My Monday: counting down to Christmas

Festive preparations are well underway!

I've never been one to sweep all my Christmas shopping out of the way before December is barely visible on the horizon. I wouldn't say I was last-minute but I'm not the most organised shopper and you'll invariably find me barricaded into a room on Christmas eve, frantically whisking gifts into tissue paper and wondering why bottles of ale never get easier to wrap. This year, however, circumstance has forced me to plan a little further ahead: I've arranged a "fakemas" day and it dances, tantalisingly close, at the end of this week. I return to the bonny Northeast on Thursday and am going to share gifts, cracker jokes and merriment with my family earlier than is traditional.

With this in mind, my Monday has been a frantic rush to finish off the last little bits of present buying. Bristol's generous array of independent shops has made this even more of a delight than usual. There's something much more reassuring about walking into a shop where the vendor knows their trade and product as though it were their own flesh and blood. Asking for recommendations and finding good-quality items to give to loved ones feels so much more meaningful than grabbing a 3 for 2 smellies set from Boots.

With Christmas (and fakemas) fast approaching, I've had to cut back on the few indulgences I like to allow myself and this means missing Patrick Wolf at St. George's tonight, so this evening I am LISTENING to Sundark and Riverlight and moping while I begin my packing. Oh, how I wish I was there! Maybe next time. Still, to cheer me up I have the prospect of a week in Durham and Newcastle- so close I can almost taste the stotties and proper tea - and a thick stack of back issues of Mollie Makes to READ, thanks to Marie at Paris in a Bottle.

This WEEKEND has been a good one: it was Making Things Club last night (more on that later!) and I dressed my tree and got my first batch of Christmas cards posted to friends and family - but I'm itching to get back to the Northeast now! The next couple of days at work won't feel quite real.

I have a feeling next Monday will be a lot more exciting!

Further afield: a weekend in Sheffield

Peace Gardens

Sheffield is one of my favourite cities. Last winter, it seemed like there was hardly a weekend when I wasn't fleeing my beloved Newcastle to lose myself in South Yorkshire. My last visit was in July, for Tramlines festival (mere days before I uprooted myself for good and was sewn into West Country soil) and it almost felt like a different city: I'm accustomed to Sheffield in biting wind, rain and snow and, most of all, the dark.

Last weekend I boarded a train and headed North for my friend Bethan's birthday party. The dress code was strictly childish: we wore onesies, blew bubbles and showered the birthday girl in party popper streamers.

Party time!

On the Sunday, bleary and a little worse for wear, we made our pilgrimage to Bungalows and Bears for the obligatory Sunday roast. I dithered, asked Twitter, then plumped for the veggie roast: sweet potato, cashew and cheddar bake. I assure you, it rivals the meat options.

Bungalows and Bears

After our Sunday dinner came the inevitable and always sad part of an all-too-rare gathering of friends: people began peeling off in dribs and drabs towards the station. This year has seen even more of us scatter across the country so there are less people grouped in one place and it means each goodbye is tainted with the uncertainty of when we'll next see eachother. Still, it makes every time I do see my friends ever more precious. I had decided to make a weekend of it and stay on another night, so those of us who were left browsed the Christmas market, bought chocolate-covered fruit and made a beeline for the arts tower. If you've been to Sheffield but not up this, you've missed a trick. It's the second tallest building in the city (says Wikipedia) and home to a paternoster lift - equal measures exciting and terrifying. I'd been up before but only in the daytime. This time, we waited for an arts student to emerge so we could dash in and up to the top, where we sat and gazed out over the city for far longer than we'd originally intended. There's something so peaceful about watching life go by, spread out beneath you in a glistening tapestry.

View of Sheffield from the University Arts Tower

Our next stop was an old, derelict church. We found our way into a vast old hall with old furniture stacked in place of pews and a rope swing reaching out to the darkness below. This was perhaps something I never would have done in the past, but old buildings take on a wondrous quality when they're unoccupied.

Photo by Jo.

