Christmas Tag!

Ria over at Wishing for Chanel was tagged to do this Christmas Tag by Amy at PaintPotted and she went and tagged me to do the same.

1. What's your favourite thing about Christmas?
Being home. Living so far from home it's so nice to come home, sit by the fire and drink lots of mulled wine surrounded by family and old friends.

2. What is your favourite make up look for the festive season?
It's got to be red lips, hasn't it? Or glitter? I love a bit (read as: a lot) of glitter at Christmas!

3. Real tree or fake tree?
I love the smell of real Christmas trees but they're just not practical any more. Maybe someone could invent a fake Christmas tree that smells like a real one?

4. Giving presents or receiving presents?
This year I've really enjoyed buying and wrapping my presents for people so I think it's got to be giving this year. Unless I receive, I don't know, a nice chap all wrapped up? Keep dreaming...

5. Do you open presents Christmas morning or eve/evening?
We used to do our Santa stockings in the morning, but now we're all grown up and St. Nick doesn't visit us we do our presents from under the tree in the early afternoon, just before Christmas lunch.

6. Handmade cards or bought?

Oh hand made cards are so lovely and if I was one of those women that had 32 hours in her day I would definitely make some of my own. But alas, I do not, and so I try and find the most unusual Christmas cards to send to loved ones (Pennychoo have the best selection!)

7. What is your favourite Christmas film?
Oh I have to many! I love Home Alone but I also love Meet Me In St. Louis - I can't decide!

8. What's your favourite Christmas food?
The cheese. My parents always have the most wonderful selection of cheese at Christmas - they're kinda famous for it amongst friends and family!

9. What's your favourite Christmas song?
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland

10. What's your favourite Christmas memory?
Ooh this is a toughy! I would have to say either spending it in Pakistan with my cousins in 2007 or the Christmases I had as a young child when it was all still so magical.

That's it! My Christmas tag is done, and now it's your turn! Go on! Do it! Spread a little Christmas cheer! Don't be a Scrooge!

Daily Face - Week #4

Welcome to week #4 of my Daily Face project! It was spent at many Christmas parties (hence the nice photos and the one hungover photo)

Day 22 and 23 were spent in the library finishing off my first chapter of the dreaded dissertation (The Influence of Greek Colonisation on the Domestic Architecture of Iron Age Sicily) so are rather unexciting. Day 24, however, that was the day of the fabulous hair, too much gin and absinthe, and meeting a lovely dog. The photo showing my Day 25 reflects the aftermath of Day 24 pretty well I think! Days 26, 27 and 28 is much more glamorous! I braved the Sunday Shoppers on Day 26, went bowling on Day 27 for my friend Gillian's birthday (my team, captained under Will, won!), and then Day 28 was taken just before I went to TAG's (an archaeology conference that was being held at my university) Christmas party - drinking with lecturers and pretty important people in the archaeological world was so much fun - and then on to Aloha's Mele Kalikimaka party!

I'm at home for Christmas now, and Week #5 is well under way so come back late next week (after the festivities) to see how it pans out!

Student Suppers - Risotto

I was only introduced to this Italian rice dish earlier this year when I turned vegetarian for Lent, but even since turning carnivorous again it has remained firmly on my menu being eaten at least once a week.

The good thing about risotto is you can make it exactly what you want; whilst I keep mine simple  using the recipe below, my house mate Heather tops her's off with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Sometimes I swap the veggie stock for chicken stock for a creamier taste, sometimes I use red wine instead of white, and sometimes I don't add any wine at all - usually because I've drunk it all!

So, here's my simple risotto recipe for one serving:

Ingredients:

• 100ml of rice (white or special risotto rice - much more expensive, so I stick to just white)
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 a white onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 glass white wine (optional - if you leave it out, just add an extra 50ml of stock)
• 400ml of vegetable stock (more if the wine is left out)
• Peas
• 1 tbs of olive oil

Method:

1. Soften the onion in the oil, and then add the garlic (careful not to burn it!)
2. Add the rice to the onion, garlic and oil. Stir it thoroughly to coat the rice in the oil.
3. Pour in the wine and stir constantly - so the rice doesn't stick to the pan - until all the wine has been absorbed into the rice.
4. Add the stock a little at a time, adding more once the liquid has been sucked up by the rice - and keep stirring!
5. Chuck in the peas when you have about 100ml of stock left so they are cooked.

The cooking should take about 15 minutes (your arm will ache but it's worth it) and should use up all your stock, but just add more water (or wine!) if you run out.

Enjoy!

Daily Face - Week #3

Here with me in my first complete week of blue hair:

Day 15 sees me venturing out for the first proper day with blue hair, victory rolled to the max. I made the silly mistake of wearing a lot of eye liner on a day that decided to p*ss down with rain (I covered my hair with my scarf to save myself turning into some sort of Smurf creature). Ooh la la I got glamorous on Day 17 with the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology Christmas Dinner. Day 18 was taken just before a cheeky shift at my old work, Aloha - oh how good it was to be back! Not really sure what happened with day 19, I look very happy, and my hair is very curly! I like Day 20 so much I've made it my picture of a few sites I'm on - unfortunately the look went to waste as I then got ill...hence the sorrow in Day 21 =(

Join me next week for Week #4!

Dear Santa...

I think Christmas has been coming since mid October, but I haven't really given it much thought until recently - the mother's been nagging me to get a list to the family so I thought I should get it sorted. So, here is my little list of goodies that I hope to get in my stocking this festive season :)

Utility Jeans from Freddies of Pinewood

Glamour Girdle from What Katie Did

Gold Seamed Stockings from What Katie Did

Saddle Shoes from Rocket Originals

Naked Basics Palette by Urban Decay

And then to top it off I'd love tickets to three weekenders I really want to go:

Hotrod Hayride (obviously!)

The Rockabilly Rave

The Trip Out

That's my list, what's on your's?

Daily Face - Week 2

Here is the second instalment of my Daily Face series!

The week started just as glamorous as the previous week: cleavage was queen when I went to Keiran's surprise 23rd birthday party with a James Bond theme on Day 8, Day 9 was spent recovering, but my hair stayed in relatively well so it wasn't all bad, and then Day 10 was taken just before I went out on a night out rocking some vampy-glam look (I quite like it!). And then, well, uni work caught up on me, hence the boring glasses + no make up combinations of Day 11 and Day 12 (I was reading about Çatalhöyük if anyone cares to know - that's what the book says). Day 13 was spent bleaching my roots for the drama that was Day 14 and the Blue Hair Gate.

Stay tuned for week 3!

I'm Blue (Dabba Dee Dabba *Hair* Dye)

Hello! I hope everyone's doing well and is getting all those lovely festive feelings?

Well, I've had a bit of a hair change for this chilly season - it's gone blue! The photo below (sorry for the quality, I did it on my iPod) was taken the day after I dyed it so it's really vibrant, but it's faded a little to a lighter, slightly more aqua blue - I'll try and get photos of this to you as soon as possible, but at the moment it's all up in rollers as I'm off out for our archaeology Christmas party tonight.

For the dye I combined LaRiche's Directions Hair Dye in Atlantic Blue and Turquoise. You can see the various colours in my hair up close,  it looks like mermaid hair!

I chuffin' love it!