Project 365+1: Days 357 - 363

I can't believe I've nearly made it a whole year of taking a photo each day. There were a couple of occasions where I didn't think it would happen, but I think having this blog has helped. In the past when I've attempted Project 365 I've tended to keep the results to myself and I've never lasted longer than March.

Day 357: The Stockings Were Hung By The Chimney With Care

I hung our stockings up a little while before the rest of the decorations mainly because I wanted to ease Tara into the idea of having interesting things all around the house that she wasn't allowed to eat. It seemed to work (though she was fascinated with John's stocking, the one on the left, and kept trying to nibble the reindeer's scarf whenever he wasn't looking).

We don't actually have a chimney, well, there's actually two on the roof, but we don't have any fireplaces. The space under one of the windows in the living room lines up pretty well with where one of the fireplaces probably would've been, so it seemed as good a place as any to hang them. Unfortunately we couldn't put Tara's up because it was already full of treats and would've lasted about thirty seconds. I did leave it with the others on Christmas morning and she spotted it right away and knew it was hers!

Day 358: Three Years

Christmas Eve is also our third wedding anniversary and so we exchange a new Christmas tree decoration each year. This year's anniversary was leather, so Mr Click gave me this little leather heart, and I gave him a stocking trimmed with a little leather band.

I hope that when we have kids we'll be able to carry on this tradition so that over time, every Christmas tree ornament will have some little story behind it. As we started doing this before we got married, there are already quite a few up there.

Day 359: Christmas Present(s)

We had a lovely Christmas. We started the day by opening stockings in bed (Tara got her first present out straight away which kept her quiet while we unpacked ours). Then we bundled the presents under the tree into the car and headed to Mr Click's parents' where we all exchanged gifts there and finished the present opening.

The bags above are what we came home with (though Muppet Treasure Island was in Mr Click's stocking, we watched it that night and it got put there because I couldn't be bothered to take an extra five steps to put it away). All in all it was a very successful day.

I should also confess that these bags are more or less still there. Mr Click unpacked all of his stuff, but I've been a little bit slower to find homes for my bits and pieces. Today I finally cleared out the one on the left, so I should get around to the other one later on. It makes Christmas seem to last a little bit longer because it's like opening your stocking all over again!

Day 360: Polly and Roland

Now I've got an iPhone I can sit and get caught up online at my in-laws' house without having to get my laptop out, which makes it easier to sit and knit. Over Christmas I've spent a lot of time knitting, especially while we've been there because I can check stuff online, knit, chat and watch TV. This has proved useful for getting these little guys finished.

Polly is on the right (and has a slightly odd shaped head because I didn't follow the instructions correctly). Roly (short for Roland Junior) is the little fellow on the left. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out and I'm getting very quick at knitting them (which is just as well considering I've got to make seven in total, plus their parents and I've just had four new Jean Greenhowe knitting books delivered)!

Day 361: Wise Old Owl

This was one of the gifts in my stocking, and I love it. I used to wear necklaces all the time, but now I have to wear a security pass to work I don't tend to wear them so much. I keep on meaning to pick up a little clip so I can fasten my pass to my clothes and then I won't have to worry about strangling myself when the two strings round my neck get tangled up.

I've worn this necklace almost every day that I've not been at work over the holiday (and believe me, there have been lots of those days), it catches the light beautifully and has a good weight to it too. The one problem is when I bend over the rat cage, the owl pendant can slip between the bars and then twists so I'm attached to the cage! Nearly injured myself feeding the girls the other night.

One of the knitting books that arrived this week has a pattern for an owl in it, so I'm beginning to think that I'll have to give it a go at some point. This could be the beginning of a new collection!

Day 362: Snuff

When my Nan sent me some Christmas money, I knew I wanted to put it towards some books and Snuff was the obvious choice. It's one of only two of the latest Discworld books that I didn't have. Unfortunately Dodger isn't available in paperback yet, so I'm holding off getting that until some time next year. I put the rest of the money towards some knitting pattern books for making more toys and dolls with.

Just as soon as I've read Snuff (probably some time in the next couple of months) I'm going to have to have a big reorganisation of all my books on this bookcase. The Terry Pratchett ones have been up on it ever since I got the bookcase, so it'll be weird not to have them on it anymore.

We're hoping to get a new bookcase for our DVDs to go in the front lobby (at the moment they're in a little cupboard) so the cupboard will go upstairs, so hopefully these books won't need to go back into a box, they'll fit into the cupboard and it might even give us a bit more floorspace in the spare bedroom. And if I empty out one book box I'll either have to get rid of it, or perhaps find some more books to fill it up with...

Day 363: An Obsession Grows

It won't be long before Santa gets put away until next year, but it's probably just as well because the Roley Poley family are growing (quite amazing really when you consider that I've not actually made the parents yet). I'm having good fun making these little dolls anyway, they knit up very quickly and look cute too. I'm beginning to run into little mental blocks when it comes to picking what colours to make their clothes, but I think that's because I've got so much choice, I've just started asking on Twitter instead and letting them choose.

