Christmas Daily 10 - 26

Hooray we have the internet back.  Properly this time.  It seemed to come back intermittently but is now back to full strength.
The boys thought their right arms had been cut off and were at a loose end for days.  Me......I can always find other things to do.

At least now I can catch up with my December Daily.
10 Dec:  Poinsettias

 11 Dec:  The lovely Michael Buble's CD

12 Dec: I couldn't decide which candle to buy so bought both of them.

13 Dec: Samuel made a spice rack at school and was finally able to bring it home.  Now I just need to find somewhere to put it.

14 Dec:  I won £50.00 at work in Lbs for £s.  I managed to lose 12lbs altogether.

15 Dec: A winter walk.

16 Dec: Choosing a new decoration for the tree.

17 Dec: I made Reindeer name tags for the dining table on Christmas day.

18 Dec:  A family tradition of buying the bumper edition of the Radio Times!!

19 Dec: Both Samuel and I got presents from his sports club and they were put under the tree till Santa arrived.

20 Dec:  Secret Santa at work - I received a voucher for Bliss which means I'll be able to go for a manicure.

21 Dec:  The Elgin Academy Christmas song on You Tube. Which can be seen here.  Elgin Academy Christmas Song 

22 Dec:  A night out with the girls from work.  Rehana, me and Elaine.  A lovely night out but the meal was a let down.

 

23 Dec:  Breakfast at Baxters.  One of John's better ideas!

24 Dec:  Santa came early and bought me a new Kenwood mixer.  She's lovely and I had fun making brownies.

25 Dec: A great day, just the three of us.  John and I were up well before the teenage one.  John made a yummy dinner and there was plenty of time to sit and relax.

26 Dec:  A Boxing day treat.  Samuel and John made chocolate shortbread towers with strawberries and cream with a raspberry coulis.  Absolutely delicious.

and that was December.  All done and dusted.  I now need to print off the photos and as I've already written out the cards for each day and my journal will be complete.

Elgin Academy Christmas Song

The Band Aid Song - Elgin Academy style!!

Hope it works.

If you look closely as the guy in the blue wig comes out of the loo you'll see me sat at my desk.  The pupil making the video was supposed to come and film the office girls but never came back.  I didn't realise we were that scary!!!

Reindeer Place cards

My sister Ruth sent me a link to the Red magazine site where there were all sorts of Christmassy decorations waiting to be made.

I've gone with the Reindeer Place cards as they seem quite sweet.  In reality what they are is "Fiddly" and quite difficult to get to stand up.  Mine seem to have legs of their own!!

I've gone for the more traditional colours of Rudolph and used spotty embossed card.  I just need to add names to the tags.

The antlers were a "bugger" to cut out and too time consuming to bother making more than I had to.  I'm now thinking of ways to cut some out on my Cricut to see if that will work out for next year.

Sunset

The sun was setting whilst Moss and I were out for a walk and I managed to catch it through the gateway to the Gordon Castle.

Lbs for £s

Yay me!!

Lost 12lbs............................................................gained £50.00

It was the last weigh in for "lbs for £s" at work today and I won!!  I'm so pleased with myself for sticking it out.  It hasn't always been easy but it has been worth it.  We all had a treat at work today and had scones at interval (followed in the afternoon by a slice of chocolate log!!).

I'm now £50.00 richer for my efforts.  Hopefully I can maintain the weight over Christmas otherwise they may ask for their money back!!

ETA:  Chocolate and wine tonight as a wee treat!!  Yum, yum.

December Daily

Days 1 - 9

1 Dec:  Advent calendar.  This years sweet of choice is Terry's Chocolate Segsations.

2 Dec:  Just in time for Christmas, John decided to strip the walls and re-paper the kitchen.

3 Dec:  Sorted through the decorations to find something for the window display.  We also had the first snow of the winter.  Mum's Birthday.

4 Dec:  Drove home in a blizzard.  Eeeeek!!

5 Dec:  Wrapped presents and gifts for the girls at work.

6 Dec:  Decorated the window in time for the village competition.

7 Dec:  Went to see the village lights being switched on and saw Santa arrive in his fire engine.

8 Dec:  Watched my first Christmas film.

 9 Dec:  Made gingerbread men but I'm trying not to eat them due to the old diet!!

My album is all made up but the photos will need to wait as I don't have a printer at the moment.

???????????

There are no words for this one!!!

Christmas window

I'm all set for the lights being switched on in the square tonight now my window is decorated.

Last night's picture.  You can just make out my ripple blanket on the back of the sofa :0)

This morning.  Out in the rain just to get a shot of the snowflakes which I cut out on my Cricut.

Looking forward to tonight.  It should be fun.........................if the weather holds out!!

Hello Monday

• The first Hello this week is to my Mum on her Birthday.  I hope you had a lovely day.  Glad you liked all your pressies ♥
• I'm also saying Hello to - The first wintry day of the year.  We had snow this morning but luckily it didn't stick around.

• Hello to - keeping up with my December Daily.  I can't print photos at home at the moment so will save them up and do a big print at Tesco or somewhere.
• Hello to - the last 3 exams for Samuel.
• Hello to - Another trip to Aberdeen to the Orthodontist.  Still it's handy to finish up the Christmas shopping.
• Hello to - the village Christmas lights being switched on in the square.
• Hello to - the village window competition.  I must get out this week and check out some of the windows.
• Hello to - covering the grey at the hairdressers at the weekend.
• Hello to getting a few cards and presents in the post this week.
• Hello to- only having two more Monday's left at work before the holidays.

How's your week shaping up?

A visitor and some decorating

Whilst out in the garden yesterday Samuel discovered this little fella in the watering can.

