Yeah, I know...

I've been rubbish. I'm sorry. I may even continue to be rubbish in the weeks ahead, and blog ridiculously sporadically. I will endeavour not to, but I just can't guarantee that I'll have anything worth saying.

Today, however, I do. Today, I want to say, "please watch the following":



If you'd like to do as they say and spend your tea-bag / fish fingers / kitchen roll / chocolate money on a red nose in aid of Comic Relief, you can do so here. Or, if red noses bring you out in a rash, but you'd still like to join in, you can donate here instead. I'm sure you all knew that already, but I just wanted to mention it. I'm going over there now myself as I want to do my bit but I don't think I can face wearing a giant red wig to work tomorrow... or sitting in a bath of beans... :o)

That is all.





Oh, except to say, do you think the Honey Monster was wearing particularly tight trousers when he filmed the above video...?

Getting Christmassy... and some long overdue "thank you"s

Many weeks ago, I was lucky enough to meet some lovely bloggers in London, when they let me gatecrash their lunch in Covent Garden.

I was also lucky enough to receive all sorts of fabtastic gifties from said bloggers, which are now all helping to make things festive chez chicken.

This beautiful little quilt from Lesley has pride of place amid my living room decorations:


These gorgeous bracelets from Emma and Val are making my wrists all sparkly and party-like:


And this little gem from Lucy is wonderfully seasonal... although I can't bring myself to use it for its intended purpose... it's just too pretty!


In other Christmas news, we have adorned Spike the Vicious Houseplant with his annual garb of glittery baubles:


And this afternoon we have made one hundred Christmas biscuits (this picture is only about half of the total):


We still have to add icing, but after several hours in the kitchen already, my enthusiasm has started to wane... bulk-catering obviously isn't my calling...

However, my festive spirit is still strong as an ox, so it just remains for me to say:

Happy Christmas to anyone who has stopped by to read this - may you have a lovely time over Christmas, and wishing you all happiness for 2009.

VCxx

You might expect...

... that after a month of blog silence, I'd return with something momentous and wonderful.

And you'd be right! I'm here to urge you to click on a link that will enable you to watch something very wonderful indeed.

Oh, and you might want to put the kettle on :o)

VCxx

(Sorry this momentous breaking-of-blog-silence isn't a bit longer, or more pretty: I have urgent Christmas knitting deadlines that I must attend to...)

Can't blog... far too busy behaving like a headless chicken...

Sorry bloggers - having tantalised you with a promise of post-shower journal pics I'm going to have to postpone that treat because I'm far too busy this evening, with two Very Important Things.

Very Important Thing number one is that I am getting in a flap because I don't know what to wear tomorrow for my graduation ceremony - any ideas on what goes well with a flat hat??

Gratuitous graduation-themed picture

Also, if I wear my pointy pointy shoes, how much d'you think they'd increase my chances of falling flat on my face as I climb onto the stage? And is it worth the risk to wear them anyway (bearing in mind that they are very very nice pointy pointy shoes)?

Gratuitous picture of pointy-pointy shoes (kindly modeled by HP8: because I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of just the shoes...)

Very Important Thing number two is a very pressing knitting-deadline-related issue. Which would be OK in itself, but every time I knit lately I keep getting the Blazing Dragons theme in my head. If you are feeling brave then you can find out why by watching the video below; but I warn you that it is very, very irritating (so if you do watch it, you will understand why I wish I could get it out of my head!!)



Right, off to go and hunt through my wardobe now for something appropriate to wear to meet a Vice Chancellor...

Cheerio...
VCxx

"... that doesn't rhyme... that's OK... we're gonna sing it anyway!..." *sobs quietly to self as song refuses to leave head*

Hello...

Hello, my friends! It's been such a while. It wasn't meant to be, but first I went away for a few days, and then I was ill, and then I had to go away again (and I was still ill), and then I came home and thought I was better but very soon had a relapse and was ill some more... and to cut a long story short, now it is now, and I have emerged from my sick bed feeling much better, thanks, if still a bit worn around the edges.

But anyway: a belated "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" to everyone who left lovely comments on my last post. In answer to various questions: I have no idea when the big day will be yet, because the NBM and I have been a little bit rubbish on the actual planning side of things... so far we've just been enjoying having sparkly sparkly rings, but we will be getting down to the nitty gritty very soon. Or as soon as I can persuade the NBM to start thinking about it. However, I love the idea of having an online celebration complete with virtual confetti, so I will do my best to sort out something of that ilk :o)

And to Charlie: type of cake is obviously a very important decision, and one which I wouldn't like to take lightly - certainly not without a great deal of meticulous research and copius sampling of all possible options ;o)

In other news, being ill has given me ample time to wreck my journal, so I have lots of updates for you. They are not all photographed yet, but I do have a couple that are ready. Firstly, I realised I forgot to show you the instructions page before:


One of the first tasks I got down to was this:


However, I decided to do each page number differently, so it actually took me a veeery long time to get around to finishing it. Which meant that I was only about halfway through page numbering when I took the plunge and did the task that scared me the most:


It was stressful. Very stressful. But I managed to see it through*:


So, tune in next time for pictures of my (very crinkly and splodgy) post-shower journal...


*Please don't look too closely at the mould growing around our bath, OK? In my defence, may I just point out that I have scrubbed it and scoured it and squirted cleaning things at it, but nothing doing. It seems to be ingrained in the sealant. If you have any suggestions for removing it, please do let me know...

Reasons to be cheerful...

... in three parts*.


Part 1...

Back by popular demand! Hurrah!

Part 2...

My new gloves:

So soft and cosy!

So pretty!

And yes, I know I shouldn't really have bought them because

a) I could have made something veeeery similar myself, and
b) they are mass-produced and from a big(ish) chain

BUT, in my defence, if I'd tried to make them myself I probably wouldn't have got round to finishing them until next spring, by which time they'd have been unecessary anyway. And, they're just sooooo soft and luvverly.... so can I be let off, please?


And finally......


Part 3...

As of last weekend, my left hand is now considerably sparklier than it used to be:

Sparkly sparkly

*Part 3 is my favourite :o)

Wreck this journal - it begins

Remember I said that in a bid for creativity, I was going to try and be a bit more destructive, through the medium of a copy of Wreck this journal? Well, my journal finally arrived at the weekend, and I was keen to get stuck in and complete some of the tasks.

First, I followed an instruction that I found VERY difficult:


However, it was quite cathartic and I felt all liberated afterwards :o) I cracked it once....


and then twice....


and then a whole lot of other times just for good measure!


Next, I completed a slightly easier one:


And I've done a couple of others too, but I'll have to save those for next time as the NBM is getting grumpy and wants me to leave the computer alone now.

We're going away for the weekend, but I will be taking my journal with me, and I will try to do a journal-wrecking update when we get back. Bye for now....