Happy New Year

A very happy, healthy and prosperous 2010 everyone.

Happy New Year

Family Christmas

I hope you all had a good Christmas.

I spent Christmas Day at my parent's house with my family and we all had a lovely time.

The table was set for dinner.

We all opened our presents in the morning and my father had these slippers!!

We had the traditional turkey and Christmas pudding for dinner.


This little elf couldn't wait for the pudding to be served so decided to help himself!

On the Sunday it was my turn and everyone came to my place for lunch.

One of my Christmas presents was a CK cake stand so I made good use of it with my Nigella Lawson rocky road.

Rufus enjoyed playing with the streamers.

And...after I'd complained about not having any snow in Shropshire....we eventually had some on the night before Christmas eve.

Christmas Market

It seems to have been snowing everywhere in the country except here in Shropshire!! We've hardly had a flake! At least it has made it easier to get about and finish my Christmas shopping. I went to Shrewsbury on Saturday to the Christmas Market.

The market was very busy with lots of people mulling around the stalls.

The market is set in the old Square around the original Market Hall.

Once finished at the Market it was off to the shops.

I sorted all the decorations out for my tree last weekend. I have a bit of a mixture of all sorts. Some old and some new!

I haven't really gone for a theme this year and have just put absolutely everything on the tree until I couldn't find a branch left. I have put coloured lights on my tree this year as I like the vintage look of them.

Here's my tree all done! It has every colour you can think of on it and I think it looks really pretty....

...especially in the evening when the lights are low!

I would just like to take this opportunity to wish all my fellow bloggers a

very merry Christmas

and

a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

See you all in 2010!

Susie X

Cold and Frosty Morning

I woke up this morning to a very foggy and frosty Shropshire. We have had quite a mild autumn but the temperature has really dropped now and today is the first really cold day of the winter.

I had to take my car in for a service early this morning. The garage is just down the road from my house so on the walk home I took some photographs.

I took these photos at about 9.00 am and the sun is still not very high. You can just about see it through the haze of fog.

This old oak tree is at the bottom of the lane.

The ivy in the hedgerow looked very Christmassy with its frosting.

More trees and the hedgerow.

I thought these plants on the verge looked very pretty with their frosty covering.

There is more wintery weather forecast for the weekend and possibly some snow! I would love it to snow.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. Stay warm!

Susie

A Rednesday Christmas Red

Today I am joining Sue over at Its A very Cherry World for Rednesday. I just have a couple of reds to show you today and one of them is a drink!

I bought this very kitsch, glittery bambi on my recent trip to London. He was quite expensive but I couldn't resist him!

I don't know if you remember, but back in September I made some sloe and damson gin. Well, now it is ready to drink and has been decanted into new bottles!
Here it is. It can be left longer to mature but I really wanted it for Christmas. It is now this gorgeous deep red colour and apart from the fact that it nearly blows your head off when you drink it, it is very delicious.

After seeing a brilliant pomander tutorial over at Rosies blog, I decided to make one last night. It took no time at all and it amazed me how one small orange can make the room smell so Christmassy! Pop over to Rosies lovely blog and have a look.

And finally a big, big thank you to the very kind and generous Michela for sending me these lovely gifts. I was thrilled to see a parcel arrive in the post. As well as a gorgeous bag, she sent me some Italian sweets and a lovely little pin dish.

Thanks Michela. I don't know how you guessed but as you can see from my china cabinet, I collect flowery things so the little pin dish now has pride of place in the cabinet!

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your week everyone.

Susie

Ludlow Medieval Fayre

On Saturday I drove down to Ludlow for the Medieval Fayre. Ludlow is a market town in South Shropshire and is a bit of a food lovers mecca! It is famous for having more Michelin starred restaurants than any other town outside London! I'm not sure whether that's true but Mr Underhill's is very good!
When we arrived, the place was absolutely heaving with people. I couldnt believe how busy it was. You couldnt really get into the shops so we headed straight over to the Fayre.

My mum ready for our shopping.

There are lots of really good food shops in Ludlow and there is a good market in the Square.

The fayre itself was held in the grounds of Ludlow Castle.

If you fancy a gargoyle to go on your house then here's the place to come!

There were hundreds of stalls all around the castle grounds.

There were lots of medieval themed things you could buy, including suits of armour, swords and bows and arrows! Well I suppose you never know when they might come in handy!

Me and my mum on the mulled wine! We had a really good day. It was well worth going and there was a nice Christmassy atmosphere.

I bought this knitted rabbit from one of the craft stalls. It is made by 'Flock of Ages' and all their products are made with wool from their own flock of sheep. You should check out their website. They knit some really cute animals.

I also bought some Victorian style gift tags.

A finally with it being the start of Advent, here's my calendar which I put up yesterday. Happy Advent everyone.

London

I had a really good day in London. The weather was kind to us and I managed to get to all the shops I wanted to go to and even buy some Christmas presents! It all looked very Christmassy with the lights and decorations everywhere. Here are a few photos from my day.
Big Ben! It was just going dark when I took this picture so its a bit blurry!Trafalgar Square.

Cath Kidston. I've never been to a CK shop before as there are none near me so it was a real treat to finally see all her stuff in reality! The shop is stuffed to the rafters with things I liked! I bought some presents here for my family...which I can't show you yet as they'll look at my blog and see them!

Another corner of CK shop.

Which bag would you choose?

I love her kitchen stuff.

There was even a bowl of washing up in the vintage section!

This is me in Selfridges with just a few shopping bags.

I thought I'd show this couch. Its not really my taste but I thought is was interesting. Its for sale in the Conran shop and is only £4,975!!!

I thought these sugar mice candles were quite cute.

Andy eyeing up a Ferrari but unfortunately a little on the small side for him!!

This 'tree' stands outside the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly and although I love traditional trees I thought this contemporary one was really impressive.

Fortnum and Mason had lovely Christmas displays in their windows.

Cartier on Bond Street. Unfortunately, I was window shopping only here but when I win the lottery I might venture inside!!

More my price range...Debenhams on Oxford Street looked very pretty! That's all for now. Have a good week everyone and hope we have no more rain!