How he/she even got into the garden let alone the can is a mystery.  Our garden has no back gate and is surrounded on three sides by walls.  It was decided that he/she should have a new home somewhere else so Samuel put him/her into my sandwich box and took him/her down the lane to the pond.  Luckily for me my sandwiches weren't in the box at the time :0)


While he was doing that John decide that after a year of half finished windows in the kitchen he would plaster them and re-decorate!!

Just when I thought the mess had finished it's back.  We're papering it on Sunday then next weekend I have the wonderful job of painting it.  Wonder what colour I could get away with!!
Once that's done I can get some blinds which will be nice after having none for the last year.  Choices, choices.

Hello Monday

This week it will be:

HELLO - to Prelim exams starting properly for Samuel. Two weeks of exams coming up.

HELLO - to seeing the Christmas lights go up in the village.  The main lights in the square don't get switched on until the 7 December.  This is the one on the lamppost outside our house.

HELLO - to a manicure at the weekend.

HELLO - to my first crop in two years.  I'm off to meet the girls on Sunday afternoon and plan to take my December Daily Journal with me to finish the inside pages.

HELLO - to sorting out which Christmas decorations I'll need to decorate my window for the village competition next week.

HELLO - to getting back to the gym.

I hope you're all having a good week, whatever you're up to.  :0)

December Daily cover

Now I know it's still only November but I had to blog this as "I actually made something"!!  I got home tonight and decided to get off my butt and make the album for December Daily.  It's been sat on the side in my craft room for about a fortnight.

Not a brilliant picture but it is 9 o'clock at night.

It's made up of American Crafts 12" x 6" photo protectors that hold six 6" x 4" photos each.  The covers are made from the cardboard that came in the same packet as the protectors and are covered in the lovely Basic Grey Dasher papers.  I need to get some more Thickers so I can add the date as you never get enough numbers!!

I just need to figure out how to print off the inserts now my printer has given up the ghost!!  Oh and to actually write something every day in December.

Hello Monday

This week I'm saying..............

Hello - to two quiet days at work whilst the kids are off.

Hello - to Samuel starting his practical exams.  He's got three this week

Hello - to John coming home on Thursday.

Hello - to getting two eyebrows at the wax shop!!

Hello - to Samuel's sporting competition at the weekend.

Hello - to a night out with friends.


What are you saying Hello to this week?

Poppy Sales

I'm really pleased with myself today as I managed to raise £53 for The Royal British Legion by selling the felt poppies I made.
If I was doing it as a business I would have made a few pennies but as it's for such a good cause I didn't make any profit.

I think I'll have to make a few each month before next November as 17, one after the other, was a bit mind numbing!!  I was all poppied out!!

Spicy Tomato & Butternut Soup

At work we are doing a challenge between the staff.  Lbs for £s.  It runs from 9 November to 14 December 12 with the person losing the most weight winning a cash prize.  That for me means it's back on the Weight Watchers diet.........again!!

Starting as I mean to go on I made a no point, eat as much as you like, vegetable soup.  And it is yummy :0)

Spicy Tomato & Butternut Soup

6 large tomatoes

1 large butternut squash(1.25kg) (peeled & deseeded)

2 large red onions

1 medium red pepper (deseeded)

1 stick of celery

1 carrot (peeled)

4 cloves of garlic

1 red chilli (deseeded)

Preheat oven to 190°C, gas mark 5.

Cut the tomatoes, squash, onion, pepper, celery and carrot into chucks and finely diced the garlic and chilli.

Place all the vegetables into a large roasting tin.  Season generously with salt and toss together.  Place in the oven and roast for 45 mins, turning the vegetables every 15 mins or so.

Place the roasted vegetables into a food processor or blender with 500mls of boiling water and blitz until smooth (do this in batches if necessary).  Pour the mixture through a sieve into a large saucepan, pressing down with a ladle to squash the vegetable puree through the mesh.

Add another 500mls of boiling water to the smooth soup (less if you like your soup thicker).  Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 mins.  Season to taste and ladle into warm bowls to serve.

Try it.  It delicious.

Remembrance

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

10 Things

Today it was time for yet another trim of the hair that seems to grow ten times quicker when it's short, than it does when it's longer!!!

With that in mind I thought I'd drag out a few of my hair styles from the last 46 years.  I'm sure there are a lot more photos lurking in a box I the attic but these were all I could find for now!!

1:  1966 - obviously no hair!!

2: Late 1960s - Aaah cute. 

3:  1971/72 - The frowning stage of childhood

4:  1978 (approx) - Being presented with something by the mayor and his wife. I'm the one on the left and not the one in the very fetching 1970s frock!!  I'm not that old :0)

5:  1991 - A very windswept curly perm I had done at RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands.  This was on a day out on HMS Active that involved a quick tour of the ship and a lot of beer.  Anything for a day off work!

6: 1994 - With dad in Germany/Belgium.  I can't remember which.  Another curly hair do this time left to grow wild!!  This was a perm in the days before "Products" that stop it frizzing.

7: 2004 - John was presented with his Long Service and Good Conduct medal and they threw in a free photo.  This was the only day I got my short hair to sit properly.

8: 2005 - With my cousins (I'm 2nd from the right).  It's not very often these days that we all get a photo taken together.  I think we were ordered to "Sit" for this one by both Mum and Auntie!!

9: 2010 - This is the longest I can remember my hair being and it looked great this day as Santa had just brought me some GHD straighteners!!

10: 2012 - Back to being short and I have to admit, so much easier to keep under control.

So there you have it.  A few of the lovely hairstyles I've had over the years.  I'm sure if I looked harder I could find some really bad ones.  Those I'm happy to say are safely tucked away out of sight and out of mind!!

How many of you have had really bad Hair Dos in the past?

Pop on over to Shimelle to find more 10 Things on the 10th