The one to the right of Santa, next to Scrat (who was snuggled at the top of my stocking on Christmas Day) is called Rosie and I just finished her yesterday. Each of the girls has slightly different hair and Rosie's is short and straight. There was a slightly nerve-wracking moment when I'd got her all finished and had to trim her hair to make sure it was all the same length, but I think I did a fairly good job. Each doll seems a little bit better than the next, by the time I get to number seven I should be able to whip them out in an afternoon!

And now we're almost at the end of the year. I've still got a couple more days off work so it's going to be a quiet New Year with family (and the traditional New Year's Eve thread on HTV). Hope everyone's all set ready for 2013!

Christmas Present(s)

I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas. I know I did.




Santa was very generous, above are just some of the presents Mr Click and I received.

This year I gave a stocking full of goodies to Mr Click (including the Back to the Future films on blu-ray), new oven mitts and lucky socks. I also got him a cute coffee mug and tin, the Shrek films on blu-ray and a shiny new coffee machine.

I was involved in two Secret Santas, a book one which I sent two Philip Pullman books for and one at work. I also sent my Nan an audiobook of Never Let Me Go and we got my in-laws a Marks & Spencer hamper as they loved the one I won at work last year.

As for me, I was very lucky. Mr Click gave me a stocking which included a new book journal, a Disney's Cinderella box set and a lovely little owl necklace. My main three gifts were the complete series of Scrubs, a lovely Winnie the Pooh nightie and socks set, and the complete series of Friends.

With some money my Nan sent me I've ordered Terry Pratchett's Snuff and some knitting booklets, I also got a set of BBC Dicken's adaptations from my in-laws. I think it's safe to say that between us we've got enough TV viewing to last us until next Christmas!

Aside from opening presents, it was a lovely relaxed day. I finished knitting another little doll, watched lots of good TV and went for several walks with Tara and Mr Click.

It was a really good day.

Happy Christmas!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

 

Hope everyone is having a lovely day, with the people that they love, and have received everything that they wished for.

 

One last Christmas song to share here, the ever traditional White Christmas.

 

Christmas Countdown: Beautiful (Christmas Version)

I'm a big Disney fan and I especially love Disney Christmas music, so when I found an album of Disney Princesses Christmas songs I knew it would fit the bill. The final song on the disc is a reworked Christmas version of a song originally written for the rerelease of Cinderella.

Christmas has always been a special time for me and Mr Click, his birthday is in the middle of December, his parents were married shortly before Christmas and we were lucky enough to get married on Christmas Eve. The words in this song have a huge amount of meaning for me, I think of it as 'our song' and as cheesy a Disney song as it is, I love it.

 

Christmas Countdown: From All Of Us To All Of You

Growing up I had collection of Disney sing along videos, my favourite was one which I was only allowed to have during December, Very Merry Sing Along Songs. It opened with From All Of Us To All Of You and I was really pleased when I found it on a Disney Christmas CD in Dunoon a few years ago.

Unfortunately I lost the video tape a little while ago, but I live in hope that they'll bring it out on DVD and I'll be able to get my hands on a copy of that. In the meantime, I'll just have to make do with the videos on YouTube.

Book 93 of 2012: Dictionary of Word Origins

I've mentioned before just how interested I am in the history of the English language, so I've put together a little linguistics section on my bookshelf and I'm gradually working my way through those books in that bit of my library. At the beginning of the month that meant I was onto Dictionary of Word Origins by Linda and Roger Flavell, another book from a dictionary set that I got from The Book People.

 

This one is similar in format to the Dictionary of English Down Through the Ages though instead of being presented in terms of when the words came into use, this was sorted alphabetically. Each word had an explanation of the meaning, examples of its use in literature or other written texts and then a detailed history of its use (where possible).

 

It was a really interesting book. I really enjoy learning where the words we use every day come from. There was a little bit of repetition between this and the English Down Through The Ages book that I read before, but no more than a handful of words.

 

It's not really the sort of book that you're supposed to pick up and read from cover to cover the way that I did. It says in the beginning that the book will probably be read in one of two ways; either dipped into when a person wants to look up the meaning of particular words, or skimmed with the reader stopping when they get to something that interests them. I think it would be better to just dip into it to find the meanings of odd words, but in doing that you'd miss out on some interesting word origins.

 

I was surprised that they couldn't have come up with one word beginning with 'X'. There seemed to be loads of words at the beginning, it took me ages to get to the end of C, but then there wasn't quite the same distribution with the other letters.

 

I've got two more books in this set to cover and I hope that they stick with this format. I like the way that they use quotes using the word, some of them are quite funny which helps to balance out the actual entries, some of which are quite dry. It's definitely a book I'm going to revisit in the future, especially if I'm still studying linguistics.

