fanbloomingtastic

Can't stop! Sew much to do, so little time...

Just back from a fantastic Spring Break Doctor Who Roadtrip.... if you pop over to my Absobloominglutely tumblr you'll see I was instagram'ing teaser photos of it as we went along. I'm now working through the nearly 500 photos Goth Child took on the good camera (as opposed to my iphone). And yes, we acted out some of the iconic scenes from Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon.

Some time this week, hopefully in the next day or two I'll post the absolute best of these and for any of you fellow Whovians who want to do the roadtrip around the the sites used in Season 6 Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon, I'll post GPS locations and directions......as well as the pics we took.

BUT, I'm seriously behind on this week's Sew Weekly challenge (Pantone Spring 2012 this week's theme) so I must, must, must get sewing. I've a pencil skirt without a zip or waistband and a top of many gathers not anywhere near wearable....and the deadline is midnight tonight.

AND I've got to take Luca back to the vets AGAIN this afternoon to have her bandages taken off (hopefully for good) and see if she can be allowed out. She is soooo angry at me right now for keeping her in.

AND it's the last day of Spring Break, so it's time to get the kids back ready for school tomorrow and I imagine some last minute emergency washing of their favourite clothes worn on our roadtrip that they NEED to wear this week.

So I'd better get moving.....more soon......honest.

Valentine's Day Watch 2012

If you've been reading this blog for a while now you'll have gathered 2 things:

1. America loves to party and will jump on any 'holiday'* to celebrate;
2. I absolutely love that they do because as you know I love to party too and love to share all the wackiness and over-the-topness with you.

So here's this year's Valentine's Day Watch 2012 (if you like this stuff check out my Halloween Watches and Valentine's Day Watch 2011).

In the UK we grumble (but secretly find amusing) the fact that straight after Christmas Day is over, on 26th December (Boxing Day) holiday company adverts (commercials) start appearing on television in between all the Boxing Day sales adverts (think Black Friday dear American friends) AND Easter eggs will start appearing in shops.

Over here, or at least in Phoenix, we have another holiday to be over-commercialised before Easter......Valentine's Day. I'm not sure how early stuff started appearing in stores, but it was definitely there by New Year's Day.

These are the sort of essentials you should be buying for your loved one ;) ......

 

 

 

 

I'm intrigued by "Valentine Licensed Waterball"..... does this mean St. Valentine licensed them? Oh no, they're trademarked characters: Mickey Mouse and Minnie, Snoopy and Scooby Doo.

But don't forget to get your Valentine Love Lights. Actually, I'm noticing something else here - the use of the word 'Valentine ........ ' rather than my instinctive 'Valentine's ......." not only are the Americans dropping the apostrophe (hot topic today in the UK with Waterstone's now becoming Waterstones) but they have dropped the 's' too. I find this rather interesting as in contrast they add an 's' to New Year that we don't in the UK. I noticed that as where would we say, "what are you doing for New Year's?" though we drop the Eve or Day to include both days, Americans say "what are you doing for New Year?" meaning both days too. I'm being all fascinated-linguist-nerd today aren't I?

Let's just show you another pretty photo.

 

I like that the retailers haven't felt confined to selling Valentine's Day gifts to couples - here we have gifts to "exchange with friends" and "exchange with classmates". I went into more detail about the gifts all school kids exchange with all their classmates last year (not something that happens in the UK so it's taken us a couple of years to get our heads around this one since we moved here).

Here's Melchett with her Valentine's Day haul from school last year:

 

 

 

No 'food police' at school here! Jamie Oliver has only made a very limited effect on improving the amount of sugar and salt in school meals or things kids bring in for birthdays etc.

If you missed my more detailed going into the little cards and gifts kids take into school for Valentine's Day, here are some of this year's choices:

 

 

 

Packs have sweets (candy), or stickers, or tattoos etc. in them as well as little cards on which you can write to each classmate.

Talking of sweets/candy, absolutely every brand of choccy treats are specially packaged up in pink or red bags for Valentine's Day too:

 

 

 

Being a big fan of anything cherry flavoured I might have to try the limited edition Cherry M&Ms.

