Belated birthday greetings.........

In all the kerfuffle around Snowmageddon, I completely forgot to wish my blog a happy 4th birthday on 4 December.

It hardly seems like I've been writing this nonsense shimmering prose for four whole years but there you go. 


Doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself?


In other news, PP and I are having our annual Christmas 'works do' tomorrow, which should be fun, although it is currently all strictly 'hush hush'.  


In other, other news, despite having a late start with my Christmas shopping I've been quietly doing some online shopping and am now much more pleased with my efforts than I was a week ago.  Of course I am now subject to the vagaries of the Christmas postal chaos, which has been exacerbated by the continuing atrocious weather over most of the UK but at least I don't have to do battle in countless endless queues in shops.


So, just 15 days till Christmas.  Depending on how you look at it, that's either loads of time, or no time at all.  I'm currently ricocheting between the two, either panicking or supremely laid-back.  It would be good at some point to reach some sort of equilibrium.


Our plans for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/Boxing Day have been in a constant state of flux.  At one point last week we were anticipating having 7 people for Christmas dinner.  That has since been changed to just 3 of us on Christmas Day, then 6 on Boxing Day.  Just as well we haven't bought a massive turkey!

*sigh*

Back to reality..........

All that now remains of last week's 'snowpocalypse' are a few blackened heaps of snow which have so far defied the melting process.

And life is returning to some semblance of normality again.  I managed to get most of our sale orders out today and we even completed a successful food shop, although there are still noticeable gaps on some shelves in our local Tesco, and sizeable queues outside at the petrol station.

However we can now turn our attention to our Christmas preparations, and I might even gird my loins to decorate the house this weekend. 

Now.

Call me an old traditionalist fuddy-duddy, but for me, there is only one Christmas colour theme.

I loathe and despise the year-on-year 'must have' themes such as black and silver, teal, bronze, purple etc.

As any fule kno, the ONLY true and proper Christmas colours are:

Red.

Gold.

Green.

End of.

Each year PP and I buy ourselves a decoration for the tree.  Back in the day, this tradition was supposed to represent 'our year' and we thought each one would remind us of stuff. 

Naturally, we can't remember the relevance of any of our joint tree decorations.  Nevertheless we insist upon holding to these age old rituals, and today we jointly chose our 2010 tree decoration.

I really liked a gold bell-shaped decoration which shimmered with rainbow colours.

But apparently it was too big.

I also liked a gold star. 


Ditto.

PP, because of her complete inability to make a decision if presented with more than two choices, was undecided.

If I point out that there was an entire wall of tree decorations from which to choose, you can see our predicament.

Eventually we decided on a little carved wooden horse, with a bell.

The fact that it was only 75p was neither here nor there. It looked cute so there you go.


At least this year we are spared the agony of going shopping for a Christmas tree as last year we bought a very realistic-looking artificial one.


I've never been entirely happy with the idea of little, living trees being cut down for Christmas.  And don't even talk to me about the so-called rooted versions.  I've been there, done that..... religiously watered and fed them all through the Christmas period, carefully transplanted them into the garden on Twelfth Night, only to find them dead and bare by Easter at the very latest.


Buying a cut tree is just as traumatic.  A few years ago we went to a local Christmas tree plantation where serried ranks of trees in various sizes were lined up against a wall like condemned prisoners.  


I always end up feeling sorry for the lopsided, stunted ones, in strange deformed shapes, with bare branches on one side.  My reasoning is that no-one will chose it, and it will be thrown on a funeral pyre for Christmas trees nobody wants.  It's whole life will have been for nothing.


So I have to choose it, and when I get it home, have to try to make it look like a festive tree, despite the fact that no matter which way I turn it, it looks horrendous.  Then on day one, when it starts shedding needles and looking even more sickly than before, I have to overcompensate by adding more decorations to the completely denuded branches.


By Twelfth Night it looks like a skeletal  vaguely tree-like apparition.  All the millions of needles have either gone up the hoover and blocked the filters, or they are sticking into my feet. 

Or both.


So, by dint of going 'artfully artificial',  as well as saving the planet *cough* I am also saving a tree from being cruelly cut down.  


