Merry Christmas
December 25, 2013
Artful table Ideas: For a beautifully thankful Christmas.
December 17, 2013
As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am very sad that we don’t celebrate thanksgiving in Australia. This however gives me the opportunity to think thankfully at Christmas time.
Here are some simple ideas from around the blog world, that can be incorporated in your Christmas celebrations particularly in regards to the table.
Some are beautifully quirky, some ingenious, some worthy of a yearly repeat, some child friendly and some all of the above. Let me know if you get inspired and use some, it’s great to hear from you.

Gold Spray painted animals (or possibly nativity characters) with paper luggage tags attached. Image from Style Me Pretty.
What’s so Pinteresting about…… Advent?
November 29, 2013
Meredith’s got a fabulous idea for fantasticly simple bible content here. Love it especially this close to Dec 1.
Cathy gives insightful day by day content here.
Nicole….shares some great ideas here.
If you know what you want each day to hold, but need a little visual inspiration, have a look at my pinterest board here.
This year I have an unusual plan which focus’s on letters….. we will see how that goes.
To see what we have done in previous years look here and here and here.
I just realised that our advent events for 2012 are not collated….. so I will get onto that.
Enjoy, and let me know if you come across anything inspiring.
A cast of thousands……
September 7, 2013
Holidays….
July 18, 2013
Sorry it’s been a bit very quiet around here lately.
School holidays are alway a mixture of joy and noise (sometimes yelling…not only from the kids) and big projects and rest and fun and movies and organised camp fun and time with friends and family.
I was aware this holidays, more than ever before, that the girls are spreading their wings and are more able to spend holidays without us, and that they won’t be around for holidays forever. A joy and a sadness because I do love having them around, and mostly they enjoy being with each other.
God has been very gracious to us, and it’s a joy to watch them grow into his love and express it in different ways.
I only took photos on one day of the holidays, for our picnic at Pretty Beach on the Central Coast.
How was your holiday if you had one?
Also, if you went somewhere close and cheap…..I’d love to hear about that too.
* I’m loving google+. I take photos on my phone and automatically they appear on my computer (no cords YAY) and even panorama, animate and image select automatically, without erasing the separate images. Give it a go, if you haven’t already.
Happy birthday 7 year old…..and 10 year old.
May 22, 2013
Henry IV
May 2, 2013
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of seeing my first Bell Shakespeare production.
It was an early birthday present for me and a late birthday present for 13 year old.
Thank you Grani Jan and Fa Fa.
I think we are hooked now……
Who’s up for ‘A Comedy of Errors’ in November?
‘Floor Dancing’ with 6 year old.
April 29, 2013
“Take photos of me floor dancing.” suggests 6 year old.
“Ok?” says Mum wondering what on earth that is.
“Oh, I get it” I say after the last one…. Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing”.
….and I couldn’t resist a gratuitous cute shot.
Feel inside….and stuff like that.
April 7, 2013
Our family has been really enjoying this Flight of the Concords magic.
If you are wondering about the lyrics…..here is the extended version.
You can still purchase the single on itunes and the proceeds go to Cure Kids.
Enjoy!
Holiday doona cover.
April 4, 2013
Over the holidays, while her sisters were doing drama and aerialize weeklong workshops, 9 year old and I had sewing camp together. She is the most keen daughter when it comes to sewing. 14 year old will do some, 13 year old runs a mile, and 6 year old …well I’m not sure about her yet.
9 year old was given a little Ikea sewing machine for Christmas, so we thought it was an excellent opportunity to give it a run. I am planning to review this little machine now we have given it a run.
We decided together to make a doona cover from my stash of fabrics and old clothing in the cupboard.
Many of the fabrics are significant to her as they are from different parts of her life and ours lives as a family.
This close-up shows fabrics from a baby dress of hers (lace), a shirt she wore when she was a toddler (heart print) and the blue and white spotty left overs from her Alice in wonderland dress I made for her for her 7th birthday.
We tried as much as we could to keep labels too.
Here you can see fabrics from a shirt of Tim’s (light blue stripe), lace-edging I bought at a garage sale (with my Mum) when I first moved to Sydney about 25 years ago….. so I guess that makes it vintage ….., and a shirt of mine (blue flowers).
We tried to keep the garments detailing as much as we could….. like the sleeve tabs. 9 year old then hand-sewed buttons (taken from the shirts we had used) opposite the tabs so treasured toys could be held by them.
We finished it off by using a flat white sheet to form the back of the cover.
Every single thing….including thread…. we got from the stash!!
It is not quite a standard size 😉 and I did help a lot, but she was amazing and now is planning her next project!
Can’t wait to share it when she does.