Oh and if you did read Valentine's Day Watch 2011 and spotted me talking about the limited edition pillow pets.....look what I got last year for my wedding anniversary pressie (Feb 16th):

 

 

 

Yeah, I know I'm a woman in her mid-40s so some people would say I shouldn't have a cuddly toy, but I stick my tongue out at them and tell them to bog off. This imaginatively named 'Red Dog' has a very special place in my heart, not only because it was a present for my 20th wedding anniversary, but also because in our move to America two years ago my toy from childhood, 'Red Rabbit' (a saggy old red felted rabbit, a bit baggy at the seams...) got lost, and although I wasn't heartbroken because I'm a grown-up, it did leave a hole....that 'Red Dog' has now filled.

So, anyway, as you can see I am an old softy, and this is probably why all the Valentine's Day kerfuffle interests me.

.............................................................................

 

 

*ie. a special day. There's a classic British English vs. American English word usage here: Brits use holiday to mean any time off work/school, whereas Americans use holidays mainly to mean the time around Christmas in December that include Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, New Year's Eve/Day, St. Nicholas's Day etc.

If you want to confuse an American just ask them in summer where they're "off to on their holidays?" because as I say 'holidays' is something they associate with December not summer. Americans would call this a 'vacation' in the 'intercession'. When I talk about 'school hols' it also confuses my American friends. Schools hols are called Spring Break (what Brits might also call half-term or Easter hols/holidays), Fall Break (Autumn half-term), or they might use the word 'intercession'.

I'm slowly getting the hang of all this.

What Christmas means to me - and my Christmas 2011 Bucket List

I love Christmas. Some of you might have noticed that.

I also have a saying that I live my life by in recent years - "Life's Too Short not to....(fill in the blank with some experience or risk I'm about to take)".

For some reason, and no-one quite knows why, I don't remember a lot of my childhood. Despite numerous sessions with high trained mental health experts and psychoanalysts I've still to piece together a lot of the memories that a lot of people take for granted. I'm sure I didn't have an unhappy childhood, I just can't remember it. This is one of the main reasons in adulthood for mine and my kids sake I'm slightly obsessed with creating traditions and making memories :)

When I first got married and was an upwardly mobile suit of the early 90s, I have to confess I totally fell into the "Christmas has to be perfect" trap. I bought all those Good Housekeeping type magazines, I spent too much on decoarations (especially as we were trying to dig ourselves out of crippling debt after university), I got behind on sending Christmas cards and beat myself up about it (mainly because I used to spend ages writing a horribly braggy Christmas letter about mine and Mr D's exploits during the year). And of course, I got down when Christmas wasn't "perfect".

 

Luckily growing older has brought slightly more maturity (though some, me included, would argue not much) and living through some deep depressions and gaining two wonderful caring silly children has chilled me out somewhat.

Christmas doesn't have to be perfect anymore, because I know that's not an achievable goal. HOWEVER Christmas HAS to be lived as if it's my last - we have to MAKE TIME to have fun together, to simply be together, to make some memories for me if I'm lucky enough to be here in the future and for my children to hopefully look back on and remember fun times.

My favourite Christmas quotes are from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol:

 

And Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas:

 

I'm also a sucker for any Christmas 'redemption' stories/movies - Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Elf (an absolute classic of a movie, Will Ferrell is just superb at reminding us about having childlike wonder and joy), It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch (Chuck Jones & Boris Karloff version being my favourite but Jim Carrey wasn't bad either), The Santa Clause etc.

So this year (with the help of Mr D. being stuck in England a while back due to Hurricane Irene and having nothing to do with his time but do our Christmas shopping for relatives early) we got our Christmas shopping and Christmas carding done before Thanksgiving so that this Target advert wasn't too dissimilar from our house last Thursday:

 

 

As you can see from the photos above, we pretty much had all our Christmas lights and decs up in the front garden before the calendar even turned onto December...

And I'll show you some of our Christmas trees inside over the next few days. (Do you know I found out recently that not everyone is as obsessed as I am about eventually having a Christmas tree for every room? I KNOW?! Personally I was shocked).

