Last week before the weather was set to turn quite violently – it mostly missed London – I decided to take a turn in the park on what was promised to be a bright and sunny Winters day.  It was beautiful, St James’s Park turned out to be everything a girl could hope for.  I took the tube to Green Park and walked through the park of the same name, whereupon I crossed The Mall to enter St James’s Park.  It was the prettiest walk, Buckingham Palace on one side, green parks on the other, the view of The Mall, red London buses and black cabs a plenty.  You knew where you were in the world.

As I entered the park I saw squirrels, I was so pleased.  And then I started to see more squirrels and more and I’d never seen as many fat grey squirrels in one place before, it did make me laugh.  And people had bought nuts and biscuits and were feeding these very friendly and very fat squirrels.

And talk about being bold.

Some were just lunatics in the quest for a tasty morsel.

I must say that this chap happened to remain quite calm, I’m not sure I would have done, but then I know how sharp a squirrels bite can be, having tamed our own fat squirrels that used to live in the Oak tree at the bottom of the garden and their poor eyesight not being able to distinguish between nut and thumb.

These geese were so pretty with their pink feet, quite adorable.

A view of Buckingham Palace at the end of the lake.

And a view of the other end.  And then the object of my affections came into view. The reason I had trekked across London.

Pelicans !!!  What fun to see Pelicans.  There are four Pelicans in St James’s park and they were waiting in the feeding area for their supper.  They were three quarters of an hour early, as was I. 

I can’t tell you just how pleased I am that I have at long last seen the Pelicans in the park.

And one day when its warmer I shall come back and watch them being fed, I suspect there may well be some comedy to that.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying their winter walk.

I found some very pretty ducks – Ruddy Shelducks. 

And some young swans.

Squirrels playing, oblivious to everyone else.

Friendly swans who came over for a chat.

Wonderful views of Horse Guards Parade and the Old Admiralty.

And trees so brightly lit by the sunshine displaying their autumn colours.

Prince of Wales Feathers, swishing and swaying in the fading sunlight.

And pigeons that had hunkered down against the cold wind that had started to bite.

There were more pretty geese.

And one very cute duck.

And some very hungry Coots.

Not to mention some more friendly swans.

There were leaf blowers wIth huge machines, the sight of the leaves being whirled into the air and being caught by the sunlight was glorious.

And then with light fading and feeling a bit chilly it was time to head home.

Bidding a fond farewell to Queen Victoria.  I must say, she has a lovely view.

As you can see my bejewelled December Birchbox has arrived. 

So, lets have a look to see what goodies are inside this month.

Eslor Firming Collagen Day Cream.  Full price £50.00 for 50ml, this gorgeous sample is 10ml so worth £10.00  – That’s the box nearly paid for.   This is an ultra hydrating lotion infused with hydrolyzed Marine Collagen.  Massage into cleansed skin morning and night.  I don’t know about you, but my skin is starting to scream from dehydration from the central heating and then spells in the cold dry weather, so I am looking forward to trying this one out, not least it has good reports on tinternet.

Next we were asked to choose our own nail polish colour from a selection of four colours and I chose the purple – I would have chosen the red but it had gone.  This is a sparkly nail polish that dry to a velvety matte finish, which is a bit odd and if I don’t like it, I shall just put a top coat on.

This is Models Own Nail Polish in Amethyst, full size £5.00

Some shampoo for hubby.  Electric Hair, Electric Hydrate Shampoo.  Full size is 250 ml for £17.50, this tester is 30ml so worth £2.10   It says it helps to repair damage and improve shine with this nourishing, moisture-rich formula.  If nothing else, at least I have a bit of shampoo in for him eh.

This product seems to be talked about in glowing terms, me being my age, I’d not heard of it.

It came in a lovely Christmas cracker from Benefit and its called Highbeam.  Full size is 13ml for £19.50 and I think is about 2ml so its worth approx £2.69  It says its a liquid illuminator which suits all skin tones. You paint a small amount onto cheekbones and brow bones and blend, blend, blend.  I’ve had a little swatch and it has a slight shimmer to it, so it might be quite pretty and add a dewy glow to your skin.

