Year: 2014

Cookies

Online Cookie Exchange

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For a while now, I’ve been seeing these cookie exchanges everywhere. I’ve never really known what they were about, it seems people bake cookies, and then give them to others. What says on the tin… Recently, I was invited to take part in an online cookie exchange, go figure! It came at about the same time I was wondering about how it all worked. The cookie exchange is done thanks to Patience Brewster, an artist that creates hand painted Christmas ornaments, as well as gifts for holiday and everyday decor. You can see their Facebook page here, where they’re showing some other recipes. I’ve been trying to bake cakes these days, and unfortunately, I almost forgot about this exchange! However, here I am, right at the last minute, taking part in the 2014 cookie exchange. The cookies I chose are a favourite from when I was a kid. They’re not Christmas cookies themselves, but I love them so much I decided to go with them. I found the recipe online, but I made a couple …

Stacked Christmas presents

Wrapping up Christmas

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As Christmas Day is gone and Boxing Day is slowly ending as well, I can’t help but feel a bit smug. That’s the true spirit of the season, right? I’m only joking… about the spirit of Christmas, not the smugness! You see, I believe Christmas is probably my favourite time of the year. Scrap that, let’s say holiday of the year, because I really like summer. Usually I am in full Christmas mode from September, and I just can’t help it. This year I wasn’t feeling the Christmas spirit that much, and I haven’t gone to Oxford Street or Winter Wonderland, despite being off work since last Thursday. Even the carols on my Spotify Christmas list have been somewhat absent. I don’t normally like shopping either, but during this period I make an exception, because I like getting people presents. Last Friday I met my friend Sean and we went Christmas shopping to Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush. First thought I had was that it was busy, even though it was actually emptier than I had …

Handwritten text

Handwriting

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This week I read an article on The Guardian that made me think. It was about the fact that handwriting is obsolete and that schools are stopping to teach cursive as part of their curriculum. You can read the article here While generally I’m quite forward-thinking and I enjoy adopting new trends and technologies, I am also quite traditional in certain areas. True, I am not afraid of chopping my hair off, download the latest app to tell me what’s going on in my town, or learn how to program. I think it’s good to evolve and look towards the future. However, it’s also important to retain a sense of the past. I am still not convinced about ebooks. Sure, it saves paper, but they use batteries, and their manufacturing and components aren’t that safe (batteries and all that). True, one ebook device can hold many books, which would have otherwise been made of paper, but if I read on an electronic device, I have no sense as to how long the book is, how …

And we’re off…

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On Wednesday, we had our company Christmas party. I think it’s safe to say it’s the event of the year we’re all looking forward to. This year, at last, the main theme was circus (dream circus, actually!) so I was very excited about it. To be honest, I didn’t really like the party this year. I am supposed to be one of the organisers, but this year a lot of things were taken out of our control by hiring a venue with a theme already in place, decorations and performers. I think I had expected a bit more, I don’t know. I decided to wear a black long shirt-dress for the evening, with my yellow high heels. Since I was self-conscious of the length of the dress, I needed to make sure everything was kept safely covered all night. I had a bit of an issue with a button coming undone and showing a little bit more cleavage than I wanted (a wardrobe malfunction I only notice when I caught my friend staring way below …