That evening, I headed off to the O2 Academy to see Squeeze. I was the youngest person there by about thirty years and maybe the only one on their own, but it was astoundingly good. Glenn Tilbrook's voice hasn't altered one bit over the years and the one hour forty minutes set of perfection was absolutely worth the steep ticket price. My only regret is that I couldn't make it to any more of the dates on the tour.

Squeeze @ O2 Academy Sheffield

My last day in Sheffield was a lot less rushed. I saw various friends, ate a hearty lunch at Blue Moon, mooched around the Christmas market again and then made a trip to the Peace Gardens to see the borrowed Blackpool illuminations and have my photo taken with Postman Pat and Jess.

Photo by Natalie.

After all that, I felt like I'd filled my weekend to the brim for once. But don't worry, Bristol. I'm back.

Making Things Club: pop-up shop

Christmas is coming - and who doesn't love an advent? In the heart of Bristol's shopping quarter, Broadmead, a pop-up delight has sprung up, taking root among the bustle and chatter of the Christmas market. Its proud parents are none other than Making Things Club's Chris and Lori and it's much more than just an emporium of gorgeous, hand-crafted goodies: they are also running workshops right through from now until 24th December. You can scurry along and learn how to make a whole host of festive wonders. My top picks are festive needle felting on Thursday the 13th and "not-so-ordinary" gift wrapping on the 12th and 18th.

The pop-up shop showcases the work of thirteen makers and everything is hand-made. I went along on Tuesday evening to explore the newly-opened shop and snaffle a mince pie (okay, and to see Lori and Chris). I took a few photos of the wares on display...

Some darling little squirrels, made by Little Birdy.

Prints, cards, totes and Christmas decorations, including cards by Lou Archell (Little Green Shed).

Plush goodies by various makers.

The shop is located between the Galleries and Quakers Friars, just outside of Azuza and Specsavers. The next Making Things Club is this Sunday at Cafe Kino in Stokes Croft.

My Monday: naps and scraps

Last night saw me don my gladrags for my work Christmas do, so today has been all about napping, orange juice and more napping. I feel like I never get the chance to dress up these days so I threw on my best dress,  LISTENED to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme tune on repeat and shimmied around my room before heading to Za Za Bazaar on the harbourside and then dancing on until the morning.

Half of the fun of going out is the getting ready!

The do itself and the resulting lag of fatigue have eaten away most of the WEEKEND, but I've still had this evening to soak in the bath, make a start on my birthday scrapbook and nurse fragrant mugs of hot elderflower cordial. Yesterday morning I ventured to the Cube to mooch around the Christmas market and picked up a couple of gifts for friends and now I'm itching to actually see a film there! What a lovely little cinema.

I've been re-watching The Young Ones over the past couple of days and spotting places I think I might know - including the street where the house was located (or at least, the outside of the house), which is only a few streets over from mine, so I might pay it a visit to see if it's changed! Tonight I'll be retiring early to bed and taking Pathologize This! - a mental health zine - with me to READ. I picked it up from Princesa Pirata Distro's stand at the Cube yesterday.

The weekend doesn't feel like it's been long enough this time round - but what I've had of it, I've enjoyed!

Have You Ever Heard the Lovely Eggs? @ Start The Bus

The tour is only just beginning! Catch them at your local venue in the next week or so.

Last night saw the very lovely Lovely Eggs begin their Wildlife tour with a free show at Start The Bus in Bristol, with support from local popsters Schnauser (replacing the Thyme Machine in the support slot). Having managed to miss my favourite eggs (hard-boiled aside) twice in the last year or so due to ill health, there was no way I was going to be anywhere but STB this time!

Schnauser were sound-checking (in a very twinkly fashion) when I arrived and then had the good grace not to get started until I'd settled myself with a pint (it's almost as if they knew). I really liked them. Imagine a world where the Indelicates taught key stage 1 and you've got Schnauser. The stand-out track for me was "Moron": I'm a sucker for anything that has me snorting with amusement as well as tapping my foot.

