Saturday, 29 January 2011

Christmas Market @ Birmingham

Hope you all are having a lovely Saturday wherever you are.

One thing that is popular here is to find out which British city is twined with which European city.  Birmingham (an hour drive away from us) is twined with Frankfurt.  So every year (from November until Christmas Eve) the Frankfurt Christmas Market comes to Birmingham and the Birmingham market goes to Frankfurt.  Actually a lot of the twined cities between this country and Germany do the Christmas swap.  I'm sure you know how wonderful and festive the German Christmas markets can be.


So one weekend, towards the end of November my lovely hubby & I went to Birmingham to visit the Christmas market.  It was total bliss :)
We bought a few lovely decorations , had lovely sausages and chips, German beer and mulled wine. Shopping included a set of 3 small glass vintage bells for the tree - reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life - We kept ringing the bells hoping that each time an angel got a set of wings ;)
It was very very cold but the lights and the festive spirit kept us going. It was busy with people and buskers.  There was music wherever you went.
I thought I'll share a few photos with you.  Hope you like them.

I haven't got around any cooking that is suitable for the blog yet but will try to soon.

Also a warm "welcome" to all of the new followers :)


Lily

The drinks stand

These lights were so pretty and everywhere

Add caption

Don't you just love a simply decorated tree?

Candy stand


Food court



Traditional German Mulled Wine

German Beer


A Lovely church in the centre of Birmingham

Ginger bread hearts with various messages on them

Very traditional very popular in Germany


Wooden Christmas decorations



Sunday, 9 January 2011

2010 and New Year's resolutions

Adorable "Believe" at the local garden centre.  The had sold out by the time I went back to get one but luckily have a photo of it.


I have just a very busy working Saturday.  My lovely husband surprised me with a lovely huge bouquet of flowers to cheer me up and cooked :)  Hash browns, sausages and mushrooms browned in butter, total bliss. So thank you hubby [you see, he is a follower ;) ]

I must admit though I am looking forward to having the time to actually do my New Year's resolutions.


  1. Keep the Christmas spirit all year long
  2. Tidy up, de-clutter, clean and scrub the entire house
  3. Cook recipes from cook books that I have but hardly use
  4. Blog about all 3
  5. And finally graduate without going totally insane!
Bet you are thinking oh joy!!!

I have the lovely cook book that my sweet friend, Mandie from whispering christmas dreams sent to me in October.  If you have missed the post and all of those lovely gifts I received, you can see it HERE
Also my husband bought me Julia Child's cook book, Mastering the art of French Cooking for Christmas.  So that will be heavenly too.  I will not cook my way through it though like Julie Powell.  There is no way I can cook live lobsters or kill them for that matter.  I also have an entire cook book dedicated to cakes and 2 books on Christmas recipes.  I spent all summer last year and sort of invented my own recipes. I have been taking photographs from the different dishes I made so if I don't have time to cook, I could share some of those recipes with you.  

So, what are your New Year's resolutions? I have read some blog posts about it but not many.

Also I have been thinking about 2010 and I have mixed feelings about it.  In many ways it has been aa very difficult year and in other ways it has been quite nice.  Here is a little highlight from each month of 2010.

January - My best friend was staying with us over the holidays & I threw her a surprised Birthday Party.  She was VERY surprised and we all had a great time.

February - My hubby & I celebrated a lovely Valentines day.  Rather than the actual day where we were both busy, we celebrated the weekend before and it was really lovely.  Also gave up alcoholic drinks for lent. Not that I drink too much but the idea was to give up something I enjoy.

March - After my hubby Birthday I turned 26.  We went out for a little meal with my mum.  It was lovely.

April - Went on holiday to Malta for a week and got stuck there by another week because of the Iclanding volcanic ash cloud.  It was really nice and really horrible in many different ways.

May - Finished 2nd year at the university

June - started to volunteer for the Alzheimer's society for the 2nd year and had a trip to Copenhagen to visit family

July - went to Stratford - upon - Avon (where Shakespeare was born and worked) for our 6th wedding anniversary.  Visited the shop that sells Christmas all year round and REALLY got into the Christmas spirit :)

August - Started blogging & visited my Uncle in Cumbria.

September - had a mini trip with mum & hubby to the Lake District.  Started 3rd/final year at the university.

October - exchanged gifts with Mandie, got ready for Halloween.

November - this was a particularly difficult month as we lost our beloved pet bunny rabbit.  Also mum broke her arm after a fall in the rain.

December - Had a lovely trip to the Lake District with family for an early Christmas.  The holiday was lovely but followed by horrible colds for both of us.  Celebrated Christmas & New Years.

So here I am typing to you on the early hours of January 9th of 2011.

I will be uploading some photos of the December holiday soon, promise.

Hope you all are having a lovely weekend.

Hugs

Lily

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Inspiring decorations!

This was taken early December near Manchester


Hope you all are having a great start to the New Year.

I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year but have been unbelievably busy with university assignments and deadlines and dissertation since the end of the Holiday Season!  Oh, to have the lazy days over the holiday back, it went a bit too quickly, did it not?  Anyway, that's how I have been feeling (only partially) whilst trying to work and that is how I came across this video on youtube.  It blongs to a lovely lady, Eileen, and she also has a blog.  I have asked for permission to share her videos with you and she kindly said that it is OK :)

Her channel on youtube is called CreativeTraditions and she has 11 videos uploaded.   Her blog ishttp://seasonalhome.wordpress.com/  All lovely.  I found the video very very inspiring and guess what, I have over 350 days to use the inspiration ;)

Also if you missed it, HERE is the post with photos of my home, over the holidays.

Please forgive me for not writing as often as I was, as I said have been very busy.  I am still trying to keep up with all of your posts but it's hard to find the time to leave comments for everyone.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday and weekend.

Hugs

Lily