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!

X

Christmas cards and other various things

Today Celestine has been making and writing her Christmas cards. It's a little bit late for our post now but luckily Celestine knows about magic post!  

She wished she had a smaller pencil too!

I did my Chrsitmas cards the other week too. I always draw Victoria Stitch for my Chrsitmas card. It just doesn't feel right not to.  Here's this years- it had to be a quick one as I was so busy building sets for the Princess books this month.

The caption inside the card reads: 'Victoria Stitch thinks everyone should have an 'angel' that looks like her on the top of their tree.' 

It's the kind of thing Victoria Stitch would think. I only managed to make about ten cards this year as I had so much work to do so unfortunately didn't get to send a great deal out. Not really an excuse I know but never mind.

I put star sequins and glitter on them too. Of course!

I love Victoria Stitch.

Here's one of the sets I built recently. A kitchen. Fit for a sparkly princess.

I wish I could have a kitchen like that in real life size when I have a house!

Also I made this hallway the other day with a catwalk-y red carpet in it for dressing up. I actually got the colours a bit wrong with this one- too red, but I was still quite proud of the result anyway and the colours can be corrected in photoshop. I was surprised at how quickly I managed to do this one- I was on a very short deadline. Managed to do it in a day!

At the weekend Henry and I went up to Derby to visit his mum. We had a very nice weekend. We had chai teas at our new favourite tea place, watched Gone with the Wind (I had not seen it before!) ate lots of nice food, went shopping and Henry's mum put some of those individual false eyelashes on my eyes which I've gone on about before- maybe you can see them in the picture below. It was a sort of practice for the wedding but I'm going to have to re think it a bit as they didn't look quite right on my eyes after all.  sidenote: I love the eyelashes the Who's all have in the Grinch. I also did work while I was in Derby- as I mentioned I had a tight deadline boo. 

And on a random note today Henry and I popped into town for a few various things and there was a carousel in the square! I swear it was the carousel I had so wanted to be at the ball we went to in the summer. My carousel! I also think it was the same carousel I saw in Bath the other week but didn't get to go on because I was too busy.  Well I went on it today instead. And it was fun! It went pretty fast. I really really really love carousels! It was so festive in town today. We searched for gold paper and ate a german sausage.

And tomorrow we are going to Belgium for a couple of days. On the ferry. I am excited... and need to pack!

Have a festive weekend! 

X

Celestine decorates!

Celestine has been busily preparing for Christmas this week. She has put up her tree in the castle entrance hall. The castle isn't finished yet but the entrance hall is finished enough to have a tree in it! Celestine is so pleased with her tree that she can't stop looking at it. Every night the castle windows start flashing as Celestine turns the tree fairylights on and off and on and off... and on and off! She just can't help herself! She loves to see those lights twinkling.

She had a lot of fun decorating her tree. This year the theme was multicoloured (last year it was silver) Multicoloured is much more festive. There was glitter everywhere!

She tried some tinsel but it was a bit much...

She also started to make a fairy to go on top of the tree but it looks sort of funny. In the end a gold star was the winner.

Christmas cards have started arriving at the castle...

...including this oh so charming one from Victoria Stitch.

Victoria Stitch sent two cards- the two in the middle. A bat in a Christmas hat and a portrait of herself. Well she is rather vain.

Henry made mince pies the other night and when he came upstairs he had a tiny one for Celestine too. It was on a chocolate coin foil plate. Celestine was extremely pleased.

Also here is Celestine's advent calendar this year. I didn't have time to paint a picture myself so used one of the Snowman. I do adore the snowman though and so does Celestine so it's all good. I am reeeally looking forward to watching the Snowman and the Snowdog this year as I was in Dubai last year for Christmas and missed it. By the time I got home from Dubai Christmas was over and it didn't feel appropriate to watch such a chrsitmassy thing. Now I am glad I still have it to look forward to this year! 

Anyway, Celestine has very much enjoyed opening the doors of her calendar every day this month.

That's almost all! It's been a very picture heavy post. I just can't stop taking photo's of the tree that's why! Here's one more...

Hope you're having a lovely December so far- can't believe there's only about two weeks left until Christmas!

X

Nativity

Just a quick one!  Every year I draw an illustration for the front of the carol service booklet thing at my Grandmother's church. She's the priest there so is in charge of such things and always likes me to do one. It's become a tradition. Here's this years:

See some of the past years here, here and here!