SparkyFizz

New Year's Eve 2009...

Oh, we've had such a lazy Christmas.  Too much food, alcohol, sleep, staying up late.... like the rest of you, I imagine?  The photo above has been taken with my new, wonderful camera, I'm slowly getting used to it.  Tomorrow I'll show you some of the random photos I've taken around the house (delightful, I hear you say...).

I do hope you're all going to have a lovely New Year's Eve.  For my part, I'm staying in with my young family (minus the eldest, who's out having fun...) and will be watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny on BBC2. I've been doing this ever since I had children.  I don't miss being out, I don't like the New Year thing at all.  I love New Year's Day though, I like beginnings, resolutions, and a whole new year ahead to look forward to.

 

We got lots of lovely presents in this house too, I'll show you some of them.  So I do hope you all have a wonderful last evening of 2009.  Tomorrow, after the children have had their last lazy morning,  I will clear the Christmas decorations and whip everyone back into line ready for school on Monday, including normal bedtimes/getting up times.  It's almost time to get organized again, but what a lovely indolent, lackadaisical time Christmas is.

 

Oh, you may have noticed I've redesigned my blogsite, part of my new beginnings....  do you like it?  Don't stay up too late everyone!
 

Christmas 2009

Oh, the excitement...  I've just learnt how to make a photo mosaic for this blog!  Of course I should be doing last minute wrapping, cleaning my messy house, contemplating the cooking marathon... but I am a procrastinator at heart.  I will panic later...

 

...but meanwhile, a very happy and peaceful Christmas to you all!
 

White Christmas and Memories

A week ago the weather was ridiculously mild for the time of year - now I'm clinging on to the radiator (like Fizz does) with several layers of clothes on!  I get cold very easily, others seem quite happy, but I hate having a cold nose, fingers and toes.  In 24 hours we went from this....

 

 

to this.....

 

 

It does look very pretty, but there's an icy wind.  More heavy snow is expected on Monday, and I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have a White Christmas?  We hardly ever see snow in London. 

The last White Christmas I experienced was in 2004.  Sadly, it was at my Dad's funeral and was in Burnley, Lancashire which is in the North of England.  He died 5 years ago today, and I still miss him.  The last thing he did on that morning was to go to Mass and then he picked a bunch of holly in the park for my Mum.  Each year I pick a bunch of holly on this day in his memory.  This year I've put it in the lovely vintage orange vase that came from their house.

 

There are hardly any berries on it, but there were loads a couple of months ago.  I'm in the 'doghouse' as well.  I asked the husband to help me cut some of the holly with a couple of berries on that I couldn't reach.  He scampered out of the house, slipped on a patch of ice, and seems to have sprained his ankle and thumb....  oh dear!  

On the upside, my son has just been offered a place at Oxford University.  So let's hope he manages to stay focused until he finishes his 'A' levels in summer...
 

Presents and Wrapping

My lovely friend, Jan, bought me a beautiful present for my birthday.  We were in a second hand/charity shop one day and I spied a small wooden box with a flower embossed metal lid.  It had 'MM" in one corner, which happens to be my initials.  I commented on how sweet it was.  Well, she went back and bought it for me, what a nice friend!  She also presented it beautifully in a gold glittery box...

 

which I can now use for something else.

 

Can you see the 'MM' in the bottom right hand corner?

 

She put some delicious mint chocolates from Hotel Chocolat inside, also with an 'M' on....  but I've eaten them all now! What a thoughtful present, thank you Jan.

My family gave me this card -  

 

the pale red sections on the rose are embroidered, very pretty.

Of course I also got my new, all singing, all dancing DSLR camera, but it's been wrapped up for Christmas Day, so that I have something to open.  I'm dying to play with it now... but I can't...  I must be patient!  I'm looking forward to having some decent photos on this blog, but you will have to give me a few days to learn how to use it.  I will still continue to use my iPhone for 'spur of the moment' opportunities, but it does have very limited capabilities and quality.  I notice it most when I zoom in on my pictures on the computer and see how pixellated they are. Also, there isn't a zoom on the camera, which means close up photos look very out of focus.  Nor does it have a flash, which has obvious problems.

