Wednesday, 27 October 2010

... a Christmas swapper!



I think by this point, you are aware one and all that I am a teeny bit obsessed with the festive season. I put the feelers out on twitter a few week ago to see if people would want to do a wee Christmas swap, and was happy to find lots of people as happy about the idea as me!

So, here's the essential information

-you can sign up from now until the 7th of November

-you will recieve your swap partner's details on the 8th

-I reckon we should aim to post so that things arrive by december 7th, as things will get crazy busy for people after then (of course between parteners, you can arrange an alternative date if needed!)

And now the fun! I don't want to squash people's joy, or overload those who are V busy with projects, so I'll st the minimum and you can all embelish as desired!

Each parcel (ooooh parcels!) Should include

-a Christmas card

-a decoration you have bought(the theory here is that we all like Christmas shopping)

-a baked thing

-something festive and handmade(could be a candle, a decorative thing, a jewellery item)

To take part, leave a comment below, and also email me the answers to the below questions to hughes(dot)lisamarie(at)googlemail(dot)com . This is open to all of you, far away or in the UK, just remember to check postage time!

Name:

Address:

Blog:

A bit about yourself:

If you have a Christmas colour theme, details please:

Favourite things about Christmas:

Particular food likes/dislikes (highlight allergies!):

Assuming I get an even number of people, I am just going to write out the names and choose pairs so my partner is a surprise too! I am excited!!

I am also watching a Christmas film and drinking from a Santa mug!

Monday, 25 October 2010

... and the winner is!

I know I'm about two days late in doing this, but lets focus on the good! I am happy to announce that the winners of my wee giveaway have been chosen! Yes, I did say winners! as well as the main giveaway prize, I decided midweek to award two runner up prizes of a hot drink thing and some munchables.


On my nice red-lined note paper, I wrote everyone's names, and all of them went in to Dave's hat. Dave selected the winners by the somewhat unusual method of shaking the hat until a piece of paper fell out! The first two names out of the hat, and the people receiving runner up prizes were...


...Heather and Lisa E!!! Ladies, I shall send you some really lovely Scottish biscuits and some posh hot drink stuff, as I doubt home baking would get through customs!

And now for the winner! Again Dave shook the hat, and the name of the winner was revealed (i.e uncrumpled). The winner is...


...Mrs My Spare Thoughts! wooooooo!
(can you let me know if there are any foods you are allergic to or don't like please lovely?)

Thank you to everyone else who entered, It made me smile! My next post will include details of a super awesome swap, please check back and sign up!!

Monday, 18 October 2010

...a featured blogger!

Today I am delighted to say that I am the featured blogger on Evil Pixie's Blog. I very much admire her blogging, and her determination to do something she loves as her career, so I am a bit delighted she think's I'm feature-worthy!

Also, just a wee reminder, if you haven't already, you can enter my giveaway until Friday!

This might be my shortest ever post!

Friday, 15 October 2010

...celebrating with a give-away.

This is somewhat belated, but last week, It was this here wee blog's second birthday. I have been blogging for two who years! I think that deserves a bit of a hurrah, since the blogosphere and the lovely people in it have been ever so good to me! I started blogging just after I got married to record the important bits of my life and my thoughts. I still do that, but now I have more than just that record, I have a whole network of people who I am lucky to call my friends. You are all awesome. In addition, I now have 53 followers! 53!! To show my gratitude, I want to give away a little something...




I thought a lot about what I want the recipient to have, and after a bit of market research (asking people on twitter if they thought it was an ok idea), I've decided to give away a bit of a 'me time' kit. It seems appropriate to give away something that is true to what I blog and who I am, so the kit will contain


  • a small teapot
  • some very nice tea
  • home-made biscuits (unless the person is abroad, then I will send a pack of my favourites!)
  • a book
  • a home-made candle
  • a wee surprise!
I think you could read one or two of my posts and realise this kit is just about my idea of heaven.

So, to enter, leave a comment telling me what you need for 'me time', and please leave a link to your blog/LJ/website/online shop and your email address so that I can contact you for postage details! Also, I don't want to be picky, but I'd prefer that you are a follower (I don't mean google follower, I know some of you don't have a google thing) or at least actually interested in my blog! 

I'll close the give-away at 12pm next Friday!

edit: giveaway is now closed! Winner will be posted on Sunday!

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

... award winning!


As I mentioned briefly in my last post, Heather, the lovely lady writer of Implausible Yarns, has given me a 'One Lovely Blog' award! Heather and I have recently struck up a bit of a bloggy friendship, and are actually in the midst of a wee swap at the moment, so it's extra cool to be given this by her. My wee blog being considered lovely gives me warm fuzzies!

The really good thing is that I get to pass the award on! The rules are that I pass the award on to 15 other blog that I think are lovely, and so without further ado...