And although there are some things I plan to do that we've had as Christmas traditions for years now (making and decorating Christmas cookies for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve, staying in our pyjamas all Christmas Day, watching Christmas movies under duvets with hot chocolate and marshmallows, tracking Father Christmas on Christmas Eve on the NORAD site, Elfing ourselves, making paper chains in front of the telly together, going on Christmas lights safaris etc). I've drawn myself up a Christmas 'bucket list' for this year of fun things I'd like to do instead of a 'to do' list I 'have to' do.

These are the things on my list:

• See how many Christmas movies & tv specials with a Christmas theme I can watch in one day
• Do a 'Christmas letter' for 2011 on fanbloomingtastic.com
• Write a letter to Father Christmas 
• Go with Melchett to meet Santa (Melchett can't remember meeting Father Christmas as a small child and I don't think I've ever actually talked to him)
• Make Christmas cards for all the children in the school classes I volunteer in
• Buy some more Christmas books for a Christmas book advent calendar next year
• Make some new geeky and/or glamorous tree ornaments for my white tree
• Decorate Hartley my car for Christmas
• Bake mince pies
• Go to Zoolights
• Go to Glendale Glitters
• Go to the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting Ceremony and Parade of Lights
• Make homemade gifts for friends and Melchett's teacher
• Make a gingerbread house (I want to try something like this, this year)
• Go on a Christmas Light safari
• Have a random acts of kindness marathon
• Watch A Christmas Story all the way through (this is a very American thing, like Morecambe and Wise means Christmas to Brits....but I've never watched the whole thing)
• Make paper snowflakes and decorate a room like in Elf
• Scan Christmas past photos and put them on electronic frame
• Make Christmassy frames for some Christmas past photos
• Bring Christmas photo albums up to date (currently only have up until 2003 in albums)
• Make fudge
• Change ringtones to seasonal ones and find some seasonal apps, wallpaper etc
• Decorate Bessie the trike

You'll notice there are 24 things. I've written them on slips of paper...

 

And then popped them sort of randomly in my advent calendar:

 

The reason I said 'sort of' randomly is that there were some things that needed putting on specific dates eg. the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting Ceremony and Parade of Lights, and some things that needed to be on weekends so the whole family could join in eg. Glendale Glitters and Zoolights and visiting Santa with Melchett......but other than these I popped them in the pockets of my advent calendar pretty randomly.

So I'll explain more about each one as it arrives and have some big fun making memories.

I'd love to know what things you plan to do during (as the Americans say) the holidays. Let me know in the comments section won't you, in case there's anything I need to add to my list next year :)

The World's Scariest Christmas Tree Ornaments.....you decide.

I was going to blog a review of Fright Night (new remake of the camp horror classic now starring Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Toni Colette and the kid who played Chekov in the Star Trek reboot). I'll have to do that later this week, because this morning I went to our local Hobby Lobby and discovered some things EVEN scarier.

Are you ready fright fans?

You might want to hide behind the settee. Or at least have a cushion handy.

You have been warned.

 

No, it's not them. By the way, did you realise it was Christmas? If you've been following my Twitter account, you'll know that I first posted pics of Christmas decs appearing in the shops/stores here in Phoenix back in July! It's ridiculous. They're right next to the Halloween decs. Also ridiculous. It's still Summer for goodness sake.

Ah well, the Americans do like to party (any excuse) and I suppose they need to get their stocks in. The essential Nutcrackers of course....they're HUGE here:

 

Nope, they're not the scariest either. Not even those 2 Rat King Nutcrackers in the centre there. No. Way. Near.

You can tell I'm teasing you, can't you? Building up to a big finish.

Of course, these are not to be confused with the World's Scariest Happy Meal Toy. Though I'm beginning to understand why American children might be desensitised to horror now.

OK, here you go.....I can't even decide which of the following is the most surreal or scariest - you might have to decide, we might have to have a vote, democracy shall prevail (some how I don't think this is quite as momentous as the events happening in Tripoli and Libya at the moment). Leave your opinions and pleas for counselling after the trauma in the comments below....

Ready?

