Cupcakes & early Christmas presents!

It was my office Christmas party on Friday which was fun but messy on my part, let's not go into details! Needless to say, all day Saturday was spent nursing a massive hangover. My friend Pia came around and made the hangover slightly less awful, we went shopping and went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park (overrated if you ask me, although it could be that I am biased due to an unfortunate combination of a sore head and screaming kids).

We exchanged presents as well, she had made me an AWESOME box full of embroidery stuff so we can get started on our new hobby. Isn't it pretty?

She even made me cute little needle cushions!

And since this post is dedicated to lovely things, I thought I'd add a few baking pics from tonight. We have another charity cake sale at work tomorrow and I have made a huge batch of banana cupcakes with sinfully delicious white chocolate frosting. Definitely not for the faint of heart, in fact I feel semi-sick after a few too many tastes.

Pretty polkadot cases imported from Brussels

White chocolate. Mmmm!

The finished cupcakes in all their glory, may they make someone's belly very happy!

And finally, a much better picture of our Christmas tree than in my previous post

Now I need to finish some work. Oh sweet, sweet Thursday come soon!

It's beginning to look a (hell of a) lot like Christmas

Words cannot describe how much I am looking forward to the Christmas break. I finish work on Thursday and won't be back at the office until 4th January, which is a glorious feeling.

I am going to Brussels on the 23rd at some ungodly hour* and can't wait to catch up on some family Christmas traditions such as watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and helping out at my mum's shop.

Just a few more days at work, you can doooo iiiiiiit!



*6.20 am. At least the tickets were cheap!

7 followers

Considering how sporadically I update, I am really happy to have 7 followers. I follow all of your blogs with great interest and will definitely be updating a lot more after the Christmas rush.

I have been having a crazy time at work lately, getting home at 11 every night this week. I am tired but happy and will definitely have lots of fun updates ready for you soon. At the moment I have to devote all of my creative juices to my work (which is actually a privilege, not many people have a job they truly love, where they can be creative all day long and get paid decently for it).

You guys make me want to make a real effort. Hopefully getting that Canon after Christmas will mean nicer photos too, which I know will make me want to post more frequently.

So, thank you. All 7 of you! I look forward to getting to know you all better.

x

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Here's a little taster of what's been keeping me verrrrry busy lately...



This is hopefully warming the hearts of the Danish people (or the few that actually have this channel) as we speak.

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

Okay, it's December 1st! And that means I am officially allowed to obsess over Christmas, yay!

Every year my grandma gives me one of those scratch card Christmas calendars and I always buy myself a chocolate calendar, but this year I totally forgot to buy a chocolate one and my gran's Christmas calendar was still in a drawer when I came home from work. Is this what being an adult means?! If so, it kind of blows. I have been and continue to be extremely busy at work and it's causing me to forget the true joy of Christmas. Sigh, at least I go on holiday in two and a half weeks!

Tonight we decorated the Christmas tree and I have to say it's looking particularly awesome this year, wouldn't you agree? Unfortunately my camera doesn't seem to capture the magic of the fairy lights at all, it looks much more splendid IRL.

And here's a close up of one of the hand stitched fabric hearts that me and Pia made a few weeks ago.

This year everything has been carefully attached by pretty silk ribbons in black or hot pink so the tree is kitty-proof.

Happy December 1st!

Edit: It would appear I got so carried away with my decorations that is in fact now December 2nd. Bedtime!

Perfect coat 2.0 and other awesome things

So last week I had my new coat stolen which I was genuinely heartbroken/bitter over for a good 48 hours. Then the other day when I was off work being sneezy and feverish in bed (probably as a result of having to walk home without my coat, ha!) I thought I'd browse the internet for a new coat. To my delight I discovered that Asos had my coat in stock again so I immediately ordered it and almost managed to forget the sting of having to fork out the money for a new coat three weeks after buying it originally. When it arrived I realised my new coat isn't 100% identical to the old one but it'll do. And it does have an awesome big hood! Allow me to present my perfect coat version 2.0 (apologies for the brightness of the photo):

My coat isn't the only awesome purchase made by yours truly in the past week. I decided to treat the kitties to some new apparel fit for the season, too!

Unfortunately, Isobel was less than impressed with her present. I love how her white chest looks like Santa's beard. Grumpy little Santa Miz!

And then for no particular reason other than me already being in my bedroom with my camera out, I thought I'd take a picture of my favourite area of the flat. When we moved in we painted one wall with blackboard paint and I have since claimed this part of the bedroom as my little boudoir. I immediately fell in love with the old chest of drawers when I saw it at Portobello Market last year and knew I had to have it. I love the pale pink colour and the little porcelain knobs, so pretty and kitsch! In the end Daniel got it for me and it means a lot to me.

