A festoon of festivities

A little later than I would've liked to blog about the festive period, but as I have not had that much laptop time since the event I had to wait until I could sit down & blog properly, with some good tunes playing & the ability to upload pictures from my camera onto my blog!


Here's a festoon of festivities, it all started for me really on Wednesday 21st December... Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve!!! Lol


So what happened I bet you're all wondering?!  Let me reveal an incite into my little magical world of festive bliss =)


(thank the stars for my constant FB status's as my memory isn't what it was 10 years ago)


I changed my hair colour on Wednesday 21st, now I normally go for Mystic Violet but the children had talked me into going for Cosmic Blue instead... I was a bit worried that: 1) it would be too black on me & make me look ghostly white, 2) it wouldn't suit me - to my surprise I was wrong on both counts, yes it was dark & quite black but it actually looked good & I thought the blue tint to it somehow managed to make my eyes stand out more.  We then went round to my bestie's place for Pre-Christmas nibbles, it was wonderful to see Claire, Jason & the kiddies, what was even better was the Mince Pie taste test between M&S Lattice Mince Pies & Heston Blumenthal Puff Pastry Mince Pies with Pine Sugar Dusting (I previously blogged about this HERE). After a very enjoyable afternoon, I had my nails Minx'd for a little Christmas treat to myself - I've never had them Minx'd before, but they did look beautiful for Christmas I must say.  We had a fairly chilled out evening after my nails had been done, Aisling joined us & we had the funniest conversation between her, Alison, myself & Duncan all sparked off from the Christmas Card I had brought Duncan!  Lol

Thursday 22nd itself was a pretty non-eventful day at home... well, unless you take into account the children were already very hyper before Christmas & Duncan was at work for his last day before his Christmas break & I was pulling my hair out!  Still the evening came & we were going to Funky Mike's karaoke down The Kings Arms, we hadn't been out on a Thursday since November 3rd so it was a very pleasant change... so pleasant that Duncan was drinking with Sparky Mark & shall we say, he ended up a little worse for wear much to most peoples amusement - thankfully he doesn't do this often, he deserted me & left me at the pub while he staggered home alone!  LMAO

I spent a day in the kitchen on Friday 23rd (7.5 hours to be precise), busy baking & decorating a selection of cupcakes for my gorgeous adopted daughters 25th birthday as she was celebrating that night at karaoke - so it was obvious it would be a cupcake-oke instead!  Alison had decided that as she always had a winter birthday she would have a change & go for a Hawaiian Beach Theme instead, so the cupcakes had to be fitting.  I had some icing cupcake toppers to link in with the theme & also made the following flavours: Strawberry Daiquiri, Piña Colada, Coconut & Chocolate!  It was a fabulous atmosphere in the pub that night, people out just before Christmas, people celebrating Alison's birthday & people just celebrating everything & having fun =)

Saturday 24th (Christmas Eve) was a good day as I managed to get my phone upgrade after waiting the best part of 2 years... never again will I have a 2 year contract, my last phone went for repair no less than 4 times & still needed repairing when I upgraded!  The joys of faulty phones... No less I love my new one though.  We popped round to see the Funky Fulfords & spread some festive cheer... only myself, Duncan & the girls went as Cameron wanted to stay home with Alison. After finally getting the children into bed at about 9.30pm I managed to chill a little by packing our bags to go to the In-Laws & finally playing Mrs Christmas - I couldn't wait to see the children's faces in the morning, think I was almost as hyper as them by the time Duncan got in from work!!!


Sunday 25th December... Christmas Day, Yay!!!  Posted a cheery Christmas status on FB just after midnight, opened my 1st present from my wifey Becky at 01:36 & proceeded to post a picture of my gift on FB, then at 02:00 I posted pictures of the piles of presents Santa & Mrs Claus had delivered to us & the children, finally at almost 03:00 I posted a picture of 3 Terry's Segsations that I opened before going to sleep as they said: You're Incredible! You Star & Big Kiss.  Got back up just after 07:30 with the kiddies & we opened our presents with Alison - I got the most beautiful 'Charmed' watch from Duncan amongst various other great items.  The children were pleased with the presents they received & all in all it was a very happy house on Christmas Day, we then headed over to Sharp Seniors Pad for Christmas lunch (Merlin was coming along with us too) with Mum & Dad Sharp & Granddad Doug (he is doing incredibly well for a 91 year old) as always lunch was bloody brilliant with home cooked Christmas Pudding which I videoed flaming this year instead of the obligatory photo!!!  We all watched the Christmas Dr Who special, which was absolutely amazing (the best yet in my opinion) - an all round fabulous day =)

