It's already pretty late today, but I daren't leave it any longer before I do an update!
So let's dive right in!
December 11th
- Bayliss & Harding I can't remember the fragrance of this soap, but it's definitely soap.
- Yankee Candle "Winter Glow"
- Kiss makeup toe separators.
- Ilchester cheeses Jarlsberg cheese.
- T2 Chai tea. I'm afraid I haven't got around to trying this one yet, because it's much more effort to make chai than it is to make normal tea, as it involves heating milk, rather than just boiling a kettle.
- Homespun Wonders sparkle sock yarn in my favourite colourway yet, which is a bright coral red.
December 12th
- Lindt mini Lindor.
- Bayliss & Harding I can't remember the fragrance of this bath fizzer, but it's definitely a bath fizzer.
- Yankee Candle "Sparkling cinnamon"
- Kiss makeup eyeshadow sponge. I won't use this for eyeshadow though, I've got lots of lovely brushes for doing that with a bit more refinement than can be achieved with a sponge. I will however use the sponge for applying nail pigments, or buffing in chrome finish nail powders.
- Ilchester cheeses Applewood cheese.
- Bayliss & Harding I can't remember the fragrance of this bath fizzer, but it's definitely a bath fizzer.
- Yankee Candle "Sparkling cinnamon"
- Kiss makeup eyeshadow sponge. I won't use this for eyeshadow though, I've got lots of lovely brushes for doing that with a bit more refinement than can be achieved with a sponge. I will however use the sponge for applying nail pigments, or buffing in chrome finish nail powders.
- Ilchester cheeses Applewood cheese.
- T2 Strawberry Sensation tea, which does unfortunately suffer a little from the Fruit Tea Problem, that being it smells amazing, but the flavour is comparatively disappointing. However, I do think that this particular tea would be much nicer as an iced tea in the summer.
- Homespun Wonders BFL sock yarn in this sweet pink colour.
I need to show you something else about today's advent calendars. Every day when I open the cheese calendar, there's a "cheesey joke", or a cheese related fact on the back of the cardboard door. Similarly, the T2 advent calendar has tea related facts, or vouchers to use in T2. The message on the back of this day's door especially appealed to me, so I thought I'd share it with you:
December 13th
- Lindt mini Lindor.
- Bayliss & Harding scented candle, this one isn't as fabulous as the red one, but it is pretty good. It has a citrusy smell.
- Yankee Candle "Snowflake cookie"
- Kiss makeup pink nail polish.
- Ilchester cheeses Edam cheese.
- Bayliss & Harding scented candle, this one isn't as fabulous as the red one, but it is pretty good. It has a citrusy smell.
- Yankee Candle "Snowflake cookie"
- Kiss makeup pink nail polish.
- Ilchester cheeses Edam cheese.
- T2 French Earl Grey tea. Earl Grey is my regular brew, so I already own a whole tin of this, and it is indeed very nice, if you like Earl Grey anyway!
- Homespun Wonders merino sock yarn in a nice solid sky blue colour. This is a very similar shade to the primary shade in the tonal blue yarn that was in the advent calendar a few days ago.
December 14th
- Lindt chocolate square.
- Bayliss & Harding soap, which I again can't remember the fragrance of, which is even more annoying this time, because I feel I should remember which fragrance goes with which colour, and I don't even have the excuse that I had with the white soap, that there are 2 different fragrances that are both white.
- Yankee Candle "The Perfect Tree"
- Kiss makeup emery board (nail file).
- Ilchester cheeses Red Leicester cheese.
- Bayliss & Harding soap, which I again can't remember the fragrance of, which is even more annoying this time, because I feel I should remember which fragrance goes with which colour, and I don't even have the excuse that I had with the white soap, that there are 2 different fragrances that are both white.
- Yankee Candle "The Perfect Tree"
- Kiss makeup emery board (nail file).
- Ilchester cheeses Red Leicester cheese.
- T2 Melbourne Breakfast tea. This is another one that I haven't had a chance to try yet. Mostly because I only drink black teas early in the day, but I haven't actually been functional enough to drink anything early on any day for a bit.