Have a lovely day!

I love you like a fat kid loves cake

I do apologise for the lack of updates in the last week but I have been incredibly busy with work deadlines and being ill. Not a fun combination, I tell you!

Anyway, this post is basically just an excuse to post photographic evidence of the culinary delights I've somehow managed to squeeze in.

Last Sunday I had my friend Pia over for an afternoon in the name of craftiness and æbleskiver, which is a very Danish Christmas tradition. I know I said I wasn't going to give in yet but y'know, it's just cake and they were DAMN tasty if I do say so myself! And Pia certainly seems to think so...

Then yesterday we had some of Daniel's family over for lunch. Daniel made a delicious pasta dish with aubergine and tomato and I got up early and made ciabatta bread (no pics, sorry!) and a chocolate and raspberry cake. It's one of those cakes with no flour in it, just ground almonds and walnuts, mmm! I customised it by adding fresh raspberries before popping it in the oven and it turned out really well.

I am pretty confident in a kitchen but sometimes when I have a lot going on at work or in my life in general I am more likely to fuck up a recipe (which is one of the worst things I know) so I'm always pleased when something turns out particularly well. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take a picture of the cake while it was still whole and the picture of my slice below doesn't really do the cake justice, but here goes...

  

And finally today I made an awesome soup with chicken, noodles, spring onions and fresh herbs and it was delicious!

 

And the best thing is that I am still losing weight. That's the beauty of stress!

The death of the perfect coat

On Thursday I went out for drinks around Camden with work. A few of us continued the party at the Lock Tavern and I foolishly left my new coat on the sofa while I went to the bathroom. When I came back, the bar was closing up and my coat was gone. I have since called the place and no one has found it/handed it in.

The point isn't that I had to walk home wearing only a cardigan in late November, or that I will have to spend money on a new coat again. What KILLS me is that my coat is sold out. It took me ages to find the perfect coat (black duffle coat with a big hood) and I had it for about 3 weeks before someone took it.

I hope whoever took it gets swine flu. Or chlamydia.

Goodbye, perfect coat! We had some good times.

I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours

I will never tire of this song, ever. It fills me with nostalgia and makes even the bad things seem bittersweet.



The chorus never fails to make me feel euphoric.

Kitty love

Daniel taught Isobel to play fetch. That's right, turns out my little kitty is actually pretty clever.

She brings back her little mouse toy every time you throw it and looks very proud as she nudges it towards you.

I love my Muzz.

Poor Rupert. He's like the Jason Stackhouse to Isobel's Sookie.

The hardest of hearts

I absolutely love Christmas. Completely and unconditionally. Every year I find myself getting extremely excited about big coats, long scarves & mittens, ice skates, Starbucks' red cups, pretty gift wrap, Phil Spector's Christmas hits, mulled wine and lame TV Christmas movies. This in itself isn't the problem. The problem is that I start getting excited about all of this around mid-October. And every year I find that around mid-December, the novelty has worn off and Christmas becomes this big, stressful anticlimax.

This year I am really trying not to give in to my cravings. It's pretty hard to avoid the whole hoo-ha when living in central London, as Oxford Street has been blinged up with tacky lights for several weeks now. And at work, Christmas has been on my daily agenda for ages.

I do love you Christmas, I really do, but I just can't bear to spoil it for myself this year. So I won't allow myself to give in to the cheer until 1st December, where I'll be decorating my Christmas tree with these, amongst others:

Yeah, I couldn't help myself.

Long weekend

Today is the beginning of a nice, long weekend for me. I have taken a few days off work as my aunt is coming to visit and even though she doesn't arrive until tomorrow evening, I have taken the whole day off for a bit of self pampering. Tomorrow is also payday and will be my first full month's pay on my new salary after getting promoted, yay! So as you can imagine, big spending is on the cards...

First order of the day is a haircut. I have needed one for so long, I have split ends galore. Even though I'm looking forward to the whole haircut experience (I always go here, they give awesome head massages and their shampoo smells so fresh and gorgeous), I tend to spend two weeks post-haircut coming to terms with the fact that I am not, nor will I ever be, Zooey Deschanel. Pretty Zooey. So yeah, hopefully my hair will look like a less full, straighter, more blonde version of this come tomorrow afternoon:

After my haircut I will most definitely be spending some money. I am planning on purchasing a cute Comme Des Garçons cardigan (partly inspired by the lovely Cloé). I would post a picture but for some reason I can't get it centred, grrrr. Hopefully I can post a picture of myself wearing it in my next post instead.