Monday 26th December, Boxing Day... An almost complete Sharp Family Christmas with Mum & dad Sharp, Richard, Tim, Stuart, Treena, Nathan, Bronwen, Imogen & of course the five of us, me, Duncan, Cameron, Hermione & Anneliese.  It was full of fun, food, games & lots of laughs with silly prizes - The children behaved well & played with their cousins, the adults were as behaved as they could be, with the star of the show being Tim & his comedy impressions... job well done sir!

All in all Christmas 2011 was one of the best yet & I am already looking forward to Christmas 2012 to see if it can get any better?!  We'll just have to wait & see, only another 348 days to go: Countdown to Christmas 2012

The verdict is still out...

As the title says 'The verdict is still out'...  now what is the verdict out on I hear you ask?!  The best Mince Pies!!!

Now a new found friend & mutual acquaintance of my bestie, Alex, had recommended them on my bestie Jason's FB status, to quote: "If you get a chance to drive to a Waitrose, Heston's mince pies are absolutely wonderful! In fact if I pass buy a Waitrose this week I will get you a box so you can sample them"

Now true to his word, Alex did pass by a Waitrose & picked up a packet that he dropped round to my bestie yesterday (Tuesday) for sampling!  To quote Alex again in a PM to me "Just been shopping at Waitrose and picked up a pack of Heston's mince pies for Jason - I will try to get them to him today so that you can try them tomorrow"

The 'Sharp Clan' went round to Ayres Mansion for a Pre-Christmas soiree today (Wednesday), it was a lovely little get together & the children played while the grown ups chatted & out came the Mince Pies for the taste challenge... We started with the highly recommended 'Heston Blumenthal - Puff Pastry Mince Pies with pine Sugar Dusting'

First came the discussion by myself, Jason & Claire, me joking about the sugar smelling like toilet cleaner... promptly followed by me being like a child with a present & having to open the sachet of Pine Sugar to see if it actually smelt like toilet cleaner - OMG, by Christ it blinking well did, I just couldn't believe how much it smelt like pine toilet duck!  I was getting worried at this point as I didn't fancy biting into a Mince Pie that tasted like toilet cleaner!

Next was the appearance of them, they looked like sausage rolls of all things... they weren't even round!!!  What on Earth were these things?!  I was getting more & more concerned about putting one of these so called 'Mince Pies' into my mouth.

Anyway, Jason cordially placed said Mince Pies into the oven to warm as per the box instructions & then sprinkled with the pine sugar... I was nervous I must admit, but never the less I did take a bite & well I had to take another & another: 1) to be certain & 2) so as to be polite (was taught never to leave food)

Now I have to say I wasn't all that impressed, yes they tasted ok (not a bit like toilet cleaner, even though the sugar smelt like it) but they really were in my opinion nothing to write home about.  I am asking all parties that tried these mince Pies, to comment on this blog with their reviews at the end as my opinion counts for toffee on it's own... Mmmmmmmmmmmmm toffee! Lol

My review: they tasted ok, didn't like the shape, didn't like the flaky puff pastry (too damn messy IMO) & well although it didn't taste like it the sugar smelt of toilet duck!

Not overly impressed with the HB Mince Pie, I demanded that the M&S Lattice Mince Pies came out just so I could compare them - what am I like?!  Now although these had a lattice top as opposed to a traditional sealed pastry lid, I was not as scared to try these as I had been with the HB Mince Pies... I did however choose to have the most aesthetically pleasing appearance to the eye as far as these mince pies went - issues! Lol

After trialling the M&S Lattice Mince Pies, I decided to get marks out of 10 from everyone for both types of Mince Pie... the scores were as follows:

Heston Blumenthal - Total = 37½/50

Alison 9/10

Claire 8/10

Duncan 10/10

Jason 6/10

Lynda 4½/10

M&S - Total = 36½/50

Alison 5/10

Claire 9/10

Duncan 5/10

Jason 8/10

Lynda 9½/10

So as you can see there is only 1 point between the two so the verdict is still out as to which is the better Mince Pie?!  I personally think home made can't be beaten & I do think I may just have to make some to ask everyone else what their verdict is on my Mince Pies!  So you decide, which is the most superior, ultimate, perfect Mince Pie???

