Christmas was lovely this year. We woke up to open stockings at the end of the bed at my house and then opened presents with my parents.

Gifts included American dollars for our trip, Joseph Joseph chopping boards (which look like something made by Apple), the new Apple Magic Mouse for my computer (which I really need because I hate my Mighty Mouse), a bag light, rainbow kitchen knives, various books from my wishlist and a voucher for having as many macaroons as I can eat from Laduree in Harrods.

Afterwards we headed over to Tom’s house for more present opening with his family. Our army of robots has grown.

Our first Christmas meal of the day included smiling soup, delicious salmon and tasty vegetables.

There was even a flaming pudding for dessert.

Afterwards we headed back to my house for our second Christmas dinner and more present opening with the rest of my family. My Mum made me mushroom en croute.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas xoxo

Yesterday we headed through to a very snowy and cold Edinburgh.

We went to see Joey D in his shop and took him some mince pies. He was very sweet and told us lots of stories about his wedding, fashion week and said that we’d convinced him to open a store in London and that he’d come and visit us.

Tom got an amazing Irish policeman’s jacket which is made from super soft moleskin and has a leather collar and back. They had some amazing skirts and wellies that I want to go back and try on. I’m tempted to ask him to make me a dress out of neckties.

Afterwards we went for a meal at our favourite Italian restaurant, Vittoria on Leith Walk. It has become a Christmas Eve tradition to go their after we finish our xmas shopping.

We went down to Alistair’s house to give him his Christmas present, which is a Worn Again wallet made from recycled Eurostar uniforms. I got one for Tom too.

In the evening Grant, Nathan, David and Duncan joined us at Tom’s house for drinks before we headed back to my house in the early hours of the morning. It’s a Canadian tradition to open a present the night before Christmas, so my Mum and Dad gave me a book by Debrett’s I was wanting about Correct Form – I’m such a geek for etiquette.

After waking up at 5 am, pilling in to a a taxi with suitcases filled to the brim with presents and watching movies on a 6 hour train journey, we’re back in Scotland and everything’s covered in snow.

Tom’s parents took us to the Pillars Of Hercules, which is a very nice vegetarian cafe / farm house / organic shop in the woods just outside Falkland. It looked very pretty in the snow.

I had pumpkin curry with apple and pear juice, which was very tasty. They came round with glasses of hot apple and cinnamon punch for everyone too. There’s usually a cute little cat which cuddles up to you in there, but today there was a nice dog hanging around.

Afterwards we had a couple of snowball fights and headed back to Tom’s house and my parents came over for drinks.

Last night, the few of us who were left in London went for a Christmas dinner at The Diner in Camden. I brought the remaining crackers from our tree so that we could tell jokes and wear crowns while we tucked in to our dinner of breakfast foods including pancakes, hash browns and waffles.

Tom’s boss gave us a copy of the London Nude Tech Calendar to hang up in the Mews, which has him naked on the inside cover.

After dinner we went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It was huge and filled with hundreds of stalls.

There was a chatting and singing moose, which Lynsey informed us we had to see.

We had cherry mulled wine and roasted chestnuts, which I had for the first time and thought tasted like nutty potatoes.

In other news, it’s looking quite snowy in the Mews.

I also made Tom a couple of RSS cushions to match the social-networking ones I had made on Sunday.

On Saturday we had a Christmas party at the Mews for our friends. We had mulled wine, mince pies, homemade eggnog and gingerbeer (which tasted better than the shop bought bottle that Lynz bought) and presents for everyone wrapped under the tree. I even made some presents…

including a hama bead 3D glasses necklace for Lynsey. I can now post the how-to and it’s here.

Before the party, Tom surprised me with a bag from Vivienne Westwood. My party outfit consisted of a black H&M dress, necklace from Forever 21, sparkly silver eyeshadow, my Vivienne Westwood horns…

and a new pair of Vivienne Westwood skull and crossbone earrings. They’re so sparkly and come in an indestructible box. Tom also got me an hour at Lucky Voice karaoke with up to 15 friends, which will be so much fun.

I gave Tom a whole bunch of geeky presents, including this Come In / Go Away ambigram doormat.

Twitter and Facebook mousepads.

iPhone application coasters.

… and yesterday I sewed him a set of social-networkig cushions. I’m making a pair of matching RSS ones for him today.

Emma gave Tom the best present though, which will be two pet goldfish when we get back from Scotland. We need to start thinking up names… any suggestions?

I also made a couple of squirrel brooches yesterday for the family – I hope they don’t look on here before xmas. Check out the how-to here.

