All is calm, all is bright

We had a lovely Christmas. I hope you did too.

I let a few things go this year. While I love the Christmas festivities, I find it can get a bit crazy. This year I decided to be more intentional and choosy in the lead up to Christmas and I think our family was a lot better for it. We did not go to our community Christmas carols this year because we had been at a Christmas Party all day. We had a lovely day but we were tired, I had a headache, our kiddos were squabbling so we just let it go. There were a number of things I just let go. And our Christmas was just as wonderful as every other year. We had parties and friends over, work luncheons and school wrap ups. And on Christmas Eve we wandered the streets of our neighbourhood and enjoyed 'the lights'. I did not put pressure on myself to make gifts this year although I did make one. I avoided town and I did most of our shopping online or at markets. I supported makers and small business as much as possible.

We enjoyed Christmas lunch with my family and hosted dinner for the Mr's family. There were cocktails and prawns. Salads and cold meats. Frozen pudding and trifle and chocolate log and pavlova! There were water bombs and pool shenanigans! It was a very good day!

Once again, we gifted our children 'something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read'. We began this traditon five years ago now and it has been a wonderful thing. The children love it! Each gift is labelled-want, need, wear, read and they love trying to guess what might be inside. It makes for more thoughtful gift giving, I think and eliminates a lot of plastic fantastic. We have a large extended family so they receive many gifts by the end of the day. They also received a gift from Santa-this year, a trampoline.

So, a little bit of our Christmas in snaps! I hope yours was just as wonderful!

Thrifted

A little Christmas treasure was found at Vinnies the other day. I had to buy the whole bag of plastic fantastic to get this little guy but I think he was worth the three bucks, don't you?

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas! May it be filled with favourites!

A little smattering of this and that

Last weekend my big girl and I enjoyed a little drive in the country to visit some Twilight Markets.
The main street was lined with little stalls. The road was closed off and there were carriage rides by some gorgeous Clydesdales, there was music and sunshine and the local oppy was open late. It was a very nice way to spend the evening. I snavelled this little piece of Staffordshire from the oppy for 50c. I love her pretty pattern and colours.

 

I also poked my head into the local junk shop. My girl exclaimed 'mum this is your idea of heaven'. She knows me well. Let me intoduce 'the chair room'. That's what the sign above the entry said.

I didn't buy a chair but I did bring home this rusty old bakers tray.
I am thinking it will make a nice vertical succulent wall. What do you think?

A couple of other recent oppy finds...two pretty florals and a macrame belt.

In other news, I arrived home from Sydney to find my vintage fats from Zara. Thank you Miss. It was nice to have that little bit of lovely to open. Thank you also for your cute map paper garland. Now to get stitching I guess!

The cherry tomatoes were another pleasant surprise. Lulu has been doing a great job looking after them. She even decided to sample her efforts. After a quick lick, she decided she definately does not like tomatoes!

I'll be back with some Christmas makings soon. With all the goings on I am a bit behind the eight ball with Christmas. I am counting down the days until I finish work-only 3 to go! and then it will be full steam ahead Christmas making, baking and photo taking! My current mantra... I will not take my kids for the annual santa pic on Christmas Eve this year! No I will not!

How are you going with your Christmas organisation? Did you know it's the 11/12/13 today?

November snapshots

November! You were a rollercoaster of emotions. With our big girl being in hospital for a couple of weeks, things were a bit trickier than usual.

When I am in the thick of it I can't really think about it too much. I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and move through each day as it comes. It's not until afterwards that I can fully process and reflect on our journey.

It seems though, for every challenge faced there is also something to be grateful for.
It is good to keep one's eyes wide open and look for joy I think. Yep there are times when this is a challenge but if I don't try to find joy then I will drop my bundle for sure!
So the highs and lows of November.

• fasting and feeling 'hangry', feeling worried about getting a midline instead her usual longline but said midline insertion going in beautifully. These Dr's are amazing. They are truly gifted at working with kids and helping them to cope. They reallly work hard to care for and accomodate the kids.  

• blood sugar levels all over the place and finger pricks every few hours but a diabetes test that was clear-for now.

