We did it! We managed seven days of self-portraits. Apart from the occasional total lack of inspiration, it was a lot of fun and, as head of the group, it was certainly exciting each time someone loaded a new portrait. I kept it as just a project for people I know in Real Life because I wanted to see whether it would work first - falling figuratively flat on my face in front of bloggy friends was not on my Christmas wishlist. I also didn’t want to get in the way for too many people at this festive time, when lots may not have had the time to join in (I’m so British). BUT! I will do this again and next time I’ll open it up to all and sundry. So they can all break the rules and I can get stressed and maybe even cry. It’ll be fun!

In the meantime, click on the mosaic above to explore our pool of photos. My thanks go to John, Nina, Lauren and Fiona for joining in. You’re all very vain.

Today I’m starting a little experiment with a few “real-life” friends who are also on Flickr. Much too lazy to attempt the 365 days selfportrait challenge, we’re trying a 7 day version over the Christmas period. Now let’s wait and see if any of them remember … seeing as I was dreaming about it last night, I wasn’t about to forget. At least not today. If it’s a success, I’ll repeat the experiment sometime and bully all my internet friends to join in - because they’re all very pretty. Especially Mike.

Work is now off the cards until the new year and the spirit of the season is beginning to infiltrate my soul at long last. I wouldn’t have minded a weekday off work before Chrimble, but I’m not in charge of the calendar. Apparently.

Anyway, tonight I’m off to Suzy’s to spread a little of my joy over there and to give her a black eye a plentiful bounty of presents. She will feed me casserole and I will ply her boyfriend with wine. And probably scold him a lot. I do that.

Lauren’s coming over tomorrow on Christmas Eve to bestow what I can only assume is a cartload of gifts upon me. I was ultra-organised as far as Lauren was concerned this year and was able to give her my card and present when she was here at the beginning of the month for the picnic. However, this organisation came back and bit me on the arse when I later wrote her another card and kept wandering around the bloody shops coming up with great ideas for what I could buy her. Bad for Lauren, I guess, that I never actually got as far as buying any of these additional things.

Tomorrow is also the start of baking and cooking ahead for Monday. I’m not sure what I have to do, but I’m trusting in the power of Mum’s lists. In the past week I’ve made a fabulous chocolate orange cake which came out of the oven looking (and tasting) so perfect that I should have been given some kind of prize. Or perhaps just a cash alternative. I also made some yummy cranberry and white chocolate chip cookies. All my blog-reading friends are welcome to come and try them. Even you lurkers.

… because then finally my advent calendar will be finished with and I won’t have to start each day by eating a piece of god-awful chocolate.

Our tree and decorations are now up and my office is once more filled with a variety of Santa figurines that I have collected over the years. While all the suitcases full of decorations were down from the loft, I took the opportunity to photograph my old advent calendar, as promised. This is the advent calendar that served me well for many years when I was young. John had one too, but I’m more important than him, so I only photographed mine.

Each of the pockets would contain a little gift, the pockets being filled in small batches a few days in advance. I used to walk past my advent calendar as it hung on the wall on the landing, trying to sneak a peak at a bulging pocket, while at the same time not wanting to know what was inside. Unfortunately I can’t really recollect any of the treats I had back then. I do remember a neon-coloured pen, but that’s it. John - do you remember anything else? Were our parrot-shaped combs from the calendars? Man, I wish I’d started blogging when I was 4 - it’d make this kind of thing so much easier.

Two Sundays ago it was my turn to play host to our indoor picnic. We used to be refined ladies who sat at tables, used cutlery and paid other people to cook our food and wait on us. Somehow we’ve become not-so-refined ladies who sit on rugs in living rooms, stuffing (often homemade) food into our faces - quite possibly with both hands, if we’ve happened to put down our cameras for a moment.

As I live with my parents they were background attendees at the picnic, occasionally begging for scraps. Suzy and Lauren were naturally in attendance, though Helen was unfortunately unable to join us this time. She’s studying at university to become a teacher and had to write piles of case studies and rationales and other grownup-sounding things that weekend. In her email to the three of us she asked us to document the event well on Flickr so she could catch up - assuming she ever finished her uni work.

Picnic day arrived and I got up in good time to get my picnic bread made. Suzy turned up early and then Lauren and entertainment was found in the form of Flickr and … I don’t know what else because it was a long time ago now and I’m old and forgetful. Gradually we got our food ready, each pinching one of Lauren’s Indian nibbly things to tide us over until the picnic bread was cooked.

The rug was spread out on the floor in the dining room and we started to take things through from the kitchen.

“Oh, I haven’t taken any photos for Helen yet!”, I said as Lauren came back into the room.

“Who’s Helen?” she asked.

—

Later, having eaten our fill - and probably your fill too - we settled on the sofa to play with Meg. Meg is someone to whom you have not been properly introduced. She’s my new MacBook. Like Nelly the iMac she has an inbuilt iSight camera, so I did what anyone else would do: I set her recording and dumped her in Lauren’s lap.

The star of the show is Lauren, but watch/listen out for:
* Suzy being cross-eyed in the background
* The near-constant click of my shutter
* Dad’s own photos of the picnic
* and Mum being the unexpected solver of the technical conundrum

Incidentally, now that I’ve set Lauren up with a blog of her own, she is free to take any blogging revenge she may deem necessary. Although I do have the access information to her admin area, so I could scupper any attempt she makes pretty quickly.

Click for the set

Photographic diva FuzzyPeach has tagged me and wants to know 5 things I’ve not told you before. As we’re just 23 days from Chrimble, I thought I’d make it 5 festive things.

Here goes…

1. I used to be afraid of Santa. The idea of a strange old man coming into my house in the middle of the night frightened the crap out of me. I therefore hung my stocking on the outside of my bedroom door, so he didn’t have to get too close. At primary school, when Santa came to visit on the last day, I would be cuddled up in Mrs Worsell’s lap to keep safe.

2. When my brother and I were little we had beautiful advent calendars that Mum had made - a fabric pocket for each day. I used to walk past mine trying not to look - and yet trying to see if there was something in the next day’s pocket, but not wanting to have any clue what it might be.

3. I like surprises and had one bad year where I opened a drawer at my brother’s flat and saw his present to me. Later on I walked in on Dad as he was telling the computer shop that he wanted to order an Atari 520 STE for Christmas.

4. Now that I’m older and enjoy cooking, I love my new involvement in helping Mum in the kitchen on Christmas Day. Apart from anything, it’s a nice way to while away the time until we’re all ready for present-giving.

5. Delivering the presents from under the tree to their recipients was always a shared responsibility between me and John when we were kids. He eventually outgrew it, but at 25 I still haven’t.