Merry Christmas!

The last couple of days have been filled with last minute Christmas preparations, shopping and wrapping.

We've had a slight change for Christmas Day and now have some extended family joining us for Christmas brunch - we'll total 16! Some of my last minute preparation for our tables today included adding some Christmas ribbon to my candy jars some and some cute Christmas circles from A Little Delightful to our cups for brunch (the cups with lids and straws are for the kiddies and will also feature at the Little Guy's birthday party in a couple of weeks).

Signing off for a few days now for Christmas and a little trip with my family.

Merry Christmas!

Reindeer Food

Here is a quick and easy gift for the special little people in your life:

The cute bag topper is from Crafty Carnival.

Ingredients for reindeer food:

- 1 cup of oats

- 1/2 cup of white sugar

- 1/2 cup jelly crystals (I used half red/half green)

Now Santa will be sure to stop at your house Christmas Eve!

Christmas Gift Packaging

Some Christmas packaging for you today:

Homemade rocky road with a cute candy cane ribbon from Spotlight

These little treats are for my work collegues this week:

Bag topper created in photoshop using this free digital scrapbooking kit from Two Peas In A Bucket.

And I finally finished the gifts for the Little Guy's daycare staff:

The little name tags were also done in photos shop using this free Christmas digital scrapbook paper from The Shabby Princess.

I still have a couple of gifts to wrap to go under the tree but otherwise I am all finished for Christmas gift giving.

Christmas Card

This year I wasn't sure if a Christmas card was going to make it's way out of our household and into the post. The Little Guy is very challenging to photograph at the moment - he loves the camera and wants to hold it. Luckily on Saturday morning I gave him a christmas decorative sign to hold and managed to snap a few good shots. The photo card is based on a Becky Higgins template to which I made some text adjustments and the end result was this:

Last year I designed a photo card and adhered it to some blank cards and wrote a personal message inside. But this year pressed for time I have just sent out the photo card itself. Hopefully next year I will have the Christmas card ready much earlier!

And here is another great shot I captured of our gorgoeous Little Guy:

More Christmas

I had grand plans for lots of blog posts this past week but was sidetracked by a bad flu and still feeling under the weather today so trying to take things easy.

Time for some more Christmas details. First up is a (bad) picture of our tree:

The Little Guy has been gently re-arranging the tree. He loves it and says 'wow' and 'pretty'. And he has only opened one present so I think he is doing really well.

One day I would love to have a proper mantel to hang our stockings but for now this is what we do. The bits and pieces have been purchased over the last 3 Christmases since we bought our house. I love our stockings (from Myer) and our stocking holders are from David Jones (I've also seen similar ones at Myer):

Bottom shelf: The little red boxes are actually candle holders and are also from David Jones. The red bauble is from Bed, Bath and Table and lights up inside. The silver wire Christmas tree I can't remember where that one is from (perhaps a discount store?). The white candle holders on the left were a wedding present from my parents and the champagne flutes on the right are from our wedding.

Top shelf has this gorgeous decoration from a trip to World Disney World we took a couple of years ago:

It is quite heavy and I have been searching for the past two Christmases to find an ornament stand to hang it on. Just this week at our local shopping centre a little stall selling personalised Christmas baubles were selling them for a bargain price of just $5! I was so happy!

And speaking of beautiful Christmas things Sharnell Dollar is giving away some gorgeous Christmas goodies including these:

Check out her blog for details of the goodies and how to enter.

Christmas

Christmas decorating is in full swing in our house with the tree going up this past Monday -which is very late for me! I usually have the tree up by mid November but with all the re-arranging of the house the Chritmas decorating has been taking a backseat. I am a little fussy and particular when it comes to Christmas but each year I find a few more bits and pieces to add to our collection including this cute take on an Advent calendar:

This version is actually a placemat with 2 layers. The bottom layers display the numbers and you rotate the top layer accordingly. I have just blu-tacked it to the wall and each day take it down to change the number and re-tack to the wall. The Little Guy loves it and calls it 'pretty'!

This shelf is in our new dining area

displays a gorgeous Villeroy & Boch tealight candle holder (a gift from my boss many years ago), a cute wind-up wooden Santa sleigh and reindeer from My Wooden Toys (I can't see this particular toy on their site at the moment but they do have some adorable wooden nativity sets), a photo of the Little Guy and a lovely wooden Advent calendar purchased from Bed, Bath & Table last Christmas. The Little Guy is a bit young at the moment to use this but I look forward to future Christmases where I will be able to put some little notes about a Christmas related activity or event as well as chocolate inside each of the little boxes.

The Little Guy also has a Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set he loves to play with. I believe it is important for there to be some Christmas (or any other celebration) decorations he is allowed to play with rather then everything being out of bounds to him.

I also saw this cute version of a Advent calender at Infarrantly Creative blog:

How cute is it? What other great Christmas ideas have you seen?

Getting Prepared for Christmas

With Christmas only 6 weeks away I have been writing listings, purchasing gifts, wrapping presents and starting on those gifts I am making such as these for the Little Guy's daycare staff:

You may remember me blogging about these little canvas bags back in August here. Purchased for just a few dollars for a pack of 4 they are the perfect packaging for the mini recipe book and Christmas decoration the Little Guy will give his carers. I've had these little booklets in my craft stash for a while and decided to make up a little recipe book of 5 yummy treats my Little Guy loves to eat. The clear Christmas tree decoration was a recent purchase from Spotlight for around $2 - it comes apart in 2 pieces so you can fill it with chocolate etc, tie a ribbon to the top and then hang on your tree. Using some internet freebie digital Christmas scrapbook paper and alphabet I whipped up a quick name tag and tied it on with some sparkly ribbon I found in Coles (Christmas section).

Our Christmas tree and decorations through out the house will go up over the next couple of weeks once we have completed our room swapping (more about that soon).

I'm also continuing to organise the Little Guy's 2nd birthday party which is just a few weeks after Christmas and have made some recent purchases on Etsy which I will share later.

More party and Christmas ideas

It's a cold rainy long weekend here in Sydney and with nothing urgently requiring my attention I've been thinking about the little guy's birthday party again and playing around with a few food table ideas:

How cute are those little wafers! A favourite of the big guy I purchased them in Woolworths in a box of 6 snack packs.

Also found this caddy which will be perfect for holding cutlery and napkins (not sure which printable to use):

This is a photo of the inside of the caddy:

And filled:

Sorry about all the white! I have zero photography skills and not many suitable places to take photographs inside (and its pouring with rain outside). These are the best shots I could take with my little point and shoot.

The caddy is actually an undersink storage caddy I recently bought at Target (found in the laundry section with the pegs, coathangers etc) - a bargain at only $10.00. I'm a big believer in re-using, re-purposing and finding alternative uses for items. The glass jar shown above is one of two I also purchased recently from a homewares outlet and they were filled with scented tealight candles.

I've also been thinking about Christmas again and have been browsing Hostess With The Mostess. Love this simple and beautiful place setting:

And one day I might be game enough to try and make some cakepops. How gorgeous are these from Bakerella:

Christmas ....... Yes Christmas!!!

I've been following Tracey Lau's blog for a few months after seeing her son's gorgeous kite 1st birthday featured on another site:

More photos and details here.

Now anyone who knows me in real life knows that Christmas is 'my thing' and I was blown away when I saw Tracey Lau's Christmas in July celebration:


I'm definitely taking note of some of Tracey's styling for Christmas this year - this sparkling/silver/white theme is perfection. More stunning details here.

Now Tracey is generously giving away a Silouhette SD Cutting Machine to one of her readers - so check out her blog to enter and see more of her fabulous party styling and photography.