Let's See What My Resolve Is Like

So it's come to the point in time where I make a list of all the things I need to do better, and thereby make my January even more insufferable. Because not only have the holiday's finished, and not only is it blisteringly cold and the rain is consistently pelting down onto the already saturated ground and the whole world is the same shade of grey and its just generally crap, but also now I have a list of things that I must do lest I fail at everything ever in life blah blah blah.

Not that that stops me ever, and this years list in especially long:

Like I said, long, and certain to make January miserable. What are all your resolutions this year?

Now That That Is All Over...

So I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and you were all able to spend time with your families and friends and stuff, and also on a more materialistic note, you got cool presents :)

I am happy to say that my Christmas was great. My family managed to avoid any major disagreements, and I got great presents to boot.

Now that it's all over however, I am starting to get excited/worried about the new year. Last night (technically this morning actually, it was really late) I started making a list with my friend. I am currently at ten so... Looks like I will have a busy year ahead of me.

Also, I started thinking about this past year, and Sophia (who sold cookies with me earlier) showed me this video.

As I find posts without pictures look a tad sad, here are some the crafty gifts that were given in my family this christmas:

The bottom two, I made. The scarf for my sister, and the hat for my brother. The top (very impressive hat) my mum made for my dad. My sister also made from the same pattern for my dad, and both rather outshone mine stuff...

Christmas Eve

(Just in case you hadn't noticed!)

Anyway. At the moment my Fam are all downstairs watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. Which, y'know, I should probably join in with. Bonding and all. Also, by this time tomorrow, I guarantee everyone will be fighting. So I should probably be making the most of it. Oh well.

Instead though I am desperately trying to finish my Crafty Christmas presents, which all seemed like a great idea when we were safely in November... Now not so much. I have two WIP's for my siblings, which I seriously need to sort out and the hours are slipping away from me people! In the mean time though, I am procrastinating by stalking the NORAD Santa Tracker thing. Which is one of my favourite pastimes :)

I will most likely have an update tomorrow (it looks like there will be loads of crafty presents in my household this year!) but if not, Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating. Or, Happy Fifth/Sixth day of Hanukka. Or...

I'm starting to get confused now, so let's stick with Happy Holidays people. That's general right?

Selling Loads of Cakes and Stuff

Saturday (yeah, ages ago) I had this massive cake sale (which was the one that I made these gingerbread for) with my good friend Sophia. Who is seriously not my twin, I promise we are not at all related. I am talking to you, strange drunk santa guy.

Anyway. We had tons of stuff (I am talking over 200 baked goods) and I was stressing out, because this was my kitchen counter about 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave for Sophia's:

It was kind of my own fault though, because I had been watching SVU with my mum the night before instead of decorating them (unless you are Sophia. In which case, I was totally ready when you called that morning like I said.)

We set up a table, a couple blocks down from the football stadium, at the end of Sophia's road which was closed for foot traffic. Within about ten minutes I could see two Police walking towards us in those bright yellowy green jackets. They were walking super slowly, in time with their hands behind there backs, and it was stressing me out to no end. 

I swear it took them a good twenty minutes to get to us. They stopped in front of us, and I swear I thought I was going to pass out. If they were going to shut us down... I mean, 200+ baked goods people. What were we going to do with that? (actually, it would have been fine. Sophia and I both have brothers.)

So the Policewoman goes, 'What are you selling?'

'We are s-selling, um, cake...' We say looking down.

She looks down to read the sign we had stuck to the table.

'World Challenge, eh?'

'Y-Yes, ma'am' 

'I did that, that was great. Here's two quid. Good luck girls!'

And then the Policeman goes, 'You guys should get a bigger table next time!'

And then the walk off doing their slow walk again. So that was great.

The whole thing turned out great in fact, (well, expect for the sub-arctic temperatures, which made my amazing crushed velvet skater dress an even less appropriate choice of attire, and the afore mentioned drunk santa guy who wouldn't shut up) and we made quite a bit of money to put towards our trip. We also only ended up with a few things left, which I have managed to eat most of, and in the process teach my mum the expression food baby. So, you know. Good stuff.

