In a weeks time it’ll be Christmas Eve – yay!  We’re starting to feel quite Christmassy, the tree and decorations are up, all the Christmas shopping is done (just need to wrap), all the cards have been written and sent.  Just need to finish off making a few family pressies.

Yesterday I took Oliver to the Tots & Toys Christmas party, I don’t think he was feeling very well, as he was mostly miserable the whole time we were there.  He didn’t want to go on the bouncy castle, he didn’t want to eat his jelly and he cried and hid when Santa came in.  He did calm down enough to grab his present from Santa and run back to his seat very quickly.

Oliver thoroughly enjoying the Christmas party

After tea Daniel and I went and stood on the corner of our street to wait for Santa.  For the last few years the Gospel Hall (where Tots & Toys is held) organise for Santa to tour around Rumney on a sleigh, with some very loud music.  We waited for half hour as he was running late, then eventually he did go very slowly passed us.  I managed to get a photo before my batteries died.

Santa Comes To Rumney

I went to the school coffee morning aswell yesterday.  All the children in every class had made something to be sold.  Daniel’s class had painted pine cones white and added a few bits to turn them into snowmen, of course they put each child’s name on them so you feel you have to buy one because your child made it.

I had to pay 50p for this

There’s now a poster on the school door asking the parents who haven’t bought them yet to send 50p in with their child.  What happened to them making things in school and just bringing them home with them – for free?  Ah well I guess it all goes towards school funds.

I’m starting to feel a little bit Christmassy now, and I’ve come across a few fun websites, which I thought I’d share with you.

The first one is (mostly) for the children, you make them a personalised video message from Santa.

http://portablenorthpole.tv/home

It’s really clever.  I’ve done one for both boys and they love it.  Daniel has watched his over and over.  I also did one for hubby, who Santa had decided had been a naughty boy and he should make more of an effort to listen to his wife.  I would make sure the link has been emailed to you though, before closing the page (I didn’t get one for two of the videos), otherwise click on share and copy and paste the link and save it somewhere.

Next link is something to pass the time.  You play Santa and try and hit the elves with snowballs.  It is quite addictive.

http://www.elfattack.com/

The last link is just a bit of fun – create a snowflake.  Daniel enjoyed having a go at this one too.

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

Enjoy!

I just wanted to share some photos with you.  Hubby took Daniel into town on Saturday afternoon, as he’d been given a tip off that there would be Storm Troopers in the toy department of John Lewis.  Daniel was very excited, and after a little waiting around and a bit of hunting, they arrived, and surprise, surprise, Darth Vader was with them too.

Dan & Two Friendly Storm Troopers

Darth Vader's guard apparently

The Man Himself

Dan was so happy when he got home, he’s still talking about it today.

Then outside they met The Stig, although Dan didn’t know who he was.

The Stig

Yes it’s my birthday today, another year older.  It doesn’t seem that long ago I was writing this post.  So I only have one more year of being a 20-something, I wonder if anything interesting will happen?

Not doing an awful lot today.  Hubby is yet to buy me a card, he’s apparently getting it on his way home from work.  He did buy me the Take That: Circus DVD a couple of weeks ago, which was my birthday present.  My parents have just been around and brought a birthday cake, mostly so the boys can blow out the candles later.

Our friends Anthony and Leah are coming over tomorrow night though for a takeaway and a Wii tournament.  It was Anthony’s birthday yesterday so it’s a joint celebration.  Should be fun, just hope nothing gets broken whilst we’re playing tennis, hubby and Anthony tend to get a bit competitive and over-enthusiastic!