If Schnauser are the over-enthusiastic school-teachers at a suburban primary, the Lovely Eggs are the problem child in year 5 who probably shouldn't be allowed fizzy pop in public. They said themselves: "We write a lot of songs about food. We've been given shit for being childish and childlike, but we say, it's not just kids that eat." It's true: they do write a lot of songs about food (including new'un "Food", which, oddly enough, feels like a pop anthem to me), but who doesn't love food? I can identify with hits about sausage rolls perhaps even better than I can with songs about heartbreak (I was a teenage girl for seven whole years). And that's the best thing about the Lovely Eggs. They don't take themselves seriously but they're great at what they do and that's throwing out carefree pop songs about people being twats, anxiety and how, if you've never heard a digital accordion, you're probably going to burn in hell.

In short, bobbing along with the rest of the giddy, flailing crowd, last night was the most fun I've had in a good while that hasn't involved an episode of Hebburn and half a packet of chocolate digestives.
The Lovely Eggs are on tour until 2nd December (see photo, above) and their new album, Wildlife, is out on Monday (26th November)

My Monday: low GI baking

A bottle of red makes for a surprisingly good rolling pin!

A couple of months into the diagnosis of PCOS and the associated label of insulin resistance and I am becoming more and more frustrated by the limits of the lifestyle rules I now have to stick to. I knew that if I didn't make myself some low GI treats soon, I'd slip back into the dangerous life of a carb adorer. So today has been all about keeping me happy: a slightly pricey trip to Scoopaway, a perusal of GI High-Energy Cookbook and a few hours in the kitchen later and... well, I think it all needs further work. But I have a rough idea of the ingredients it's safe to use and how - and their shortcomings.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the end product of my efforts today, I always enjoy baking and it was a fun way of spending my day off. I may have to invest in a rolling pin, though, as I had to improvise: luckily there just happened to be a full bottle of wine standing on the dining table. As I've been baking, I've been LISTENING to Dworkin's Bastards by ONSIND and singing along at the top of my voice.

I've worn myself out this WEEKEND, but for good reason: my mum and sister visited for a few days and I made it my mission to show them my favourite bits of Bristol - and discovered a few places I hadn't known existed myself! I've fallen into bed each night without even the energy to READ a few pages of my book, but I always awake with enough to watch an episode or three of Gossip Girl - I'm finally getting into it several years late and am on season 2 - so no spoilers, please!

Would you look at the time? It's almost start of a new week (one which brings payday and a Christmas do). Goodnight!

Bonfire Night

Last week, my flatmates and I decided to host a very last-minute bonfire night get-together. As it fell on a Monday this year, I was off work on the day of the party and took it upon myself to get things together and make it a little bit more special than just a fire at the end of the garden. I come into my element when you label something as an event, and there were a few things I was adamant our guests should be provided (and delighted) with: toffee apples and hot, mulled cider (click-through for recipes); marshmallows on sticks; baked bananas oozing the darkest, richest chocolate; and sparklers.

The pumpkin lantern and fireside snacks.

Of course, if I'm going to have guests I'm going to spruce the place up a little. The fire was at the end of our rather long garden, so I studded the path with tealights in glass jars to light the way, finishing with a pair of lights in the archway through to the bonfire, where a pumpkin flickered next to dishes of sweet treats. We banked the fire up, watched it fizzle, roar into life and then die right down again all before our guests arrived. Luckily we coaxed a bit more life out of it and soon the air was filled by the snaps and warmth of a good bonfire, and the chatter of friends. I ladled out the hot, fragrant cider and someone came clutching a bag of corn for popping, so we covered it in a pan nestled in the brightly burning embers.

Poaching a view of someone else's fireworks.

Fireworks lit up the sky, mainly courtesy of our neighbours or a local display, we didn't know which. A guest also arrived with a small box which, when let off, fizzed upwards into the night as we gazed upwards. I doled out the sparklers and we did the usual: circles, lovehearts and furious attempts to write our names so that the letters all hung in the air at once.

"Kitt" - just one letter shy of managing to write my name with a sparkler.

The big, organised displays can be impressive but this girl is a convert: a back-garden get-together with hot booze and idle chat can be even better.