2013 Christmas Songs

Because I was sick from Tuesday and had a very quiet and boring weekend. With the exception of the Grace@xx service and Ma coming over for lunch I did very little so a weekend update seems silly.

While Ma was here on Sunday, she reviewed (and approved) the 2013 Christmas CD. The Christmas CD started in 2010, when godchildren 2 & 3 found the tapes that their uncle and father used to make. We made one in 2010 and now we make one every year and inflict it on the people that we love.

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This year we’d like to inflict it on more people, it’s what Stef and Keir would have wanted!

Would you like a CD of Christmas music? If so, you can let me know in the comments or email me at nic06dempsey@gmail.com and we’ll get a CD to you. If you actually know me in real life and don’t already get a CD and want one, now is the time to let me know!

 

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Sunday Music

Haim – The Wire, so 80’s..

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Weekend Task List

Saturday, time to sort myself out so I can do very little during the rest of the week! This weekends jobs are:

Kitchen

  • Clean the oven. Again because it cleaner but not exactly shiny!
  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, mopping the floor and general cleaning)

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Cooking

  • Food prep for the week, breakfasts and lunches
  • Sort out the ‘disaster bread’ recipe so it works
  • Make chicken stock

Bathroom

  • General clean (mop floor, change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet)
  • Sort out and clean bathroom cabinet

Bedroom

  • General clean (mop floor, change bed, dust, general tidy)
  • Sort out jewellery drawer

Living Room

  • General clean (sweep floor, dust, tidy sofa, put things away etc)

Hall

  • Hoover

General House things

  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Water plants
  • Shopping
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle and camera batteries

What’s on your to-do list this weekend?

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Milk Loaf

I wanted to make an easy soft white loaf that I could use for sandwiches etc. A ‘normal’ loaf. This is another recipe from Dan Lepard and fits the bill perfectly.

I used semi skimmed milk because it’s what they had at the supermarket, the rest I turned into yogurt and I’ll talk a bit more about that later!

Milk Loaf

Now I’m into the groove of sourdough and it’s very slow rise (I started a sourdough loaf on Saturday night and finally baked it on Monday morning!) this loaf with yeast rose really quickly by comparison and took about 2 and half hours from start to finish. It’s really lovely, tastes amazing and makes brilliant cheese sandwiches!

Milk Loaf sliced

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The Table re-set Grace @ XX

The Table  re-set Grace @ XX 2013 11 09 (2)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Grace. Over the summer, we decided that we’re going to re-visit some previous services and this month it’s the turn of ‘The Table’.

If any of you fancy finding out more about Grace and what we do, this would be a good service to come along to, we’re all friendly and one of the things that we do really well is food!

You can find out more here.

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Nail Varnish – What I Wore

This month’s nail varnish colours. Just in case you were wondering, when I paint my nails, I start with the Mavala Nail Hardener, base coat is the Sally Hansen Miracle Cure, then for a topcoat I use either Sally Hansen Insta-Dri or Seche Vite or Essie Good to Go. I prefer the first two but am using up the Essie! Once a week I use cuticle remover (this one) and I try to remember to oil my cuticles regularly but tend to do it more in the week, when I’m at my desk than the weekend! All of that sounds really high maintenance but is more time consuming to write than to actually do!

30 September

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M&S – City Grey. This doesn’t have fantastic staying power but I love the colour.

02 October

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MUA – Shade 9. MUA is a bit hit and miss. I have a couple of £1 eyeshadows that are great! However, this was a nightmare. Was difficult to put on, the brush was useless and it took 3 coats to look anything like opaque and the coverage still wasn’t perfect. To add insult to injury it chipped when I was in the shower and I suddenly remembered why it had been sitting in the drawer forever, so this is the last time I’ll wear it as I threw it away. 

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Barry M Gelly – Blackberry, I love this colour but am actually finding it a bit too shiny. Also my nails, for the first time in an age, actually needed filing back. Over the summer they just broke once they got to a certain, not very long, length. 

5 October

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The varnish chipped badly chipped while I was defrosting the fridge on Saturday night, so I took it off, put the base coat on and what with one thing and another they stayed like that for a couple of days!