My house decorating takes the best part of a whole day.  The sitting room is tastefully decorated with the tree, and the fireplace has a festive swag of greenery and white fairy lights.  

I do, however, draw the line at tinsel.

The staircase banisters are carefully entwined with garlands of fir, pine cones and holly, and lit with white fairy lights.


The dining room is made resplendent with red and gold table settings, twinkling white fairy lights,  Gothic candelabras.......

It all takes time, and effort.  


And wine.


And Christmas music.


Both of which keep me going during the marathon decorating session.  Not to mention Small Dog, who at the sight of her very own Christmas stocking emerging from the decorations box, goes into an ecstasy of anticipation and delight.


I have all of this scheduled for Saturday.

In the words of the song.......

 "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again......."

Despite the massive disappointment of having to miss KDF yesterday *stifled sob* I'm trying to look on the bright side.

*tumbleweed rolls past*

Yes.

Well.

*clears throat*

Errm

*gazes out of window at SNOW FREE scene*

Ah yes.  Of course.  

How silly of me.

The snow and ice have all gone. Apart from a few smallish mounds which on Friday were shovelled snowdrifts piled 5 feet high.

*sigh*

It's difficult to believe that we had well over a foot of snow less than 48 hours ago.  Even the magnificently gnarled 4 foot long icicle which was hanging from our gutter has disappeared.  If I didn't know better I would think that the whole episode was some dreadful nightmare.

Oh well..... worse things happen at sea.

Apparently.

So today I going to put it all behind me and BE POSITIVE.

Thanks to our *SALE* (which doesn't end till midnight tomorrow!) we have some lovely orders to package.  And thanks to the thaw they can start going out tomorrow. 

Yay!

Also our next big fair (The Thame Doll's House & Miniatures Fair - Saturday 19 February 2011) won't be so stressful as we won't need to start from scratch rebuilding our stock.

Double yay!

Which gives me time and space to work on neglected projects and do some serious research and development on some of the ideas in my notebook.


Multiple yay!


See...... things are looking up already.

Too little, too late...........

The snow here is finally starting to thaw, although the ice is so thick on our road it will take ages to melt.  Residents who've been snowed in for the past 3 days have been attempting to get their cars out and are skidding all over the place.

However, temperatures have struggled above zero for the first time in what feels like ages, and there is the real possibility that we might be able to get out in the car tomorrow, if the thaw continues.

I can only imagine what our local Tesco Extra superstore is like today.... assuming they've been able to restock.  The little corner shop at the bottom of the hill has had no bread, milk or fresh foods of any description since Wednesday when the snow closed in.

Our hill seems to have defeated the postman for the fourth day running.  Still, look on the bright side.

No bills.

I'm really, REALLY fed up today.  I should be at KDF enjoying the fruits of our months of hard work.  The only upside I can see is that we don't have to contend with a nightmare journey home this evening.  

And that really isn't much consolation at all.

However, our Christmas Special Offer Sale is currently live and will end at midnight on 6 December so do feel free to have a browse. 

D'you want the good news or the bad news.......?

The bad news is we have decided that we won't be exhibiting at the Kensington Christmas Festival tomorrow.   We're still snowed in at the top of our hill and although the main roads are mostly passable we simply can't get from home to a main road.... short of bodily lifting the car and carrying it.  

Similarly the southeast rail network is still in complete disarray, and even if the trains were running we still have the problem of getting to the station which would involve trekking on foot to the nearest point where a taxi could reach us, carrying all our stock.

Both options are clearly unfeasible.

To add to the problem, temperatures today haven't risen above freezing and are forecast to get down to minus 8 overnight, with snow and sleet falling onto already frozen surfaces.  So driving conditions when we would have to set off at 6am tomorrow morning will be atrocious.

We have endlessly debated and deliberated and have finally decided that it would be far too risky to even attempt the journey.  Worst case scenario we could be stranded in the middle of nowhere, or involved in an accident.  So although we are bitterly disappointed, after months of work, to have to pull out, we just can't see how we can possibly do it without risking life and limb.