The thing with doing these is that you always have to leave someone out. I'd like to say that I think all of the blogs I follow are lovely, I am actually pretty ruthless and do a cull regularly, so the ones I follow are ones I love!

Monday, 11 October 2010

...a jumble of thoughts and news(and a meme)!

Right, well, I've been a bit of an absentee blogger of late! I had the epic 4 day nannying session last week, then one day off, followed by two days of work, then London, so I haven't had time to sit down and blog, or even organise my thoughts coherently. To do so, I'm going to use some list action! I'd advise getting a beverage of some sort, and perhaps a biscuit, this is a long post!

  • We crammed quite alot into the London weekend, so I have information overload at the moment, but I will say that I met 3 of my lovely blogger friends over the course of the weekend, and there will be more on that when I've developed my photos from the weekend!

  • The lovely lady owner of the third blog link there is Siobhan. She tagged me in a meme before I went, and I promised her that I'd do it when I got back! It's no harship as Siobhan is a lovely person, and I really like answering questions!!!

This particular meme is an 'answer seven questions, ask seven questions one, so without any fanfare, here goes....

1. What do you think is your greatest achievement? (and not getting out of bed please!)
This is quite difficult. I don't think I have any really big achievements. I went through quite a hard time at a couple of points during uni, so I supposed I'd say actually leaving Uni with a degree is.

2. What song has the best memories for you?
music for me is all about what you experience while listening to it, so picking one song is really difficult! For the moment, I'll go with 'Angel's Wings' by Social Distortion, as Dave and I had it for our first dance when we got married. It's kind of our 'song', though we both love music so much we have lots.

3. If you could be anywhere else right now where would you be?
Having just got off an 11 hour bus from London this morning, I don't want to be anywhere else! I am really happy sitting on my bed with a cup of tea. If you asked me at any other point, I think I'd say Germany, as it's the main place I am desperate to visit at the moment!

4. What is your favourite book and why?
Siobhan, you write tricky questions. I love books more than most things and have lots of favourites for different reasons, The closest I can narrow down to a favourite is to three, so I'm going to cheat! Thackerey's 'Vanity Fair' because through his tale of Becky Sharp's social climbing,he tells us of the state of the nation at that time, and because I can emapthise with Becky, even though she isn't a particularly likeable character. 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier, because I think it's a very true portrayal of the way love can affect people for the better or for the worse, and because it has a message of atoning for your wrongs, but also of redemption(the copy I have was my mum's, it's a hardback and it's ancient and falling apart, but I can't bear to read a new copy, so I keep taping it back together), and Little Women - which I love for it's opening line, it's deep characters, and a strong message of feminism and strong will running throughout, and because it brings with it happy memories of reading when I was little(which was fortunately very much encouraged!)

5. What is one thing that makes you really, really happy? (shamelessly stolen from Annelise)
Oh Christ, how can I answer that?! I am pretty lucky, lots of things make me really happy. Dave, reading,art, music, cooking, learning, my job. If it's to be a thing/activity rather than a person, then of all of those I think reading is the one I couldn't live without.

6. What is your favourite item of clothing and why?
Other than my wedding dress, it's either a black spotty 50's dress or the red spotty dress that inspired my blog header. I am not a small person, and in both of those i feel comfortable, and curvy rather than chubby. Also, spotty things make me happy!

7. What is your favourite past time? (mine is sleep)
Can I cheat and incorporate a few? my favourite pass time is waiting for a cake to finish baking, with a book, some tea and some good music/radio 4 in the background. If I've got that going on things are pretty perfect!

I hope you find my answers satisfactory Siobhan! My seven questions are

1. What really cheesy/bad TV programme can you not help but watch (inspired by Hannah and Serena!)
2. Siobhan asked me about my favourite book, I'd like to know what book you think is terrible, and why!
3. What does you bed linen look like?please feel free to include a photo! This is inspired by my sitting on my cosy bed!
4. What is your favourite quality in yourself (you all have them, so suck it up and pick one!)
5. This one is from Dave - What is the worst injury you have had?
6. Do you listen to the radio/podcasts often, and if yes what do you listen to?
7. If you stay in a hotel, do you take the mini bathroom toiletries home with you?(I do, the ones from our London hotel are Penhaligon's!!!!)

I'm going for new bloggy freinds here, so that I can find out more, I'd quite like everyone else to answer in the comments though!

Heather, Tiffany, Eadaoin, Elizabeth(who has my mum's name!), Pixie, miss Cowbiscuits,

  • Heather, tagged above, has given me a blog award! Thank you Heather, I feel very proud, and I shall give the award it's own post!
  • This wee blog has was two years old last week, and I now have over 50 followers! Some sort of giveaway will happen next week!
  • A few other bloggy friends and I have hatched a plan(via twitter) for me to host a Christmas themed swap, for which there will be a sign up post soon!

Right, I think that's quite enough information! If you got to the end of this well done, If you want to answer the questions, hurrah and you get a gold star!