Hope everyone had a great Christmas! The festivities started on Chritmas eve for us with Leigh's parents coming up to stay the night. We had a great dinner of fresh prawns, roast turkey and vegies. For dessert we had Leigh's mums famous pavlova. Christmas morning Leigh whipped up pancakes with fresh strawberries and maple syrup and we all got stuck into the pressies.
We then headed off to Bilambil Heights to my Mum & Dad, we all visited my grandparents at the home then headed home for another turkey & veg dinner.
Speaking of pressies I did very well!!!
Leigh got me:
Tickets to Wicked, I have been dying to see this and now I will on the 2nd March
A Pandora Charm
The new Beckham fragrance Intimately Yours
Celine & Paris got me the following blu rays
My in-laws gave me pj's and some money and my Mum & Dad gave me a maxi dress, some shoes and a top, make up and the following blu rays
I started a tradition many years ago of buying myself a christmas present and this year I decided to get the LAMB bag I had been coveting, as luck would have it, it arrived on Christmas eve and it is even nicer in person.
Boxing day we decided to avoid the sales and the crowds (I just was not feelilng up to it) and instead we went to the movies as I had a voucher from my birthday I had not used.
Being fans of Meet the parents and Meet the fockers of course we decided on Little Fockers. The whole gang is back but the movies pretty much is all Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro. If you like the first 2 movies then you will enjoy this one. I needed a laugh after all the drama of late and I certainly got a few - the youtube clip at the end is one of the highlights.
Enjoy the time off over the next few days and if you get a chance leave me a comment and let me know what you got for Chrissy!
Lots of fun things to try here, you can track Santa and try the naughty or nice list! http://www.santaclaus.net/
Watch a Christmas movie:
My 2 faves are Elf & The Grinch
Play your fave Christmas tune!
LAST CHRISTMAS - WHAM!
DO THEY KNOW ITS CHRISTMAS - BAND AID
WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS
I hope everyone has a wonderful & safe Christmas, have lots of fun, laughs & food! I hope all your Christmas wishes come true.
I will close with something that has been a fave of mine since I was a little girl.
love to you all
Nic x
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!
"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.
His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"
After testing many,many shower gels/body washes over the past 10 years my holy grail has to be the ones by Philosophy. I had heard about these and seen them in Mecca but balked at paying $40 for shower gel. As soon as I touched down in the USA the first time back in 2004 my first stop was Sephora (really it was - we got to our hotel, showered & changed and headed to Hollywood where we ordered breakfast and while waiting I ran downstairs to Sephora!!) The body washes are only $16 a bottle over there so I grabbed 2 and decided on chocolate ice cream & strawberry milkshake. Not only do they smell divine and leave you oh so clean they have a fantastic lather, its like a bubble bath in your shower.
On our next trip the following year I stocked up with some new flavors, senorita margarita & vanilla birthday cake. I have been rationing out these 4 bottles for a little while now and as no trip to the US is on the horizon I decided to do some online investigating and to my surprise strawberrynet now has them!! They are $24 a bottle (still better than Mecca's $35) and with my various loyalty discounts they come down to $22 and of course the shipping is free.
I decided to treat myself to the following three:
This will be a nice treat to get in the mail post Christmas
This time last week we had to pack the girls up and head to a new residence for the week while the work on our shower began. We found a nice little place that was animal friendly up on Latrobe Tce and enjoyed a week of BBQ's and being within walking distance of some cafe's & shops. Paris & Celine were not impressed about the relocation at first but settled down just as it was time for us to leave.
Our shower pretty much just decided to fall apart a few months back, the tiles from a large section just dropped off one afternoon. When the insurers came to look we found out that there was large amounts of water damage and that the shower would need to be reapired as stage one then 2 walls and floorboards would have to be replaced in stage two.
We got to go pick a new shower head, hand held and tap and also the tiles, as we have done no renovations to this house it was quite exciting!
Stage 2 will be a huge pain as besides moving out again the shower backs on to our office and that is one of the water damaged walls to be replaced which means packing up the whole office (I have so many books it will take forever!)
Here are the before & after shots!!
BEFORE - Grotty white tiles, plastic taps, sad old shower head & the large hole taped over!!
