Advent Blog Along #24 & 25 (Final)

Woops! I was so flat out Christmas Eve and Christmas Day , I didn't even get time to sit at my pc and write out a blog post! But now the big day is over, and I am left smiling because of what a beautiful day it was.

Here is a snap shot of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

(our table setting)

Christmas Eve was a busy day with preparations and visiting the inlaws for a quick lunch. That evening, we headed for Church. Hubby sang a beautiful song as part of a duet and it was a really lovely service.

After church we did a quick run in the neighbourhood and checked out some lights.

On Christmas Day our lovely friends and my brother arrived to share the day with us.

  We produced a big feast!

My yummy strawberry and white chocolate trifle.

We enjoyed lovely gifts - this is a sampler of our highlights.

Ready to open their stockings, Christmas Eve.

I got my very own iPad!

Milly and EJ were stoked with their Frozen and Star Wars quilt covers

Mop was happy with her gift - and subsequently has done half of the projects already!

Daz got his own tablet too!

We all had a wonderful day. I am now on a new level of exhausted from hosting three meals and I am ready to rest for a few days to recover. 

Advent Blog Along #23

What I am creating:

• Attached a few more hexies as well and basted what I hope will be the last few to attach... so so close to finishing!! 

What I am doing:
Advent Activity: Christmas lights at Lobethal.

Tomorrow it will be on for young and old! No more lazy Advent days... we will be madly preparing for the big day!

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #22

What I am creating:

• Still working on the hexies
• Attempted making friendship bracelets with my girls. I'm going to have to have a go at doing them myself before trying to teach my girls!

What I am doing:
A little while ago I won a book on Instagram from And Sew We Craft. It arrived!!

I'm so excited about this book and cannot wait to get started on this quilt. I want to get a few finishes done first of WIPS before I do however. Extra motivation. The letters that accompany each block are moving. I read one or two and felt tears prick my eyes. How hard life was for Farmer's wife during the depression!

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #21

What I am creating:

 I spent some time starting to fill out a few things in my new planner from Kikki-k - a birthday present from my lovely hubby.

(Excuse the dark pic, but it was very overcast this morning)

Got a colouring-in done.

What I am doing:

Enjoying some of my birthday loot:

Post it notes for my new organiser.

Scrapbooking paper, a to-do list pad, yarn, mason jar mug

A sewing box (which I have wanted for SUCH a long time!), yarn, embroidery scissors and a basket to store my projects in.

My dear husband went shopping at Kikki-k for me!! I am stoked!!

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #20

What I am creating:

• Started making up the Christmas name tags for the table.

What I am doing:

• Woke up late - too late to get to church. 
• Did housework as penance. LOL Actually did a stack of housework because tomorrow I don't want to do ANY. Lots of washing done and hung out inbetween showers of rain that has cooled off the area after a record breaking heat-wave. It was even too hot for me! And I LOVE heat!
• Got my craft hub looking neat and tidy after it being cluttered with stuff for the last few weeks.

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #19

What I am creating:
I'm being boring and still doing hexies. Although I did do a colouring page as well.

What I am doing:
Today, Hubby and I wrapped up all the Christmas pressies and stuffed the stockings. We also did a last minute dash to the shops because we realized that two of Mop's gifts hadn't arrived!

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #18

What I am doing:
Today was another scorcher here in South Australia. Burning hot. The kids were swimming by 9am and hiding indoors from the searing sun by 11:30. The kids wrapped up their Daddy's Christmas presents. I can't show what my eldest made because Daddy will see... hopefully I remember to show it off when he unwraps it Christmas morning.
It was haircut day - and we all had our heads thinned out and made a bit lighter for the hot summer days ahead.
We also did a Christmas shopping spree this evening. We were buying stuff for the Christmas table, and last minute gifts. It was very fun!

What I am creating:
Today I sat in my cool office and hexied. Not quite done, but so close!! I reckon I have just over 40 hexies to attach before it's done. It would be awesome to have it finished and basted before Christmas. The weekend is looking like a scorcher, so maybe I can hibernate in the hub and hexie some more.

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #17

What I am creating:

Something awful happened on Tuesday. I started to gather my recipes that I make most Christmases and to my horror I found that I couldn't find one. My gingerbread recipe like Great Granny used to make. It took me ages and ages, and finally I found it. But I did not want a repeat performance! I wanted a safe place to keep my Christmas recipes... how could I do this?
My gaze rested on a recipe journal I received a few years back. I liked it.. but boy it was ugly on the inside and it had recipes printed in it. I pulled it out and looked at the spiral that held it all together. Surely I could do something with this??

I had a quick chat to Car who does journals and knows more than I ever would about them. She gave me some tips - and then I headed out to spotlight armed with a voucher. I came home with a pack of Christmas paper and set to work making a Christmas recipe journal.