Next was Vasanti Brighten Up.  An Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator, full price £26.00 for 120 ml this was 20 ml so worth £4.33   This is a multi action exfoliator to ensure a renewed, refreshed complexion.  I’ll give that a go.

I thought this was an interesting product to try.  Eyeko Fat Eye Stick in Smoke, full size £8.00 its just a large pigmented jumbo pencil, but it is a modern take on an eyeshadow and I’ve never tried them, so that could be good fun.

And lastly we have a lifestyle sample a small purse from Sophia Webster herself worth £25.00  <– really ???   I don’t think I would be paying £25.00, but then I often think that sort of thing as I am trotting around London watching what people are happily spending serious amounts of money on.  Although I have found a use, its going to be perfect for putting all those store and museum cards in that I don’t want to cram into my purse.

Seven products for a ten pound box, (plus p & p) without the purse the products came to £32.12 and I thought there were some really interesting items to try this month, Birchbox have done it again, its a really good box.

My long awaited beauty box from Look Fantastic arrived a few hours ago.  Just the sort of pick me up a girl needs when coming to the end of a cold in mid winter.  It felt heavier and is larger than most beauty boxes I know.  The price comes in at £15.00 including packaging, November’s box was amazing, it was sold out in 24 hours so I thought I would give this a try.  This box is not a rolling subscription, you just buy it on a month by month basis.

In it came the Hut Groups magazine, a booklet telling you about the individual products contained in the beauty box and a £10.00 voucher for Coggles, their sister company.

Contained within the box was…

An infused comb by Macadamia Professional.  This comb is infused with macadamia oil which detangles while adding shine and smoothness.  Price £6.00   – I’m not sure how this works on a scientific level, but it will go in my box of hair products to be decided upon later.

Essential -C Cleanser by Murad.  Containes Vitamins A, C and E, plus lots of other things.  Full sized price for 200ml is £34.00 so this sample of 45ml is £7.65.   Good sized sample.

Papaya Enzyme Peel by Elemis.  Full size 50 ml £29.50, sample size 15ml £8.85.  Really excited about this one.  I’ve been offered samples which have been tried on my wrist of enzyme peels and they seem to do an amazing job.  But they are always out of my price bracket, (one was over £150 !) so I am quite happy to try this out.

Pure Gold Collagen – liquid food supplement.  10 pack is £35.99, one bottle is £3.59.  Your meant to take for four weeks before it has any results, so one bottle is not going to have much effect, but its always interesting to see what is out there.

Lord & Berry Silk Kajal – Kohl eyeliner. Full size £10.00, sample size £4.00 approx.   Its a deeply pigmented black, nice and creamy goes on easily.  It will be a nice item to sample.

Bourjois eyeshadow and eyeliner compact in Intense Smoky.  Full size £7.99  Pretty colours a purple with a moss, I will be happy to try this.

OleHenriksen Pure Truth Youth Activating OIl.  Full size 30 ml bottle £47.00 sample size 15ml is £23.50.  Very happy to try this, great sized sample and it will be interesting to see how my skin looks and feels at the end of the trial.

This is my first Look Fantastic box, my samples and voucher add up to £61.53, which is a fantastic deal and I can’t wait to try them all.

It was time to sort out the geraniums before the frosts get to them.  That sentence almost makes me sound like I know what I am doing, I really don’t.  I am definitely an allotment kind of girl, I am learning about the growing of plants and flowers, and there is alot to learn.

But I do know that geraniums are very tender and the frost will kill them.  So I decided on two plans of attack.

Firstly,

cutting the plants back, gently knocking off surplus soil and rolling them in newspaper and then putting into a box for the winter.  If I had a cellar this would be wonderful, as it is, they will go into a spare room which will most probably be much too warm for them and they will all die.  But you never know.. one or two may survive which I could use for cuttings in the spring.