• being angry and scared about having a new procedure. On the day this was scheduled however, the hospital had their annual Christmas fundraiser. It was a great distraction for us and a busy, exciting day with lots of good things-holding baby animals, exploring a firetruck, a reptile show, krispy kreme donuts, wonderful performers, photos with Marina Prior, The Collective, Damien Leith, Paulini.

• a somewhat traumatic insertion of a nasal feeding tube for night feeds but putting on 3kgs weight in 2 weeks!

• being nearly 12 and processing feelings about living with a life shortening chronic illness-a challenge for us both. So proud at the knowledge our girl has developed about cystic fibrosis and in awe at her ability to articulate her feelings. She is wise beyond her years and she teaches me so much every day.

• enduring blood tests but having stable medication levels

• missing home and being away from family but having a surprise visit from the coolest people ever!

•  being 'stuck in hospital' but reading lots of books, going to the hospital school, visiting the starlight room and finding an old friend from a previous hospital admission, afternoon physio in the gym, being spoilt with gifts and mail from family and friends and getting a pass out on our last day to have a special pancake lunch with beautiful friends. Thank you beautiful friends.

• missing school friends but logging onto your class blog to 'chat' with them and having your teacher let your friends ring you up on his mobile. 

• feeling overwhemed and daunted by the future and what this journey of living with cf will bring but knowing in our heart that we are loved and supported by our beautiful friends and family and cf team who go above and beyond to care for our girl. So very grateful for their care and dedication. 

November you were a challenge but we learned and loved so much!

October Snapshots

Wave jumping, digging for pipi, collecting, beach driving fun, worming, swimmimg, friends and family, celebrations. October you were lovely!

Wrapped with love

One of my favourite things about giving is wrapping the gift. Sometimes I theme the wrapping to tie in with the gift, sometimes I wrap with something that I think the receiver will love and can maybe reuse and other times I use it as an excuse to have fun and get creative. Always though, they are wrapped with love.

Here's a few things I've wrapped and snapped with the intention of one day posting them on my blog.
Today is that one day.

Lots of layering on this one. Reliving my papercrafting past and sharing some of the things I love with a beautiful blogging friend. Washi tape, map paper, stitching, a photograph I took at my favourite cafe Ajanta, paper doily, bookpaper, and some beautiful pianola music as the main wrap.

A little assortment of papers punched into flowers and circles and stitched together to make a pretty garland that can be reused. Inside some home made peanut butter choc chunk cookies. Yum! I make these for my sis in laws birthday each year; her favourite!

Tiny tags, only a few cm in width. I've added some pink paint and them stamped over the top once dry. Simple I know but sweet all the same.

Handmade cushion from a vintage calendar teatowel was stitched for a beautiful friends birthday earlier this year. Wrapped with love and sewing pattern paper. A little offcut from the teatowel made the perfect addition to the shipping tag, I think.

And finally, one from the vault. This was a Christmas gift for my nephew's girlfriend. This time I've run with theming to wrap to go with the gift. A bit of fun putting this one together. I've popped in the card from Violet Bella (the etsy store I purchased the necklace from).

Looking over these snaps, it seems I like to go with a brown paper/neutral wrapping with pops of colour and textured added.

Do you like gift buying? Gif giving? Gift wrapping?
Are you anxious about Christmas shopping or is it right up your alley?
Have you even started yet? Maybe you are super dooper organised and you have finished already!

Thrifted

My big girl is in hospital at the moment so it has been a week of up and downs.
In the hope of finding a bit of calm amongst the storm I thought I might post some of the posts sitting in my drafts folder.

A wee bit of thrifty show n tell today. My days of thrifting are few and far between these days but sometimes I pop in to an oppy or two on the run. Recently, I picked up some pretty sheeting. One can never have enough right?

This pretty tapestry was a had to have and a pretty remnant of fabric might become a cushion cover if she's lucky.

I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into a little revamp project down the track. It's been quite a while and I think a lick of paint and some vintage wallpaper make pretty this up a little. Just perfect at $1.00

Some Johnson dinner plates, a bargain price of $1.00 for the stack of 6.

Lucky last..a lovely floral tablecloth in beautiful condition.

Have you been thrifting lately? Is it still your favourite pastime or have you signed up for thriftaholics anon?
Linking up with Max and the other show offs.