Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had lovely Christmas and New Year (or whatever you were celebrating…Or just really awesome Friday!). The Trip Report posts stopped a little before I expected them to, I thought I had them scheduled until Jan. 3rd, but it was Dec 3rd. Whoops! Sorry about that. I will go back to regular(ish) ones ASAP. 

 But first thing's first, and by far the most exciting news of the festive season…

WE ARE GETTING A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't had a dog for the last 5 1/2 years, since my first dog Sassi passed away at the grand old age of 13. Here he is:


My puppy! With 13yo me.


With his beloved teddy bear. We took it with us when we went to collect him from the breeder, and it never left his side for the rest of his life (even after that, actually, because they cremated it with him). When we had to have him put to sleep, the vetinary nurse remembered how much he loved his bear and how he used to sleep with it, and tucked it under his paw when she tucked him up on the table under his blanket. Broke my heart all over again.


Gorgeous boy!

For a long time I didn't want another one, then I did and we couldn't afford one, then our work schedules weren't compatible with a pet (yay for responsible pet parenting, however miserable it makes you at the time to be sensible!)…The list went on. Well, now we are in a better place financially and work-wise, and our new fur baby will be coming home with us at the end of January/early February!


The white one is ours!

We have been looking to adopt for months, even before our Disney trip, but the area we live in is pretty much all Staffordshire Bull Terriers, or some mix thereof, German Shepherds or other large breeds in the rescue centres, and our house and garden just aren't big enough for a large dog. So, we made the choice to buy instead.

Speaking of buying…I had little Disneystore.com shopping spree before Christmas. I thought I would try and do a haul video. Well. That ended abruptly…

Yup, 9 seconds before I got stopped. :S That went well! My second try got a little further!

I apologise if my shaky camerawork makes you queasy! Fortunately you don't have to experience it for long! I did have a very good reason for stopping the filming though (no, not because I am terrible at it): Disney called! I was so shocked to see a Florida number pop up on my phone (which I was filming with) that I nearly dropped it!

When we were away we decided to collect autographs for a friend of ours who is too ill to travel. She adores Disney, so we thought we'd take some magic home for her. Well, we decided to go one better than that, and had a few of our new friends say hello!


Everyone we asked made such wonderful messages on the spur of the moment that I thought they deserved some special praise for their amazing work, so I wrote an email to Disney, including the video URL. The phone call was from a lovely lady at Disney, calling to let me know that they were able to track down everyone in my video, show it to them and their supervisors and tell them how wonderful they are!  She was getting teary watching the video again on the phone with me! She also let me know that she had passed on my compliments about Anthony who checked us in at CBR too, which was good to know.

So as the haul video failed, here are some photographs instead:


Bernard and Bianca!! I loved The Rescuers when I was little (all together now… #R-E-S-C-U-E, Rescue Aid Societyyyyyyy…#) so when I saw this ornament online before our trip, I had to have it. Well, I saw it, didn't buy it, and remembered later that I wanted it. Story of my holiday shopping!! It's a little heavy for the tree, that Devil's Eye is solid, but I have a nice ornament hook it will go on.



My favourite calendar! *SPOILER ALERT* this is the one we ended up buying for my Grandparents. Flicking through the pictures with them when we gave it to them, I decided I needed one too! I love that the gang are wearing their Star Wars attire for May (May The Fourth be with you!). We are big celebrators of the Jedi holidays in our house. Fun Fact: My husband decided to wait until we were sat outside the vicarage waiting to go in and speak to the reverend about planning our wedding to tell me that he had recorded himself as "Jedi" in the religion space on the recent census form. Fortunately that did not hinder our wedding plans!! But ever since we have joked about May 4th being his religious holiday.


How wonderful are these keys?! I plan on hanging it in a box frame by the door, with a photograph from our trip.


Love it. Wish I'd ordered more!


My Mickey Santa hat! I haven't managed to wear it yet, as it's VERY warm! Hats off (pun totally intended) to the people who make it through an entire MNSSHP wearing one of these bad boys. They are seriously cosy!


My GORGEOUS tree skirt!! I fell in love with this at the Christmas shop in Magic Kingdom, but it was so heavy I daren't buy one there and try to get it home. Also, by waiting until I got home and mail ordering it, John had forgotten how much it cost. 


I also ordered this little fella! Wow, his ticking is LOUD!! Like, you can hear it over the TV level of loud. I love him though. Actually, the one in the video is my second Cogsworth.

