Ode to a mug

Is there any pleasure like the pleasure of a cup of tea in your new favorite mug?

I bought this mug at a honey farm in Cornwall last summer.  I wanted to take it to work to remind me of the blue horizon on grey, hard days when it feels like all I do is sleep and sit at my desk.  A few weeks ago I saw the same mug in a shop and suddenly remembered - what had happened to my mug?  I had misplaced it in the hustle of returning home and found it again today unexpectedly, which made the joy of first use even greater.  In celebration, I put hot chocolate in it and took it up to bed.

Very bad things

So many terrible things happened to me on Monday.  First of all, it was a Monday morning in early December.  December should be a time of anticipation and excitement, or so I thought before I started working.  When at school/college/university, December is a time of winding down, poems about robins, rehearsals for Christmas productions (I was once Father Christmas himself, a role I took very seriously), Christmas lists and snow.  That's how it seems as I look back anyhow.  In the big scary world of work however, things are very different.  December is a month of frantic activity, boarding on panic, as the world and his wife declares Important Things must happen before Christmas or all is DOOMED.  Apparently, nothing can possibly be accomplished in January because everyone is far too depressed by post-holiday hangover and empty wallet syndrome.  Therefore, everything that ever needs to happen ever, must happen by December 24.  Sometimes these things don't happen, but then they usually happen in February (once I even heard of something happening in January, but it may be an office legend).

Monday was a disasted for the following reasons:

1. I woke up in complete disbelief that it could be time to get up already.  My phone must be wrong.  There is no light from yonder window.  It is unnatural to get out of bed in the pitch black.  Also, I was having intense Lord of the Rings related dreams about epic battles that would determine the fate of Middle Earth, which made the pile of things on my desk seem very unimportant by comparison. 
2. I left the house late (see 1) and got ten steps from my door when my feet flew from under me and I landed on the icy pavement, resulting in several tears and serious contemplation of retuning to bed.  I decided that falling over and being a little bruised and upset did not justify a sick day.
3. Several other things failed to go smoothly, mostly involving Outlook freezing at inopportune moments.
4.  My work blackberry was finally presented to me - not entirely a bad thing but it has cemented the fact that I am now a proper grown up who pays taxes, has a pension and opinions on Michael Gove.
5. Husband has a man cold, requiring much sympathy and olbas oil.

However, I am going to attempt to be positive and sprightly and zingy and perhaps tomorrow will be better.  Or perhaps I really will break something on the sheet ice, and will be emailing frantically on the blackberry from my hospital bed.

Oh Christmas tree

I love traditions and Christmas traditions in particular.  One of the lovely things about setting up your own home and starting your own little family of two is that you can start your own family traditions, as well as keeping up the old.  When I was a child, my mum would let us choose a new decoration each year when we went to get our Christmas tree from a local garden center.  Our tree was a joyful mis-match of salt dough creations, heirloom decorations bought by my Grandma in Germany and new and shiny trinkets that had caught our eyes in the treasure cave decoration aisle that year.

My new tradition in my own home and for my own tree is to make a new decoration each year.  Last year I made this Babushka, from Felties by Nelly Pailloux.

I have been searching for a pattern for this years decoration and came across these beauties:

Half eaten gingerbread man

Personalised Onesie

Felt baubles - these would also make beautiful Christmas cards

String Baubles - this is an Easter project but I think they would look great on a tree!

Modeling clay snowflakes

Happy December 2nd!