And then there is the explanation as to why this is about four days late. Well, I wish I could say something interesting (Actually, I could, you guys wouldn't be able to tell if I made something up, but whatever, that would be mean) but basically, I couldn't be bothered to sit up right to type because I was lying on my bed watching Modern Family. For around four days straight. And then I needed a shower. And now I am typing. Yeah, that's all.

2012 Diaries

Last week, I wrote about my Poundland Presents. Wednesday night, I finally finished them (and oh my goodness they took ages. It got kind of annoying...)

So these are the five that I got done. They were super easy (although, I am seriously not joking when I say you better not underestimate how long they will take you to do.)

I mostly used magazines and newspapers. Actually, I mainly used stylist and style, because I love the layout and design they have, and also they are free (yeah, them being free is nice...) Anyway. I cut out the cut/pretty/interesting bits, and also any deep quotes that I found. Another great thing about these magazines was that they had really cool titles that worked well for spines. (see picture below)

I arranged all the little bits (some of which I had also printed off) on the books, and stuck them on with PVA. Which was much easier when I got some proper glue. Word of warning, don't use any of that school glue that has been in your cupboard since you started reception. It will be gloppy and cause you to go insane. I speak from experience.

So, stick pieces of paper on with glue, and then cover in that plastic stuff. Now, I don't know what it is called aren't I super helpful?) but it is that clear plastic sheet stuff that is sticky on one side. You can get it anywhere, and it means that the paper won't rip off the books straight away (cause that would be sad.)

And here is a picture of three of the ones I finished. It's only here cause I am really proud of them :)

Gingerbread Making Craze

I probably have to start by explaining that I am doing World Challenge and I am going on a trip to Madagascar for four weeks in July 2013. Which is really exciting, but also means that I have to raise a ton of money.

To help raise money, I am having a bake sale with my friend outside her house just before a football game. She lives right by the stadium, and they get loads of foot traffic. We are just hoping that some of these people will like cake...

Anyway, that is how I ended up making four times a old Food Tech Gingerbread recipe. Which takes quite a while! I always forget how long it takes to roll out dough.

Once I got the dough sorted, it was really fun:

Above is a nice picture of a cookie being cut out. I now cannot remember why I felt the need to take that picture.

Here is a cookie tray, filled with cookies. Again, fairly self explanatory, but who cares. They look freaking awesome.

And then here are the first few that were done. I think I did around thirty in total, which still leaves a whole ton for me still to do. Not that I have any idea what I am going to do with anymore cookies. I am not joking when I say that half of my freezer is currently taken up by these retched things. And I didn't even get to eat one!

So aside from the fact that I have a few non-helpful pictures and my cookie making escapades were a little flat, here is the recipe, cause it is good and quite easy:

350g Plain Flour

1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger

100g Butter

170g Light Soft Brown Sugar

4 Tablespoons Golden Syrup

1 Egg

(This is double the recipe. But, that is only cause I still am not sure how we used to make a recipe that called for half an egg...)

1) Heat oven 190 C, and get the tray ready.

2) Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a big mixing bowl.

3) Rub in butter until it gets to breadcrumb consistency, and then add the sugar.

4) In a separate bowl, mix the syrup and egg together. Then add these to the dry stuff. Mix it all loads until it turns into a nice roll able dough.

5) Roll it out, and cookie cut. You can re-roll so don't worry about that too much.

6) Cook till golden brown. Careful, cause they go from white and pasty to singed pretty quickly. The recipe says 12-15 minutes, but mine were starting to burn after around 10.

Have fun cookie making :)

Thoughts about Knitting

So I love knitting. No actually, it's really fun and all. But sometimes if kinda gets me down. Cause it's like, oh hey guys! Take a look at my deformed sock made of super expensive wool that has taken me hours and is still not that pretty.