I forgot to write a post about my day out at the National Poultry Show last Saturday.  I had a fab time, and thank you to Debs for taking me.  I did take my camera but completely failed to take any photos, apart from one which hubby seems to have deleted off the camera.  Needless to say we saw lots and lots of chickens of all shapes, colours and sizes, also there was some gorgeous looking ducks, and geese and turkeys.  We met up with about 20 other Omleteers, and had a good natter over a coffee.  You can see some photos on Lewis’ Blog here, where he’s also posted the photos Debs took of us all.  A good day out

Is anyone interested in rehoming a black Pekin Bantam Cockerel?  It belongs to a friend of a friend, they hatched some chicks, and unfortunately as they already have a cockerel they can’t keep this one.  He’s 20-something weeks old, can’t remember what exactly now.  I’ve been told he is free to a good home.  So if you think you could help, please leave a comment, and I can email you and put you in touch.

I’m so fed up with this weather, I don’t feel like we’ve had a sunny day for weeks.  Luckily my dad has been able to give us a lift to the school in the mornings, otherwise I think I would’ve been even more fed up, and Danny would’ve been sitting in school in soggy trousers every day.

Yesterday was the worst with the strong winds.  Hubby informed me in the morning that the shower curtain had come away from the eglu run, but that ‘it wasn’t too bad’.  When I had a look most of the run was exposed, and it was looking very wet in there, so before I’d even had my breakfast I was out fixing it with my trusty cable ties.  Luckily it wasn’t too difficult, battling against the wind was the hardest part.

I was then out all day at my mum and dad’s house, I got back about 4:30pm to discover the other side of the shower curtain had been blown loose.  So out again, in the near darkness, with a pair of scissors and more cable ties.  While I was out there I thought I’d check for eggs, opened the egg port, and discovered all three chickens huddled in the nestbox.  It’s not easy trying to get your hand under three chickens who are determined not to move, hoping you’re not going to pick up poo instead of an egg.

I really need to clean the Eglu and I want to put fresh wood chippings down, but it’s impossible in this weather.  My garden is really squidgy and muddy, and the existing chippings are looking more mud like than wood like.  Hopefully we’ll have lovely dry weather all next week and I can do it all the following weekend.

I’m quite excited about this weekend.  I’m going to the National Championship Poultry Show with my friend Debs who I met through the Omlet Forum.  There seems to be quite a few Omleteers going, and we’re all planning to meet up.  It’ll be quite strange meeting people that I chat to on the Forum.  I will be taking my camera (if I remember), so expect lots of photos of chickens next week.

Last night we went to see Gary Numan at the very grandly named Millennium Music Hall, which sounds like it should be big, but is in fact a little bar type venue with an 800 capacity.

This was Numan’s 30th Anniversary Tour  of The Pleasure Principle album.  I’ve got to say I wasn’t overly excited about going to see him but hubby was.  He’s got into him through Nine Inch Nails, Numan has appeared on stage with them a few times and Trent Reznor’s a huge fan.  I was more excited when I heard that a guitarist called Chris McCormack was in his live band, he used to be in 3 Colours Red, a band I was a fan of and saw lots of times when I was in school.

Once we got there we didn’t have to wait long for Gary Numan to come on stage, which was just aswell as it was pretty full and very hot.  I couldn’t actually see much of the stage, but there was lots of lighting, smoke machine and 3 big screens across the back of the stage.  For a small venue they’d put a lot of effort in.

The first half of the show was the whole of the Pleasure Principle album played in full and in order.  Here’s a quote from his website www.numan.co.uk

“After a great deal of uncertainty about how to play the Pleasure Principle songs on this tour I have decided to play them as they were originally recorded. The arrangements are the same, the sounds as close as we can get, no guitar, no loops, no industrial versions. Everything has been stripped back to the way it was in 1979. I finally decided that as it’s the 30th Anniversary of the album I should celebrate the album as it was, not a heavy revamped version of it. I hope that meets with the approval of most of you.”

Then he moved on to playing a mixture of his more recent tracks, oldies and B sides.

Here’s a video of him earlier in the year in Sydney performing Are Friends Electric?  You might recognise the music as the Sugababes borrowed it for one of their biggest hits.  There’s also lots of shots of Chris McCormack.

In the end I did enjoy it, even though I didn’t know very much.  It’s a lovely little venue aswell, I nearly always prefer smaller gigs, so we’ll be looking out for anyone else playing there that we’d like to see.

