and hey, it's not always about me! Really..?

Happy Crimbo :)

I've been making Christmas cards on my week off and loving every minute. I love making special cards for my family and friends because making something myself allows me to put a smile, a big hug and lots of love into every single one. I've hand sewn buttons onto the felt hearts and I've hand tied the ribbon bow especially nicely for the people I care about. Being creative is like breathing to me :)

Once upon a time...

There was a dress and it belonged to a lovely lady called Kay. One day, the lovely Ginger was away on a crafting weekend and got chatting to the lovely Kay.

"I love your dress" Ginger said.. so can you guess what happened next.. ? "Try it on" Kay said.. "It looks so lovely on you, why don't you keep it?"... "No, I couldn't" Ginger said but after a couple of drinks and in true Ginger style she succumbed and 'the dress' went home with Ginger Claire.

Last weekend when Ginger came to see me she was wearing 'the dress' and with no prompting (because at this point I hadn't heard the story) I said "I love your dress".. so can you guess what happened next..?

I tried on 'the dress' and yes, it fitted me so well that Ginger said "You have to keep it..  let's play the "Wear it - pass it on game!" I'll leave it with you on one condition.. as long as you take it on lots of adventures! So Ginger left 'the dress' with me.

On Tuesday I took 'the dress' to see the Sound of Music in Oxford with Lisa.. yippee! I took it to a lovely pub for lunch, for a wander around Oxford before we watched the performance, which was fab btw. This lovely dress has already been to Toulouse dancing with Ginger and she's worn it to my place and now it's been to a musical with me!

I've really enjoyed wearing the dress and as Ginger knows only too well, I'm not very good at giving things away, even if they weren't mine in the first place! So today, I wandered into town in the snow and have been and bought a dress twin so Ginger and me can have double the fun.

As long as the weather improves and I don't forget, I fully intend to return 'the dress' to Ginger Claire so that she can take it skiiing and then I'll still have one of my own to take on lots more adventures!

The end :)

ps the dress doesn't really make me look like a walrus.. it's lovely!

Mulled wine and cosy slippers

I love the snow which makes today my favourite day of the holiday! I have a glass of warm mulled wine and my laptop, some cosy slippers and am looking forward to watching the final of Strictly Come Dancing with my lovely friend, Lisa - hey, life is great! I drove over yesterday to help Lisa decorate her Xmas tree and put up her lovely lights and garlands. Last night we went to Sue's for some nibbles and Karaoke and today, I'm still in Chelts and I'm as happy as a little songbird.

Snow has been falling all day and everywhere looks so clean and bright. It's definitely not a day to travel! Luckily I'm holed up here and we have food and wine and we're within walking distance of town so we're not going to go short of anything! Lisa's had to call off her soire this evening but hey ho.. I'm here so we'll just have to eat all the yummy food ourselves!

M&S mulled wine is our favourite tipple of the day. It's light, fruity and very schwoffable.. !

Hey, Lisa's giving toilet rolls as gifts this year ha ha :) and it's official.. I'm a champion present wrapper! Lisa managed to buy the most awkward gifts this year so I got the unenviable job of wrapping them all yesterday afternoon. I stuffed them full of marshmallows before wrapping them in Xmas paper and NO - they're not really toilet rolls!

Yesterday we dined on fish platter and finished off with some yummy Christmas pudding. The best festive dessert wouldn't be the same without a big dollop (and I make no excuses for using the word - dollop!) of Bailey's Irish thick cream. I think I'm going to explode... !

Life's never dull when I have so much to do!

Here are some of my wonderful highlights including taking a photo of Mr Heron without leaving the comfort of my apartment and some crazy photos from a 24 hour whirlwind visit by the amazingly, gorgeous Ginger.. :)

Life isn't complete without spaghetti carbonara.. mmm

I've had just over 24 hours with Ginger and we've managed to pack in some crafting, sewing, making xmas decorations, trying on festive hats, having lunch at the Wheatsheaf Inn and attending a festive floral display workshop, shopping in Nailsworth, making mincemeat muffins and spag carbonara... ! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.. !!

The Wheatsheaf Inn Festive Flowers Fun Day!

Oh what a wonderful life! I booked this fab treat, a workshop at the Wheatsheaf Inn, for Ginger for her xmas pressie and we've both had an excellent day. Nikki was out tutor and look what we made.. the most amazingly, gorgeous enormous door decoration packed with a headgerow of berries and branches. Our fellow florists were lovely and we finished off the morning with a yummy lunch and a glass of vino. As you can see, I didn't enjoy my chocolate cointreau mousse in a jar with hazlenut and chocolate shortbread.. !!