AFTER: Large midnight blue tiles, funky huge square shower head, slimline handheld shower head & one flick mixer
The colur of the tiles is so nice in person - just a little hard to photograph
I am so excited! I just got front row tickets to see Belinda Carlisle next Feb!!! I love Belinda, she is in my list of female singers I love and I have never been able to see her live. I have been lucky enough to see other females I adore like Olivia Newton-John, Madonna, Kylie, Gwen Stefani.
I liked The Go-Go's but I became a huge fan when Belinda went solo, her first album Belinda I played over & over and I used to watch the video for Mad about you all the time. I admit I even dyed my hair red when she did.
Unfortunately she is not playing a great venue but I don't care as I am going to get to see her sing all my fave songs!!!
Leigh pulled out the Chritmas decorations yesterday and this is the result. We have not done much this year compared to other years, we just got the baby fiber optic tree out instead of our huge tree with all our ornaments I have collected for years - I just could not be bothered spending hours putting that big tree together and decorating it. Oh well I guess this is festive enough!
For my birthday in August one of the presents Leigh gave me was tickets to West Side Story, he knows how much I love the film and that I was dying to see the live show.
Unfortunately for me I came down with whooping cough a few weeks ago and did not think i would be well enough to make it, it was pretty touch & go all day but that night I dragged myself out of bed, threw on a maxi dress, pulled my hair back and had to go sans make up (had no other choice as the sweats you get with this are pretty bad). I decided to avoid mirrors all evening.
All that aside we got there and had great seats in the 4th row. I was a bit concerned when they announced before curtin that Tony was going to be played by the understudy... but anyway on with the show.
I have always loved the opening, the thought of tough street gangs dancing around New York city is so cool! The dancing was fantastic and so were the costumes. Seeing some of my favourite songs come to life like 'Tonight', 'America','Somewhere','I feel pretty' & 'Gee Officer Krupke' was so enjoyable. All the leads were great especially Maria, Anita & the understudy Tony.
If you love the movie then you should go see the live production, it is well worth it. I was so glad I was able to go, just wish I had felt better.
Jennifer Aniston launched her first fragrance at Harrods London in July, so far it is still only available in the UK. The fragrnce is described as: Top notes of citrus grove and rose water, middle notes of blooming jasmine, violets and Amazon lily; and finally, base notes include a sensual musk, golden amber and sandalwood.
I have just purchased a bottle from a UK ebay seller, I will update this post when it arrives.
UPDATE
Parcel arrived today, and it is a lovely fragrance, would be a great one for everyday/work wear. The violet and rose stand out and the dry down is lovely. Good lasting power. A very nice clean fragrance. Fits perfectly with Jennifers image, I could imagine her wearing this no problem.
I am a huge fan of Gwen Stefani and love her L.A.M.B label. I have been lucky enough to get a few pieces from some USA stores that ship to Aus. Here are some of my fave L.A.M.B pieces:
I am loving the holiday collection from Project D and in particular this dress called 'snowdrop'
Its pure silk and I love the colours. Hopefully David Jones Queens Plazza will have this one when they get the new collection next year as I would love to see it up close, however like other Project D dresses the price is a bit out of my range and I think this one is approx $800 - sigh.
I finally have my hands on a copy of the album I have been waiting for all year - Take That Progress. I have been a huge Take That fan since 1993 but they never really seemed to take off in Australia until back for good. Finally they were touring in 1995 and I got up in the dark to go wait for tickets only to find out a few hours later Robbie had quit, I was dissappointed as Robbie was my fave member but the show went on and it was a great concert.
Robbie of course went on to become a huge solo star and I finally got to see him live for the first time in 2001 (had to check myself out of hospital to go but there was no way I was missing finally being able to see Rob live). Take That got back together a few years ago and had great success with the albums Beautiful World & The Circus - The Circus live blu ray is excellent and its a shame they did not bring the tour out here.
I have listened to the album a few times and really like it, it has a little more rock edge to it than previous Take That albums but very very catchy. Some of the tracks that stand out for me area SOS, Pretty Things, The Flood & Eight Letters. There is also a hidden track that starts at 5.04 minutes into the last song. This album will no doubt be huge in the UK and I hope it takes off out here as I would love it if the Progress tour came here.
Katy Perry is releasing a fragrance called Purr. I love Katy so I can not wait to have a sniff and see what its like. It will be available from Nordstroms in the US from mid-November, no word yet on a release date for us.
Purr by Katy Perry begins with the aroma of peach nectar and forbidden apple, evolves with a distinct floral bouquet of jasmine blossom, Bulgarian rose and vanilla orchid, and slowly reveals accents of creamy sandalwood and musk.
