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Sometimes all you need is a little taste of chocolate to put the world to rights isn't it?! But if it's just before you eat your evening meal it's not the best idea to be chomping on a large bar of Dairy Milk. But over the last few night I have found the solution - hot chocolate!



I have been experimenting with the Options hot chocolate sachets and have found them to be quite convenient. Normally I buy a jar of hot chocolate and then forget all about it, but the sachets are quite perfect really.


White Chocolate
This was the first one that I tried. When I made it, it had the consistency of watery milk - not very appealing. The taste wasn't unlike white chocolate, but didn't have the smoothness or the same sweetness. I drank most of the cup, but poured the rest away. I probably wouldn't buy this one again.

Mint Madness

This one was much nicer. It tasted like Mint KitKats (gorgeous) and left a refreshing aftertaste. Sometimes when you drink hot chocolate you feel like you need a cold drink to refresh your mouth, but I didn't feel like this was necessary with this one. Would buy again.

Outrageous Orange

I am drinking this one as I type. It tastes like orange KitKats (also yum!) or Terry's Cholcolate Orange. Another good one!

Coolio!

Have been playing around on iGoogle and have added a cool upload thing to Blogger - just seeing if it is working now! Maybe it will make me write stuff more often! :-)

Bleurgh

Bleurgh... have got a headache... probably the result of too many screaming children all day long at school. So I thought this pretty pic would cheer me up!

Have been feeling quite creative over the last week or two. Feel inspired to take lots of photos, do lots of writing and stick lots of pictures into my notebooks. It keeps me happy!

Went out in Liverpool on Saturday night and saw one of the new works of art in the street - the pretty twinkling spider.

It's part of the art on show for the MADE UP Exhibition for the Liverpool Biennial Festival. Many of the pieces of art look really cool - I will certainly have to go and see some of them!

Postcrossing

A few years ago I tried Bookcrossing though didn't really have a massive amount of success, in spite of putting a couple of books out there for other people to read. So it was with interest that I stumbled across Postcrossing. The idea is that you are randomly given the address of somebody, somewhere in the world and you send them a postcard. They then register the postcard and you then reach the top of the list to receive a card yourself - all very exciting.

I was despairing a little, wondering what kind of postcards I could send. I decided to get some of my own art work printed at Moo and I also got some little Moo Cards too which are just the coolest things! I have now written cards to France, Germany, Finland, USA and China. Hopefully it won't be too long before I receive some myself and will be able to send some more!

Seven Deadly Sins

Oh dear! Looks like I'm damned to Hell then!

Greed:	High
Gluttony:	High
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Very High
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Low
Pride:	High

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

Take the test and see which sin you are guilty of!

And here is the part of Hell that I'm apparently going to go to - sounds nice! :-)

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Moderate
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Vintage Bling

Oh my god! I'm having palpitations about how fabulous my newest etsy find is! (notice how short the spacing is between these items arriving on my doormat!) I so love this bracelet. It is very cool and unique, but I also love the history that goes with it - the fact that possibly 100 years or so ago people were actually using the keys to type with! It's like a little piece of living history. I like it so much that I've ordered another one. No doubt I'll blog about that when it arrives too!

Marking score for today = 0%
Oh dear!! :-)

Song of the day, which I've just been madly dancing around to is 'I Touch Myself' by the Divinyls - a classic university song. And there's always time for a bit of Austin Powers clip watching - brill!

Fortune telling

I am so impressed with my latest etsy purchase.





To be fair, I have received many many lovely things which were all beautifully made and packaged. But this is one of my favourites. I love the fact that it's such a funky necklace and really original - I'm sure not many people will be seen wearing them. And the seller was totally lovely too - she even sent me a ring as an extra because it had taken her a while to post. There were loads of other goodies included too, my favourite being one of those cool fortune telling fish that curl up and tell your fortune. According to the fish, I'm passionate at the moment...hmmm could be! I would highly recommend Hoolala's shop. I'm sure I'm going to have great fun playing with the necklace. And it's put me in a good mood which is a good thing because I'm about to do some marking now and need to be in a good mood!!

Oh Hello Again!

Gosh... just HOW long is it since I blogged! Sorry to anyone who actually might have been reading this blog! Hopefully now I'm back! Am just eating a Gu Banoffee dessert - yum! So, what else has been happening apart from far far too much work? Well, I have developed quite an addiction to etsy and have bought a tremendous amount of stuff on there. You can see some of the stuff I've bought in my feedback page here. I love it all though - the sellers are so lovely and it's exciting to receive beautifully wrapped packages from all over the world. And etsy stuff makes fantastic and unusual presents for family and friends too.

