Gifts to My Sisters

My last post was a catch-up on all about the gifts my sister T gave me for Christmas.

This post is about the gifts I gave her and my other sister C.

With the £10 budget I had to spend on C I bought her this longer length top

a brand new cushion cover,

a set of Gisela Graham heart shaped frames,

a Spread the Love sign,

a glass vase with heart motif,

a red glass candlestick which I was very tempted to keep,

a snowflake patterned table runner,

a festive coffee/hot chocolate pot

and a biscuit barrel. These first 9 items were all a pound a piece.

This butterfly t-shirt

and the mint sauce jug with dish were both 50p each.
C loved this little set in particular. It was actually the last thing I bought for her,  a great little bargain from the church Christmas bazaar.

This is only part of the gift I gave to my sister T, she who gifted me the marvellous puddings.
I was really struggling with a present idea for her until I went to the Christmas event held in my local high street. 
There I spied this storage jar with it's Whisk me Away motif.
She is a very tidy and organised person so I knew she'd be able to make use of the jar in some way, if only to keep together all the bits and bobs I was giving her.

So what if you do get whisked away?
Why then you'll be in need of some travel items.

I bought her a set of plastic bottles, the kind you use for decanting shampoo or shower gel into.
The set I purchased also came with a little funnel to make this job so much easier.
I added a small fabric drawstring bag which could maybe be used for putting more delicate items of clothing into. As it was a Christmas gift I went with polar bears. 
Also I thought they were incredibly cute.
The final item was one of these macaroon cases, the perfect little receptacle for stashing away earrings or other small items of jewellery you want to take away with you.

Maybe you know someone who would find a gift like this useful. I like it when I stumble across gift ideas. I jot them in my planner to help when inspiration is needed.

Puddings A Plenty

Despite Christmas being over a month ago there is no way I couldn't share the gift I was given by my sister T.

Long term readers will know that I like a theme when I give presents and my sister is no different.

My Christmas present from her was Pud-tastic.

I think I may have actually squealed with delight when I unwrapped this notebook.

She had bought a plain brown craft paper covered book and used silvery stickers to personalise it.

 She even stamped each page with a Christmas pudding.

There then followed a plethora of pudding presents.
First was this mesh food cover. 
I've seen these in shops in the summer time decorated with flowers or bees but I've never seen a Christmas pudding one.

How cute are these gloves? I absolutely love them.

A Christmas pudding door stop.

Christmas pudding decorated coasters.

Christmas pudding earrings. 
I love these so much.
G also bought me a pair of pudding earrings, those were slightly different to these, so I now have two pairs in my burgeoning festive jewellery collection.
You can never have too many pairs of earrings to wear in December.
Actually I continued to wear the more discreetly festive ones into January too.

A pudding purse. Who knew there was such a thing.
I didn't. 
But I'm glad there is and that I now own one.

Last, but by no means least, is a hand stamped serving spoon, reading, what else, More Pudding Please.

What do you think?
Is this treasure trove of presents something you would have loved to receive as much as I did?

January

Hello there!
I'm crossing my fingers and toes and really, really hoping that my blog break is well and truly over and that normal blogging, in all it's random and haphazard nature, will resume once more.

Thank you to everyone who left a message on the last post I did in December. 
Not only did I have comments left by long time friends but also by new to me readers and I wanted to say how very much I appreciated each one.

Going back to December, Christmas was a quiet affair. 
I knew it was going to be different this year, for a variety of reasons, and it certainly was. 
That's not to say we didn't have a lovely time, we did, but it was just different.
As you can see from the flattering photos above our silly table present tradition remained just the same!

This isn't a subject I'm going to dwell on or talk about in any detail but it does need to be mentioned.
As you know I took a break from blogging because of a situation we had here at home and so, to help S, in early January, we began therapy sessions. 

We have had two of these now. I'm not sure how long we will participating in them for but taking this step has been a very positive move indeed.
S is happier and more relaxed which in turn means we are happier and more relaxed too.

I'm on leave all next week which I'm thoroughly looking forward to.
I'm planning on setting an hour aside one of those days to look at getting my daily activity challenge back into being.

I missed recording our Jumble and Jelly life and I have missed visiting all the people here in Blogland to see what you've all been doing.
Here's to happy days.

Candyfloss and Christmas

Hello lovely Blogland people who come and visit Jumble and Jelly to see what we've been up to.

My daily activity posts, or any posts for that matter, have ground to a halt.

Life has thrown us a bit of a difficult situation and my time and energy have needed to have been concentrated elsewhere.

The last day I managed was Candyfloss Day on 7th December.

Although I love eating candy floss I thought using this shower gel would be a fun and slightly different way to mark the day.

Going back to my absence, I know I have mentioned once or twice in fairly recent posts the fact that S has been having a few issues.
Things have come to a bit of a head this past week.
My birthday year activities were dropped without a second though.
Christmas planning has taken a back seat.
A fair amount of other stuff has also had to fall by the wayside.

Due to all of this I need to take a break from blogging.
I don't know how long I will be away for. I sincerely hope it won't be for long but who can tell.
S is ok, we just need to hunker down and weather out this spell together.

I would like to think I'd be able to visit all my bloggy friends and leave you all Happy Christmas messages but I need to be realistic and I am pretty sure that that is not really going to happen.
So please help yourself to a biscuit from this sweet little mitten shaped dish (both advent presents from my sister!) as little festive treat from me to you.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2018.

Shoes, Snow and Santa

Monday was one of the most straightforward days yet.

Wear Brown Shoes Day meant just that.

I had a really lovely day out Christmas shopping with my mum and sisters and these comfy brown flat lace ups were perfect for that excursion.

Tuesday 5th December was the birthday of Christina Rosetti. I don't know much about her other than she wrote the words of the carol In the Bleak Midwinter. I have to say I find the tune of that particular song a bit of a dirge. 
The first verse mentions snow and as it is now December and I am working my way through my stash of festive jewellery I went for the snowflakes earrings and this jolly snowman who looks just the opposite of bleak!

Today is St Nicholas Day and so it was time to change over from using my normal dotty keyring and thread the keys onto this jolly Santa one instead. Little festive touches like him make me happy.

December 3rd

My advent gift today is a set of chalk board gift tags.

A mix of patterns means I can use some for Christmas and others for birthdays.

Really useful and very cute.

It's been a couple of weeks since I watched a movie as part of my birthday year of activities and after watching Far From Heaven I can tell you it was worth the wait.
This movie was chosen as the lead actress Julianne Moore has her birthday today.
The movie is set in Connecticut in 1957 and concerns the seemingly perfect life of homemaker Cathy Whittaker. 
The film explores issues of sexual and racial discrimination during this era and the film was shot in movie style of this time.
The sets are immaculate and just look at the costumes too. The clothing echos the natural beauty found in the many outdoor scenes.
G and I both enjoyed this movie and it's one we would heartily recommend.

Advent

A couple of years back my sister's and I began a new tradition.

During the year we gather 18 little gifts and then add to these with 6 more which can either be drunk or eaten.

Making a total of 24, one to be opened each day leading up to Christmas Day.

We have a rule that no gift should cost more than £1.00.

Keeping an eye out all year round means you can pick up some real bargains along the way.

At the end of November we gather together to exchange them all ready for the first of December.

This year I bought gifts for my sister T, T bought for our sister C and C bought for me.

I am going to attempt to share them, if not daily, then as often as I can.

My first gift was this reindeer cake tin.

This morning I opened the first edible gift. 
A packet of Viennese biscuits, the kind that melt in the mouth and once opened don't last very long!!