Christmas in Belfast

After Christmas morning in Portstewart Danny and I drove up to Belfast to join his sister Lucy and her husband Kenny (in matching jumpers) for dinner with the rest of the family.

There was a second round of present giving and general feelings of mirth.

Dan's mum bought me this amazing moving Santa who for some reason also takes photos. I love it!

Dinner ensued.

Lucy's newly decorated dining room had its first outing. Classy.

After dinner we went to Bangor to visit the niece and nephew. One of which we then put in a bag.

Lucy, her brother Michael and the first of the next generation, Lily.

Thanks everybody for a perfect Christmas.

Christmas in Portstewart

Christmas has been and gone but the festivities are still continuing in our house. My brother just got back from Wales last night so today is the only day we're all together before my big sister heads back to London. We'll be having a nice dinner tonight and even more presents. Speaking of which, here are some photos from Christmas day and the cool presents we gave each other.

Check out the AMAZING brooch I got from my parents, above. And the geek craft book was a present for my sister (she's the coolest geek around so there was no offence taken I don't think) and there are a few ideas in there I'll have to steal.

I have a feeling though that I shall have my work cut out attacking all of the crafts in the Martha Stewart encyclopedia of crafts that I got for myself just before Christmas. Me loves Martha.

I got a gorgeous origami crane necklace from my brother and sisters as a reminder of all the cranes we folded for my wedding. And it's actually made from a tiny folded piece of silver, amazeballs. The earrings are from Danny.

So once we were done in Portstewart it was up to Belfast for even more presents and dinner with the in-laws.

Present-wrapping in Portstewart

A while back I found some amazing old 'Picture Post' magazines from 1939 and they've just been sitting in a pile ever since. So, I decided I'd make some use of the hilarious retro advertisements to decorate my presents. The cigarette advert above was the obvious choice for my mother-in-law's gift. And I'm not making any kind of statement about my sister-in-law's mental state in the picture below - I just thought the ad was funny!

I got back home to Portstewart yesterday and have already caught up with loads of my school friends last night at the pub. Today has been spent wrapping presents, visiting family friends to exchange gifts and watching other people make yummy things like my mum's Christmas cake below.

It's so nice not to be working in retail anymore so I get proper Christmas holidays for the first time in years. Bliss. I hope you're all with friends/family and having a gay old time.

x

Advanced Style

Women everywhere! Watch this trailer for the advanced style film, courtesy of the wonderful blog run by Ari Seth Cohen. The unbelievably stylish older women on it are a true inspiration, even for a young whippersnapper like me.

All crafternooned out

A lovely mix of sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins and friends gathered in my house on Sunday past for a Christmas Crafternoon. Book trees and photo snow globes were made, mulled apple juice and wine were drunk and my mum's fudge squares were scoffed.

There were several new recruits to crafternoon this time including Coleen, Rachel and Ellen (above), showing off their book trees. I dream of one day having some premises and running crafternoon as part of a business, but for now these little informal get togethers are great craic.

I hope to see some of you at the next one!

Some of the snow photo globes (above) and my mother and mother-in-law saying 'slainte' with babycham in my vintage babycham glasses.

Christmas chez moi

Here are a few pictures of the Christmas decorations in our house this year.

I love how big our house is but there are several aspects of it that I would rip out if I could - this monstrosity of a fireplace being number one on my list. So I've piled as many reindeer, snowflakes and book trees on there as possible to try to disguise the fugliness.

We have a real tree again this year, and despite losing many of its needles in the process of falling over twice, I think it's looking pretty festive. Again it's a case of the 'more is more' school of decorating. (And yes, the vertical blinds are a close second on my hate list. Oh to have my own house!)

The gorgeous wooden nativity set was a wedding present from a family friend who also taught both me and Danny when we were at school. It got a little damaged when the pipes burst in our house last year, but has lived to tell the tale for another year.

In the foreground are two lampshades which are part of my latest unfinished project. One is covered with doilies and the other will soon have pompoms and artificial birds all over it. The plan is to sell them one day but maybe I should concentrate on finishing this one first!

Today's find: more holy stuff!

Introducing my latest addition to the collection of religious icons. It's a kitsch sort of thing but that's never put me off before! I like the lace and 3-D roses stuck inside the frame. Merry Christ-mas!

A Christmas Fair

Here are some pictures from the fair Danny and I did at the Black Box on Sunday. It was a big weekend overall what with the model workshop on Saturday, the Lulu Lounge Christmas do on Saturday night and then the fair on Sunday. But it was worth the effort and I even managed to sell three cake stands which I've been lugging back and forth to various fairs, so it was a relief to lighten the load on the way home.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Dioramas to die for - next class this Saturday 17th December

Here are some of the models we made in the diorama workshop at PsSquared on Sunday. Celia made this gorgeous model filled with animals and her brother Leander made a fairground diorama.

The circus is my own handiwork, Celia made the nativity scene and a boy called Jamie made the model of Mount Stewart complete with a babbling fountain. We all had a fun time but we still had space for more kids to get involved so if you're looking for something to keep the we'uns occupied this Saturday please do come along - it's all free.

Free model-building workshop at Pssquared tomorrow!

If you happen to know any little people who may be at a loose end tomorrow, why not bring them down to the PsSquared Gallery on Donegall Street in Belfast.

I'm doing a workshop in model building for kids 7+ from 12 - 3. It's completely free and is part of a larger exhibition with models and dioramas by many artists. To find out more please click here...

http://www.pssquared.org/modelRealities.php