Festive Cheer (picture heavy!)

 Thank you all so much for the lovely comments left on my last post. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, filled with friends, family and food!

I thought I'd do a picture walk today of all the Christmas goings on in my student house. I'm so looking forward to be spending Christmas with my family, but it's still nice to spend time with my house mates and decorate our house too :)

Here is our humble tree, complete with presents and home made decorations!

I'm sure you will recognise these little ornaments from my previous blog posts :) It's great to finally be able to display them properly. 

Also on display for the first time this year is my framed CCN Gingerbread House.

We had our house Christmas meal on Thursday, seeing as most of us were travelling on different days to get home. We didn't take the traditional route for food. We had a Mexican night! I was on cooking duty, which I love. I take such joy in preparing food for others, that we can all sit around the table and enjoy. I made two different types of chilli and a batch of rice, and we also had home made guacamole and Christmas tree-shaped tortilla chips! Very festive!

White rice and veggie chilli (sweet potato, spinach, peas, onion, kidney beans)

Meat chilli in the slow cooker (beef mince, pork mince and bacon)

After we were thoroughly stuffed from our delicious meal, it was time for presents! I received such a wonderful gift from my house mates. It was so thoughtful and perfect for me :) 

Isn't it charming? It's a wooden suitcase that's been decorated to look vintage. It's just so pretty and I love it! But even better, there were more goodies inside. 

A DVD from my wishlist, two vintage style coasters (I collect these) and an X-men comic. 

I feel truly lucky to have been given such a gorgeous gift. Big thank you to Kathryn and Lucy!!

I feel spoilt already and the big day isn't even here yet. I'm travelling tomorrow. I've got my tickets and booked seats so it should be fine, but you never know with our railway systems. Fingers crossed I make it to Glasto in good time. Yes, I am taking my stitching on the train :)

Best wishes and Merry Christmas,

 

London Calling

Couldn't resist such an obvious title :P

I had such a ball in London, it was a truly perfect day out. We spent the morning touring Convent Garden and being proper tourists by snapping pictures of everything.

We headed to Carluccio's, after a recommendation from Lawrence's parents, and it was wonderful. It was such a treat to go to a swanky restaurant, but the prices were not unreasonable. Plus, they had an extensive gluten free menu. We both had a drink and a big plateful of pasta for just under £25 ($37.60) for it all. And the food was exceptional, I'd definitely visit Carluccio's again.

(sneaky picture of Lawrence enjoying his dish :P)

In other news, I got splashed horribly on my way to Uni the other day. A huge truck came hurling past and I got drenched from head to foot. It was so bad, my friend I walk with to Uni took me back to her house to get a fresh pair of jeans and a hair dryer! What is it with this nasty weather we've been having? Oh I long for the sunshine and spring.

In stitchy news, I've been working on Lottie's New Scooter and loving every stitch. It's on aida, which makes it simple to do in the evenings, but it's got so many colours included in the design so it never gets dull. I plan on leaving the backstitching until I've got more time in the holidays, if I finish it before then. I can't wait for a bit of extra time in the Easter break

 to do more stitching and sewing things :)

Sorry for the dark picture, I blame the miserable weather, again!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there! I've dutifully sent my card and will be taking a small gift to my mum when I visit my parents at the end of the month :) I've got a much needed day off tomorrow and will be heading out to the Farmer's Market with my housemate, bliss :)

Best wishes to all,

 

PS I have another blog where I'm writing a lot more writerly things, reviews and articles and such. If anyone would like to check it out, please go ahead :)

http://thedomesticstoryteller.wordpress.com/

Breakfast and Bargains

Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments on my last post! I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to working there. I start on Tuesday with a four hour shift, the perfect way to ease myself into a new shop. Elisa, you were right in your comment, I'll have to be careful when my wages come in, the stock is so pretty!

I had a wonderful day last week. Me and my house mate decided we should do something special before she goes home for the summer. When we go to Buddy's (a restaurant I'm almost certain I've mentioned on here before), the breakfast menu always looks so tempting. So last week, we decided to try it out!
My friend had the Yankee Doodle breakfast, which came with two strips of crispy bacon, two griddled eggs, two hash browns and two buttermilk pancakes. Doesn't it look yummy? That's why we keep going back to Buddy's - the food is just so darn good.



I on the other hand opted for the pancake stack of two pancakes. Look at these beasts! No wonder I could only managed one. They were delicious, thoroughly covered in maple syrup, but very filling. You can just see in the background the pot of tea I had with breakfast too. I thought I'd add a British touch to my American breakfast :)

We then headed off on a train to nearby Eastleigh to do some shopping. Eastleigh has a wonderful range of charity shops and I couldn't resist a wander inside a couple of them. I didn't buy much today but I did get these two clothes patterns for only 50p (78cents) each!

The dress pattern dates from 1972 and the skirt is from 1965. I will have a go at making these eventually, I think it will be quite a learning curve.
We went to the cinema after our shopping and saw Dark Shadows. Visually, it was a stunning film but I think the lack of explanation of some of the characters let it down a bit. Still, who can say no to a bit of Mr Johnny Depp? Plus, we literally had the whole cinema all to ourselves! It was just me and my house mate in a huge Vue cinema - it was so cool.

I hope you've been having a brilliant time lately and enjoying the glorious start to summer. And having lots of yummy pancakes! :)
Best wishes,