December | 2013 | Cider with Rosie

Four beautiful skies.

17.12

The first was fiery and purple and pink, taken late afternoon the Sunday before last. We watched the colours change from the upstairs window in our house.

The second, cold blue and feathery, from a brisk wintery walk by the lake with Teddy last week.

The third is my favourite. It was taken at the garden centre, of all places. I especially love the lines of golden light reflecting off the shopping trolleys.

And the last was from a grey and rainy Monday, where all the can be said of the day was that ‘it was lovely weather for ducks’.

* First image taken with my DSLR, all others with my iPhone.

9 Comments

Posted in PHOTOGRAPHY

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Dear wheat. Please stop being so tempting in all your festive forms? You’re testing my will power.

16.12

*Skirt courtesy of Brag Vintage.

Dear Cau. We’re heading your way for my birthday next weekend. Please have ready for me a bowl of your best blue cheese sauce, with some steak and chips floating around in it. Thank you kindly.

Dear Monday. You’re great and all, and I’m ready for a new week of work (the last before Christmas, really!) but you always take away Jason’s handsome four day scruff, and that makes me feel oh so blue.

Dear Teddy. We’ve made it one whole week of keeping my car clean and tidy and muddy pawprint-free since I had it valeted last weekend. Can we do another?

Dear Christmas lights. You make my house so beautiful and cosy. Want to stay forever?

Dear 23. 22 was fun and all, but I think 23 has a nicer ring to it. You sound more substantial, more weighty. I’m going to have fun saying ‘I’m 23, you know!’ when I get asked for ID buying Jason a Friday night beer in our local shop.

Dear rain. Enough. Turn to snow, or leave, please.

Dear porridge, of the chocolate-orange variety. You’re the best. Thanks for being there to warm me up on the mornings the rain won’t heed my requests.

Dear fringe. I think we’re done, you and I.

Dear radio DJs. It’s almost Christmas now, so can you please start playing more Christmas songs? Mariah’s ‘All I Want for Christmas’ once or twice a day is just not enough, in my book.

Dear families. We saw a whole lot of you this weekend, and we think you’re the best.

Dear Jason. You looked crazy handsome at that party on Saturday night, and I totally checked you out from across the dance floor ;)

Dear little Fiat 500. Sorry I forgot to put petrol in you, and you choked and died whilst on the way to the station on Friday morning. It won’t happen again. (Probably.)

Dear turkey, and gravy, and roast potatoes, and brussels sprouts. Only just over a week to go now, and I can’t wait!

Happy Monday!

16 Comments

Posted in LIFE LATELY

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

10 things that’ve made me happy this week!

13.12

1. A late afternoon catch up and coffee with my Mum on Thursday, when I really *should* have been getting things sorted for Christmas.

2. Primark’s extra-cosy tights. They bobble dreadfully and the waistband lasts all of about two washes, but they are the cosiest thing in the world to wear on dog walks.

3. Swedish meatballs with mash, creamy gravy and garlicky greens, made using this recipe. Honestly the best dinner I’ve cooked in a long time.

4. Having a clean car, that doesn’t have a Teddy-shaped muddy patch on the front passenger seat. That was pretty gross.

5. Making my Grandma’s ginger biscuits, following the recipe in her old recipe book. When I opened it up at the back to look for the recipe, I found she’d written the page number for the ginger nut biscuit recipe just inside the back cover. Felt like a little gift from my Grandma to me, and it made me very happy.

6. Turning off all the main lights and lamps in our house, and enjoying the glow of the Christmas lights on their own.

7. Wednesday’s heavy fog, and Thursday’s lingering mist.

8. Iced Mince Pies. So sickly I often think I’ll only be able to manage half, but always find room for the whole thing.

9. Higher Living’s Cinnamon tea, with served with a teaspoon of honey and a slice of clementine peel.

10. The look of joy on Ted’s face when I gave him his own teeny tiny portion of meatball gravy and mash. I was his favourite for the rest of the evening, that’s for sure.

What’s made you happy this week? :)

12 Comments

Posted in 10 THINGS, HAPPINESS

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Fa la la la la!

11.12

After Sunday morning’s tree buying adventure, we brought this little beauty home to brighten up our living room for the next few weeks. We reminisced about this time last year when we managed to cram a six foot Christmas tree into my tiny Fiat 500, since Jason was driving what was more or less a go-kart at the time and we had no other way of getting the tree home. Now Jason has a beefcake of a car, and so my little 500 got to stay pine needle-free. Which is good luck, since I had it valeted the other day and am trying desperately to keep it clean as long as possible. That Stinking Dog is not helping the situation…

Anyway, this isn’t a post about cars, it’s a post about TREES! One particular tree in fact! Oh and also, new lights. Two of our sets of tree lights last year went out even before Christmas day, and so this year we invested in a couple of fancier sets. Also, candle bulbs all the way, right?

I put a set of our spare lights up in our kitchen along the tops of the cabinets, and is looks so joyfully festive it makes my heart ache. And guess what? Jason likes it! AND I’ve managed to convince him that they should stay up year round, to make our kitchen feel permanently cosy! I never in a million years thought he’d go for a 365-days-a-year-fairy-light situation, but it’s happening and I’m full of joy.

^^ I had a go at a little DIY I saw on Pinterest that shows you how to make stencils for your camera lens to turn all lights star/tree/heart shaped, and it really works! Look! Christmas tree-shaped lights on our Christmas tree! ^^

^^ We always drink mulled apple cider whilst decorating our tree. It’s tradition. ^^