Well apologies to all that have been waiting this blog, I must confess I started to type this around 11:30pm (Wednesday) but alas at around 12:30am I dozed off at the laptop on the sofa so when I awoke at 2am I had a fair bit of deleting random letters then had to set to it again - finished it though, so time for a quick cigarette before bed now I am awake again, Lol!

The Sparkle is most definitely returning :)

What can I say?!  My 'Sparkle' is most definitely returning after probably the worst week in my entire life.  Who have I got to thank for my 'Sparkle' returning, well there are a few people I need to thank... First & foremost, my Bestie Jason & his lovely wife Claire - my short break with them has been unbelievably fantastic, what wonderful people & I really haven't laughed so much as I have being in their company (I really am going to miss them all, but we (no doubt) will meet up every week so it's not goodbye).  The second person I need to thank is my wonderful husband Duncan, he may not be perfect but he works hard, provides for our children, is a fantastic dad & is bloody perfect to me... I love you Mr Sharp!  The next people I need to thank for helping my 'Sparkle' to return are my most amazing friends, without them this past week I don't know where I would be & having a most enjoyable night out last night at Karaoke was really the best medicine - it was a fantastically funny night & there were a fair few occasions where my cheeks hurt so much from the laughter, it's great having the old me back again even if I do say so myself =)


The children have gone away to Duncan's parents for a few days to give us both a little break from it all, so we will both be out together socially tomorrow night for a bit more karaoke... I can't wait & I am really looking forward to a civilised Sunday dinner without the children (unless you class our adopted daughter Alison as a child) - a hot roast dinner without being asked to get this or get that or cut up Anneliese's dinner etc, etc, etc!  It's going to be soooo novel, Lol!


I have my nail in-fills to get done on Tuesday & am having my nails minx'd on Wednesday evening (which I have never had done, but hey it's almost Christmas so why not?) I have chosen such a pretty minx, it's called White Christmas & I think it is just gorgeous... see the picture: White-Christmas Minx

I have my hair-dresser booked in for Thursday morning too, so for Christmas Eve, Eve I will be looking my best again just in time for my adopted daughter Alison's 25th Birthday celebrations & more importantly ready for Christmas!


Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle, I feel like a fairy princess & I am shining once more...


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¸٭´´¯`✻٭...ʄɑıɽɣ ʃparƙɭɛs ☆✻ ☆ ¸.ƸӜƷ`*•.¸ ♥

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 
Ev'rywhere you go; 
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again 
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 
Toys in ev'ry store 
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be 
On your own front door. 

A pair of hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots 
Is the wish of Barney and Ben; 
Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk 
Is the hope of Janice and Jen; 
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 
Ev'rywhere you go; 
There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well, 
The sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas; 
Soon the bells will start, 
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing 
Right within your heart.

Listen to Bing Crosby sing this here in front of a log fire =)

Ok, so I had to start off with a cheery Christmas song that I love, as it is the 1st of December & I have finally managed to sit down & type a blog up it just had to be about Christmas!!!

I am so very pleased with myself this year as I am not normally as organised as I have been with regards to Christmas, I am very organised with most things but Christmas usually gets left to the last minute & is then one mad rush trying to get everything for everyone & then wrap & distribute presents to all & sundry, finally managing to wrap the children's presents on Christmas Eve/Morning at some unearthly hour & leaving them under the tree ready for mass carnage at about 6am by the children!!!

Cameron at 7.30am last year

What's so different this year I hear you ask?!  I have actually almost completed all my Christmas shopping & better still I have wrapped everything I have purchased so far, so I am actually way ahead of myself - what's happened, have I been abducted by aliens without my knowledge & they have programmed my brain to be so much more organised than normal?!  I wish, i think I am just motivated & almost as excited about Christmas as the children are :)

I have to say getting presents for my children this year has not been the easiest apart from Cameron (10) as he is pretty easy to please, he knows what he wants & if he doesn't say he is very rigid in what he likes so you can't really go wrong... Anneliese (4) on the other hand is the hardest to buy for as she is at that in between toy stage, too big for baby/toddler toys but not big enough for big kid toys - what does she ask for?!  Just the new Peppa Pig DVD, bless her... we did manage to get a little more information out from her eventually, but just went with gut instincts & hope that she will like what we have chosen.  

