santa sacks at the ready....

There are great benefits to having a hubbie who is a sailmaker as he is a dab hand on the sewing machine and can whip anything I ask for up super duper quick. He just made these Santa sacks for the little ones. I love this paper doll Christmas fabric that we used for Kitty's. So cute.
I didn't think I could ever get excited about Christmas in Australia as miss the log fires, hot toddies and family way too much this time of year. That was until a girlfriend told me that as soon as I had children and this became the Christmas they were excited about then it would rub off on me too. She was so right! This is my 9th Christmas on these shores, which have ranged from 2003 camping in Byron Bay living off multipack sausages as a backpacker and childless family Christmas's in Melbourne and now Sydney but this is the first year that I have really felt Christmassy.

On that note, Merry Christmas everybody and thanks so much for following my blog. Will be back in the New Year!

PS. I'm still having small conniptions about my badly placed baubles (see above) and haven't had the heart to crush my 3 year olds creative input and move them around whilst she's in bed just in case she notices!

Christmas Decs are up.....

So here are the paper chains which my big girls painstakingly put together for me. All 10 metres of them. They really make the room feel so cosy and even though they sporadically undo themselves throughout the day and need a bit of resticking they are totally worth the effort as I love the overall 'old school Christmas' feel about them.
The tree is up. It took a few deep breaths to stand back and control my OCD with bauble placement whilst I watched Kitty trim the tree. This was a super difficult task and I have since swapped a few of them around hoping she won't notice! (Check out The Snowman playing in the background, my childhood favourite of which I am brainwashing Kitty into it being hers too!)
We have absolutely no colour scheming in his house and this extends itself to Christmas decor too. Like everything in my life nothing ever matches. In fact I will do anything in my power to make sure it doesn't.
I do however LOVE my mushrooms that I bought when I was back home in England last year. I politely asked Kitty if mummy could stuff all the little bunches of them in the tree as had been looking forward to doing that since I bought them in a sweet little Christmas shop in Wales. Thankfully she allowed me that exciting little task!
The big girls made Christmas cards for all the family. I am such a Grinch when it comes to sending cards. My mum and dad, brother and sister in law and that's about it. I have just never been into sending them which is surprising as I really do love cards.
The day was finished off with some Christmas baking. Iced Gingerbread cookies but due to the lack of ginger (quite a pivotal ingredient I think) the girls named them 'bread cookies' instead. They actually tasted pretty nice and they loved using my new bargain IKEA Christmas Cookie cutters.

So we're now all set for Christmas....sort of. I have put my MadeIt shop into holiday mode as of today in order to focus on finishing off some crafty things for Kitty and Spike; Santa sacks, Cushions etc....Will share them with you once I am done.

paper chains.....

Today I'm at home putting up the decorations. Doris Day is singing Christmas songs on repeat (and driving my kiddies crazy) and the kids are up to 150 pieced together chains made from paper. That is also starting to drive them crazy but I have a plan for how I want to hang them (and will reveal my hangings at a later date)

I seriously love old school ANYTHING and the thought of adorning my house with paper chains at Christmas makes my heart sing! Which then led me to find some old pictures featuring paper chains which I have shared here. How fabulous is this room above. Those paper lanterns don't seem so Christmassy to me though do they you!?
This picture is gorgeous from a 1940's schoolroom....(spot the chains on the wall over there)...
...this is a Woolworths store from the 1930's......
....and this is an old Tottenham Hotspur Footie Christmas gathering..LOVE the chains in all of these!

It's funny as the big kids just said to me 'isn't it so different to hang decorations across the ceiling like this George?'.....

Our house was never without decorations strung from the ceiling growing up....

...so is it just a Pommie thing?

Anyway, it's becoming cosier by the minute in my living room with all these chains being hung and is really starting to feel very 'grotto'ish.

Oops Doris has stopped again think it's time for some Band Aid 'Do they know it's Christmas' now......Fa la la la la.....

let the countdown begin.....

So the erecting of the fabric advent calendar was a wee bit exciting this morning. Being a tad unorganised I actually had to rummage around for a little something to pop into number 1's pocket and found a small bouncy ball that Kitty received so long ago she had thankfully forgotten she already owned it!
So made it my mission today to organise some fun (and new!) things to pop in the rest of the pockets. Came up with a selection of rubbers, sweets, hair clips and will probably grab some bits and bobs as I go. Also perfect opportunity to download the fabulous free holiday printables here at giverslog to use for treasure hunt notes and to write down activities like Santa photos today, make Christmas cookies and put up our tree etc.

our creative spaces....

I have been wanting to make a fabric advent calendar for yonks. I was totally inspired by the ladies at no chintz in Balmain the other week when I saw something similar to this on their wall and just HAD to go home and replicate it.
Their pockets were multicoloured linens which looked so lovely but time is not on my side these days so I did strips of alternate dark and light green linens. I bought the fabrics from no chintz and the felt balls too which became my baubles. They had painted their numbers on with a stencil but I decided to cut mine out using all the leftover Christmas felt I have stashed away. The numbers are a little wonky in places but think that actually looks part of it.
I'm still totally undecided as to what I'm going to put in each pocket. A girlfriend suggested a note each day which leads them to the treasure which I thought would be really sweet and prevents little fingers sneaking a sweet when mummy isn't looking.

Do you have a fabric advent calendar? What do you put in yours?

Taking part in our creative spaces over here..

nice rooms

Am totally in love with Lola and Coco's rooms featured on The Design Files today. I have just been drinking my tea and analysing this room above and wondering where I can buy one of those signs on the wall...??? Do we think it lights up in all it's neon glory? Would love that even more then! Any of you guys seen these before? And that hoop art is gorgeous.
This is the the other room. Love the colour of that sideboard.
I don't for one minute think I'll ever own a room that is so minimalist as I'm a clutter freak but I do gaze at these pix thinking how easy those rooms would be to keep tidy....or assuming Lucy actually misses all the messy corners when capturing the houses?

party favours!

I think the kiddies felt a bit ripped off at Kitty's party when they received these initial singlets as a take home prize! More like booby prize! I did give them a fabulous pack of chocolate pencils made by here. A fantastic coffee shop called Foodies which I love to go to ordered me a box of them from their deli supplier. They are from Spain and so sweet and come in a plastic pencil that you can actually use.

Here is my twirling princess. This is the first year that Kitty has really worked out all this party malarkey and have to say it makes it much more exciting. Bring on Christmas!

My girlfriend Tara made her this fabulous carousel cake which tasted as good as it looks.

It's such a cliche 'kids growing so fast' but I did spend a large proportion of the day wondering how in the hell my little baby is now 3!