A New Years Eve Party

On New Years Eve something very special arrived for Celestine in the post. 

It was an invitation from Dixie and Percy to their New Years Eve tea party. It arrived just in time!

It was a very fancy invitation because it wasn't just a letter. It was a matchbox full of things. 

There was a string of baubles, a teacup with a lemon slice on the side, a tiny cracker (Celestine had never had a cracker before so she was very excited about that) and a starry letter down at the bottom. It was like a magical wizards box of treats.

Celestine sat down to have a cup of tea from the teacup to calm herself from all the excitement before she got ready for the party. 

Then she went to find her very best gold bow to put on. Unfortunately she couldn't find it so her second best (red) bow had to make do. But she matched it with her very posh ruby necklace instead.

Then she put on her coat and checked the address in the letter one more time so as not to go to the wrong place...

And she was off!

She said afterwards that she had a lovely time. She said Dixie and Percy looked very smart with their bow ties and combed whiskers. 

Wasn't she lucky to get invited to such a nice party?

★★★★★★★

Christmas 2014

A bit late to the game but Happy Christmas (for a few days ago.) I hope you had a good one.

This is Celestine on Christmas Eve. We went on an afternoon/evening walk. It was dark by the time we got home and the moon was out. She wore her Christmas tree top and red hat with the sparkly bobble.

When we got home we helped to peel and chop the vegetables and sprouts. I found some teeny tiny sprouts at the top of the stalk for Celestine. We finished wrapping presents, drank spiced cider, tidied up, went to midnight mass.

Here is Celestine's tree in her castle on Christmas Eve. Look at all her presents!! She also hung a stocking out for Santa to fill of course. It's lucky Santa knows that some people are only 4 inches high.

Henry and I also did stocking for each other this year for the first time which was fun. We snuck around in the dark filling them up after we turned out the lights. Crackle crackle.

And then...

Christmas morning!

That gold wrapped present (with the pink ribbon) she is opening in the pictures above had something very special in it from Henry to me. A while ago I wrote about spotting a tiny gold comb in the jeweller shop window. Well guess what appeared under Celestine's tree on Christmas morning?

Also, below is one of my Christmas presents. A very tiny swarovski castle, perfect size for displaying in Celestine's castle, it's just getting silly now! Next year it will be a castle to go in a castle in a castle. 

I love it. Celestine is very enamoured with it too and very pleased that it is going to be displayed in her home.

Eventually, hopefully I will be able to put the comb charm on a bracelet. Henry says he's going to buy me more charms over the years to make a charm bracelet. Until then Celestine gets to have it in the castle. Lucky her!

I think Celestine's favourite present this year was this dragon. I bought it in Padstow when we went to Cornwall in October.

For the record, here are all the presents she got this year:

From left to right: A rose quartz bear, a starry satchel, a snowman mug, a crystal coach to display in her castle, a jewelled trinket box, a toy dragon, a picture from the Isle of Harris where we went on honeymoon, a jewelled silver box, a pearl necklace, The Jungle Book, A Christmas tin of sweets, a lucky Cornish pisky, a pair of shoes. 

We had a really nice Christmas day. I really enjoy to see family who we don't see all that often. We had sparklers and champagne, smoked salmon and very fancy caviar that my sister got given at work, Barney got a special flashy dog collar for night walks and wore a pink ribbon round his neck. We did indoor fireworks and had chocolate log and Christmas pudding of course. Henry's mum visited, my grandmother got the charm inside the pudding (well we dug it out and gave it to her) which was a brass coloured rabbit ring. She was very pleased with it. My sister made cocktails and my cousins brought a gigantic jelly worm with them which was quite horrific. We went on a short evening walk and looked up at the stars. Barney got snuggly in his blanket, the miniature carousel went round and round all day.

Above is Henry with his stocking. He has this special bear that he's had his whole life called Abe and Abe always has to have something small in his stocking too. It's ok, I am used to catering for tiny people's stockings. I found something good for Abe. I'm going to be great at stockings if we ever have children! 

On Christmas Eve my Mum made some tiny marzipan fruits for Celestine which really delighted me. Here's Celestine having her Christmas dinner with the marzipan fruits on the table. She had this Christmas dinner on Boxing day when we visited Henry's Dad and Gran. 

(On Christmas day Celestine visited some friends her own size for lunch. Thought I'd mention that, you know, just in case you're worried she had a lonely singleton Christmas dinner on actual Christmas day)

So yes, Boxing day:

Those are the tiny sprouts I was talking about as well. They were PERFECT for Celestine!

She loved her marzipan fruits. 

After dinner it was time for some hot chocolate in her new snowman mug...

And then we opened some more presents. I got some really nice stuff including a beautiful starry necklace and also some Ernest et Celestine prints from Carol which we are going to hang on our wall when/if ever we move into our new house! 