The first one that I unpacked with this haul was damaged, his glass was cracked. It wasn't much, but it was enough that it would have bugged me no end if I kept him like that. I emailed Disney to find out how I went about returning him, and what their policy was on import duty (I paid 20% of the total cost including shipping to get them through customs). They replied to say the new one was on his way, duty free, and to pass the old one along to a charity to spread the Disney magic!!! Instead of just giving him to a charity shop, I listed him on eBay, so he went to someone who absolutely adores Disney, and 100% of the proceeds (£72) went to our local children's hospital charity. Win-win, everyone's happy! 

Regular trip reports resume on Thursday! :)

Project: Tree Decoration Gift Tags

Now you know I love my pottery painting, and my favourite place to go is Fired Arts on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield.

In January I bought some wrapping paper (for this year, because I'm cheap like that ;) that was covered in unusual tree decorations. So of course I knew exactly what I wanted my gift tags to be!

TREE DECORATIONS!! :)

The ribbons go through the holes, and when the bows are undone there is enough ribbon to tie in a loop to hang on the tree. They are just attached to the presents with balls of sticky tape.

Worst. Christmas. Ever.

Lately it has become somewhat of an unfortunate tradition for me to work my ass off right up until Christmas Eve in full health, only to succomb to a cough, cold or full-blown flu during Christmas Day, thus having to leave the family celebration early. Last year I did pretty well and made it through Christmas Day, only to get a cold on Boxing Day.

My annual mantra to sick people of "STAY AWAY FROM ME!!" is not purely me being selfish. My Mum has Lupus (which basically means a buggered immune system, which basically means stay the hell away from sick people. For a more accurate description, see here), so if I'm ill, I can't do the big family Christmas. Christmas to me IS the big family Christmas, with everyone all together. So far, we've managed to wing it over the years, no-one else has gotten ill, and I've minimised the time I've spent in bed (and always, dammit, been fit and well for work on Dec. 27th).

This year, however, I would have given anything for a nice simple cough or cold. Turns out I had food poisoning (we presume, given that it seems to be mainly gone 24hrs later, and Norovirus is supposed to last for 48hrs-ish). HOWEVER when food poisoning could be mistaken for Norovirus (which is doing the rounds again here), that means quarantine, which means no family Christmas for me. Which means spending Christmas Day on our sofa in a blanket/in the bathroom, crying and feeling like crap. I officially ruined Christmas. Well, not me precisely, I can't help being ill...But Christmas was ruined none the less.

Anyone who says Christmas isn't 110% about family is WRONG. Having spent my first Christmas in 28 years without my family, I can tell you that now for a fact. I spent Christmas Day asleep on the sofa without my family. Bad times. John didn't get his Chirstmas dinner (or pigs in blankets), I didn't get anything but stomach cramps, a headache, and dehydrated, given that my stomach had developed a distint aversion to everything, even plain water. We still had presents, but that doesn't matter without family.

So that was my family Christmas ruined. Today, I am (right now, in fact) missing his family's Christmas dinner, because the thought of major food this morning turned my stomach (does anyone else get that food-phobia after a bout of throwing up? I always have).

I feel bad saying "Worst Christmas Ever" given that my Grandma died on Dec. 23rd when I was a teenager...But at least that Christmas we were still together, as a family, even if we were sad and didn't "celebrate" Christmas, we still got to spend the day together. That's all that matters about Christmas.

I just want to see my family! :'( Sad, sad times.

It makes me sad that 30 people viewed my blog yesterday too...Where were those people's families? Why did they have time to spend online on Christmas day? Maybe they were just non-Christmas-celebrating faiths. I hope so.

Hope everyone else had an AWESOME Christmas, doing whatever makes your Christmases awesome! :)

Project: Mulled Wine

Now, I'll be honest. I'm not a big drinker of anything alcoholic, let alone mulled wine. Given my natural propensity to spill things, I don't drink red wine EVER. But, I got a two-can-dine meal deal from M&S, so I took the bottle of wine and bought a little packet of their mulling pot pourri (I don't care, that's what it looks like).

I didn't take a photo of the sachet, basically it does look exactly like Pot Pourri (you can see the contents of it in the pan in one of the photographs). I read a number of methods online . . . and then basically made my own up! It didn't quite work, but what the hell.