Now Hermione (8) has been the tricky one, she wrote out her list for Santa which included a lot of chocolate/sweet treat making items which we don't really want to encourage for obvious reasons (bad teeth, gaining excess weight) but she also had some items we had never heard of... well, we managed to track down most of the requests although one item in particular must be one of the top toys this year!!!  She wanted a Monster High Spectra Vondergeist - this proved amazingly crazy to find, we started off looking on-line as most things are cheaper on Amazon etc, but practically everywhere had 'Sold Out' of this particular doll on eBay they were look in excess of £45 for what is normally a doll that retails at £14.99! 

 

Spectra Vondergeist & Holt Hyde

I reserved a Monster High doll in the local Argos but they only had a boy doll Holt Hyde left as you don't get to pick they just bring out from the store room... this promptly went back to the store room as he just is not girlie enough for my princess, I had resigned myself to the fact that Hermione would have to make do with the Lagoona Blue doll that I managed to purchase via Amazon (at the normal retail price, I'd like to add) I hoped she wouldn't be too heart broken Christmas morning.

On the off chance I popped into Bicester Toys... Now, I don't like shopping here for too much without doing research first as quite often their items are often overpriced compared to other stores & having 3 children & the current financial climate paying over the odds is not really an option for me.  So I am perusing the store trying to get inspiration for Anneliese's presents at the time & I spot from the corner of my eye some Monster High dolls on a shelf, I think to myself surely they won't have Spectra Vondergeist left on the shelf as everywhere else is completely 'Sold Out' - so I remove the first layer as neither of the dolls on show is her, low & behold under the second doll I remove there in all her beautiful purple glory is Spectra... I can't believe my luck & she was only £2 more than the RRP, so I snap her up & promptly take her to the till - RESULT =)

So apart from pleasing my children with hopefully all the gifts they want & maybe a few they didn't expect, seeing their over excited faces on Christmas morning as they open their presents & feeling all warm & gooey inside that I have done a great job what do I like about Christmas?!  I love the smell of a real tree, the downside to this is: a) they drop a few needles (even if they supposedly are non-drop trees) b) you can't put them up too early (they prefer to be outside) c) it is wasted money... The upside to real trees is: a) they look & smell gorgeous b) you don't have to store them away all year c) they make great firewood afterwards d) no two are ever the same - so all in all more plus's than minus's so they win every time, I can't wait to get mine & put it up though!

Real Xmas Trees

What else?!  Food... I love food at Christmastime, there is so much good stuff around (although most of it is bad for the waistline) Mince Pies, Christmas Pudding, Terry's Chocolate Oranges, Quality Street, then it comes to all the lovely things that M&S do!  Now I am a keen M&S food fanatic, I really like their extremely chocolatey biscuit selection box = Heaven, only today in town when I pop in they have a sample table at the front with these on offer (but I resist) so I text my bessie Jason as he'd said he really likes these too (he'd missed out though as was already home), the boxes were only £2.99 so I got a box to put away for Christmas. As it says on the box, these biscuits do in my opinion take first place as they are amazing!!!

 M&S Extremely Chocolatey Biscuit Box

The final thing about Christmas food I particularly like is shortbread... why is it though that all the big supermarkets (also M&S) have these very pretty tins marked up as RRP £9.99 with fingers, petticoat tails & various other pretty shapes of shortbread inside, they then mark them up as half-price like it's some super duper deal at £4.99/£5 for 410g of shortbread in a decorative tin?! When you can quite adequately purchase shortbread fingers in 210g packets at just 89p... fine you get a decorative tin that catches your eye in the shop, but do you really keep that tin for ever???  I think not, you may keep it for a while but inevitably you end up filling the tins full of quite basically 'crap' & then you decide to get rid of the 'crap' & then you end up throwing the tin away - you over pay for these tins that just end up in the trash when you can get more shortbread (albeit just fingers not pretty shapes) for a fraction of the cost - I brought 3 packets today so have 630g of shortbread fingers for just £2.67... given this pricing if you wanted 410g of shortbread in a tin you are paying on average if the price is halved £3.21 for the tin you are to throw away eventually!  What a waste & who on earth would pay the RRP of almost £10 for that much shortbread just because it has a decorative tin?!  I wouldn't!!!