Celestine got her own tiny Christmas card from Carol and also a lucky chinese cat from Henry's Dad and Gran.

As we opened presents it started to snow really big flakes outside. The next morning the snow was still on the ground.  Celestine went outside to investigate. 

I love snow in the morning when it is all twinkly in the sunshine. 

We drove to see some cousins from my side of the family after that and as we drove down the M1 the snow disappeared. I think it had only snowed in the midlands.

So yes, that was Christmas 2015. We had a really nice time. I hope you did too! We still have one more celebration to go with my mums side of the family. There are always so many family and friends to see around Christmas. I am not complaining though, I love it. We have managed to see a lot this year, it has been busy. And fun. I love having all my family at home too, usually they are all over the place. 

Random picture of some canapes from a party/gathering we went to just before Christmas. I was quite pleased with this picture. Rebecca, who invited us, made all the food from scratch, including all the bases for the canapes and everything. It was amazing. She is a proper chef type person and works on cook books and things.

Oh and my little Barney, snuggly dog. He gets nervous when there are lots of people in the house and spent a lot of Christmas day shivering. He's delicate. Haha. He'd calmed down by the evening though and was happily snoozing on a chair. 

★★★★★HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!★★★★★

Bruges

Just before Christmas Henry and I went on a short trip to Bruges. We went there with his dad who drove us all the way there and back! It was so windy on the way that our ferry was delayed by two hours. When I went out on deck it was SO windy I could barely stand!

When we got to Bruges we met up with Henry's Dad's friend Carole who is Belgian. She was very nice. She took to Celestine and bought a music box for her to use as a bed! 

Bruges was such a nice place. I really liked it. The shops were exciting, the food was delicious, the buildings were pretty, there was chocolate round every corner and there were lots of things to see.  

on the first night we went out for dinner and I ordered scampi. Bruge's idea of scampi is big prawns in garlic butter.  Not quite what I was expecting but definitely much nicer. It was very rich though.  It was a really nice little restaurant. For pudding we had sabayon which was also delicious- made of egg whites and white wine and sugar. I have never had that before but it was certainly worth trying! Also we had frites- of course.

The hotel foyer was very festive. It had a christmas tree in it and a twirly staircase.

We had nice breakfasts there both mornings. There was cheese and salami and fruit and croissants and such. I enjoyed having cheese and sun dried tomato for breakfast as a novelty.

There were some fabulous shops in Bruges selling all manner of christmassy and sparkly and wooden ornaments. We spent a long time in the Christmas shop! I bought a gold glittery rocking horse ornament. There were also a few miniatures in the same shop. I bought some miniature plates and cups and things for Celestine patterned with Father Christmas.

I love all the wooden toys and ornaments there were in Bruges!

^^ Celestine was fascinated by them too ^^

I rather took to these little green cricket/grasshopper (?) figures below in one of the Christmas shops,

Along with buying Christmas decorations we also bought lots and lots of chocolate! Not all for ourselves- we bought a lot of it as presents for people but we did buy a bit for ourselves too. And I can tell you now it's the best chocolate I've ever tasted in my life. I don't think I'll be able to eat normal chocolate again now! Nothing beats belgian chocolate and we were spoilt for choice with chocolate shops round every corner. Luckily Henry's dad has been to Bruges many times before and knew all the best places to get the best chocolate.

Bruges was so pretty at night. It really lives up to it's name of being a fairytale city. We went on a horse and carriage ride round the city at the end of the day when it was getting dark. It was fun to ride in a horse and carriage and to see all the Christmas lights from it.

Bruges is also famous for lace. There were lots of lace shops there. I bought a star and moon bit of lace- not an expensive handmade bit or anything but still really pretty.

We stopped for a cup of tea in a teashop after the horse and carriage ride to warm up. I had lime leaf tea I think.  There were chandeliers in the teashop. I noticed a lot of chandeliers in various places round Bruges actually. My favourite was a big multicoloured one.

Celestine stopped for tea too. She was tired from all her shopping!

There's the multicoloured chandelier (below) I wish I could have one in my future house!

Other things we did in Bruges: venerated the blood of Christ at the Basilica, saw the Madonna with child statue by Michelangelo, had a lovely lunch of parma ham and mozzarella salad, had a lovely dinner of steak and frites. Best steak I've ever tasted! The food really was all amazing in Bruges.

On the way back home we stopped at Carrefour and bought lots of cheese and wine (for Christmas!) and some things for lunch which we then snacked on the entire way back home. It was good we bought so much food actually as our ferry was cancelled on the way home from bad weather. We had to go on the tunnel instead and then sat for two hours in a traffic jam.  At least we did get home though! I know some people didn't.

All in all it was a marvellous trip and I would like to go back to Bruges one day- especially just before Christmas again. It was a lovely festive thing to do.

Christmas 2013...