Heartfelt apologies to all our customers who were hoping to see us at the fair.  If you were hoping to collect orders from us, we will post them out as soon as we are able to reach civilisation, hopefully early next week. 

And the good news.........?

Well, we've been working really hard today listing all of our KDF stock onto the Diminutive Dolls website.  There are dozens of special offers scattered throughout the store, with lots of new miniatures in most categories and for this weekend only there are some wonderful bargains to be had. 


In addition, we will offer the following extras for orders placed on the Diminutive Dolls website.....

• Orders over £50 (excluding shipping/P+P) will qualify for a beautiful little toy crib kit worth £6.00 absolutely FREE!
• Orders over £75 (excluding shipping/P+P) can choose between one of our new toy marotte kits worth £10 or the beautiful little toy crib kit.
• Orders over £125 (excluding shipping/P+P) will qualify for BOTH free gifts (crib kit AND marotte kit) worth a total of £16.

The Christmas special offer prices are valid from now till midnight on 6th December.  Thereafter everything on the site will revert to the full list price.

There are also lots of Christmas Special Offers on our sister website Tower House Dolls with reduced prices on porcelain doll kits, dressed dolls, fabrics and trimmings, wigs, hats and lots of miscellaneous miniatures - some up to half price!

We are happy to combine postage for orders placed on both sites for the duration of the Christmas special offer!  Simply order on both sites as normal and we will refund one lot of postage.

So you can all now see the result of our creative endeavour over the past few months.

We can't take our display to KDF, but we can bring our KDF display to you instead.

So it's not all bad news then........

Snowed-in in St. Leonards......

We had a foot of snow overnight, on top of the 6 inches from yesterday, and it is still snowing.

Our car is a vaguely car-shaped hump under a snowdrift on the road.  Even if we could dig it out, we live at the top of a very steep hill, which currently resembles nothing so much as a slope of frozen death.  Even 4x4 cars, which were managing yesterday, aren't able to get up and down our road this morning so there is absolutely no hope for our little Matiz.

Small Dog gave the back garden a firm paw's down and elected to complete her morning ablutions on the patio.  This is probably just as well, as had she ventured out from under the gazebo, she would have completely disappeared under the snow.

Talking of the gazebo, it was groaning under the weight of accumulated snow, which PP had to knock off with a broom handle from underneath, allowing masses of snow to fall to the ground with a huge thud.

And it's cold.

Really, really cold.

So no hope of a thaw in the immediate future.

Prodigal Son has been unable to get to work but was persuaded to make the hike down to the shop where he did battle with other beleaguered residents for the last loaf of bread and bottle of milk.  You may remember a similar odyssey from the other major 'snow event' early this year.

Thankfully he won and returned triumphant like a prehistoric hunter-gatherer so we have toast and tea with milk for breakfast.

Yay!

However, in these current conditions our prospects of getting to KDF on Saturday are slim to non-existent.

 Temperatures won't struggle above freezing till well into the weekend and yet more snow is forecast between now and then.  Even if we are able to get out of our road and onto a main road at 6am on Saturday morning, it would be touch and go that we would be able to safely get to London, as we have to drive through some of the worst hit areas of Kent, uphill all the way.  It's a nightmare journey at the best of times, and this most certainly isn't the best of times.

Buggrit......

Small Dog's Advent........

Remember when you were little, on the first of December you were given an Advent Calendar?

Back in the day, (I'm talking early 1960s) my Advent Calendars were strictly two-dimensional and covered in glitter.  All the doors, when opened, showed prettily coloured Christmas-themed religious scenes.... shepherds, Kings, angels, stables, gold, frankincense, myrhh.... then on Christmas Eve, a double door behind which was the nativity scene.

No chocolate


No sweets

No Simpsons/Barbie/My Little Pony/Transformers etc


Unlike today, when the rampant commercialisation of Christmas can yield just about anything on/in an Advent Calendar.

Which is why Small Dog received this......

 Now, in our defence, we have to say it wasn't our idea.  Artistic Daughter saw it and couldn't resist.

Which is why this was the scene this morning......

That's a 'mmmmmmmnnmmm' face if ever I saw one.

We now have another 23 days of Small Dog's high expectations.

*sigh*