31.01.09

I love dresses and Kate's hen do tonight is the perfect excuse to wear a dress completely covered in sequins. It's freezing and, unlike many of my friends, I don't do the 'beer coat' - so there will be t-shirts and leggings underneath and a couple of layers on top!

30.01.09

My new, very patriotic, handbag. I've had my eye on a more expensive, less practical, sequined version for a while now, so when I saw this I couldn't resist!

29.01.09

An ache that started in my shoulder a few days ago seems to have worked it's way down my arm to form a sharp pain in my right wrist - I'm right handed. Could be a slow day at work tomorrow if it doesn't ease up.

28.01.09

Suffering a sugar come down after mainlining the Haribo at the office today.

27.01.09

Not this week thank you!

26.01.09

Bargain chopsticks in preparation for celebrating Chinese New Year with the Guides tomorrow. It was a difficult decision between Chinese New Year and Burns Night. I'll save the Haggis for next year.

25.01.09

Royal Airforce Museum at Cosford with the nieces and nephew this afternoon. I'm not that interested in the planes but I do like all the little warning signs.

24.01.09

A trip to Black Rock Sands for some lessons in steering got cut short when the beach got taken over by people kite carting. Made for some great photos though.

23.01.09

Remember - blend girls blend!

Our resident makeup magpie gave us other comms girls a tutorial today. I'm lucky that I get to work with other women who like to learn from and share skills with each other. It might be just make up or scrapbooking but it makes for interesting lunch breaks.

22.01.09

You can't always get the photo you want.

Despite Stu and Dylan's best efforts all my photos tonight turned out a little more chaotic than I had hoped.

21.01.09

Possibly one of the most memorable headlines I'll ever see in my lifetime.

20.01.09

What were you doing the day Obama became president? Why I picked up craft items for the Guides then took them to see a panto of course!

19.01.09

Things lost at the bottom of my handbag today -

• The lens cap for my new Diana F+ camera, which I'm still learning to use
• It's flash, which was wrapped in a sock to keep it from getting damaged
• Origami paper, instructions and crumpled origami pythons

18.01.09

Part 3 of our weekend of entertaining. We have plenty of leftovers so will be having pork and stuffing rolls and jelly in our packed lunches this week.

17.01.09

Homemade guacamole followed by twister this evening.

16.01.09

Pizza, rose and St Trinians. What more do two girls need?

15.01.09

I would have loved to photograph the set of The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe which we saw at the Birmingham REP tonight. Unfortunately you're not allowed. You are however allowed to photograph this picture in the foyer. I love the eyes.

14.01.09

Not a great photo but it sums up my day. Dull, depressing and with a constant headache.

13.01.09

If in doubt, change the subject to accessories.

12.01.09

Kiss a nonsmoker, taste the difference.

More treasures from Mom's cellar. I saved my 80's badge collection from the bin. I love their rubbish slogans, but I'm not sure what to do with them all. I have a feeling this will be another thing I keep under the heading 'when I have a studio...'

11.01.09

Shirley popped round while I was at my Mom's new house. Shirley said that you could tell it was Mom's house because wherever she lives there is always an ornate fireplace, some incomplete cross stitch and this portrait. I thought it was interesting to see what one of her friends thought represented her most in her new home. The first thing I bring to a new home? Rainbow the multicoloured penguin and a photo of me and my Dad sat by some train tracks in the woods.

10.01.09

The kids came over and made a serious dent in the leftover Christmas chocolate. Unfortunately we still haven't found anyone to eat the Cherry flavour kisses.

09.01.09

Mail out origami.

One of my colleagues gave me a page a day origami calendar from 2006 today. I was very excited and immediately started using left over letters from a mail out to make leaping frogs.

08.01.09

Road trip fuel?

Why is it that that all lumberjack shirts seem to have awful patches sewn into them? Finally found one I liked (this has been a month long mission) but still had to spend half an hour unpicking the badges.

07.01.09

It's all gone a bit posh spice since my lunch time visit to Louise my hairdresser.

06.01.09

In the ice I walk like Bambi. It's so nice to get home and walk around in my socks.

I'm not sure about this photo, perhaps I've been spending too much time on Lookbook, or reading too many of Shimelle's photography tips...

05.01.09

The view from our bedroom window when we got up at 6am this morning. The snow twinkling in the street light on the way to work was beautiful. The sheets of ice it turned into on the way home from work? Not so good.

04.01.08

We were both very happy in our holiday cocoon. It was difficult getting up this morning knowing it was our last day of freedom before returning to work.

03.01.09

Bird tracks in the garden.

We've just booked our next holiday, a cruise to Norway and Iceland. I'm using it as an excuse to stock up on winter clothes, which will also keep me warm in the icy weather we've been having.

02.01.09

Our mission for January - redecorating the bedroom. After buying some wooden floor to replace the carpet we braved Ikea to find frames for the old Film Review magazines we want to put up on the walls.

01.01.09

We didn't manage to get through the crowds to watch the fireworks from the riverbank, but we did see Big Ben strike 12 and announce the beginning of 2009.

31.12.08

The last day of the year saw frost and snow in Codsall. We put on 5 layers each before heading off to London.