...was really great.  It was really great because it was the first Christmas that Henry I spent together. Also his mum came and stayed with us over Christmas which was extra nice too. It was just a really nice Christmas this year. Definitely one of my best. 

Celestine enjoyed it too. She wore gold and sparkles for Christmas day... and boxing day... and the day after. Gold is her favourite colour.

She had her own Christmas table with Christmas crockery which I found in Bruge. The Christmas pudding and chocolate log are actually just chocolates and pretty massive for Celestine to eat on her own... though she still enjoyed what she could eat of them!

We had egg and smoked salmon muffins for breakfast with a grapefruit soaked in sherry. The grapefruit with sherry is something Henry eats every Christmas even though he doesn't like grapefruit (he forces it down for the sake of tradition!) So we thought we would all have one and follow his tradition. It went down well in my family! We all really like grapefruit anyway- the sherry was a Christmas bonus.

Then we all opened presents. I got some really really good presents this year. My biggest surprise was from Henry's mum. If you read this blog you might- though probably won't- remember a ring I posted about a while back. It was a ring I had spotted on ebay and absolutely loved. I really really really loved it- it was the nicest design of ring I had ever seen. I love anything stars and moon and am always searching on ebay for star/moon rings. When this one came up I absolutely love love loved it and really wanted it. I didn't win it though even though I set and alarm and woke up in the middle of the night to bid on it!  

Anyway, I could go on more about how much I loved that ring but to cut a long story short Henry's mum got one made for me while she was in holiday in Turkey! She printed the picture off my blog and took it to a jeweller who made a practically identical one- the only difference is that mine is slightly nicer!

I couldn't believe it! It was honestly one of the best presents I have ever received. I am going to wear it all the time. I can't stop looking at it- it's so sparkly.

I also got some other very nice things this year including a box of 100 miniature multicoloured baubles from my sister, some witchy books from Henry and a book about Gnomes, a glittery green, pink and purple rose from my brother and a massively heavy bag full of different coloured glitters from my parents among other things.

Also this tiny seal from my grandparents. It really is very tiny- smaller than an inch. And so cute. It's small enough to put in my castle. I love seals. 

Now here's a picture of Celestine with her stocking. Santa did very well for her this year. She was very chuffed with all her presents.

Here they are under her tree... And yes she did get a chocolate liqueur almost as big as herself!  If she eats it all in one go she'll be absolutely sozzled!

And here are all Celestine's presents laid out. She got a lot of sparklies this year. She does love gems!  From left to right:  a jewellery box, an amethyst chip, two notebooks, a rainbow jumper, a mirror and comb set, a lucky black cat, where the wild things are miniature book, snowman in a jar decoration, snowman not in a jar decoration, tiny pink mouse.  The jewellery box and jumper weren't actually from Santa- they were from me and the book was from Henry. But everything else was from Santa. He knows Celestine well.

The rainbow jumper is made by suedehead on etsy. The miniature book is made by Little Things of Interest on etsy.

Celestine has named the pink mouse Penelope. It's tinier than my smallest fingernail!

On Boxing day Henry and I drove up to have Chrsitmas number two with his Dad and Gran which was also very nice. Then the day after we drove back down to have Christmas number three with my mums side of the family which again was very nice! So all in all a very nice Christmas.

These photos below were taken at Henry's Dad and Gran's house.

Also here's a little sketch I forgot to post before Christmas. I just re coloured some old Celestine drawings to make them Christmassy. It's her preparing for the big day!

I hope you had a wonderful Chrsitmas too!

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Celestine goes to Dubai

As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't spend Christmas this year here in England. I went to Dubai!  On the 23rd of December I said goodbye to Henry (sniff sniff) and drove to the airport with my family.

Of course Celestine came too. It was her first time in an airport so she was very excited. She even has her own miniature passport as you can see above.

We did lots of things this Christmas in Dubai. Lot's of un traditional things like ringing in Christmas day with a Johnny Rockets burger at one in the morning and going to a hotel for lunch.  I have never had my Christmas dinner at a hotel before so it was certainly an experience. And the food was anything but traditional too. It was an all you can eat buffet and there was sushi and squid, raw fish, cheese, lentils, sea food, pasta, cheese, the list goes on... there was anything and everything!

On the last few days we drove to Oman to a place called Musandam for a night and went on a boat trip there. The surroundings were stunning!  I especially liked the colour of the sea which was a light aqua colour. Beautiful.  We also saw dolphins leaping in and out of the sea from the boat which was very exciting.

Celestine also enjoyed her trip to Dubai and Oman very much. It was the first time she has ever been abroad. She especially enjoyed making sand angels on the beach.  Her other favourite thing to do was sail the toy boat across the swimming pool. 

Overall it was a lovely Christmas even though it didn't feel amazingly Christmassy.  I got some really nice presents- one of which Celestine found extremely exciting... but that will have to wait for another post!

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