And my friends are like, 'Oh, our friend who will be an old cat lady as soon as she can pass for over twenty.' They think the knitting thing is pretty funny. Unless I do it in public, in which case they are like:

'Emmmaaa. Put it away, ugh, you are soo embarrassing!' and they sorta sound like kids with embarrassing parents. I would be a great embarrassing parent. That is plan b, if the whole old cat lady thing doesn't work out.

So while that is all fun, it is a bit sad that when I am casually stalking my friends friends youtube accounts (okay, the fact that I do that is admittedly a little sad) and it's suddenly like, wow, this person can SING. and they are FUNNY. and guess what, they are also PRETTY. and turns out they have a VERY COOL room.

and I am still sitting here with my slightly deformed sock.

More Christmas Related Things to Fan-Girl Over

Yesterday, my mummy went to an annual christmas cookie exchange. So now, suprisingly we have a ton of christmas cookies. Which is nice.

Also, if you can see those yellow squares in the front? I live for those squares. They are the best thing ever and I will be making loads of them, as my mum got the recipe this time (I love my mum)

To go along with the whole good food cause it's Christmas thing, my secret santa got me this mug, with mini marshmellows inside it. I think I showed everyone in the whole of Hammersmith, it was really exciting. And the hot chocolate was good.

Santa Hats FTW

So as you can see from this picture, I have a really cool santa hat. 

What you can't see from the picture is that it is literally so worn out that there are holes in it. Seriously, I love that  hat. Anyway. 

Today at tennis there was a christmas hat contest, and even though I thought they were kidding, I brought mine. And I won a WH smith voucher, so turns out they weren't kidding... Who knew? 

Sadly though, as it's breaking, I think I am going to have to make one to replace it. Yet another project for the upcoming holiday's I think!

Poundland Presents

So here are two facts you might want to know:
1) Getting people Christmas presents is pretty much my favourite thing to do
2) I am a total cheapskate, and I am always broke anyway

This year I have actually managed to accommodate both issues though, and so I am giving everyone something from Poundland. But it's decorated, so it's cool, see?

This is the first one I have done so far.

And this is the first one again, cause I have yet to do any others...

And here is the stack I still have to do....

Should be fun. In the mean time, I need to go back to pretending I am revising my chemistry...

I'll post a How-to with tips and things later in the week (once I finish my pretend revision.)

In the mean time if you like poundstores like me, you should go read this. It made me a little less worried about how much fun I have in them.

Reasons to be Happy (#1)

1. We are two days into advent. It is now fully acceptable to break out old Christmas CD's, wear santa hats and eat a ton of mince pies.

2. S Club Seven are supposed to be reuniting, here's to hoping they can 'bring it all back' (okay, maybe we don't want ALL the early '00s back, but whatever)

3. This happy mix tape

4. Less than three weeks until the days start getting longer again.

5. Boots 3 for 2 Christmas specials. Enough said.

Written 3/12/11

All This Rubbish

November is honestly the worst time of the year, I think. Appart from maybe Febuary which I also hate. Not that that is the point right now.

Anyway, I hate Novemeber. I always have too many tests at school, I start freaking out about christmas presents but feel its too early to actually start getting them, it gets dark early, rowing becomes too cold to bare and the list honestly could go on for ever.

Last year, I did Nanowrimo. And I didn't hate Novemeber that year, mainly I know because I was just too busy and tired to bother hating anything. This year my Nano did better in most respects. I finished ten days early, I wrote something that didn't involve talking chickens. All good stuff like that.

Now though, I am finished and bored and back to hating November.

To distract myself, I have been looking up nice knitting patterns which I will (never get around to) make for gifts this year.

Is that not the most amazing hat? It's a free pattern on Ravelry, and I am in love.

Of course, 5.5 DPNs are proving impossible to find, so I am having to work on that first...

Once that is sorted though, I will be knitting away. In the mean time, I should really sort out my Nano.

Written on 28/11/10 on a wordpress version of this