Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

#BEDM – Food Glorious Food

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I often write on my blog about going out for dinner or even recipes that I cook sometimes. I also work with food every day and of course feed myself and my kids daily. I wondered what exactly I could write for today’s topic, that was until I decided to work on my next murder mystery last night…

Today I bought, this:

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Yep! Remember I mentioned how our next Murder Mystery is Hunger Games themed? Well last night I discovered this book and today I made the decision to buy it. I can’t tell you how incredibly excited I am to have a flick through it and decide what we might have for dinner at the murder mystery!

I also discovered this YouTube channel, which is called Hungry for Hunger Games. I ended up watching loads of them last night and I already have some ideas on what to do! There was also this website Fictional Food, which although isn’t solely Hunger Games related, it does have loads of Hunger Games themed food. A bonus to stumbling onto that site also meant I found a recipe for Minecraft cookies! Which means my 8 year old (turning 9) will be incredibly happy when her birthday rolls around in December.

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Do you love to cook? Is your cooking ever geeky or based on a fandom? 
How about themed birthday cakes? Excuse me while I go geek out some more…
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#BEDN – Light

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Today’s BEDN topic is Light, inspired by the fact its Diwali today. However the topic is not to write about Diwali itself, just light. I thought about this for some of yesterday and I was coming up a bit blank – a slightly off-topic post about how the children are the “light of my life” perhaps? Instead I’ve decided to write about the Northern Lights, something I would one day love to go and see properly.

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To me the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis as it is officially called, is one of the most beautiful natural phenomenons there is. Though its something I have always wanted to see and known what it was, I honestly didn’t really know that much about it. As such, to do this post, I also did a little research.

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights). Auroras seen near the magnetic pole may be high overhead, but from farther away, they illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction. (Source Wikipedia)

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According to a Guardian article that I found, there are many places to view the northern lights. Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Alaska, Finland, Greenland and even Scotland are all places people travel to in order to see the lights. Of course, seeing the actual lights is largely dependent on luck and often if you’ve traveled somewhere you are limited by time. I suppose this above all things is what puts me off booking a holiday specifically to see the lights, on the chance that you might spend all that money and not actually see what you came for.

However the lights usually work on an 11 year cycle, some phases being brighter than others. Perhaps one day I will plan a trip and take the risk. I imagine its one of the most breathtaking and magical things you can ever witness.

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#BEDN – Something you made

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Today’ BEDN topic is “Something You Made” and since my jewellery and Christmas Market is a very current topic for me, I’m going to post about that.

I have previously mentioned about the Etsy store I have, called Jewellery Ever After. It’s not something I often push or even work on to be honest, it was a hobby that just sort of got left behind when I started to work part-time again in April.

However someone contacted me recently about a Cinderella necklace I had previously had listed and while I renewed the listing again for her to purchase, I relisted a few of my other items too. By sheer coincidence, a lady in Lincoln who was organising Christmas Market, stumbled across my Etsy store and asked if I would like to have a stall at Lincoln Christmas Market this year. I have never ever had a stall anywhere before. Not even a small few hour one. I’ve only ever sold on Etsy. However I knew I was dying to do it, though at the time it seemed like an impossible challenge.

Luckily I have some amazing friends who have offered to help me make jewellery, baby sit and man a stall for the full four days of Christmas Market. As such you will find me in Lincoln Bailgate, during December 5th to December 8th. I will be selling Fairytale, TV and Movie inspired jewellery and seriously I can’t wait! I will also be sharing a stall with the lovely Rhiannon from The Sparkly Panda so if you’re anywhere near by, drop in and say hi!

I’m super excited about all the jewellery pieces I have to try out this time. There are going to be some bracelet wraps with charms, necklaces and earrings. As well as the usual Disney themed ones, I’m hoping to make Harry Potter and Hunger Games too. No doubt I’ll post some pictures once I’m done but that will probably be early December rather than BEDN!

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A Taste of Transylville Terror – by Ace Murder Mystery

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Many many times I have waffled on about organising and murder mystery parties. This year there was Alice in Wonderland during March, #YOLO Upon a Time in May, Hamlet in September and now A Taste of Transylville Terror in October!

As you will remember, I posted about my excitement, just a few weeks ago. I was looking forward to our Halloween Murder Mystery, especially the costumes and food. Luckily it was not a disappointment!!

We bought the game from Ace Murder Mystery, a website that currently offers about six murder mystery games. The guy that I dealt with was so so friendly and I would highly recommend their service. The game arrived literally within a day or two of me ordering and it came nice and safely via recorded. I was so excited to receive it that I literally opened it up and wrote all my invitations there and then.

Since the actual characters and synopsis are available on the website, I had already decided who would be who. This made invitation writing really fast and easy. The general look of the box and all the materials inside of it was very appealing and definitely really professional. I was thrilled with my purchase!
Inside the box was everything you need to host and plan the party. Invitations (as I mentioned) and envelopes to send out to guests, these contain a little info on each character and also some costume suggestions. There were booklets for each character for on the night, place settings for on the table that evening, clues for during the game and also a narrative CD for use during the night. Most importantly there was a Host’s booklet with table seating suggestions, menu ideas etc. For some reason, adding of this in any murder mystery, definitely helps me to feel more organised.
As the weeks went on I planned my own costume, along with helping others with theirs. I also planned decorations and food – all the bits I love. Finally the evening came and always, the obligatory photographs were taken! Stupidly we forgot a group photo this time, but here are individual ones.
Top Row: Morticia and Gomez Von Addams (Chris and I), Lurchio (another Chris), Count Dracula and his Bride (Jon and Adam)
Middle Row: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (my brother Chris), Frankenstein (Tom), Wicked Witch (Hollie)
Bottom Row: Kruella Le Deville (Nat, one of my besties), Poison Ivy (Amy, another bestie) and I could resist Dracula and his bride actually kissing!
Everyone made such an effort with their costumes and I was so pleased! The decorations really came together too and it was awesome to actually have a dinning table that fitted all ten of us properly this time.
As I’d been busy in the kitchen, we moved swiftly on to the murder mystery, everyone sitting down and introducing their character, with information from their booklet. I then got the started served up, Pumpkin Soup with added eyeballs…
While eating starters, you are encouraged to start Round 1. There is a CD narrative that goes before and after each round, its really simple to do, just playing one track after another and remembering to pause at the end of each one. I won’t spoil any of the storyline for you, in case you one day feel like picking up the game yourself – but round 1 is basically the first lot of accusations, where each character has several things they should reveal and then also you are provided with the responses to anyone who accuses you. However each round also starts off with a small scripted part, to get you into character.
Once starters were cleared, we moved onto Round 2. This time we had Halloween shaped pasta dishes, one with cheese and bacon in a cream sauce, the other was bolognese.There was also a bowl of salad. Unfortunately I made far too much and we were eating pasta for days afterwards!
Round 2 was similar to the first, but getting a little deeper into the storyline and making more assumptions and accusations. The rounds are also quite long and although you are supposed to try to do it without mentioning which question number you’re on, it does get easy to lose track and several times you end up asking “what question was that?”
Finally Round 3 was done over cake and cupcakes. It was Jon’s unofficial birthday party/Halloween and so there had to be a cake! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture but it was a coffin cake and I was actually pretty proud of my icing attempt this time. However there were also cupcakes made to look like tombstones and spiders which I did remember to photograph. My friend Nat also made cakepops that looked like eyeballs.
At the end of all the rounds, you basically had to take it in turns to guess who you thought was the Murderer. Once everyone had voted, the Murderer then revealed themselves. Depending on the outcome, there was one of two tracks to play. One for if the majority guessed right and one for if they didn’t. We didn’t! However the evening as a whole was a huge amount of fun.
Plus points for the game was definitely the lovely box, the good quality of materials provided and the great characters, costume suggestions and even host booklet. Discussing it afterwards our only grumbles were that the questions/accusations sections didn’t necessarily flow as well as they could and like I mentioned before, you sometimes had to ask what question number you were up to, despite not being supposed to do that. 
We have done so many different styles of Murder Mystery now, from box sets to downloadables, from dinner sit downs, to mingling free-flow. We can always state what we think could be done better though at the end of the day we’re not the ones sitting down and writing them. There is probably no perfect way to write a Murder Mystery game but this one comes pretty close. If you want a very enjoyable evening with a good group of friends, I would highly recommend an Ace Murder Mystery game (though they can’t provide you with the great friends!). Check out their website for other available titles.
Our next murder mystery will be Hunger Games! Keep an eye on my blog for more information. Already looking out for my Christmas Murder Mystery too so by all means make a suggestion! In the meantime, I know Amy will be posting about this same Murder Mystery evening tomorrow and I will add the link here then!

#BEDN – Introduction!

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So this should have been yesterday’s post but I accidentally scheduled it for today instead of later yesterday…

Hello! I’m Belinda, though everyone calls me Bel. I am 34 years old, technically a single mum though I have had a partner for the last year and I have two beautiful daughters called Megan (who is almost 9) and Lily (who is 5). I really hate writing these intro things as I always find there is nothing much to say about myself!

I live in Lincolnshire, a county that despite being huge, a huge amount of people never really seem to know where it is. I used to live about 10 minutes outside of Lincoln itself, but now we live about 30 minutes away – hopefully in a temporary living situation while we do up the house we currently live in, in order to sell it.

I work as a Catering Assistant in a private school. The job is fairly straight forward as most of my life I’ve worked in hospitality and catering, however its the working hours that really sell the job to me – 9.30-2.30, Monday to Friday, only during school time. Also being a private school we often get a little more holiday time – plus I get paid pro rata which means its spread out over the holidays and I still get a set wage.

I’m pretty geeky and have a huge array of fandoms. I especially love collecting t-shirts with mash-up fandoms on them. In my spare time I love movies, music and of course the internet. I also make jewellery as a sort of hobby – though I have agreed to a Christmas Market stall this year which means some pretty hardcore jewellery making for me this coming month.

I love to organise and nearly every month I find a reason to get all my friends together for some sort of an event. Usually its a murder mystery party but we also have roleplay and board game evenings too. We literally just had a Halloween murder mystery last weekend and I’m currently planing a Hunger Games one for the end of November. I’m currently perusing Christmas ones too for the end of December.

That’s all I can think of for now, check again tomorrow for the next BEDN topic!!

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Blog Every Day in November!! #BEDN

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Possibly I’m crazy, but I’ve decided to take part in Blog Every Day in November, similar to the Blog Every Day in May challenge that I did back in May. Though I did find it a little stressful last time, I have found my amount of posts slipping recently, so perhaps this is a good idea to kick my butt again.

Unfortunately November is going to be quite a busy month for me as I’m taking part in Lincoln Christmas Market and so will be spending every night making Jewellery to sell. However I’m going to give it a try!

Are you up for the challenge?
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Travel Tales

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I’ve been pretty lazy with my blog recently and in some ways that’s because I’ve been busy but for the most part I’ve just had other things on my mind that have taken precedence. However I now find myself on a train with nothing much to do – resorting to a blog post in order to fill time.

This week is half term in Lincolnshire and so the kids are off school. Also since I work in a school, I’m off work too. As such we’ve booked a family holiday to London (only 3 nights) but so far it’s off to a bit of a disappointing start.
I like to plan things, as you probably know from my blog. Holidays are no different. From the best train times, to the activities we’ll do while away, to the clothes everyone takes. I’m the organiser. Today we left our house in Gainsborough and walked down to the train station with all our bags and even a packed lunch. We were a good ten minutes early for the train but that’s needed when you have kids! We caught the train from Gainsborough to Retford and then had the obligatory long walk at Retford station, in order to get from Platform 4 to Platform 1. Even then we had 30 minutes to kill. We ate our lunch on the platform, got coffee from Costa and looked forward to all sitting together once we got on the train. Seats that I planned for, that we’ve picked specifically so we could all be together as a family.
However right now I find myself sat next to Megan. Across the aisle from Chris and Lily, who are actually three rows back from us. Thanks very much East Coast Trains. You never fail to suck.
Anyway… regardless of the sucky train journey, we still plan to enjoy our trip. We have tickets to see the musical Wicked this evening – this will be my 4th time and even the girls 2nd! On our other days here we have river tour boat tickets to use, plus plans to visit Covent Garden (for the Disney store, Cyber Candy and maybe Build a Bear), plus Hamleys and Forbidden Planet are definitely somewhere on our list of places. I’m hoping Camden Market is also a possibility, though I know one day we’re spending visiting the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. Our train back is on Friday midday, that will get us home for about 3pm. Though I don’t want to wish our week away, the weekend is going to be awesome too.
I’m gonna end this post here, since I always kill my battery during London trips and it’s gone down 5% already. I need it alive for our Travelodge check in and probably various other things too.
Hope everyone has a fun week planned. Post again when I get back… maybe ;)

More murder on the horizon!

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After a busy week of posting blog posts last week, I find myself completely lacking this week! It’s not for want of trying though… I’ve just been completely pre-occupied with another amazing opportunity (which I will post about soon!).

Anyway, over a week ago I did start this post – but unfortunately I never actually got around to finishing it. As such, here I am trying to get it done now!

As you will know from my last few posts, we recently had a Hamlet Murder Mystery party, only our third murder mystery party of this year (compared to eight last year, from June onwards). However it seems to have given everyone the bug and by the end of the evening we were already planning our October Halloween Murder Mystery!

Since then, we’ve managed to secure a definite ten players. This left me the task of finding a great Murder Mystery for us to do. The one we did last year, called Halloween Horror, was a great hit and was also the first free-form mingling type one we’ve done. We then did another for November and Decemeber, I think wearing out the novelty. This year I decided that instead of just dressing up for Halloween themed murder mystery, it might actually be fun to take on Halloween/Horror type characters. As such, it lead me to this:-

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After double checking this was okay with everyone, I ordered the game box and it arrived within two days! I was so excited when it actually arrived that I took a picture and tagged everyone on FB who was coming!

The box is actually amazing! Its been a long time since we did a proper box set and I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have printed invitations and booklets, instead of having to download them and print them myself.

Of course I rushed to get it all open and look through it. I’d already picked who would be who according to the blurb on the website but it was nice to get a bit more to read on each character, including a character costume suggestion. I wrote the invitations there and then and have already handed most of them out! (2 to post on Monday, which I keep forgetting to do!).

I’ve spent the last week or so looking for the perfect costume and have even decided to dye my hair black (I’m Morticia Von Addams!). I still have a bit more planning to do but I’m already super excited!

Not only that though, but in planning our October murder mystery, I also decided to book everyone in for a November AND December murder mystery too. Our November theme is yet to be decided (though we’re thinking Masquerade if we can find one) and of course December’s will have a Christmas theme! As we’re usually out numbered with more guys than girls, a guy has to take on a female role. First was my brother, then our friend Tom and last was my partner Chris. This time its our friend Adam who will be the Bride of Dracula which I can’t wait to see. Next time should be Jon… and we’re crossing our fingers for our final male (another Chris) to take on the role of Mrs Claus! I suggested that the first one of the next year we should do a complete role reversal one where all the guys are girls and all the girls are guys. I think it will be fun!

Anyway, until next time…!

Ozeri Curva Artisan Series Double Wall Beverage Glasses and Tumbler Review*

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Everyone in the house is getting really sick and sadly I’ve not escaped it! I’m full of cold and starting to cough somewhat too but I’d promised myself I’d get on top of a whole bunch of blog posts this week and so here I am!

Today I want to tell you about some Ozeri Artisan glasses I was kindly gifted, in order to review them! These glasses are from the same makers as my scales that I blogged about, back in September.

The glasses arrived a few weeks ago and on first impressions I was immediately sold by them. They are genuinely such beautiful and curvy glasses, that I actually just fell in love with them. The packaging they arrived in was incredibly good. Both the box inside the outer box, then the glasses inside the inner box. Nothing was damaged which was a bit of a surprise considering the way the post gets treated sometimes!

I took a whole load of pictures because I like to document these things properly. I’m actually very glad I did though as the box contains a lot of the information you need to know and also far better pictures than I could ever acquire with my iPhone camera.

Each glass is individual in style, each one a little different. However as they are all handmade, they are also unique in the sense that no two glasses will ever been 100% the same. The glasses hold 8 ounces, which is just less than a large glass of wine!

One of the many great things about these glasses is that they will hold both hot and cold liquids in them. As they have double-walls, the heat doesn’t burn your fingers and the cold doesn’t cause condensation (and in turn wet hands). They are dishwasher, microwave and freezer safe, which I think is pretty awesome! Though I haven’t tested the freezer part, they certainly work fine in the dishwasher and microwave.

Despite looking quite fragile, feeling light and delicate, the glasses are incredibly strong and hard wearing. As I said before, they were absolutely fine in the dishwasher, not even a chip.

So a few Sundays ago, we had a roast dinner, complete with very chilled wine! As you can see, no condensation and very pretty glasses ;) If I could have afford to do so, I would have bought another set, to have at our Murder Mystery the other night. However when funds are a little easier, I’m definitely going to buy some more. I think they’d be really lovely to have out at a dinner party. Don’t you?

*This product was gifted to me free of charge, though all views and opinions are my own

Sew Sew

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A few weeks ago I posted about making a dress, for a Hamlet Murder Mystery party. You can read both my dress post and my murder mystery post, at those links! However until the actual Murder Mystery took place (last Saturday), I couldn’t post about my completed dress. This was for two reasons. One – I didn’t want to spoil anything in advance of the Murder Mystery. I like to post about everyone altogether. Two – The dress wasn’t finished until two hours before the event itself!

On 9th September I bought my pattern from Ebay. It cost me £8.75. It arrived within a couple of days and so on the Friday night, my best friend Nat (who was also making her dress) came around so we could try and decipher the instructions. The pattern I picked looked like this:

That night we drank wine, chatted, measured and tried to figure out what dress size we should make. At first we were flabbergasted by the thought of making size 20 dresses (we’re both about size 16) but we realised that its a dress pattern size you make, not exactly a dress size. Eventually we decided we had it figured out and planned the shopping trip for the very next day.

Though I had originally planned to get different coloured material from that in the pattern picture, in the end I did actually buy red and gold. Both were crushed velvet, though I imagine for the price I paid it was probably only velveteen.

We started work on the dresses about a week later. However it took us so long to cut out Nat’s dress (and we knew we would only have one or two days together each week to work on it) so I ended up cutting out my own by myself the following night. We met again a few days later to actually start sewing, but it was a long process and we were glad to have two sewing machines to work with.

In the end we decided it might be best to work on them alone, to make sure we had more time. Nat took my mum’s sewing machine home with her and obviously I kept my own. I spent one evening working on the dress by myself and was pretty pleased to have most of the components completed separately, even if they weren’t actually all attached together.

I posted the above picture to Instagram on September 25th. My dress pieces were all attached and my sleeves were all attached too, though I still had to attach the sleeves to the dress itself. Nat came around again that night and we worked together to motivate each other. By this point there was only three days left until the Murder Mystery and it was beginning to feel a bit of a rush.

That night I learned how to do eyelets – or at least how to cheat whilst doing eyelets. I didn’t feel like I got on very far with my dress and as I was working the following day and again that evening, I was beginning to think I might actually run out of time altogether. However by the 27th my dress was actually complete enough to wear, pretty much finished except for the trim. I sent this picture to my best friend, Amy:

My biggest struggle was definitely pinning the dress in at the sides, adding the sleeves and hemming the dress. This is largely because I only had hopeless guys in the house and unfortunately Nat and I didn’t have to meet up again to help each other do this. Lucky for Nat she had someone else nearby to help… but I just sort of made it up and hoped for the best!

Saturday arrived and I had a lot to do. Food to prepare, decorations to put up, a house to clean and tidy – yet still I had my dress to complete. I started with the trim for the waist, deciding it was the most important. Next I did the sleeves, so that I would have time to actually get both finished. By 5pm, just as Amy was arriving on her train, I was just completing the second arm. Finally I moved onto the neckline and although I was a little disappointed with how it came out, the dress was at least finished.

After some mad dashing around to get the place ready, I eventually headed upstairs to get changed around 8pm. This was actually my first proper fitting of the dress, in its complete state. Luckily it all fit and didn’t look too bad – though I unfortunately felt quite fat in it!

So here is the completed dress…

It’s not a great picture against the red background, but its really the only decent one I have. As you can see it didn’t turn out too bad in the end but I can honestly say I won’t be putting myself through that stress again any time soon – not with everything else I already end up doing for these parties.

And one more pic to show you the sleeves and the back! That is pretty much everything I can show you. It was definitely a sort of fun experience and perhaps if I had less of a time limit and also a less complicated pattern, I would consider making something again. However for the next murder mystery we do the most I’m going to be making is food…

For all the Murder Mystery pictures, feel free to browse here. There are literally hundreds though so you have been warned!