This was the wine I went for:

I started off with 100g of sugar, and the sachet contents in the pan. I added just enough water so that everything was just wet, and heated it on the stove until the sugar melted into the water and went syrupy. I carried on stirring for a few more minutes, and then poured in the wine. The instructions I had said to heat for 20mins. Well, after 20mins it still tasted WAY too alcoholy (I don't like wine, and having tried it before I mulled it, it still tasted way too much like that!) so all in all it cooked for about 45mins. During that time I eyeballed a bit more sugar in, so there was probably about 150g in altogether.

Surprisingly, once it had cooled and I put it back into the bottle (storage issues!), it was far too strong and syrupy to drink, almost like drinking Ribena without water. However, this gave me a genius idea, and without further ado I bring you . . .

The Mulled Wine Spritzer!

Trust me, it is delicious, (probably) alcohol-free and fantabulously Christmassy.

I will be freezing the rest of the mulled wine in ice cube trays so that I can thaw a few cubes whenever I fancy a spritzer, and just add lemonade!

Project: Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Wreath!

I figured it had been long enough since we had a craft project on here. I have lots lined up for Christmas, but obviously I can't share any gifts on here until January. I can show my wreath, however. :)

I've had the bells in the picture below for years. In fact, I've had them since Pier's closing down sale, which coincided with the Iceland financial crisis, so you can tell how long ago that was. I never knew what to do with them, or rather, I could never think of a project good enough for them. Then the other day in one of my many Christmas magazines I spotted a beautiful jewel-colour-themed wreath, using baubles rather than bells, but it would still work!

I decided that I didn't want to spend too much on the project (the bells should have cost me £24, fortunately I got them 50% off), so I hit up Poundland for the rest of my supplies.

(Please excuse the state of my carpet in the following photographs. . . I was NOT about to hoover before I started chucking tinsel about!!).

My eyes were definiately bigger than my wreath, because I didn't end up using the small baubles or the crystals. I used: 1 wreath, 4m (2x2m packs) of tinsel, 1 roll of gold wired ribbon. 1 roll of gold elastic cord.

This is the wreath you start off with. Originally I was just going to trim the tinsel down, and glue the new tinsel over the top. I'm glad I fiddled around a little longer though, because the tinsel does come off very easily, leaving you with this:

The pattern for wrapping your tinsel is:

 

Fully wrapped!

 

Happy little pile of Christmas! :D

The strings on the bells really weren't that long, so I cut them all off, and replaced them with the elasticated cord. Using each of the 10 "full" bars on the wreath, I tied a bell into each of the three grid sections along the bar, to attach three bells in a row to each bar.

Voila!

 

It was at this point that I decided the baubles and jewels were a bit of a waste, because I just couldn't figure out where they would look right!! I did decide to add a bow on the bottom, using the wired ribbon. I folded the whole rolls' worth in half (I think it was 2m), cut into two pieces, and tied the two pieces together into a double bow.

 

Then I threaded another piece of cord through the back of the bow (actually, that is the front of the bow, I decided the back looked better than the front!!).

 

All finished and on the wall! :D My husband did make me take it down as "It's only bloody November...". Booooooooo!! But, come Dec.1st it will be back in pride of place above my fireplace.

Listography: The 5 Signs Of Christmas.

As soon as we hit October, the countdown to Christmas begins (unless you want to start at 100 sleeps, in which case you started on Sept 16th), and so I await The Five Signs of Christmas. . .

1). The Magical Elves are back!! No, I haven't finally flipped. These are the Magical Elves of which I rave:

Cadbury's Magical Elves are amazing. Well, OK, they're elf-shaped Freddo bars with popping candy in them. Not that that's not amazing, but what they represent is even more amazing. Christmas time is near!

2). The Boots Christmas Gift Guide. This sign seems to be arriving earlier and earlier. I remember sitting as a kid every Halloween after my trick-or-treating, waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to arrive, reading the Boots Christmas Gift Guide and the Studio Catalogue, sneaking sweets out of the Halloween bowl and making lists of things that I would never be able to afford. Holiday is two pay days away!

3). DFS "In Your Home For Christmas" adverts. The only DFS adverts that aren't depressingly annoying (Concerningly though, they do seem to be running one for the END of the sale?! Do they know something we don't? Is DFS run by the Mayans?!! *Debates pre-emptive Christmas on Dec. 11th just in case*). Christmas is near! But still far away enough to buy a new sofa. . .