I seem to craft so much faster when it’s cold outside. This week I finished my patchwork quilt, which I had started back in the summer. I had the bulk of the work finished in two days and then left it for months until Monday, when it was so cold, I decided to get it finished. It’s really cosy having the extra layer on the bed and it’s good to snuggle up with in front of the TV and knit.

It’s been another busy crafty week. I’ve finished knitting my scarf, but I want to add pockets and John Lewis have ran out of my shade of yarn, so I’ll have to wait until I’m back in Scotland to get some more. On Wednesday, Tom’s boss Malcolm was hosting an evening at the office, where he showed off the video of Hugh Grant shaving off his moustache. It was really funny and I’ll post it when it’s live.

Alex gave us an early Christmas present last night, which is a really pretty candle holder made out of a tree trunk.

We’ve been making eggnog and ginger beer for our December party this weekend. I’ve also finished my Christmas shopping, which I’m really happy about. I do more shopping in December than I do in the rest of the year.

We’d been looking forward to December so that we could open our Lego advent calendar.

It’s pirate themed and each day you get something to build, I’m looking forward to getting the little Lego mermaid.

Don’t worry if you don’t have an advent calendar though, we’ve put together a crafty one for CO+K with a how-to for everyday until Christmas.

On Wednesday night we went to see Twilight. I still can’t make my mind up about the film, so Lynz has lent me her book of it to read. (This lipstick covered tube poster still makes me giggle).

It was an 11.30pm screening, so we had the whole cinema to ourselves, which was the advantage of going so late, but we had to walk home from Finchley Road because we had missed the last bus. It had stopped raining and it was a nice walk, so we didn’t mind.

On Thursday we picked up this year’s Christmas tree from Clifton Nurseries. We thought we had picked a similar size to last year but it turned out to be 2 foot taller and much heavier. Luckily a nice bus driver let us take it home on the bus and dropped us off round the corner next to the Mews. We had to buy a bigger stand to fit it though.

On Friday, Emma moved flat – back in the direction of the Mews and we headed in to town to meet Tom from work. It was Beer O’Clock at the Leap offices, so we were invited in for drinks, organic chocolate and played a game of Jenga, while Malcolm (the boss) was outside with a film crew trying to get passers by to shave off his moustache (which he had grown for Movember) and ended up cycling off in a pedicab while holding up a sign. We didn’t see him again, so we don’t know if he succeeded.

There are two very cute fish who live in the office and now I really want to get some. We met up with Alex and went for dinner afterwards.

Yesterday, we started decorating our tree. We’re going to have a December party and have all our friends come over to help decorate, drink mulled wine, eat mince pies and listen to the Bright Eye’s Christmas album.

New decorations this year include a jumping reindeer and a glass lollipop. In the evening, we headed over to Ealing to hang out with Lynz, Claire and friends.

In other news, I did a nice little interview for Amelia’s magazine and you can read it here.

2008 is almost over and I’ve managed to stick to my new year’s resolution of being vegetarian. Instead of having just one resolution for next year, I have several:

1. I want to be more proactive.
2. Think postivly and say Yes more.
3. Stay organized and very tidy.
4. Eat super healthily. I may even try becoming vegan.

This afternoon we found this awesome cafe and farm shop tucked away in the woods of Fife.

It was very cold inside, so we had to wrap up warm while we sipped on coffees (Tom wore his new Joey D couture) and we shared vegan gingerbread and carrot cake. I enjoyed looking at all the brightly coloured vegetables.

There was a face in my coffee.

I also got a couple of beeswax candles for my Mum and Nana – aren’t they cute?

Now I’m off to drink some babycham, Happy New Year everyone xo

We caught the train up to Scotland yesterday. We went first class thanks to mr t. booking early and sat with a lovely older couple who told us all kinds of stories about London when they were young.

Today we went to Edinburgh to finish off our present shopping. We hadn’t slept for two days, so we had crashed out pretty early the previous evening, meaning that we woke up in the early hours and decided to go out for breakfast. We also went to see Joey D, who told us stories about his time in London. Tom got an awesome new jacket and a Harris tweed scarf.

It’s weird being away from London, everything seems so small – the shops, other people’s houses and there’s so much waiting for buses and trains.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone!

Tonight is our last night in London so we’ve been tying up all of the loose ends before we leave for Christmas. As part of the CO+K office party, we drank loads of baileys and made these ornaments for the tree from a Brini Maxwell kit that we were sent. They were super fiddly but I think they turned out okay.