- Homespun Wonders BFL sock yarn in a gorgeous cool grey colour.
December 15th
- Lindt chocolate square.
- Bayliss & Harding I can't remember the fragrance of this bath fizzer either. I'm so sorry about the shocking memory, and not having actually recorded all of this information like I should have. This is what happens when I'm having a physical flop, and/or a mental crash. I end up with Brain Fog, that just makes everything 10 times as difficult as it ought to be.
- Yankee Candle "Spiced white cocoa"
- Kiss makeup red lip liner pencil. Sadly, getting this out of the calendar involved jamming the point against the plastic form that everything inside the calendar is held in, so the tip is all broken, and I need to find my pencil sharpener.
- Ilchester cheeses Jarlsberg cheese.
- Bayliss & Harding I can't remember the fragrance of this bath fizzer either. I'm so sorry about the shocking memory, and not having actually recorded all of this information like I should have. This is what happens when I'm having a physical flop, and/or a mental crash. I end up with Brain Fog, that just makes everything 10 times as difficult as it ought to be.
- Yankee Candle "Spiced white cocoa"
- Kiss makeup red lip liner pencil. Sadly, getting this out of the calendar involved jamming the point against the plastic form that everything inside the calendar is held in, so the tip is all broken, and I need to find my pencil sharpener.
- Ilchester cheeses Jarlsberg cheese.
- T2 Sleep Tight tea. I love sleepy teas, and I like to drink one most evenings, so I already own some of this, and I love it. I've always loved floral flavours, and this is a blend of the sort of flowers associated with relaxation, like lavendar.
- Homespun Wonders sparkle sock yarn in this stunning variegated pinky purple and white. Unusually, this photo wasn't taken with flash. Despite the fact that it was ridiculously cold on the 15th, it was quite bright and sunny early on. It did not remain so!
December 16th
- Lindt mini Lindor.
- Bayliss & Harding scented candle, another of the citrusy ones.
- Yankee Candle "Spiced white cocoa"
- Kiss makeup mascara.
- Ilchester cheeses Applewood cheese.
- Bayliss & Harding scented candle, another of the citrusy ones.
- Yankee Candle "Spiced white cocoa"
- Kiss makeup mascara.
- Ilchester cheeses Applewood cheese.
- T2 Lemongrass & Ginger tea. I love this tea so much! I already own a box of it, but it's one that I'm drinking a lot of at this time of year, because it's very warming. I like to add a spoonful of honey to it too.
- Homespun Wonders Merino sock in this pretty muted yellow colour. I've been putting these photos up on my instagram, and a few people have commented on how often the tea and the yarn seem to match! It's pure coincidence, I promise!
December 17th
- Lindt mini Lindor.
- Bayliss & Harding Jojoba, silk, and almond fragranced soap. I still have this one next to me, as I've opened the door it was behind since arriving at my dad's. This is why I know what the fragrance is.
- Yankee Candle "Sparkling Cinnamon"
- Kiss makeup lip balm.
- Ilchester cheeses Jarlsberg cheese.
- Bayliss & Harding Jojoba, silk, and almond fragranced soap. I still have this one next to me, as I've opened the door it was behind since arriving at my dad's. This is why I know what the fragrance is.
- Yankee Candle "Sparkling Cinnamon"
- Kiss makeup lip balm.
- Ilchester cheeses Jarlsberg cheese.
- T2 Creme Brulee tea. Another that I've not had a chance to try yet, although I'm quite looking forward to finding out what it's like.
- Homespun Wonders merino sock yarn in bright sunshine yellow.
December 18th
- Bayliss & Harding Prosecco Fizz fragranced bath fizzer.
- Yankee Candle "Macaron Treats"
- Kiss makeup orange sticks. For those who aren't familiar with the strange world of beauty, these sticks are not for poking oranges with. They are in fact for tending to the appearance of finger nails, by pushing back cuticles, cleaning under the nail, and removing any remnabts of nail polish that are in awkward creases or crevices.
- Ilchester cheeses Edam cheese.
- T2 Just Chamomile tea. Yep, it's just chamomile, but very nice chamomile.