10 October

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Essie – Mesmerize. Essie strikes again with the great colour but a stupid name! and yes blue is my favourite colour and for my nails, my default colour!)

14 October

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Essie – Angora Cardi and I managed to scrape the top of one of them on the wall so a white mark!

17 October

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Barry M – Blueberry Ice Cream

23 October

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Marks and Spencer Autograph in Mink – Painted in a hurry and chipping by the time that I took the photo on the afternoon of the 24th.

30 October

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Essie – Angora Cardi. After 4 days of bare nails back to this one.

1 November

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Barry M – Cyan Blue, trying much harder to paint my nails properly!

2 November

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Essie – Bobbing for Baubles (they really do have ridiculous names!). This is supposed to be a blue-gray but on my nails looks almost navy.

So what about you? Do you paint your nails? Favourite colour? Favourite brand of polish? Nail care tips? Tell me about it in the comments!

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Photos – Oli and the Fireworks

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What I Did – Weekend Task Update

I decided this week that I like having the task list update to keep me accountable! I’m going to set it to publish on Monday afternoons, please feel free to ignore if you don’t want to know, I won’t be offended!

Kitchen

  • Clean the oven. No I didn’t get around to it this week, I’m rubbish… it’s done but it’s not as clean as I’d like. I’m going to do it again next week and make sure it never gets that bad again
  • General clean (this means sorting out the recycling and rubbish, mopping the floor and general cleaning)

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Cooking

  • Food prep for the week, breakfasts and lunches
  • Make sourdough
  • Sort out the ‘disaster bread’ recipe so it works
  • Pastry for mince pies.

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Bathroom

  •  General clean (mop floor, change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet)

Bedroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change bed, dust, general tidy) 
  • Wash bedroom rugs

Living Room

  • General clean (sweep floor, dust, tidy sofa, put things away etc)

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Hall

  • Hoover

General House things

  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Water plants
  • Shopping
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle and camera batteries.

I also sorted out another two drawers, rang the bank and took a dress to the dry cleaners.  I’m feeling pretty smug about how much I got done, I didn’t try the ‘disaster bread’ again and I forgot to buy the Trex for the pastry but I will do that this week, it won’t take five minutes!

What about you guys? Successful task focussed weekend or lazy do nothing time instead?

What’s on your to-do list this weekend?

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The Weekend

On Friday evening Ma and I dragged ourselves all the way to North London, to see Handbagged at the Tricycle Theatre. The play was really good, very funny.

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The wine before the play was much appreciated and we ended up as we sometimes do talking to a man and his daughter who were staying in London for 5 days and were packing in all the culture they could. I felt quite exhausted thinking about their schedule!

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Normally, my weekends only really work if I get a day to attend to the housework and shopping, however this weekend a whole day at home was not going to happen! So I got up at 9am and just got things done! By 2pm, I’d tidied the bedroom, the living room, sorted the rubbish , backed up the laptop, phoned the bank, done the food shopping and picked up a parcel. All that and I left the house in good time to meet Ma on the 2.53pm from Shepherds Bush to Watford.

At Watford Spiderman came to pick us up at the station.

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We played some games with Ol and had some indoor sparklers.

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We had dinner at Ban and Lu’s (sausages and mash, apple crumble for pudding, brilliantly cooked by the whole family!) and went to watch the fireworks.

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Train home and I still wasn’t done, I started the oven cleaning process, the sourdough, took another load of washing out, painted my nails and went to bed.

On Sunday, I started with housework, cleaned the oven, the kitchen and the bathroom. House done, I went to the cinema. I was going to go to see Thor: The Dark World by myself but Ma (who really enjoyed The Avengers, much to her surprise) opted to come too. The film was good and Ma and I were both happy with the eye candy! We headed to Westfield for champagne and lunch!

I got home, made bread and chilled until bedtime.

It’s been a really good weekend, where I was productive at home AND social. So I’m rested and ready for the next week of work!

How was your weekend? Are you ready for the work week ahead or in need of another day off?

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Sunday Music

Lorde – Royals

Because I do flirt with modern music…

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