I’ll leave you with him performing Cars with Nine Inch Nails at the O2 Arena in July.

Here’s a little game to drive you mad for a bit, to see how fast your reactions are  *Clicky Here*

I can’t get better than a Bobbing Bobcat, but I can’t play for too long as my heart starts thumping with the anticipation.  Let me know how well you do.  Enjoy!

Saturday was the day of the Church Christmas Fair, where for the first time, ever, I sold things I’d painted myself.

I went to the Hall Friday morning to set up my stall, luckily I’d been given a little table which was the perfect size for all my painted glass.  Then came the difficult task of pricing everything, I did not have a clue.  I didn’t want to just give the things away, but then I didn’t want to price too highly and be left with it all.  In the end I decided on £1 each for the tealight holders, £5 each for the three biggest vases, and the other things ranged between £2.50 and £4.  Oliver was helping my mum sort things out on the book stall, and we came home with a lovely (honestly) Christmas Wiggles DVD.  Oh how pleased I was about that.

Early(ish) start Saturday morning and before I even set off, my dad phoned to say I’d already sold a few items.  I quickly made a pile of ’sold’ labels as the lady who wanted the things was on another stall and needed me to hold onto them for her.  Was just as well, as if I’d put them away I would’ve had a half empty table.  When the doors opened at 10:30am it was pretty busy, and I had quite a lot of interest.  The tea light holders went very well, although I had just as much interest in the battery powered tealights in them (which weren’t for sale).  It went a bit quiet after lunch, which was a bit disappointing, but I was amazed anyone came out at all as it was horrible weather.

My Gran added a bit of drama, and worry, to the day by keeling over whilst sat down eating her lunch.  Luckily a lot of quick thinking people were on hand and had her sat back up, and an ambulance called for, before I even realised anything had happened.  The ambulance arrived very quickly, and completely blocked the road outside the Hall, but they managed to get back out somehow, I suspect a lot of people had to put their reversing skills into practice.  She’s still in hospital, but it doesn’t seem to be anything too serious – she’d been feeling unwell all week – we’re hoping she’ll be home tomorrow.

By the time the Fair closed at 3pm I’d sold everything apart from 3 tealight holders and a frame.  I took £56.50.  So a very successful day, and we had a curry last night to celebrate.  It’s a bit of an odd thought to think of people I don’t know, and do know, having things that I’ve painted in their houses.  I hope they enjoy them.

Typically I forgot the camera so I haven’t got any photos of my stall before everything was sold.  Hubby brought it with him later on though, so here’s a pic of the boys with Father Christmas.  I don’t know who it was, it was meant to be my dad but he obviously had to rush off in the ambulance with my Gran.

Unfortunatly Santa gave the boys lollies before I took the photo, so Oliver was distracted.  I was lucky to get Dan to have his photo taken at all, so I suppose a smile was just too much to ask.  Daniel asked Santa for a Batman outfit.  He’s already got a BatBoy outfit I bought him a couple of months ago, but it’s obviously not good enough anymore.

Well I’ve had another blast at the glass painting.  I actually did them a couple of weeks ago whilst hubby was out getting soaked watching Cardiff City, but I’ve only just got around to taking photos.  These will probably be the last that will be ready in time for the Christmas Fair which is a week Saturday.  I’m really happy with how these have turned out.

Outlines done waiting to be painted

Drying

Large Vase

Flowery Vase

Another Vase - Butterfly and Leaves

Storage Jar - Fish & Shells

Another Storage Jar

This is one of my favourites, it really glows when the light is on it.

Tea Light Holders

Clip Frames

The candles  in the above photo are battery powered tea lights, they look really effective and they flicker, sort of like real candles.  As I have so many tea light holders I wanted candles in them on the stall to show them off a bit, but I thought having real ones would be too dangerous.  I found these on Ebay really cheaply, and obviously I get to keep them after the fair so I can use them at home.

If I get round to it I might paint the last few holders that I have in the next week, but it’s not going to be the end of the world if I don’t get round to it.