New Christmas delights

Half a metre sausage!! I ate half a metre German sausage! It really seemed like the only option at a German market when they were only £5!!

I travelled up to Birmingham last week in my third week of my new job with a colleague.  I am delighted to have a new job and am working in a recruitment company - bit different from events but I'm really liking it!

We were working all day from the Birmingham a library over looking a cute German Christmas market and the Christmas wheel and ice rink.  It made me feel so Christmassy looking out all day that we couldn't resist popping to the market once we had finished working on our way back from the station.

Twinkle Toes

I'm so excited by these absolutely gorgeous snowflake nail transfers from Amazon.  

I had my fingernails done with shellac a week ago with this gorgeous dark maroon colour and it suits perfectly as a background for the gorgeous snowflake and snowman transfers.  

I have Essie 'wikid' on my toes which is very similar to the shellac colour.  The snowmen are a really nice touch to my thumbs and the snowflakes are sooooo cute on my toes.

When Father Christmas Comes By...

I am really feeling the Christmas vibe this year. It certainly sets the season in motion when you put the decorations up and when Father Christmas passes by on his brightly lit double decker bus! (Not exactly traditional for most, but it has become one for us over the last 4 years).

Hope this weekend you are all putting up the decorations, turning the tunes up high, sticking the stamps on your cards to post tomorrow, and eating the first batch of mince pies.

All that is left to do is ice the cake and wrap the prezzies! I feel on top of it this year.

It Christmas time

The fireplace with our traditional Jack Wills stockings, 

new mantle piece garland, and the compulsory Poinsettia

We have very traditional hearth decorations and two gorgeous looking Father Christmas characters that stand beside the television, but when it comes to the tree decorations there are no rules.  Our hanging decorations all have meaning, however naff they are they go on the tree, so long as they were given to us by someone special or we bought them to remind us of a special moment.

One of our favourite traditions is to collect a Christmas decoration from our holidays throughout the year.  Each year the collection of our special, meaningful decorations grows. This year we had a Despicable Me decoration from our honeymoon and a wee Scottish Tartan Bagpiper from Edinburgh to add to the tree.

As another tradition we head up to The Gardening Club garden centre at the top of our road each year a couple of weeks before Christmas.  We think about what we need to add to our Christmas collection and have a wander around their Christmas wonderland.  This year we picked up a gorgeous mantle piece garland and a red berry wreath for the front door.

Cute Angel from our gorgeous 4 years old cousin last year

Our much loved artificial Christmas tree from Homebase

G helping fill the trolley with new Xmas goodies and
deciding whether this year we need a real tree or not.

Star decoration lovingly made by Bean and knitted Santa decoration (new this year) from Cath Kidston

Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Rings

Wow these little tasty treats were very welcome last night.  I was inspired by the link that Emily posted this week on Cupcakes and Cashmere.  Mine don't look quite as delicate and perfect as these ones, however this certainly didn't detract from the taste!

I used cooking apples as it meant that they had a sour taste that cut through the sugar and oil, and I substituted the sugar on the outside for icing sugar for an extra bit of sweetness.

Ingredients

4 large apples (any variety)

Batter:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 large egg

1 cup (250 ml) milk (I used lactofree)

1/2 cup oil, for frying

• Pour enough vegetable oil into a frying pan to cover the bottom of the pan by an inch and heat.  The oil needs to be really hot before you start. (You could always use a deep fat fryer).
• Cut the apples into slices (about 5mm - 1cm thick)and then cut out the core and cut off the peel.
• Mix icing sugar and cinnamon onto a plate ready for dipping the rings once they are cooked.
• Mix up the batter and have a sheet of kitchen roll at the ready.
• Dip the apple rings into the batter and drop into the hot oil, about 4 at a time depending on how big your pan is.
• Fry on each side until brown (it only takes a couple of minutes on each side), remove from the oil and place onto the kitchen roll to absorb some of the oil.
• Roll into the cinnamon sugar mixture and serve while still warm.

We served ours with toffee yogurt, but they would go fantastic with toffee or vanilla ice cream.

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Going Pink...

I have always wanted a pink and grey bedroom and seeing this beautiful picture inspired me.  When I first moved into my house one of the first things I did was paint the walls pink...it didn't look great!  I was so impatient that I painted over the wall paper, left the gross dado rail running through the middle of the wall, and picked a wood paint that wasn't quite white!  The look was pretty disastrous. 

Since then G has moved in and we've redone the room with green and grey - but the girl in me is still craving a bit of pink.

I saw this article, Pink at Brimfield 2013 and was drawn in by all the amazing vintage pink finds.

This fantastic montage of pink and grey rooms on The Pink Doormat really shows the kind of look I'm hoping for. 

 Loving this quilt from John Lewis - looks so cosy

Love the idea of these bedside lamps from John Lewis.  They have a formal office look about them but I think this would add something a bit different to the bedroom.

Finally, I've always wanted to have a nice reading area in my bedroom and I think this set up featured on Urban Outfitters website showcasing this gorgeous pintuck pillow would just go perfectly.

Bright 'n colourful

One of the things that I love about Brighton is the plethora of streets that are lined with brightly coloured houses.  It isn't just one or 2 roads in one area of town either, you can be in any part of town and come across a street with brightly coloured houses.  It's really lovely and I think it is a quintessential part of Brighton's quirky, artistic nature.

Admittedly I have only lived in a few towns, but as far as I can see Brighton definitely champions fabulous rainbow streets.