I have also been doing lots of creating myself. I am planning (someday soon) to start my own etsy shop selling stickers and prints. I have been experimenting with creating my own prints. They're quite simple, but I like their simplicity. Of course they were all drawn first in my Moleskine :-)

118118

Perhaps this post is a bit of blatant advertising, but last night I found the coolest thing. If you want to know something and don't have immediate access to the internet, then you can text any question to 118118 and they will answer it for you. Last night we all kept yawning, then that made everyone else yawn. So I texted "Why is yawning contagious?" and I got this reply a few minutes later:

Yawn contagion is largely unconscious. It bypasses the known brain circuitry for consciously analysing and mimicking other people.

Hmm rather eloquently put as well as useful. I wonder if someone is sitting there receiving all the texts and doing a quick search on Google. Could be interesting - I'm sure some of the questions would be very random!

Oh dear!

Well, first things first, happy New Year - welcome to 2008! (a little bit late I know!) The problem I have had today isn't really a big problem because I have enjoyed myself tremendously. However, I have completely indulged myself and haven't done all the things I should have done. Instead of doing marking, I have spent over £100 buying amazingly beautiful things on etsy and haven't done much else! And I just ate some Toblerone too - it's hardly smoothies filled with fresh fruit is it?! I now have a lot of catching up to do, and I really don't want to!!! I'm dreading going back to school on Monday - you'd think it would be the kids who wouldn't want to go back, but the teachers dread it even more!

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas to anybody who should happen to read this blog today! Hope that you have a lovely day!

It's finished!

Yes! My first scarf is now complete. After a few false starts where I had to keep unravelling it, I finally worked out what I was doing wrong (wrapping the wool round the needle the wrong way) and managed to keep going without making any horrendous mistakes. I'm quite proud of my very first human-sized creation!

From this...

To this...

To this!

New Moleskine, Christmas Shopping and An Ideal Husband

Yes I am going to deal with the three above topics in the above order!

Today I finished my first "retro blog" moleskine i.e. a diary where I write stuff that I don't want to particularly broadcast all over the internet. I'm quite proud of it really because it looks pretty cool when you flick through it - 240 pages of pure black writing - and of course, every word written is a word of genius!!! So now I'm ready to start my new Retro Blog Moleskine. I have a ritual when I begin a new Moleskine - much of it picked up from other people's rituals that I have read about. I take off the cellophane wrapping. Then I flick through the book and inhale the 'new paper' smell. After that I have a look at the insert and any postcards or leaflets that are with it. They go into the pocket at the back, along with the carefully folded coloured band. Then the hard work begins - I number each page, either in black or red, then I make an index of all the page numbers on the last 4 pages. Every time I write I put a heading (much like a normal blog), and those headings are written in the index at the back. It makes finding specific things much easier when the book is full! I just need to get writing in this one now!

Today I finally finished my Christmas shopping. I went into town quite early and managed to get most of it done fairly efficiently. Is it really bad though to also buy things for yourself when you are Christmas shopping - supposedly you're meant to be buying gifts for others! In addition to the hilariously funny Magna Farta which I bought earlier in the week and the essential make up items I bought today, I ended up buying myself lots of jewellery in Primark. However, the fact that none of the items cost more than £2 eases my conscience greatly! Perhaps I'm not that bad after all!

Finally - An Ideal Husband. No, I'm not looking for one (do they exist?!)Last night I went to see the Oscar Wilde play at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. I have never been to that theatre before and I really liked it. It is a huge steel and glass pod, with the stage in the round and the seats on a variety of different levels - some are like low little sofas - we were on tall ones at the back, a bit like bar stools. The modernity of the actual theatre contrasts brilliantly with the beautiful old Exchange building which houses the theatre. I'd like to perhaps get season tickets and go and see more plays there.

An Ideal Husband was really good. It took me a while to get into it, but after that I really enjoyed it. The things that fascinated me most though (apart from the sparkling comedic wit of Oscar Wilde and the talented performance from the actors) were the sets and costumes. The furniture used was mainly silver and ornate - real statement pieces. Then in one Act reds and golds were used, along with fire. But what was most beautiful about the sets were the cut glass chandeliers which hung over the theatre and gave it a sense of beauty and grandeur. The sets were both old fashioned and completely modern. And the costumes were absolutely beautiful - long dresses which trailed along the floor in the most gorgeous fabrics. It made us all wonder and talk about what it would be like if people wore those kinds of clothes now - it really would be quite bizarre, though people would look so lovely!

