Christmas on the Island.

I do love this time of year, it's such a great excuse to get together. It seems that heading to the Isle of Wight for Christmas has become somewhat of a tradition for Moon and I and I don't think I'd have it any other way.

It's pretty great to have friends that live in nice places to visit. Pip and Stacy are great hosts and we really made the most of our short trip, it was such a nice weekend.


Isn't their cat, Puss, lovely? She's so friendly but she used to be as aloof as Doll, still hoping.



We went to Arreton Barns to kill a bit of time before the rest of the guests arrived, it has not one but two(!) glass blowing workshops, a few cute gift shops, a farm shop and a pretty good penny arcade, as well as one hella sad snowman that we caught dragging his feet to an unknown location on the grounds...










After a beautiful walk up along the headland near Brighstone we headed into Brighstone village to catch their annual Christmas Tree festival, a kitsch celebration held across various locations featuring, you guessed it, a lot of Christmas trees. Each tree was sponsored by different businesses from across the Isle of Wight and they'd each decorated them in their own way. It was hard to pick a favourite but I think I liked Grange Farm's offering best, there were eggs and lots of lights! My picture doesn't really do it justice.






The tree on the left is from the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary, which visited last time.



We exchanged our Secret Santa gifts before heading to a great restaurant called, The Coast Bar where I had my first Turducken and the best crab mousse.






For the rest of the evening we played games, sung along to Christmas songs and watched as much as we could of this video (you're welcome).

A slightly hungover early afternoon was spent in Sandown bowling on the pier and eating chips before it was time to head home.



I'm pretty excited that it's now less than two weeks until I see some of this lot again as usually we go for a few months. For New Year's Eve it will be our turn to entertain and the bar has been set pretty high(!) ♥

You can have a peek at the last two Wight Christmases here and here.

Jingle Doll.

We were pretty lucky last year to have a ready-made Christmas card thanks to the snow the previous year. The tradition of sending cards, even if we're not quite at the stage where we're getting lots in return is something that I still pride myself in, and I was really proud of last year's cards and the 'milestone' they represented.

This year required a little more thinking but resulted in quite a few gratuitous Dolly photographs, always a good thing, naturally.




Dolly's real 'baffled by life' face. ♥


Every Christmas it seems bokeh 'tips' pop up all over the place and making one of those cut-out shapes has been on my list for a while but I reckon doing with just the macro effect has worked out pretty swell. I had thought about heading down to Hobbycraft and picking glitter and pipecleaners, but Photography is kind of my thing so I guess that might have to wait another year.

As we're kind of on the subject of Doll, or at least looking at her, I'm a bit sad that I had to throw her snazzy sparkley red collar away in favour of a proper prescription flea collar. The fleas just weren't going with the Frontline spot-on treatment and she was so fidgety and unhappy - so a trip the vet was in order and that was the end of that.

PRO-CAT-OWNER TIP: Flea collars you get in any shop without a prescription from your vet don't work, which is why they only cost between £2-5 and this one cost me £40 (IKR, what?!). Apparently the flea poison used on them is also poisonous to cats, which means they use the most minimum amount, making for a pretty collar but an ineffective flea treatment. With the last one I had I even found a family of dancing fleas underneath it when checking her so it clearly did nothing.
It's unlikely that the flat will be completely flea-free for around 3 months but as the collar lasts 8 months PLUS the spot-on treatment of Advocat I got from the vet, Dolly should be well covered and be the flea-killing machine she should have been right from the start in October.

Oh, Christmas!

Working in retail, it's essentially been Christmas for me for the last four months, but that doesn't mean I've been any less excited about it, I love Christmas! I love Christmas trees, I love Christmas films and hey, I like getting gifts (as well as nailing it when giving them). So it's is a bit weird that it feels so drawn out yet is over so quickly.

Christmas being wrapped up (ahem!) does mean I'll be able to look forward to the new year though, and start my beautiful 2014 Frankie diary - I can't wait! With that being said, I have been snapping a few photos of the festive period that I'd like to share with you before 2013 really is over and done with, so here they are.

Did you have a nice Christmas? I'm sure I've eaten entirely too much of everything... Merry Eatmas(!)




Gran gets a cashmere jumper.


Old lady, Suzie, getting into the Christmas spirit.


Walk through the park for Destination: Christmas.





I've managed to evade Christmas pudding on more than one occasion in the last few days, but I do enjoy the ceremony of it.



Boxing Day spread.