As Vincent Van Gogh once said, "For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." and I feel that I have been seeing stars everywhere these days. Last month we attended the world premiere of 'A Christmas Star'-a feel-good family festive movie to help everyone get into the yuletide spirit. The premiere, which took place at the Odyssey Cinema, saw the local writer, production team and cast members-including home-grown talent Bronagh Waugh and Roma Tomelty come together with Lord Julian Fellowes for a 'star' studded evening. The movie is now available on DVD and well worth a watch over the holiday season.
Robbie-following the star theme- with Zena Donnelly who sings the theme tune from the movie.
Stars have also made their way into our home in preparation for the Christmas season with the addition of this star light from Home Bargains and although it's battery operated which I normally hate-always running out of batteries/forgetting to turn off etc-this one comes with a 2 hour timer so it automatically switches itself off it you want it to-genius for £9.99!
The silver pumpkins have been replaced with the silver stars which, to be honest, have never been put away since last Christmas-they've just been given a more prominent position. Another investment buy from TK Maxx which I figure will be used for many years to come.
While watching "Kirstie's Homemade Christmas", I couldn't help thinking that our young people could give Ms Allsopp a run for her money. What started out as a lunchtime project in school creating some small craft pieces has now turned into a bit of a cottage industry with pupils working before and after school as well as at lunchtimes to create an entire collection of handmade Christmas decorations and ornaments-many crafted out of pieces of wood, chopped down by my dad. Pupils and staff alike have benefited from the therapeutic arts of painting, cutting, sticking and sewing a beautiful range of unique and individual pieces to adorn any home and all for a good cause-raising money for a charity of their choice.
And the creative streak has obviously rubbed off on others as my friend and colleague, Cheryl, designed and hand-painted this gorgeous wooden letter for another colleague's new born baby. How cute is this? I'm encouraging her to take orders!
As the temperatures have dipped and the winds and rain have picked
up, it has been time to dig out the winter woollies and faux furs and what
could be more fitting for Pink Mum than some pink numbers? Ear wrap from Next
and coat from TK Maxx.
I had been eyeing up this Boden bag for a while but was never going to splash out £150 for it so you can imagine how delighted I was to discover it for £49 in TK Maxx-with a further 20% discount during their Friends and Family weekend-result!
Nearly True Narnia
Layers were indeed needed when we recently attended the
Nearly True Tales Tour at Campbell College
as part of the CS Lewis Festival.
As a Narnia fan and a previous attendee at Nearly True Tours, I was keen
to see how the zany duo, George and Marie, delivered the story of CS Lewis’s
life and his early days spent at the school. For those of you who are not
familiar with the concept of Nearly True Tours, it involves a madcap meander through
a local area, blending historical fact and hilarious fiction where everything
you are told is guaranteed to be ‘nearly true!’ On this occasion, the pair did
not disappoint and the walking tour of just over an hour, culminated with a
delicious coffee and cupcake in front of a roaring fire-just what was needed
for a frosty November afternoon. The CS Lewis festival has become an annual
event with a wide range of activities, screenings, poetry readings and music to
be enjoyed by all ages so make sure to look out for it next year.
Winter Woodland Wedding
We were very privileged to share the special day of our friends Gary and Jenny who totally embraced the autumn, woodland theme at their Mount Stewart wedding last month. Who would have thought that the sun would shine so brightly on a Hallowe'en day? There was no doom or gloom on this spectacular day-the sun
shone, the sea shimmered and the champagne was sipped as we celebrated this wonderful wedding day at the Temple of the Winds and then Clandeboye Lodge.
It's been a busy time for special birthdays in our family this year-my cousin and best friend Lynn's 50th followed by my hubby's 60th! (More on that next time). It's always difficult to know what to buy for those special birthdays but as Lynn has always been a big photo fan and we have celebrated many momentous occasions together over the years, I decided to try my hand at putting together a scrapbook for her-containing a wealth of photos throughout the years but also letters that she had sent me since an early age. It has been great fun re-reading these and being reminded of all the hopes and dreams we had all those years ago-as well as the 'worries' of boyfriends and continuous communication about what we would wear to the forth coming party or 'disco'.
And do you know, some things never change because as I prepared to leave for the weekend, my phone was constantly pinging with updates from Lynn and her sister Julie as we checked up on what
everyone was wearing over the birthday celebration weekend! 40 years later and we are still at it-and as usual I was still deciding at the last minute! I didn't have my camera at the party so no pics of our party outfits-just more stars-jammies for Robbie and I!
Hope you are all surviving the run up to Christmas-I'm not at all organised and have only managed to put up trees-no other decorations as yet so that's my plan for this weekend.
Tx
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