Another birthday treat, we went to see Jools Holland with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington.  He was wonderful, of course.  His guests included Dave Edmonds and Ruby Turner, equally wonderful.  

 

Such an impressive theatre.

 

 

Hmm, you can easily see the limitations of my iPhone here! Mind you, flash photography wasn't allowed.

Beforehand, we ate at the Chicago Rib Shack in Knightsbridge -

 

 

and I took my girls to see Harrods and the Christmas displays.

This was as close as I could comfortably get to take photos of Harrods.

I wanted to take some photos of their amazing window display, but there were just TOO MANY PEOPLE around to even attempt it!  This year their theme was The Wizard of Oz, so you'll just have to imagine how good it was.  Of course all the major stores have interesting window dressing at Christmas.

Now, my procrastination really is getting the better of me just now.  I should be in town buying presents, but, oh, the crowds, and the difficulty parking...  So, at the very least I should be online buying presents, sounds more hopeful.  Instead, I'm writing this post!  

After not writing anything for a week, I now have verbal diarrhoea, and must stop myself from going on.  I have yet another school concert tonight, my girls are playing flute and saxophone.  I'm looking forward to seeing them, but it all comes at once in this final school week doesn't it?  So I need to cook something nutritious which is warming in this cold weather, but which can be consumed quickly so we can get out. Soup, maybe? Lots of crusty bread?  Either way, I need to get to the supermarket first.  As for the Christmas cards.....

Oh, So Cosy....

First Cosy:  Finally finished my tea cosy made from small pieces of dyed blanket patchworked together.

 Side one

 Side two

It's certainly warm and quite heavy, just the job.  It was quite difficult to blanket stitch together as it's made from six layers of material.

Second Cosy:  My lethargic cats stretched in front of our first fire of the winter - they loved it!   This is what the weekend was like in my house, for cats and humans.

 

This was also the weekend for the Christmas Tree!

 

I imagine it was probably the same in your house - everything moving out of the normal place to make way for Christmas decorations?

 

 

My daughter, Kate, made another stuffed toy, this time from her brother's old sock....

 

He's called Mugs.  He has a lovely 'bottom' shape which is formed from the heel of the sock.  All his limbs can be crossed and twisted together, so he comes with a variety of poses.

I own this lovely craft book.  For some reason it is sold without a dust cover.  I spilt tea on it, can you see?  At least it was me and not one of the children!  

 

So I decided to cover it in some interesting designer wallpaper.  It would normally cost a fortune, but this was another of my 'finds' at the Habitat closing down sale in South London.  I can't even remember who the designer was...  but he was famous...  and I got it at a vastly reduced rate.  Nobody was even looking at it in the shop, I suppose they thought it would be expensive.  I wish now that I'd bought ten rolls, it's quite odd and abstract but attractive nevertheless.  Could it have been Matthew Williamson?

 

 

Anyway, I think I might cover more books, I think a whole pile of them might be good.  The paper is quite soft and pliable, ideal for this purpose.  I love 'backing' books, loved it at school, brown wrapping paper then, and love doing books for my kids in 'sticky back plastic' now.  Just remember to make an allowance for the depth of the book if you decide to have a go.

Namesakes

I thought you might wonder where my blog name came from? It's a combination of the names of our two cats - Sparky and Fizz. They arrived in 2004, and have stayed ever since.  Brother and sister, but like chalk and cheese, in behaviour as well as looks.  

They are about 7 weeks old here.  Fizz is a ginger tom, Sparky a long haired female tabby.  I love Fizz's little pink paws.  They were the same size here, but not any more!

 

 

These days Fizz is a little on the plump side, the vet said he was obese and needed to go on a diet!  This is largely due to his penchant for napping...  all the time!  He's very friendly and has a wonderful deep purr.  

Sparky, on the other hand, likes nothing more than a good climb and lots of running round the garden chasing leaves.

