Merry Christmas

Image from Unique Unique Design.

Have  a lovely day with the people that you love.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Happy Christmas

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Artful table Ideas: For a beautifully thankful Christmas.

1. “Glad you’re here” by Making Lemonade. Image theirs.

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.

“The Giving Plate” by Adventures of an Orthodox Mom. Image from there.

“Conversation Plates” by Together Counts Blog. Idea and image sourced there.

DIY minimalistic cultery holder. Image and instructions from A Birds Leap.

A sock for your cutlery. Image from Pinterest.

Single place cards. Image from Pinterest.

Gold Spray painted animals (or possibly nativity characters) with paper luggage tags attached. Image from Style Me Pretty.

Another beautifully simple idea from Style Me Pretty. Image theirs.

Carnival Straws on Bottled drinks with tags. Source: Ruffled.

Would work just as well on green leaves. Image from Once wed.

Gratitude Rolls by Beauty and Bedlam. Image theirs.

SImple sensorial details. Image from Vintage House.

What I want for Christmas is thanksfulness! Source: The cottage at 341 south.

Kraft Paper table of thanks. Image from Art Bar Blog

Fruity Place markers. Image from Style Me Pretty.

THe Thankful Tree. Idea and image from Kids Activities Blog.

Or if you prefer pears….. This idea and image from The Knot.

Fairy Lights in jars. Image from Making Lemonade.

…. and if you just don’t know where to start because Finishing School wasn’t part of yours (or my) education…. Layouts. Source: daniellemj-workspace

Alternatively….. Image from Antiquaria Vintage.

What’s so Pinteresting about…… Advent?

DIY Advent Calendar by Design Sponge. Image sourced from there.

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……

Finale at the Opera House! 1000 kids.

Last week our 10 year old…. and lots of other public school kids …… made their Opera House debuts. What an exciting night of so many talented kids.

Embarrassingly I made her get out her cello and pose standing (oh MUM!) in front of the Harbour Bridge.

Holidays….

Pretty Beach. *

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.

Racing boats at Pretty Beach…

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.

Very 80’s album cover I think.

How was your holiday if you had one?

Also, if you went somewhere close and cheap…..I’d love to hear about that too.

The gorgeous walk home

* 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.

I know I promised photos of all the girls on the birthdays…. but they were so bad I couldn’t put them through it!

10 year old.

7 year old.

 

 

….but here are the newly 7 year old and the newly 10 year old.

 

 

Henry IV

Henry 4. Image from Bell Shakespeare.

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.

“Take photos of me floor dancing.” suggests 6 year old.

“Ok?” says Mum wondering what on earth that is.

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Step 4.

“Oh, I get it” I say after the last one…. Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing”.

….and I couldn’t resist a gratuitous cute shot.

6 year old.

 

 

 

Feel inside….and stuff like that.

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.

The upcycled doona cover.

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.

The finished cover.

Many of the fabrics are significant to her as they are from different parts of her life and  ours lives as a family.

Close up of tags fabrics etc.

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.

Sleeve tabs were kept.

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.

The finished poduct.

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.