4). Christmas Lights Switch-On. For us, the Friday after Bonfire Night is the big Christmas lights switch-on hoo-ha at work. And, even though for the past few years the decorations outside our shop have looked like giant glittery hemorrhoids, it does still put you in the mood for Christmas.

5). The Coca-Cola Truck Advert. I love this advert so much that I literally have the T-shirt. No really, I do, and it looks like this:

(Photograph Copyright TruffleShuffle.com)

HOLIDAYS ARE COMING!!! :D

Dear Christmas Shoppers...Vol.III

Some people love to hear funny stories about idiot customers. Some ask me why I'm always so crabby in December. This, I believe, successfully answers both questions. (The title says Vol.III, but this is actually a combination of Vol. I and Vol. II, with some new bits added in).

Dear Christmas Shoppers, 

You hate Christmas shopping. I understand. I get it. I just don't care. You, along with 85% of my customers today, hate Christmas shopping. You are, without exaggeration, at least the 250th person today who has decided to inform me of the fact. Either that or the fact that you are surprised how busy it is. WHY precisely can you not believe, in December, that a 200+ store shopping centre is busy? What, did you think you were the only person who woke up this morning and thought "Hey, nearly Christmas, better go shopping."?

Personally, I love Christmas shopping. I just hate most Christmas shoppers. Please bear in mind the following, and have a nice day. [/sarcasm]

A "hello", "excuse me" or even a polite cough is a nice way to announce your presence, should you feel it necessary to do so. Walking in and loudly declaring "Keyboard books! ...." is not. Do you walk into a supermarket and yell "Beans!" in someone’s face and just expect to be led to the correct aisle?! Actually, you probably do. @$$hole.

I don't know your sister-in-law/child/father/Aunt/second-cousin's adopted Malawian orphan, or whoever else you are shopping for. I don't know what thickness plectrums they use, if they would like a guitar-shaped keyring, or a music themed mug. If they’re anything like you appear to be they’re probably not trusted with keys or hot liquids. I don't know if they would wear treble clef patterned socks, heck, I don't actually know if they even have both feet*. Asking me these questions is pointless, and wastes both of our time.

* Speaking of missing limbs, you cannot phone up and ask me "do you sell anything that will help a person with one arm play the violin?" and not expect follow-up questions. When I ask "Which arm are they missing?" I am not being funny, nor am I asking out of morbid curiosity. I am attempting to help you. You were the one who phoned me with the stupid question in the first place.

I don’t know if your relative would find learning an instrument easy or hard. Nor can I really say if learning an instrument in general is easy or hard. That’s like in A&E when they ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10. Everyone’s different. You definitely seem...different. I’m guessing you would find it considerably harder than most, considering the fact that you have already told me how surprised you are that it’s really busy in the centre today.

Telling me the person’s age is about as useful as telling me their shoe size when it comes to "helping" you to choose a music book. Essentially when you don’t really know what instrument they play or have any vague notions of what musical genres they like, I can't help you. Some 15 year old boys like Metallica, some like Mozart, some like Michael Buble. I don't know which category yours falls into. You really should know, or at least ask someone who does. "It's all noise to me!" isn't funny or helpful the first time you hear it. You were not the first. If you really want something to appeal to your 15 year old boy, head next door to GT, they sell FHM.

Bands these days have stupid names. I realise this. You don't need come over and to tell me each time you find a stupidly named band. When it is mid-December and the shop is heaving I have neither the time nor the inclination to stand at the T-shirt rack and give you a history and back catalogue of every band featured therein, from Cannibal Corpse to Thin Lizzy and all genres in between, just in case your relative might like them. If the person you're buying for hasn't expressed a liking for thrashing death metal, buying a random T-shirt with a design that would scare small children and offend their Nan is probably not the best idea. Nor can I "sing a bit of one of their songs" for you to help you make up your mind. It sounds like a drumkit falling downstairs whilst a bear throws up. Does that help? May I also remind you once again that I have never met the person you are shopping for. Thus asking "Would the large fit him, do you think, or would medium be better?" is pointless. Maybe bringing in a recent photo of him standing next to something of regulation size, like a pillarbox for example (as people who are selling things on eBay take a photo next to a coin or a ruler to give some idea of size), would enable me to contribute to the Great Size Debate. 