OK, I predict that this year's top/hot trend in Christmas tree decorating will be..... forget your black tinsel trees, they are sooo last year.......*drum roll*....

Planet of the Apes!

 

These weren't ACTUAL Rise of the Planet of the Apes (or ROTPOTA as I keep hearing it being called) merchandise. They were just one of three different types of ape/chimpaneze Christmas tree ornaments I spotted today. I bet there WILL be official ROTPOTA decs too. You can get almost anything here in the USA. Goth Child couldn't decide between a Tron: Legacy racer last year or a Darth Vader for the tree. She eventually went for a glittery pink rhinocerous doing karate. Hmmm.

But who (except perhaps Dian Fossey) would want to hang this on their Christmas tree? And how will Andy Serkis hang on every Christmas tree around the world on the same night? Is he in league with Father Christmas/Santa? I'm assuming both of these are Andy Serkis right?

And as I say, these were only one of three ape-related decs I spotted....and there were about 5 rows like this to choose from....I may have missed some:

 

Actually I tell a lie. There were 4 ape/monkey/chimp decs I spotted including this one: What the heck is this trying to be?

 

I tell you, no wonder the apes want to take over the planet if they see us hanging stuff like this on our Christmas trees. 

I'm guessing in a planet ruled by apes they'd get their revenge by hanging like this on theirs:

 

What is this? An Osmond gone wrong? And what possessed the designer to put nylon ginger hair on it?

It has friends though, including:

 

 

So sorry it's out of focus. I couldn't stop giggling. It's the synthetic hair that does it for me.

OK, some more scary/surreal ones. What about some more animal-related ones?

Gecko in a Santa hat anyone?

 

Cow with a Christmas wreath around its neck? And wearing Christmas pyjama bottoms/pajama pants?

 

Large pink poodle (actually this is possibly the sanest of the lot)?

 

What about hanging symbols of our modern way of life on your tree? The essential chips/french fries and burger Christmas tree ornaments:

 

And of course, a gun-toting Snowman on a rocking horse:

 

I've saved my 'favourite' until last. And by 'favourite' I mean the one that I had to pick my jaw up off the floor for. This is one where I prove I'm a Brit and not a native Zoni (Arizonan). Sorry it's out of focus slightly again, but I was gob-smacked/giggling/concerned - Santa, in camo combats, with his hunting rifle in a glitter jeep containing presents.

I'm sorry, I might have to type that again, I never thought I'd ever type the words:

Santa Claus.

In camoflaged combats (though red trousers/pants).

With his hunting rifle.

In a glitter jeep...

...with presents:

 

Huntin' shootin' fishin' Santa. *speechless*

 

So which one do you reckon is scariest? I'm not convinced I can decide. I suspect the nearer we get to REAL Christmas I might find some even scarier.

*Shudders*

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Remember your vote counts. This isn't Celebrity Big Brother or X Factor. This is even scarier....

You know how I told you the Americans love any excuse for a party - here's Valentine's Day Watch 2011

So remember how amazed you were at what the Americans get up to for Halloween? (And if you don't, check out my Halloween Watch posts and photos) Well, Valentine's Day is not as big but it has aspirations...

The shops started stocking cards, soft toys, chocolates and sweets etc a few weeks ago. Let me just check my calendar - yep, Valentine's Day here is the same as the rest of the world - February 14th. And, let's see - yep, it's still January ;)

Mind you, they started selling THESE on Boxing Day (that's December 26th):

 

So anyway - Valentine's Day, ok we have it too in the UK. We too send cards if we're in the 1st throws of love, or teenage crushes, or later as couples (unless like me you were silly enough to get married that weekend, so you get anniversary cards and pressies instead). We too buy red roses last minute in service (gas) stations, or cutesy cuddly toys...but here's the difference:

1. like with any reason to party - the USA does this holiday a lot bigger
2. they seem to take it a lot more seriously and more crucially, it's not just for the luvvy duvvy - it's almost like another reason to show 'love' for many more people you don't actually 'love love' (am I making any sense here?)