  Tin vs Fingers?!

Now, will there be snow this Christmas???  I figure there is a good possibility seeing as it is December 1st today & so far apart from one or two colder days, so far this Autumn/Winter season has been very mild in comparison to previous years, I am not a weather person but I just feel it in my bones - I have just googled the info & stumbled upon this report on the Telegraph's website: UK:snow - White Christmas???  Ok, so the Telegraph put this in last years edition (gotta love google) but I did also find this: Christmas Snow 2011 I do so hope that we have a White Christmas, it does make it all seem so much more magical when it snows =)

A month to the day... Now where did that go?!

As the title suggests, a whole month has passed since I last managed to blog... OMG, where did that time go?!  It's amazing how quick time flies once you age & have children, it is always one thing after another & with every good intention to prioritise your time to fit everything in something always goes wrong or gets in the way!


What takes up all my time you may wonder???  Well it's like this I have 3 children & they require care, as do my pets, husband & adopted daughter... there's washing, cooking, cleaning, errands, grocery shopping, bathing, school runs, tidying etc, etc, etc.  Now if everything ran to plan, things would get done quickly & easily but children are not robots & do not always do as they are told or as they are asked & sometimes just plain ignore you so time is wasted repeating yourself over & over trying to get through to them.  As the saying goes 'A woman's work is never done' not a truer word is spoken as there is always something to hold you back or get in the way of progressing through the day!


Still, enough said... I wouldn't change it for the world, I love my children & they make me so very proud.  Only last week was parents evening & to say I am proud of my 10yr old high-functioning autistic son is an understatement - he is amazing at school & has had the best report ever, in the past year his reading has excelled & his maths is off the scale he is astounding them all with his knowledge which makes me all warm n fuzzy inside as only a few years ago we were so concerned when he refused point blank to write anything down & would hide under tables in class, not join in with others etc, etc - As a treat for this he is coming with me to the cinema to watch Twilight Breaking Dawn pt1 after school today & I can't wait =)


It's hard to believe but Christmas is only just over a month away too... I don't feel that Christmasy yet, although I am sure that will soon change in a couple of weeks & the tree is up with the twinkly lights.  My shopping is almost complete & better still I have started wrapping & apart from the children's presents everything is wrapped & labelled already!  I don't have a clue what to get Duncan & although he tells me not to worry about presents for him, I do like to get a few from the children & me as I feel it is still important to show that he is just as an important part of the family as the children are!


I have a few subjects that I want to blog about, but weather I will get the time or not is another question... Why can't Blogger create an app for the iPod touch/iPhone/iPad (or Android/Blackberry)???  If there was such an app, I could log-in via my iPod touch & blog away any time... alas I have to physically have the time to unpack, plug-in & load up my laptop which in my hectic life is not always a possibility "/


Until next time, whenever that may be...

2011 Flying By...

OMG, where is 2011 going???

As the title to this blog suggests it is just flying by quicker than the eye can see, we're almost half-way through March already & I just don't know where the time has gone... It was Christmas one minute & now we're in Spring!!!

So what's been happening in The Sharp household??? Apart from day-to-day life, not a lot really... I have been making cakes & cupcakes as always & taking orders for more, we have had Anneliese's 4th birthday, there's been a couple of illnesses & we've also had some fun days out - most recently we spent the day in London & went to Madame Tussauds!

I managed to get my picture taken with a few of my dream men (in order of preference): Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Smith, Johnny Depp & best of all Robert Pattinson... Swoooooon <3

Here's just a couple of pictures to keep you going!

Me & Arnie :)

Me & Will :D

Me, Cameron, Hermione, Anneliese & Johnny =)

Me & Rob..... Swoon =)

A fab day in London was had by all, this was in Febuary half-term... bless little Anneliese, she wasn't quite 4 & she walked the whole day - we were so very proud of her as she didn't moan once!