And my second plan,

was to take cuttings which is the first time I’ve ever taken cuttings.   Apparently geraniums flower more abundantly on young plants, so if these work, or the majority of them work, that will give me a good start in the spring. 

I covered them with cling film and they will be peering through this to try and get enough of the winter sun to survive.  I then planted a few crocus and tulip bulbs in the pots and went around pulling up the last of the beetroot.

I think some of this is most probably woody.  I am going to cook the small beets first, see how these go and take it from there. 

Had a quick tidy up and then treated myself to a big handful of sage, which I love the smell more than the taste and placed a final flower bud from the geraniums, a little something to pretty up the room.

 

I’ve been experimenting with beauty boxes for about a year now and I must say I rather like them.  You know that is an understatement, what I really mean to say is that as with all things that I really like its become a bit of an addiction and during long bouts of insomnia the unveiling of beauty boxes on YouTube has overtaken my love of watching knitting, sewing and adorable kittens.  Many a happy three a.m. stint has turned into a thing of wonder and excitement as to what all of those products are really like – I think its because I come from a deprived childhood where the only exploration of beauty products was at the No.7 counter in Boots or what was left from the cheapo counters that hadn’t been shop lifted in Woolworths.  We didn’t dare go into the exclusive area that was ‘roped off’ in the local chemists, that wasn’t for the likes of us.  I can still remember the shop assistants jumping to attention as the gentrified ladies would swish into the shop, area’s opened up to them, perfume sprayed, lipsticks examined.

But now we have the internet and all that that entails and it is a wonderful place to be living in.

In my opinion, beauty boxes are amazing.  For the price of a good lunch you get to sample 4 or 5 products, which generally 1 or 2 may be full size.  Sometimes you get a duff box, its like all things, and sometimes there are too many hair products for my liking, what with mascaras, conditioners, hair masks, hair sprays, dry hair shampoos, general shampoos, false eyelashes, eyelash moisturiser,  eyebrow powders,  eyebrow pencils and eyelash curlers, I’ve had them all.  Now they go straight in the bin, I’ve learnt to overlook it and just look for the fun bits.  Although I have to say Love Me Beauty has just changed their whole set up, and now we can pick our exact items that we want to try, I had a great box last month, it was brilliant.  Glossy Box are lovely, but I gave up in the summer as the hair products were outnumbering anything else, but I’ll look at them in the future.

Birchbox are having a really good November, price £10 plus £2.95 p&p.  Their box this month is called Cosy at Home and its a real treat.  All the boxes vary a little bit but we all got a full sized Dr Jart+.

Mine was a V7 Cleansing Foam, a full sized product costing £15.00.   The write up reads ‘Rich in vitamins and antioxidants, this sulphate-free cleanser leaves your complexion radiant and bright!’   I’ve tried it and its lovely, I’m normally a cleanse, tone and moisturise kind of girl, so to try something I would never normally is always good. It was very rich and creamy and smelt quite sophisticated.  I liked it.

Next was a sample from Beauty Protector – Protect and Detange, full price £14.00  No good to me, popped into the bin, I save the ones that are suitable for my Mum, but my Mum has got short hair and she wouldn’t use this.  – So thats out the way…

Next,

A sample of English Laundry – A Signature for her, perfume, full price £60.00  Its nice, pretty, floral, slightly musky.  The container is quite full, pleased.

This was interesting, I’ve never tried a bronzer.  Lord & Berry mini bronzer in Sienna, full price £19.00   I am very fair and I’ve swatched it on my wrist and it doesn’t come across as too dark and it is matte which makes it more usable.   I might use it as an eyeshadow, it is a very fine powder which is nice.  I’ll play with it and see what happens.  The packaging was a bit basic, but hey ho, you can’t have everything.

And this is wonderful.  A full sized Opi nail polish £11.95  in A Grape Affair, from their limited edition Coco-Cola collection.  I’ve over exposed this photograph so you can see the writing on the bottle, it is darker than this, I think it will be very pretty over winter.   Opi has such a strong following so I am really pleased to have the opportunity to try it.

