We just couldn't wait! So yesterday we put up the Christmas tree and adorned our home with lots of Christmassy decorations.
A new addition this year is these cute crocheted stars. The star pattern is from here. I've made seven of them from white cotton and they are hanging from red gingham ribbon, at varying heights along from the top of our buffet.
I think they are super sweet. I have also seen pics of crocheted Christmas trees somewhere in blogland. When I find them again, I think I'll have to make a garland (or garden!) of them.
Have you got your tree up yet? Do you have a traditional day for putting it up (eg. December 1st)? I reckon any day after November 25th is OK. I like to enjoy the Christmas mood in our home for at least a month before the big day. It makes me want to sit and make handmade gifts for everyone.
Thanks for stopping by today. I'd love to see pics of your Christmas tree and decor. If you've got a blog to post pics of them (or a Flickr account or a Facebook page) please leave a link in the comments section of this post so I can come and visit. :) Have a happy Monday and I'll see you soon. xxx
Well it has been a while, but today I was overcome with inspiration to make some cards. It all started with a visit from my lovely sister-in-law J and her daughter D. We were working on some ideas for D's engagement party invitations. I think what we've come up with is beautiful - stylish, elegant simplicity! I will show you the finished product once they are all made and have been received by the guests.
After they left, I needed to whip up a card for one of my boys to take to the birthday party he was going to this afternoon. Once My Mr and the boys had headed off to the party (thanks hubby) I was left with lots of paper scraps surrounding me. Rather than putting them away I whipped up another card, and another......and another. What a delightful afternoon. It felt so good to play with paper and stamps. Here's the result:
My Mr has just phoned to say they're on their way home with the fish'n'chips for tea. Yummo. Hope your Saturday has been filled with things you love to do, like mine has. See you soon. xxx
Corey is super-excited about Christmas this year and he and Jayden have already made a start to their Christmas cards.
When I saw this envelope in the pile, all sealed up, I said to Corey "Is this your wish list for Santa?"
He replied, "No it's just a Christmas card. Santa probably doesn't get many cards so I thought I'd send him one". Awwww, bless his cotton socks! How cute :)
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates vision for tomorrow."Melodie Beattie - motivational author.
Hi all! I'm home-sweet-home now after a really enjoyable weekend "back home". Thought I'd show you some of the pics from the christening day. After the service we went to a local playground so the kids could wear themselves out a bit! We took the opportunity to take some family photos. Here are a few of them.
No more photos please Mum!
Now I'm home I have a huge pile of washing to do. I've just spent an hour or so watering my garden with diluted Bokashi juice. It is heating up here. We're expecting 32 degrees today. Summer is only about a week away! Gotta keep that garden well hydrated if I want home grown vegies for us to enjoy. Luckily we have a nice big water tank that is full after our very wet winter. Will share some pics of my garden soon. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Tuesday. xxx
I am posting from my Mum and Dad's place today. Have enjoyed a beautiful weekend with family here in my home town. On Saturday night we attended my cousin's engagement party. It was a fun night and great to catch up with some family members who we haven't seen for AGES.
Yesterday we had a very special event to attend - the Christening of my two gorgeous nephews. My Mr and I were very proud to be J's godparents.
What a fantastic day! We followed the service with a play at the park and then went out for dinner. There were several families and every one of the 11 children there was a boy! They ranged in age from 9 to 18 months. Needless to say it was a pretty noisy dinner! Lots of fun too :) I have lots more pics from yesterday, but I'll show you some of them another time.
Heading back home today. It is a beautiful day for a drive. Hope your weekend was beautiful.
My creative space today holds a couple of collaged canvases I've put together, I've used lots of scrapbook papers from my stash and liberal lashings of ModPodge. They are not finished - they are works in progress. I'm not sure what the finished products, or even the next layers, will look like yet. I am just playing, experimenting with colour and pattern.....my favourite type of creativity.
I haven't blogged about this little crochet ninepatch either. It is just waiting for me to take up the hook and turn it into a cushion cover. I really love the colour and texture of it. Can't wait to get it finished and onto my favourite chair.
For more creative spaces, pop over and see Kirsty at Kootoyoo.
I've never really thought of myself as loving purple as a colour. But as I wandered around my garden this morning some pretty purples caught my eye. There are lots of purple flowers in my garden here are just a few. I guess I like purple more than I thought!