I will probably also be getting an iPhone. Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I hate the bloody things, but I do need a new phone pretty desperately and perhaps it's time to get rid of my "Oh-but-I-have-had-Nokias-ever-since-I-was-15" stubbornness.

I am sure I will be buying lots of other things, a shopping update will follow no doubt.

Now it's time for a bit of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl and a long night's sleep, ahhhh!

x

Groundhog Day

After being hungover all day, me and Daniel (I know I should say "Daniel and I" but I think that sounds so formal and lame) decided to rent a film on iTunes. We often do this and I think we might have exhausted their rental selection as it's getting increasingly hard to find a film that isn't about bromance or starring Hilary Duff. Anyway, yesterday we stumbled over the old classic Groundhog Day which made for very pleasurable viewing on a Saturday night.

One of the reasons for starting my blog in the first place was to have a place to post some of my work. I recently made a promo for About Schmidt which is a truly great film (the kind of film we rarely show on the channels I produce for) so I thought I'd put it on here. 

Enjoy! x

Since last update...

I am not super happy with Blogspot and have started the process of creating a new blog. Unfortunately I am a bit of a perfectionist and so, it's taking a while. I find myself taking photos for my blog, then putting off updating it because I want to save the pictures for the new, pretty blog. Alas, I shall try and update this thing on a regular basis until the new super-blog is ready for the grand unveiling.

So, since my last update I have added another year to my age, I have started my new job, it has become autumn, I have discovered the joys of diet Cherry Coke and I have lost a few pounds. All in all, not too shabby.

More recently (as in this weekend) I have had a bit of a Halloween obsession going on and have spent most of my time watching old favourites on dvd. Since Friday, I have watched The Ninth Gate, Hocus Pocus, Carrie and The Nightmare Before Christmas. We are having a Halloween party in a few weeks' time so I am looking for inspiration for an awesome costume.

I also found time to do a bunch of things I have been too lazy to do. I went to Camden to pick up an old vintage bag of mine that had been fixed by a man selling homemade leather bags at the market. I had been putting that off for ages, but it's nice to have it back. Then I walked into town and had a stroll around in the sunshine. Went to Soho Square and had some sushi, then finally went into Frith Street Tattoo to put my name on Valerie Vargas' waiting list so I can get my Russian doll tattoo done. Her waiting list is about a year (which I was expecting), and while it may seem like a long time, I love her work and I would rather wait a while to get the tattoo of my dreams than find another artist and get a less good tattoo out of it. It will stay on my body forever, after all! My other tattoos are much smaller and without colour and while I did think about all of them for quite some time before getting them done, this is a much bigger decision. It will be on my left forearm and therefore far more visible than my others ones, so I want to get it right.

I will finish this very long entry with a few photos taken since my last update.

I made a bunch of cupcakes for a charity cake sale at work

Pretty butterfly at my parents' summer house

Kitties being cute

London is pretty in autumn

I can't believe I live a 5 minute walk away from this

Just doing this post has confirmed how much I dislike Blogspot, what's with the retarded double spacing between paragraphs? Better get my skates on and finish my awesome new blog, huh?

Wants & needs

So I just viewed my blog on my computer at work and it doesn't look so hot in Explorer... I will have to fix it when I get home. I may even use this as an excuse to change the colour scheme to coral pink instead. Hm, this damn thing is pretty time consuming already!

It's my birthday soon(ish) and contrary to last year, I have actually compiled a pretty decent list of things I want already. I guess I have the credit crunch to thank for that!

Here are some of the things I am dreaming of this year:

First impressions...

So, here I am.

Welcome to my humble world-wide-web-abode. Hopefully we'll have plenty of fun times, my new blog and I. This place is still a work in progress but overall I am pretty happy with the look of it.

I suppose I should say a little bit about myself.

My name is Anne, and I live in the grand old city of London.

This is where I work (you would laugh if you saw the bits of it that didn't fit into this carefully orchestrated picture):

I live in a converted silk factory off Old Street with a boy called Daniel who does very clever things with computers and who is usually nice enough to cook for me when I'm working late.

Daniel and I share our home with two completely useless, fat balls of fluff who tend to be rather cute and therefore make up for the fact that they are pretty useless balls of fluff.

This is one of them. Her name is Isobel:

This is Isobel's brother and best friend in the whole world, Rupert:

I am tired and need my bed but I am sure lots of adventures await me in cyberspace.

Goodnight, world!