I'll have to pop out soon and take some photos of the houses in my neighbourhood already decorated for the big day (I'm not joking - it's no way as big as Halloween, but the heart wreaths, flags and displays have started going up!)

Here are some of the things you can buy (and they do). Obviously there're plenty of chocolate options:

 

And you'd expect a fair range of cute heart-hugging cuddly toys:

 

Who could resist a heart-bearing dog, tiger, frog, pig, monkey.... hedgehog..... rhino..... cow? OK maybe that last one should only be sent to a loved-one with a sense of humour.

Then you mustn't forget your limited edition Valentine's Pillow Pet:

 

..........and your special Valentine's Cotton Candy?!

 

Hmmm, essential. If Mr Devyne doesn't deliver my Valentine's Cotton Candy on our wedding anniversary I think the previous 20 years of wedded bliss maybe called into question. Or perhaps not.

Don't forget your love glasses, Valentine's conversation starter cards, snowglobes, love ducks....honestly, I am not joking:

 

By the way, I'm totally aware there's probably an American ex-pat sitting in Shropshire typing on her blog "you would not believe what the Brits are selling in their supermarkets to celebrate Burn's Night!" (which is next Tuesday in case you haven't bought your haggis, neeps and tatties yet!)

But anyway, the most interesting cultural difference we encountered last year that took us totally by surprise about Valentine's Day is what happens in the elementary schools (infant/junior/primary schools). Melchett mentioned that they allow Valentine's cards in her class...

Now I know some schools in the UK allow cards, but many don't because of over-protecting the children - "we couldn't have some children upset because they didn't get anything, we have to shield them from real life" mentality. Also there's no way our school with its PTA food police would allow any children to bring in chocolates or sweets in for Valentine's Day.

But wow is it different here. Melchett wanted to give a few cards to some of her male friends (not 'boy friends' she's quick to assert) and when I say male, these were 7 year olds. Part of me felt a bit strange about this, not because I think it's wrong, it's just another cultural difference between the UK and the USA - we'd think 7 is too young to be 'in love' and that's the only way we think about Valentine's Day. So she took in a few cards and she left them anonymous, because that's how we do it in the UK.

And then she came home with a sackload of stuff! OK, slight exaggeration, a huge paper envelope of stuff that each child had made in class to transport home their booty:

 

There was actually a lot more than this but she ate it on the school bus ride home.

And there was a little card and some sort of little gift from EVERY SINGLE child in her class and each card said to and from with the children's names.

I was gobsmacked. I'd never seen Melchett bring home ANY chocolate or sweeties from her UK school, ohhh the food police were strong with the force there (shame they didn't spend more time trying to raise standards of teaching, but that's another story).

So this is what the kids do here, or at least at Melchett's school. They buy special Valentine's Day packs, like these:

 

 

You name a popular children's character and there's probably a pack of cards to send featuring them. The packs have little cards in them and usually some sort of gift. So you can have the sort of thing you might expect, Disney Princess or Tinkerbell cards that come with stickers or 'candy' (usually similar to love hearts, refreshers, parma violets or here, cherry boiled sweets):

 

Or if your son (or daughter, if your daughter is anything like mine) wants a less girly Valentines to distribute, there are 3D Dinosaur flip cards:

 

 

Or Valentine's Day cards with creepy crawly tattoos:

 

There are 'educational' ones too - with little maps or flash cards in them, even some with packets of flower seeds to send in each card!

But I've got my money on Melchett wanting me to get this Harry Potter set with their accompanying stickers:

 

We'll see.

Anyway, that's it for a Valentine's Day Watch pt 1. I might wait a little nearer to the day for a pt 2 that will include pics of the appropriately decorated 'front yards'.....oh America, you've go to love your quirky old ways :)

 

Other blog posts you might be interested in:

Halloween Watch pt 1 - stuff you can get in supermarkets and why I don't get Halloween being a Brit

Halloween Watch pt 2 - front garden decor

Halloween Watch pt 3 - getting the costume right

Halloween Watch pt 4 - decorations getting bigger and scarier

Halloween Watch pt 5 - the final round-up

Could this be THE King of Halloween Garden Decor one-upmanship?