- Homespun Wonders merino sock yarn in a light beige/brown colour. This is entirely not a colour that I would choose for myself, so it's going to make an excellent contrast in my mitred square blanket.
Phew! Finally up to date!
I'm not done though! There are penguins!
Penguins!
Stephen and I were doing some grocery shopping, and there were penguin Christmas decorations. So we got one, and I hung him up with some other penguin ornaments on our fireplace.
I was visiting my sister, and popped into the supermarket nearest to her where I found something shocking, but wonderful. For some entirely unfathomable reason, despite the fact that at this point there was still a full 10 days to go until Christmas day, many of the items on the "Seasonal" aisle had been reduced to clear! So I got these socks. They're not very good at keeping my toes warm, so I will have to stick to my hand knit socks on very cold days, but these are ok for days when the temperature is above zero.
This cuddly penguin was also in the reduced to clear section. I'd just been through a massive stress involving going to the pharmacist to pick up my medications for over Christmas, only to find that there is a national shortage of my primary pain medication, so they're entirely unable to fulfil that item for me. They suggested that I try using over the counter ibuprofen as an alternative to the maximum prescribable dose of a prescription only medication. Aaaarrrghhhh!!!
So I bought this guy purely for comfort reasons.
The tired and the stressed have been a big theme through all of this week, which is why I also have this little chap. Well, that and the fact that Stephen is very lovely. We'd had a big stress while packing to visit our parents, involving his misplacing his medication, and us spending an hour turning the house upside down, only to find that he'd put his book down on top of them. This meant that I was mentally fraught, and physically wrecked by the time we set off, plus we were an hour and a half later setting off than we'd intended, the bright sunshine of earlier that day had turned into freezing rain, and snow was forecast for areas that we'd be driving through later. We stopped for fuel before getting onto the motorway, and Stephen came out from paying for that fuel with this guy to cheer me up :) Isn't he lovely? By that I mean both Stephen and the penguin! This penguin is now living on the dashboard of our car, tucked right into the corner under the English Heritage membership sticker, so he doesn't interfere with visibility while driving.
When I'm stressed, and overwrought, and can't sleep, I have a terrible habit of idly browsing the internet and accidentally buying stuff at 3am, while completely insensible with fatigue. Often what I buy at these times is yarn. On Saturday night I couldn't sleep despite all the stress of driving up the motorway through increasingly sleety, icy rain, until eventually it was actually snow, and we were driving through a layer of slippery slushy ice, and some other drivers were so scared by this that they were doing 30mph on the motorway, and other gave zero fucks, and were still doing over 80mph, and there were a number of "Is that blue flashing lights ahead? It is! Uhm, is that car facing backwards?" moments. When I checked my phone on Sunday morning, there were a number of order confirmations from Amazon in my emails.
It turns out that among other things, I'd ordered these. In case you can't see properly in the photo, the purple book is specially made for designing knitting patterns, and has graph paper inside that is skewed to represent the size of stitches, so that you can create designs that should knit up the correct shape. If you use ordinary squared paper, then a design that looks fine on paper, will be strangely elongated when knit up. And yeah, the other is just an ordinary notebook with a penguin on it.
Christmas with Dad
This is what the majority of the next 2 weeks will look like for me. Well, with some minor differences, as I took this photo after dad had gone to bed, while I was catching up on the podcasts that I watch. If dad is in the room with me, then usually we'll be watching YouTube videos about camping, carving, and/or fishing, or we'll be watching Stargate SG1.
That is my bed for the next couple of weeks. Sometimes we fold it away during the day, but if we're not doing anything that day that means it will get in the way, then we leave it out. Yes, my pillow is covered in purple hair dye.
I'm hoping that after tomorrow (err... later today!) which is the day I've assigned for doing all of dad's adulting, we'll be able to just chill. I've managed to get up to date with my podcasts, but I'm still several days behind on knitting my advent yarns into my blanket and cushion cover, so I could do with some solid knitting time.
First though, I could do with some more sleep (I slept for about 3 hours this afternoon), so I'm off to bed.
Night night my dears.
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