Personally, I am apathetic with regards to the issue of whether you “believe” the tab books or not. Telling me every week that you “...don’t believe those books, the tunes don’t match the real ones if you sing it in your head” won’t make them change to containing the songs that ARE in your head, nor will your repetitive insistence make me care that you feel the music in the books is wrong, because the definitive version is in your brain and/or tabbed by bedroom experts and uploaded onto the internet. Please don’t involve other customers in your conspiracy theories. I don’t know them, but chances are they don’t care either. Also, if I have a queue please realise that your quirky line of questioning about every single product (“That’s one of those [item] is it?”, “Yes.”, “Is it?!”, “Yes.”, “It’s not, is it?”, “Yes.”, “Oh...it is, is it?” “YES.”) is something frankly you should get help for, but not from me. I have a queue.

I realise that if you look around, you will find most of the things we sell in store for a cheaper price online. This is because "online" doesn’t pay Meadowhall rents, and buys in bigger bulk than our little shop. You don't need to queue up especially to tell me that you've seen it cheaper online, and then leave the item on the counter for me to put away. I'm not going to price-match, even if you kick up a stink about it. Also, whilst we're on online retailers, at least have the decency NOT to walk in with the opening line of "I've seen this guitar much cheaper online, I'm buying it from there but obviously I can't try it from there. Can I try yours?" Um, lemme think. NO. You want to save money and buy online, you take your chances and pay less but don't see/try before you buy. Email the online store and ask to try theirs, and stop wasting my time. Also please don’t try to return an item because you bought it from us and THEN looked online to see if you could find it cheaper. Who does that?! Go away.

Before asking the question "Are you busy?" please take a moment to actually LOOK AT ME and make an informed decision as to whether your question is necessary. Chances are if I am up a ladder, have a 20W amplifier under each arm, am mid-conversation with a customer, on the telephone, or processing a credit card transaction then yes, I AM busy. Heaven help you, you might just have to queue with everyone else.

Christmas Musical "Emergencies". If you wouldn't phone WH Smith enquiring about a recipe the latest Jamie Oliver book and ask them to "Tear the relevant pages out of the book and fax them to me...I'll come in and buy the book after Christmas." don't expect me to do it with a song in a music book. If infact you really do need the song "To play in church for the Christmas morning service", then your Christmas emergency really doesn't wash with me. As a church-goer you above all people should know what date Christmas is. Christmas cannot creep up and surprise you. You don't get a phonecall one morning saying "Christmas! Tomorrow! You in?!" It doesn't move dates like Easter or Father's Day. If you don't have what you need by Dec. 24th, when we have been open 9am-11pm, quite frankly it is your fault. Please don't say "You had a book in last week...I can't see it today." Last week we also had enough time to order you a copy before Christmas. Times change. We are not affiliated with Santa, hence you cannot order a book on Dec. 24th "for Christmas delivery".

You do not qualify for a discount for:

Having the nerve to ask. 

Buying more than one plectrum.

Paying cash.

Buying a book/guitar/uke that's "been on display". Everything is “on display”.

Being old.

Claiming to know my boss but not knowing her name or, in fact, that she is a woman. 

Because it's Christmas Eve. 

Because the item is a gift.

Being less annoying than the customer in front of you.

Being Irish. 

Whilst we’re talking about your children (which we were, some time ago...), don't expect me to watch them. We are not a creche, and I have no qualms about selling them to the circus if you abandon them for too long. If I peek into your push chair it's only out of mild curiosity, not an offer to babysit. To be perfectly honest I'm probably just looking in case you have a really, really ugly baby so that I can alert the rest of the staff to go and have a look.

I only work in one shop. I don't know cinema listings. I don't know the phone numbers for every shop in the mall, or for the music shops in town. I don't know what they stock that we don't, or vice versa. I don’t know where the shop you are vaguely describing might have moved to. I am well aware that the comic book shop has closed. There is no need to tell me. When you ask “Where has it gone?” and I reply “They’ve closed down.” I do really mean that as an end to the conversation.  If I wanted a list of all the Star Trek figures you’ve ever purchased from there, I would have asked. Also, we don't sell Westlife keyrings. 

Speaking of Customer Directory questions...If you want information I might have, please ask nicely. Storming in and telling me the toilets are closed before rudely demanding to know where the nearest ones are WILL guarantee that I send you to the ones at the opposite end of the centre, and not the ones directly above the ones you are complaining about.

Bear in mind, when you storm into my shop in the hours before Christmas, brandishing your attitude problem like an offensive weapon, that I have the items that your children are demanding. I decide whether you get what you need or are thrown out for being rude/offensive/abusive. In effect, I stand between you and a peaceful Merry Christmas. I have what you need. Even Amazon cannot help you now. Therefore it is in your best interests to BE NICE. Then I am nice, and you have half a chance that your children will be placated and in turn, nice. 

