Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and My Holy Trilogy

We have started spinning towards Christmas and everything is becoming blurred and slightly tense as we race to compete all our tasks.
People in the city streets look tired and snap like crocodiles if you go too near their path. It is dangerous to enter stores as you suddenly begin to want to buy gifts for everybody you have ever met, including the nice old man you've spoken to once or twice in the park.
I do love this time of year however, despite all the madness. Three people I always find inspiring at Christmas time are Jamie Oliver, Nigella and Kirstie Allsopp. It wouldn't be Christmas for me without a Jamie Oliver DVD to show me how to stuff a turkey, Nigella for just being wonderful Nigella and for looking so glam and being so witty as she stuffs her turkey and I'm so excited as Kirstie's homemade Christmas show starts on Lifestyle channel in Australia tonight.
I only wish we had got this sooner as she recommends people avoid the big retails stores selling tacky, trashy stuff and make all your gifts. I can’t imagine having the time to make anything - I'm still trying to find a spare fifteen minutes to do Christmas cards. But I love the thought that one day I'll be organized like Kirstie, Nigella or Jamie. I'll have their beautiful homes, enormous trees and pull Christmas off with style, wit and ease. Love Kirstie. Love her style, her beautiful Devon home and her common-sense. And so three cheers for Kirstie, Jamie and Nigella. They're my holy trilogy of Christmas hope and possibilities for Christmas futures.
And now I must try to get time to write a few cards.

kirstie allsopp image source:

jamie oliver image source:

nigella lawson image source:

Chit-Chat Wednesday - STICKY-BEAK TWIT

I am a sticky-beak, it's true. I'm the sort of person that, if I visit you, I love nothing more than to go through your photo albums (and even the albums of people I don't know). Perhaps that is part of my fascination with the art of story-telling, studying other human beings and their reactions to events in their lives. I'm sure all writers have a touch of sticky-beakness in them.

MySpace and Facebook were perfect vehicles for a sticky-beak such as myself where I could browse total stranger's lives. Or at least the lives they chose to portray on their sites.

I'd always promised myself I'd never join Twitter. I was already overloaded with social networking sites but this week I succumbed and I blame Kirstie Allsopp for this lapse in judgment.

I'm rather a fan of Kirstie. The lovely image above of her I swiped from the Shed UK Blog. Her shed inspired my shed. She seems to be everything I'm not. So practical, capable and fearless when it comes to real-estate and house matters. So crafty and domestic. When I read a recent article in the on-line Times that Kirstie was a big user of Twitter and was recommending it to people in place of Facebook and MySpace it was too much for this sticky-beak to resist.

And so I joined Twitter to follow Ms Allsop and was so pleased to see that she was tweeting she was off to Ikea. Aha! We did have something in common. We were both talking about Ikea in the same week!

Then I couldn't resist searching for Johnny Depp, noting he had something like 48,000 followers. I didn't add him, as much as the sticky-beak within hungered. I couldn't really see Johnny tweeting away out there. I figure he's much too cool to bother with such things. Is some little geek guy in the States pretending he's Johnny whilst 48,000 followers hang on every tweet? Why Johnny would be tweeting about Susan Boyle makes it even more difficult to believe. Just call me a sticky-beak sceptic.

I've yet to work out the mystery of Twitter. I thought it would be simple and in some ways it does seem cleaner and less cluttered than Facebook or MySpace.

I admire the Scribe because he's so far resisted having any social networking at all. He's watched me with a mixture of pity and amusement as gradually I've added one thing after another.

I cannot believe that we're nearly through one week of the school holidays already. Daisy and I have been having a lovely time at home doing craft, baking, making huge messes and reading Enid Blyton.

She has told me she doesn't want to go anywhere, she wants to stay home and 'relax'. That suits me fine. However, not much editing done this week, alas. The school holidays are always so difficult with writing. I can only grab snatches throughout the day. Today I'm waiting on the floorboards man to arrive to discuss stains and quotes.

Hope your week is a brilliant one and if you are on Twitter please follow me! My profile is looking quite dismal next to Kirstie’s.