The Robbery of Rhydian

At the risk of sounding like Victor Meldrew, it has to be said that I simply cannot believe it! He is so much of a better singer than Leon - I think Leon is completely bland and forgettable, and I cannot understand at all why he won. At least if Same Difference had won it would have been because of their 'fun factor'. And I still think Beverley should have been in the final.



In the comments after this song, Sharon said that Rhydian looked like a 'white angel'. That makes me think of 'Beauty School Dropout' in Grease! Perhaps that could be a future career for Rhydian! But I'm sure that he will have greater longevity than Leon, who I imagine will be forgotten about this time next year.

Where is the Christmas magic?

I really hate to say this, but I don't feel Christmassy one bit. This year, Christmas has seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere - in my mind the (non-existent) summer seems to have only just finished. And now it seems that Christmas is only a week or two away. Yes, the last week or so has been chilly, but so far the weather seems to have just been autumny rather than winter.

I went Christmas shopping this morning and felt like I was just going through the motions. I have been putting off buying Christmas cards so far because I haven't seen any that have caught my attention - they all seem to be a bit bland and cheap-looking, even in shops like M&S, Boots, Next and WHSmith who usually make nice ones. And whilst I've received a sprinkling of cards, usually by this time in December they are all over the house. This year it seems that people aren't sending as many, if if they are, they're leaving it late.

The problem, I feel is that Christmas has been completely over-commercialised. It starts in November... October... September even. So by the time it comes to December, everyone has been completely over-exposed to it all and feels no sense of excitement or occasion. It just seems to merge into everyday life.

The one thing that did brighten my day though whilst I was out shopping were the carol singers from the local blind home. Not only did they sound lovely, but they were singing proper Christmas carols, rather than the over played Christmas songs that are played everywhere else. It's little things like that which still sens a shiver down my spine and which remind us that Christmas isn't about how much money you can spend on presents.

When does an orange taste of mint?

When it's a Terry's minty chocolate orange of course! I bought one today. They are quite nice - they remind me of After Eights in the way they taste, though don't have the sickly fondant nature of After Eights. My one concern is with the name. how can you have a MINT chocolate ORANGE? Surely they could just call it something else... like a minty ball of chocolate... or maybe not!

The Thirteenth Tale

I have just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I don't know why I chose it - the cover just attracted my attention and after having read the blurb on the back it became an impulse buy.

It is the story of an amateur biographer, Margaret Lea, who receives a letter from the famous writer Vida Winter. Miss Winter wants Margaret to tell her life story - and this time she wants to tell the world the real truth. Margaret travels to Vida's isolated old house on the Yorkshire Moors, and there she learns of the house at Angelfield and of Charlie, Isabelle and the strange twins Emmeline and Adeline.

It is a strange book - creepy at times with all its gothic and ghostly references. It is obvious that the writer has been heavily influenced by Jane Eyre, and to me the book is also heavily reminiscent of Rebecca. It certainly kept me hooked during the few days it took me to read it - it was always a case of wanting to read 'just one more chapter'. Having said that though, the ending wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be. I had guessed correctly how part of it might have ended, and the rest seemed a little far-fetched and convenient. However, I still really enjoyed the book - one of the most addictive books I've read in quite a while. It's definitely worth a read, especially if you like gothic writing.

Showing a slight improvement...

I managed to make a scarf today for my Shrek 3 Dronkey, (though it would also look good on a Barbie or other such doll). It looks quite cosy and warm in its little scarf, and it handily co-ordinates with the dronkey's wings - what a fashionable dronkey it is! Happily too, this scarf is hole-less! Hooray! Though it will be quite some time before I'm knitting more advanced garments - for either dronkeys or humans!

Speaking of Shrek 3 - I bought it and watched it at the weekend. It was funny, though not as good as Shrek or Shrek 2. It lacked plot and there weren't as many cool songs. Still, I enjoyed it!

Hauntingly beautiful

Have just found this artist, artandghosts, who creates the most hauntingly beautiful images - they are very pretty and dreamlike though have a slightly sinister and macabre edge to them. Her blog can be found here, and should you wish to buy any of her prints then they are available at etsy.

Pathetic knitting effort!

Well I have been trying to knit today. I managed to start off okay, but then I kept dropping stitches and doing all kinds of odd things. I had the intention to make a scarf for a Barbie sized person. I decided the turquoise one was too thick, so I tried with the purple one. I think I definitely need more practice! The Stitch and Bitch book has been most useful in teaching me, as has the help and encouragement of fabulous knitter Eleanor. She has made some quite wonderful things that I can only dream of at this point in time -my holey squares really aren't much to be proud of, though I do quite like them because they are the first things I have knitted.