Have a merry Christmas, and enjoy your shopping experience.

Yours sincerely,

Me

P.S...Awesome Woman? The one who pointed up into the roof and told her naughty child that our smoke alarm was "...a Santa Alarm, and that light is flashing because he knows you've just been naughty"? You're awesome.

Project: Christmas Cake

So, I decided to cheat with Christmas cakes this year, and use a kit. More specifically, this kit:

which apparently is exactly the same as the Delia Smith one, but the Delia requires you to add more butter, and some salt. I've never tried the Delia one, so I wouldn't know.

All mixed up and ready to go!

OK, I know all frutcake/Christmas pudding mix looks disgusting. But it smelled AMAZING, so just pretend that you are smelling Christmas in a bowl, and not looking at something bearing a passing resemblance to Santa vomit.

**Many delicious-smelling hours later**

One cake!

It baked a little unevenly, which is odd as I followed the instructions (including making a little paper "hat" to protect the top during baking, which was a b!tch to do), but overall it was a great kit to do!

How NOT to Make Peppermint Bark

I decided that Peppermint Bark was too expensive to purchase from the expensive shops that sell it, when it can be made so easily at home.

I should have learned from past experience that dubbing any project "easy" immediately angers the cooking gods, thus rendering any project anywhere between frustrating and impossible. My current blatant disregard for the Rule of Cooking Gods resulted in the following evening's farse:

How NOT To Make Peppermint Bark

Try to photograph my "new" shiny Chocolatiere gadget...camera began eating batteries and refusing to take pictures.
Try again with camera #2...flash still dud, photos either black or bleached out.
Give in on photos and attempt to weigh chocolate. Scales won't switch on.
Finally get white chocolate into chocolatiere. Realise too late that the amount I am looking at thinking "that should be enough!" actually has to cover twice the area as I thought it did (top and bottom).
Find bowl, pan, and boil kettle to melt milk chocolate for new bottom layer that should be white chocolate.
Line baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Spread melted milk chocolate onto baking paper, put in fridge.
First layer accomplished! Yay!
Second layer, ganache. Get out ingredients. Go to empty and dry boiling water pan for putting ganache ingredients in. Come back with dried pan.
Realise block of chocolate in wrapper was accidentally placed on the recently switched off electric hob ring, and is now floppy.
Scrape chocolate off wrapper and into pan. Add other ingredients.
Realise that bottle of "Peppermint Essence" in the cupboard is actually vanilla.
Realise that peppermint sweets bought to make peppermint bark are actually spearmint.
Realise that sandwich bag container is empty.
Fashion half-assed sweet receptical out of clingfilm. Add spearmint balls.
Attempt to crush balls by whacking with rolling pin/heavy-based saucepan/heavy handle. Fail.
Transfer balls from wreckage of clingfilm into a bowl. Attempt pestle and mortar style crushing with glass bowl and utensil handle. Fail.
Give in and dig out blender. Transfer pristine, un-damaged, un-crushed balls from bowl to blender. BLITZ!!
Feel satisfied with neat crushed mintballs/powdered flavouring for ganache.
Melt chocolate and make ganache.
Attempt to pour powdered balls into pan.
Realise that heat from the blender has in fact melted the "powder" and it is in fact a granulated lump which is stuck in/under/around the non-removable blades in the blender.
Hack lump out with a knife, and resume pestle and mortar technique to break up the powder again.
Add to ganache, stir in, and spread onto bottom layer. Put back in fridge.
Layer 2 accomplished. Yay!
Break up mint powder again (what is wrong with this stuff?!), and add to white chocolate in chocolatiere.
Wait 15 mins, then spread white chocolate onto other two layers. Put back in fridge.
Go to transfer photos of process from THIRD camera onto laptop.
Both pieces of electronic wizardary insist on ignoring each other, despite being connected with a cable.

So, I will, one day, when my appliances stop revolting, provide photographic evidence of the evening's proceedings (not the profanity, that could not be captured in photographic form).

Project: Christmas 2010 Cross Stitch

It took over a year to finish this thing, and I squeaking LOVE it.

You might recognise my little grey squirrel. :)

I can tell you that the time estimates they give in magazines are WAYYYYYYYY off. I know this because this one said "85 Hours" and it actually took over 10 months. :S