Then, on my way back inside, I walked past the rumpus room window and caught sight of my reflection. I smiled when I realised what colour I was wearing today... Yep, purple on purple :)
Which colours do you love, and which do you loathe? I have never liked orange. It just makes me feel uneasy. No special reason, I just don't like it much. Come to think of it, maybe it was the orange tiles in my Mum & Dads '70s kitchen, complete with matching cannisters that did it! lol!
I'm sure there's a colour therapist out there somewhere who could offer an explanation of why we like and loathe certain colours. Do you have any strong feelings about colour - positive or negative?
Happy Tuesday everyone. Hope yours is a good one. xxx
My boys are completely immersed in books at the moment. I can barely tear them away to eat! J is reading Harry Potter - The Philosophers Stone for the first time. And C is into Diary of a Wimpy Kid - his first "big book". It is so nice to see them sitting side by side with their noses in books instead of in their Nintendo DSs!
I was able to tear them away for afternoon tea. It was the smell of a fresh batch of scones that finally broke the spell of their books.....for a while :)
Look what happened to my lovely car when I went our for dinner with my Uni girlfriends on Wednesday night :(
A young man was driving (forwards!) out of a parking space as I drove past. Apparently he was looking at his phone instead of what was in front of his car and then "bang". Thankfully he was not hostile in the least, but was instantly apologetic and concerned about our welfare. I really appreciated that.
I know it's not a major accident, and no one was hurt (thankfully) but it makes me a little sad to see my shiny car wounded. Now we have the fun bit....getting quotes, contacting insurance companies, to-ing and fro-ing to get the repairs all settled. Luckily My Mr has taken over all those jobs for me. Now I should get on with a few of the jobs on my "to-do list". It is pretty long.....
Just wanted to pop in to show you (now that it has been received by Julie) the Christmas Stocking I made for Selina's Great Stocking Swap of 2010. As usual I left it until the deadline to post mine off {{blush}} but it got there! And Julie loved it, which was a bonus :)Thanks so much for organising this fun swap Selina.
Welcome! If you've just come over from my Typepad blog then I'd like to thank you for following the link. I have been contemplating the move to blogger for a while now. I've decided to give it a try for a while and, if I like it here, I will move over permanently and close my Typepad blog. I guess my motivation today was that Typepad ATE a blog post that I'd been working on for about an hour. That's what spurred me on to make the shift. Anyway, deep breath. I'm over it! And here we are at blogger with simple.creative.life.It will take me a while to tweak this new blog - to pretty it up a bit and make it my new home - please bear with me for a while until I work out how to do everything over here.
Here's a bit of what that big post covered. The ongoing celebration of C's birthday. Can you guess how old he was? He helped to decorate the cake with some of his favourite lollies and treats - marshmellows, smarties and bananas.
C's birthday cake
Mummy helping C to put his cake in the fridge.
This year we celebrated with dinner at our local Italian Restaurant (Birthday boy's choice) with family and friends. Lots of fun and no cleaning up for me :)
But that was just the start of C's birthday. On the weekend he celebrated with four of his special mates from school who came for a sleepover. Yep, I am mad! I had a house full of silly, crazy, hyperactive little boys for 18 hours straight! Exhausting but fun.
And C had a blast which is what is important. I don't think he'll forget his 7th birthday any time soon.
I managed to capture one "nice" photo of the party group....
....and then they were allowed to express their true personalities!
Recovering from C's sleepover took me days! But late in the week I went down to the Mornington Peninsula to visit my cousin for a few hours. We had a lovely catch-up which included lunch at a local cafe. I also got to see the almost completed masterpiece quilt which she's been working on for over a year! These photos don't do it justice....it is amazing! All those little diamonds, so perfectly pieced. I am in awe! It just needs the binding to be added and then it is ready to put on the bed. It is a work of art that I'm sure will become a treasure family heirloom.
The following day I spent some time watching J's final school swimming session for the year. It was mostly just a fun session with lots of games. They even got to have a go on the big inflatable obstacle course.
Relay races - J takes off!
J and his best buddy B.
Conga line around the pool! My boy looks like such a stringbean in his boardshorts doesn't he?
Sliding down off the obstacle course, trying to avoid the bucketfulls of water being thrown by the teachers!
C had a momentous event on Sunday with the loss of his second tooth. The toothfairy made her visit that night. Lucky she remembered! She hadn't been when we went to bed at midnight!
The boys enjoyed doing this big jigsaw puzzle with Daddy over the weekend. Lots of fun, interesting facts about Australia and New Zealand were found on this great puzzle. Playing and learning. Awesome!
Back soon with more bits and pieces from our simple, creative, life. See you soon. x