The cat bottle for Purrr
Katy looks fab in this Miu Miu dress - the advert for the perfume is behind her
Project D is the label created by Dannii Minogue & Tabitha Somerset-Webb and they have just launched the lines first fragrance in the UK.
The scent description:
The natural top accord incorporates inspiration from Neroli, Bergamot and Ylang Ylang gliding through a sense of intrigue and mystery into the whirl wind heart accord of Tuberose, Japanese Osmanthus, Mimosa and Purple Orchid. Finally, the senses are ignited with magnetic and provocative notes of creamy Sandalwood, exotic Saffron, Skin Musks and hot Amber oils.
Not available in Australia till next year the only way you can get your hands on this is through the website http://www.25tenboutique.com/ who ship worldwide! Just ordered mine!
UPDATE:
My parcel of Project D fragrance from 25ten arrived today, took 8 working days to arrive from UK - the fragrance is stunning, not like anything else I have and 25ten were fab to deal with!
As you know I posted the other day I was sick, I am no better and in fact it is getting worse but it is useless going to the Dr as I can't take any medication until I have my blood test on Friday to find out if I am pregnant or not.
I had been waiting for the launch day of the new Stella McCartney for Target line and had picked out what items I wanted to try on from the look book online. I did not feel well enough to battle crowds so I did not get into Target till 8pm last night, feeling like the living dead I made it to the Stella section to discover everything I wanted was gone!!!! The had one top & one dress that I wanted (just not in my colour or size), I tried the dress on in the wrong colour & size and I think it would be perfect in the right colour & size but I have no idea how I am going to find it (ebay maybe???) I would also love to try on the top. Maybe when I am feeling better I could try another Target but I am not holding much hope.
After that ducked into Myer and saw the new Britney perfume Radiance, it is a really nice fruity, floral and smelled great on. Its nice & light which I like so I grabbed a bottle seeing Myer had 15% off fragrance last night. I also tried the new Canturi fragrance, love the bottle but the perfume was way too strong for me, took my breath away & its $199 for the 100ml. Guess I am not used to paying full price after years of ordering online.
Went to Starbucks for a much needed icy carmael java chip frappacinno to soothe my burning throat and watched the passing parade of peole that hang in the City on a Friday night. Was glad to get home back to bed and watch the final Jersey Shore and the lastest episode of Glee.
******* STELLA MCCARTNEY UPDATE*********
Had to go to the Dr at Indooroopilly this morning so stuck my head in Target and they had the dress I wanted in the right colour and size! Happy dance! Something good came out of being sick.
So yesterday I woke up not able to speak, swallow, coughing heaps, aching all over & burning up. I rolled over to find out Leigh had woken up exactly the same. Hear I am looking for any 'signs' as to what may be going on with my body and now I can't as this flu has thrown everything out of whack. Trying my best to stay positive.
Its Leigh's birthday this weekend and we have plans so I hope we are both feeling better by then. I also found out today that the repair needed on my shower is going to mean moving out for 2 weeks as the shower is not the only thing that needs to be repaired, there is severe water damage to 2 walls and floorboards so it is going to be a much bigger job than expected. We will have to find pet friendly accomodation as the girls will be going with us (we have never put them in a kennel and I won't be starting now).
On a fun note I found out today Katy Perry will be touring next May so I hope to be able to get some tickets, saw her last year at the Tivoli and it was a great show.
So last night we went to see Adam Lambert. We loved Adam on American Idol from the first audition and looked forward to seeing what he was going to do every week. We he made it to the final 2 we thought he had it in the bag and we were totally shocked when he did not win. Although he has gone on to have a successful international career and Kris Allen has pretty much dissappeared (Kris who??) I think Adam still deserved to have the title of the winner of Idol.
Anyway there was a big crowd lined up when we got there last night and we found out from security that the show was sold out. Real mixed bag of people in the crowd too, I was expecting lots of young & flamboyant people and although they were there, I was surprised at the amount of older people.
Right on 9pm Adam strutted on stage in a feathered top hat with a glitter 'A' on it, a fringed jacket and leather pants with flawless make up. In person he is very tall, he had 4 dancers with him also.
His voice sounded fantastic live, he has lots of energy and an incredible stage presence. He also seems to really love what he is doing. There were several costume changes and a few chats with the audience. Overall it was a well put together show and I would go see him again for sure.