 

 

Sparky does rest sometimes, this is her winsome look.  She's beautifully soft and about half the size of Fizz these days.

 

Fizz is a little too large for this chair...

 

 

 

Sparky loves to sleep on my 1960's quilt.

 

Fizz prefers to jam himself directly under the heat source!

They are both very much part of our family, but I can't work out how to make Fizz do more exercise.  His food has been cut down drastically.  The interesting thing is that Sparky gets the same food, but doesn't overeat like Fizz.  Of course she also gets a lot more exercise - which is obviously the key?

I never had problems with mice until the cats arrived.  Now they bring them in, alive, play with them, torture them a little,  get bored and go to sleep.  Then I have a live mouse peeking out from behind the microwave! Fortunately I'm not scared of mice, and will happily catch them if I can and put them outside again. Mostly the cats kill the mice and deposit them under sofas and beds, where they stay until the smell alerts me.  So the moral here is, don't ever get cats to prevent mice...    

 

They still love each other....

 

... and look like they're here to stay.

It was my birthday this week, again.  I got a new camera, a Nikon D5000 DSLR which I'm very excited about.  It's a long time since I had a decent camera.  My last 'real' one was a Nikon FG in the good old days of film.  I've still got it, but it's not much use any more.  Of course this is also a Christmas present, the curse of someone with a birthday at this time of year, always double presents.  As a child this was unbearable, but I'm not complaining now, the camera was expensive.  As soon as I charge it up, I'll have a go with it.  

I also got some lovely flowers, 

 

chocolates, and this is a birthday card which was appropriate and funny -

  

My Homemade Advent Calendar

I have something to show you.....

my homemade Advent Calendar!

I made this when my children were tiny, many years ago, probably about 2000. I decided that it was ludicrous to have four advent calendars on the wall, so I decided to create this one.  I made it from two 'shoe carriers' which IKEA sold at the time, I'm not sure if they still sell them.  

The rest is plain to see.  I decorated each pocket with various fabrics and felt numbers which I hastily cut out on the last evening of November that year. I stuck everything down with Bondaweb and totally ruined my iron with all the sticky residue!

I had just completed a felt making course, so I used little swatches of the felt I'd made, plus some normal acrylic felt, pieces of shot silk, organza, glitter netting and various other bits'n'pieces.  Can you guess how many '1's' and '2's' there are in the advent numbers?  Quite a few to cut out.    

 

 

My children loved this - still do.  It's become a family heirloom. When they were little I used to fill the pockets with all sorts of things, sweets, 4 per person per day equals 96!  I used to buy them all at the 'Pic 'n' Mix' counter at Woolworths, until its demise last Christmas, Waitrose isn't the same.  I also used to include Pokemon cards, jokes, funny signs/sayings which I cut out of books, the kind that go on sale at Christmas for putting in Christmas stockings.  Sometimes I used to fill it with parts of a game that would be completed by the 24th day.  I always used to put something special in for the last day, an extra tiny toy, or some special chocolate.  

Now the children are older, I just put a couple of sweets or a small bar of chocolate in, with just an occasional surprise as we go along.  I still do something special for the 24th.  I have been using the same napkins in the pockets since the beginning, so they're getting a little tatty now, but I like the continuity, using the same things year in, year out.

I love the fact that the children would be outraged if the calendar didn't go up each year.  I have no intention of giving it to any of them.  This is a tradition that will go on, and on.  I will use it for my grandchildren too, if I'm lucky enough to have some one day. I intend to embellish it at some point with some embroidery...  

It is my favourite Christmas tradition, closely followed by the decorating of the tree, which must be real and must be covered in all the tacky things in the box, and all the little things the children used to make at school years ago, which are now crumbling, salt dough angels and the like.  

 

Henrietta just had to have the last word...   Tom suggested that maybe 'she' was a 'he', a cock in fact, but I'm not prepared to countenance that idea!  Did I tell you that she was actually a money box? Wishing you all a wonderful advent time, with special thoughts on World Aids Day, for all those suffering or affected.