 Note that the first entry was indeed my lost-but-now-found gingerbread recipe. LOL


What I am doing:
Today launched the official "sort out stuff to make room for Christmas gifts" activity we do each year. The kids have been sorting out their stuff and culling what they don't use and tidying it up to make space for new books and toys. Today's focus was on the bedrooms. Tomorrow we will focus on the toy room.
I also did a few Christmas promotion slides for my church and finished off the new newsletter design for launch next year. Inbetween all that I did a stack of housework and attached some more hexies. The kids spent some time in the pool because it is officially stinking hot (43 degrees celcius)

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #16

Woops.... I forgot to post this last night!!

What I am doing:
I didn't take pictures because I was too busy with other stuff...

• The kids tucked into their Christmas craft supplies and created a few things
• Housework
• Church work

What I am creating:

• I have started a new project with paper would you believe?! All will be revealed on completion. 
• I finished labeling the envelopes with our Christmas card. Phew! Hopefully in time for AP to deliver them before Christmas.

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #12,13,14 & 15

What I am doing:
Hello! I'm hooooome! We had a lovely time chilling at a beach-side location. I coped very well with the gorgeous weather and playing with the kids. We arrived yesterday afternoon and since then I have been doing washing and unpacking.  My brother popped in with his girls for lunch which was lovely. I did manage to squeeze in some time to do an Advent Activity with the kids today.

Why is it so hard to catch all three with their eyes open and looking at me?? *sigh*

Rocky road with a twist... this has mars bar in it! YUMM!

And of course baking with kids is not complete until they are licking the bowls and spoons.

One of the finished products of today's efforts. Cranberry and white chocolate short bread.

What I am creating:
Today has been so flat out I haven't had a chance to do much creative, apart from playing with lettering on my envelopes.

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #11

I am here. Without phone coverage. Without power. It's heaven!!

See you next week!

Advent Blog Along # 10

What I am creating:
I had very little time to create today. In fact I spent my crafty time sorting out my desk and getting it back into order. Man I am a mess-pot! I also spent time packing for our camping trip that is coming up. So what time I did have... I attached a hexie or two.

I did get some colouring done though. :)

My planned Christmas crafting is pretty much done now and it's time to look to the big day. I still have the table to sort out - including table gifts, decor and a color scheme!! I will do that after the camping trip I think.

What I am doing:
Today involved two awards presentation session. One with the primary school and one with the senior school. It involved a sit down with the family that we have Christmas lunch with and planned menus and organised who was bringing what.

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #9

What I am creating:

Today I finished off the lavender eye masks - and they are now packaged up and ready for gifting. Excuse the grainy photo but the sun had set and I wanted to get it before I got the awful orange glow of our lights!

I tried to make the Christmas card envelopes look pretty by experimenting with lettering.

That was actually kind of fun!

These are the soap stuffed scrubbies that I crocheted a while back. I love them! Definitely a gift idea I will be repeating!

I had a ARRRRRGHHH! Moment a few hours ago when my darling dearest son mentions to me that he has THREE aides instead of the two he had last year. I had only sorted Christmas presents out for two aides. Cue a panicked scramble!! I dug out a spare crochet bag that I made last year and whipped up another eye mask. Seriously son... don't do that to me!! Thankfully I sometimes make extras when gift making.

What I am doing:
I spent most of today out and about. The boy had speech therapy, then I spent the rest of the day searching for bathers. Why did it take all day? Well..... my big girl wants to be modest yet not look like a granny. The result - hours and hours and hours and HOURS of shopping. We finally found a pair that she is happy with and she looks her age. Ahhh the perks of having a very womanly looking 12 year old girl. While I was bather shopping these just jumped into my trolley....

I've been thinking about the new year coming up and what I want it to look like. I have been rethinking how I do New Year's resolutions and I want them to evolve as I change and grow as a person. I will tell you more in the New Year - but it will be impacting my creative life. Stay tuned!

What I am listening to:

Advent Blog Along #8

What I am creating: 

This is to go into the teacher's gift bags. I am so pleased I had enough for me!! It has some of my beautiful DoTerra peppermint essential oil and along with the subtle scent of coconut - and after scrubbing my skin I can't decide whether I want to eat myself or bury my face in my baby soft skin. This stuff is awesome and I shall be making more of this!!

I embroidered a Christmas Tree ornament and I have hung it on the outside of the bag. I have red and gold ones as well.

All this creating is making a right mess - I'm drowning at my desk. Tomorrow after all the creating is done, I am going to give everything a good tidy up and have my hub ready for the next round of creating.

What I am doing:
Poor Mop injured her ankle yesterday so was forced to stay home today and rest it - under protest!! The rest of her classmates were going to have a busy day filled with lots of tearing around and water games. So today was a fairly quiet one.
Today's Advent Activity was to paint wooden angels.

They didn't quite get enough time to finish them before dinner - so I will show you the finished product tomorrow.

What I am listening to: