Christmas has come early at our house

My friend Fiona and I have been crafting. Me....who never does any sort of craft work! We made Christmas banners for two of my mirrors.

I must thank Terri at Windlost for the idea. I was struck by her lovely banners and thought they looked like something I could tackle (with a little bit of help). And I know it is 11 months til Christmas season starts, but I wanted to do it while it was fresh in my head, otherwise it was very likely it would never get done at all.

I'm really happy with the results. There's no way I could have done it on my own. Fiona is a very talented crafter who taught me lots of tricks and she has every crafty gadget known to man! We even made the freshwater pearl garland that the 'joy' tags hangs on.

Here's a close up of the letters. You can see I chose paper embossed with Christmas words. Little details like this matter to me. It was Fiona's idea to stitch around the edges, and I think it added that finishing touch.

And here's the other one.

We went for an aged look with this banner. I chose a caligraphy paper, written with Christmas phrases for the background. We scanned and photoshopped the paper because I didn't want the original blue colour - we went with a soft grey instead. Once we cut the paper, Fiona taught me how to 'age' the paper using a couple of different types of ink.

We used black velvet to string the letter tags up. I used a hot glue gun for the first time - a very useful gadget!

I love the little pewter brad on each letter. I didn't even know what a brad was when I first started!

Now I can't wait til Christmas so I can put them up!

But the best thing about the whole event, was getting together with my good friend Fiona and chatting and laughing while going through 'the creative process', with our kids playing happily in the background.

Deconstructing the tree

Stage one of the Christmas tree deconstruction began today: removal and storage of ornaments. Stage two: lights and actual tree disassembly will happen tomorrow - you can't rush these things you know, especially when you have an 8 foot high tree.

Being a fresh year and all, I like to think that I'm going to be super organised and on top of things, so I decided to go a little bit Martha and store my ornaments properly.


Ok, I didn't go so far as to hot glue gun paper cups to cardboard, but I did dig out some egg cartons for my new delicate heart ornaments, which didn't come in a box of their own. So now they're nestled in their little carton, all safe and sound.

Another Martha idea is to wrap your lights around pieces of cardboard, like so: I like this idea, because detangling lights does not bring out the festive spirit in me, in fact there was a little bit of swearing going on this year, which is not very Christmas-ey at all. But I think my lights are way to long for this idea, so I've decided to go with the idea of wrapping them around an old postage tube instead. I'm interested in knowing if this works, but I guess I won't know until next year when I go to unwrap them. Have you tried it? Please tell me if it works.

But I did use Martha's idea for my beaded garland instead. Only thing is I think I should have used a longer piece and wrapped it wider apart. Oh well, next year!

Still in organising mode, I'm thinking of creating an under-bed wrapping station, like the one in the picture below. I'm tired of opening my cupboard in the study and all the rolls of wrapping paper tumbling out, so this might be just the trick, with little compartments for ribbons and such. I'm the sort of person who files her guarantees and instruction booklets alphabetically, so any little nifty organising idea appeals to me.

If you haven't braved the deconstruction of your tree yet, I wish you good luck!

Images from Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens and me

Christmas blessings

I'm terribly fickle. After having bought a whole bucket load of deep red, matt baubles this year, I think I'm going to go for a restrained white, green and silver theme next Christmas. So the red baubles might stay packed away next year, but they'll come out another Christmas.

I think visiting all the ethereal, white white white Swedish blogs have inspired the more restrained palette. These lovely pictures helped inspire me too....

All images from Better Homes and Gardens

An understated doorway sets the scene....


Mercury glass baubles....

A twinkly tree, all aglow in white and silver...

...white cashmere stockings, lots of mercury glass candlesticks and baubles, and a dash of tasteful greenery....how beautiful.....

A black sideboard set with silver, glass and white crockery....fabulous.....

A room with just the subtlest touch of Christmas greenery.....

A simple pinecone in some snow-like substance with candles all aglow....

But now I have to be honest with you, people ....I'm a bit of a Christmas Grinch. The over-commercialisation of Christmas gets to me, the crowded shopping malls drive me barmy, and the fact that I only get to see my son for part of the day makes me feel sad and lonely. I also only get two Christmas presents - a $20 family Kris Kringle, and a $10 work Kris Kringle (which I usually end up donating to charity...naughty me). And this year is my first Christmas without my father who I loved so much.

But you know what? If that is the worst I have to contend with, I'm doing pretty well. There are so many people out there who have so much less than me and would tell me to stop being so ungrateful. So this Christmas I'm counting my blessings......

I'll be spending time with my son who I adore.

I have a well enough paid job that enables me to lavish my little fella with lots of fantastic presents which I know he is going to love.

I'll be with my lovely mum and my family.

We will have a bountiful table and we'll be eating yummy white chocolate cheesecake for desert (made by moi). I'm a white chocolate fanatic!

I'll be able to have a sleep-in on Boxing Day because my son will be tuckered out and sleep late.

I earn enough money to buy my own fabulous Christmas present!

I hope you, my lovely blogger friends, who brighten my day, every day, have lots of blessings to count too.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Catherine xx

Aussie Christmas

Christmas in summer must seem strange to those of you who live in the northern hemisphere, but to those of us born into it, warm weather and Christmas go hand in hand.



Lunch tends to be casual, often a great big buffet of seafood and cold foods, although I do like the traditional hot turkey lunch myself. And Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a huge bowl of cherries to dip into.



Some people even head off to the beach for lunch, with a game of cricket afterwards to stave off the afternoon sleepies.

While others just have a barbie in the backyard, with champagne and beer in plentiful supply.

I'm loving this table setting here below - with the gum leaf table centrepiece and gum leaf star in the background. Very Australian! I have been looking for ages for a eucalyptus wreath, but no luck yet!

One day I hope to have a white Christmas. But in the meantime, I'll put on a summer dress and some thongs (translation: flip flops), help myself to a long cold drink and sit back and enjoy another warm Christmas Day.

Images from Tara Dennis, Viva Terra and Australian Better Homes and Gardens.

Wishing you a rusty Christmas

I love things that are old and battered and well loved. They add character to a home. So I think that's why I have a love of all things rusty - they look time worn and earthy, even if it they are simply manufactured just to look that way. I have a few rusty things in my home, so one day I'll do a post on them. But in the meantime, here's a bunch of cute Christmas decorations, all rusty. I haven't come across anything like this in the shops near me, so if you live in Adelaide and know of any shops that stocks stuff like this, please let me know! I guess I could get all crafty and paint some things with oxidising paint.

Here's the cutest little advent calendar....little buckets all lined up in a row. Image from Boxwood

And an almost identical find from Aspen and Brown . I can't decide which one I like better.

The simple words 'Noel' would make a lovely, simple Christmassy addition to your home, resting on a mantelpiece perhaps. Image from Boxwood

Some cute Christmas decorations for your tree....from Aspen and Brown

Now these next two images are taken from a gorgeous Swedish blog, Granne med Selma which translates as "Neighbours with Selma".

Using google translation I could roughly work out that the little hearts on this tree were handmade by the owner of the blog, using tin plate that was soaked in 'spirit vinegar' for half and hour then sprayed with water. Clever!

Easily distracted....

I went Christmas shopping on the weekend, and managed to knock over quite a few things on my list. However, I kept getting sidetracked by all the wonderful Christmas decorations.


I bought some deep red, matt baubles with silver tops and velvet ribbon. I put some on a small antique pewter plate....

.....and some on a black wooden pedestal bowl.

I bought some baby red shiny ones to match and put them on the tree.....
....as well as some pearl garlands for a little bit of romance.

Then I took off some of my old baubles and put them in a glass jar in my hallway, because I like to keep my tree looking a little spare.
So there you have it, I couldn't resist!

The rest of the weekend was pretty busy, as we also had an early family Christmas celebration with my brother's family, who were in Adelaide for the weekend. I made a chocolate berry pavlova for desert.
This was a Nigella Lawson recipe. I love her recipe books, as much for the writing as for the recipes themselves. She describes the chocolate pavlova like this:

"The crisp and chewy chocolate meringue base, rich and cocoa and beaded nuggets of chopped plain chocolate, provides a smooth sombre, almost purple-brown layer beneath the fat whiteness of the cream and matt, glowering crimson rasperies on top: it is a killer combination".

I just love the way she writes. I don't think my clumsy attempt quite met up to Nigella's elegant and evocative description, but it was appreciated by the family nonetheless.

Not many sleeps to go now!

Tinsel-free zone

Come inside...we're putting up our Christmas tree...


It's going in this corner....





Halfway there!




Done!




My red and white baubles make me happy but I've got to replace these lights!



My favourite decorations on our tree are the silver glass baubles with white velvet ribbon....




....and the white china doves with jute string.

It's been so much easier to put up the Christmas tree this year now that my trusty little helper's attention span has increased enough to actually help!

I didn't buy a Christmas tree until I was 31 and pregnant with my son. Until then I'd lived quite happily without one, but when I knew that the following Christmas there would be a baby in the house I went out and bought the biggest, fattest tree I could find. This tree actually helped him to crawl, I'm convinced of it. At five and a half months old I plonked him in the middle of the room on a rug, only to come back a few minutes later to find him in the corner of the room, tugging at a bright shiny bauble on the tree. He's been on the move ever since!

Call me the Christmas Nazi if you wish but I've vowed my tree and indeed my whole house to be a tinsel-free zone. My next mission is to ditch any plastic decorations, now that my son is past the 'let's trash the Christmas tree' phase - it's all fragile glass from here on in!

I managed to get my sister to ditch the tinsel last year...now if only I could get her to colour coordinate her decorations. Actually I should really go check that the tinsel hasn't crept back on this year.

Ok, so I've shown you mine, now you show me yours!

Counting down to Christmas

Maybe, just maybe, I'll put the Christmas tree up this weekend. I say "I" because my son loses interest after the first five minutes. I do however remember one year when he was smaller when he thought it would be a good idea to help me decorate the tree while entirely nude...except for a santa hat. That was when he was going through his no clothes phase.


So to try and get me (and you) in the mood, I'm putting up some pics of advent calendars. I must say I've never seen anything as stylish as these little numbers in any shops around here, but I'll keep my eye out anyway.



The first picture is from http://www.marthastewart.com/ while the rest are from German company http://www.impressionen.de/shop/home, which I found after a reference to it at http://anetteshus.blogspot.com/





This first one would be easy to make - buy some kids socks in Christmas colours, embroider on some numbers and hang from a string by little wooden pegs (I have the pegs at least!).

Cute as a button train

I love this one - so simple and pure

This last one is absolutely gorgeous and if you have a gorgeous ladder just lying around your home, this would be perfect.

I'm finishing off with a non- Christmas picture. Now that I have taken up the hobby of blogging, my book reading and magazine reading has suffered. Just look at all the reading I have been neglecting! Problem is, I still can't resist buying - in fact I have two more books winging their way to me as we speak. Now I just have to find the time to read them.

We are having a barbeque with friends this weekend, then off to a fashion and food fair on Sunday. Gotta love summer! Hope your weekend is great.