And there was also a small packet container 6 multivitamins from Drinkwell.  Full price £39.99 – Expensive Vitamins!  (I think I must have put them in the cupboard).  This is from the Lifestyle section of the Birchbox selection when weird and wonderful things get popped in for you to try.  These are meant to be about taking them before a night on the tiles and afterwards to make sure you are loaded up with all the good stuff needed to recover from a night out.  I’ll just take them as a normal vitamin, but it is always amusing to see what the marketing men are coming up with next.

Over all it was a great box, I’m really happy with it.

You know how our Toile loves to play fetch.  Well now she loves to play catch.  And a proper little goalie she makes too.  I think she nearly bounces off the ceiling when she leaps for the ball from our bed.  And she runs straight back with it in her mouth, so we can do it again and again and again.  We have at least an equal number, if not more, of out takes.  We had to stop for fear that we would be working her too hard and the pussy cat, football association would raise a complaint. My photography doesn’t really illustrate it, but she nearly gets all of the balls. This cat is a complete nutter, we do love her so.

 

Things are really revving up here, six weeks until hand in and everything still to do. Which sounds like its not really revving up but it really is, the volume of work needed for hand in is, how shall we put this, enormous.

So when I said to my darling hubby a few weeks ago, ‘shall I make my next outfit to fit you’ and sunshine radiated from his face, someone should have just handed me a shotgun – for me not him – insanity reigns.

And so it was that added onto the volume of work, that sometimes nearly reduces me to tears when I think of just how much we need to get done, I’ve added this to my workload.  ‘Why?’ I can hear you all cry.  Well, its like this, there isn’t very much, not very much at all of pattern cutting tuition, I had thought there would be more, I know your shocked too, but apparently that is a separate degree and quite a specialised art in itself.  And as one of the tools I want to come out with from university on a personal level is to be able to look at a pattern cutting book and be able to understand what is going on and be able to make something from it,  I needed to bite the bullet for myself.

So, I opened Winifred Aldrich, Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear and started at page 1.  And after a long weekend, I had this.

Just the sleeves and trousers to go.  Then the toiling and the adjustment of the block and then I can start on the design and the toiling of my designs (which need to be designed!) all in the space of a week..

Where did I leave them bullets….

I love this recipe for courgettes and tomatoes.  I come back to it time and time again, as a side or as a main or a light lunch or tasty supper.  The men in my life hate it, I think its just too vegetably for them, but I adore it. And when your a busy girl it absolutely fits the bill, providing you with a nutritious meal that takes moments to prepare.

This time I wanted something really fresh tasting, no garlic was used today.  It was simply a splash of vegetable oil, I choose rape as it gets to a higher temperature without burning than the others.

I fried off my courgettes,

added a tin of tomatoes and a splash of vinegar, (which forms the simplest of gastriques) and let it cook down for 5 minutes whilst you poach an egg or two.

And it was at this point I served it with black pepper, it didn’t need any salt.

And then, just to make it really filthy…

add a good grating of cheese,… you know you want to.

I keep my Christmas very simple these days, last year I decided to not send cards to all but a few and I found it very…. Soothing.  We had three little decorations, a good dinner and Kings College caroling in the background, I don’t think we even exchanged a present, it was perfect.  There was no anxiety, it had all gone.  This year will be even simpler, I won’t be buying any Christmas cards to send, or worrying about it either. Those that know me and want to be in my life, are in my life, its that simple.  But even with all my baah humbug tendencies, I do love a good look around, with half an eye on the prettiness of it all and the other at how well the marketing men do these days.

And so it was I found myself in John Lewis and accidentally came across their Christmas floor.

I really liked these, simple but effective.

And I loved the double decker buses, I didn’t love the prices though,  £30.00 for the bigger of the two.

Reindeer seem to be quite popular.

I loved the new styles of trees.

And I can never resist a stocking.

Who wouldn’t want to tuck into one of these on Christmas day. 

And I know hubby would be loving these – sadly I didn’t buy him any – they wouldn’t last!

Its all just so pretty. I can’t wait to go and see the other stores, only two months to do it in!