 

"Still later it fell victim to the American habit of creating verbs out of nouns, so that there is now a verb to alibi someone, meaning 'to provide an excuse of alibi'. There is also the rather neat expression an alibi artist, someone who is an expert at getting out of uncongenial or mundane tasks."Page 12

Prject 365+1: Days 350 - 356

Well, Christmas is nearly here! It's been a really busy week, but luckily I've finished work until after Christmas (and even then it's only for one day before New Year, so hopefully I won't find it too taxing). Hopefully everyone is all set for the holidays, I think I am, and if I'm not, then it's a little bit too late and everything'll work out even if something minor has been forgotten.

Day 350: Happy Birthday Oops

As I mentioned last week, it was Mr Click's birthday. I bought him some new slippers (as his old ones were getting a bit tatty, then Tara decided to help them along a bit and they got even tattier), a Pet Shop Boys CD that came out recently (Elysium) and one of my greatest gift finds; the blu-ray boxset of Indiana Jones films. I'd suggested a while back that I'd get him the Star Wars films on blu-ray because he's not seen the prequels and he mentioned that he'd liked the Indiana Jones ones. So when the time came to get his birthday presents, it just happened that Indiana Jones was just being released on blu-ray, perfect timing! And of course, I didn't say anything so he had no idea that was what he was getting. He was so pleased that we watched them all this week.

The day wasn't without a slight hiccough. I completely messed up my cards this year (well, I think I bought a card that never actually left the shop) because I ended up with two anniversary cards and no birthday or Christmas card! But a little bit of arts and craft work covered up the mistake, if I hadn't told him, he probably wouldn't have noticed. The card had red and black hearts with floral patterns on the front so it fitted in very well.

Day 351: Curious World of Christmas

This is the book was reading at the beginning of the week. I'll post a review of it at some point. I like to read Christmassy books in the run up to Christmas, this year I've read a lot more than normal thanks to Amazon having free books available which have some sort of Christmas element in the title, I went crazy downloading them all. I've got almost forty now.

The Curious World of Christmas is full of interesting little facts about various elemtns of Christmas, from the food to little traditions as well as little stories about memorable Christmases from people in different or unusual jobs. I think I've had it for a while but I've never read it before, but I'll probably read it again next Christmas.

Day 352: Polly Roley Poley

This week I finished the first of my Roley Poley dolls (after taking the photo above I added a little belt threaded around her waist in the same colour as her ties on her plaits). I'm really pleased with how quickly she's knitted up and I've made a good start to the next one.

I got a bit of money for Christmas from my Nan and so I decided to put it towards some of the Jean Greenhowe knitting books (which are really similar to the book I've been using for my Roley Poley family). I decided to go for three (Knitted Animals, Toy Collection and Knitted Hedgehogs), the Toy Collection one was a bit of a last minute decision. But then the other book-book that I wanted to get wasn't available so I spluged on the MacScarecrow Clan pattern book as well. I should be well stocked on knitting patterns until this time next year!

Day 353: Secret Santa

One of the forums I visit has a Secret Santa book exchange (organised by the wonderful Jen). I bought my gift and sent it off the other day and my own one showed up and is now waiting under the tree for Christmas Day to arrive. I can't wait to see what it is, there's nothing quite like getting new books at Christmas.

Day 354: Secret Santa Strikes Again

And then at work the next day we exchanged gifts in our team Secret Santa. We didn't do it last year, but this year it was lovely and a real laugh. I got a big box of chocolates (Lily O'Brien ones, the sort Mr Click used to get me when we were first going out). They're yummy, I'm saving them for a little while, but I think I might have to crack them open on our anniversary tomorrow.

Day 355: Underwhelmed

Tara has been very good with the tree, decorations and presents. I was half expecting her to try eating everything but she's been very well-behaved. In fact, she seems a little underwhelmed by the whole event. I'm sure she'll feel rather differently come Christmas Day when she gets to open her stocking (and when Mr Click was unwrapping his birthday presents she seemed very keen to help him with that).

Day 356: Christmas Cards

In the past I used to put up a string for hangings cards on at Christmas. What with Mr Click's birthday, our anniversary and Christmas we can end up with quite a few cards hanging around. This year I even got the right sort of pins for hanging up strings, but never got around to putting them up. We've got cards on almost every shelf of the bookcase, both windowsills in the living room, and on the speakers by the TV. This windowsill is just half of the cards from people at work.

Last night we also had my work Christmas party, which was basically a ceilidh with a buffet. It's been years since I've been to a proper ceilidh but I got up and danced to the Dashing White Sergeant which was a bit exhausting (especially because I was partnering two guys who didn't have a clue what they were doing!). I love ceilidh dancing, when I moved to Scotland and we started doing 'social dance' in the run up to Christmas everyone used to moan and groan about it, but I always loved it.

I'm pretty much crap at dancing which is why social dancing suits me so well, because there's set moves and everyone does them. The local ceilidh band is brilliant as well because they walk everyone through the steps to make sure you know what you're doing, and they're great about getting everyone up on the floor as well. I really hope we can organise a summer ceilidh or something because I don't want to wait a year to do that again.