Christmas Decorating

I thought that it was about time that I posted some pictures of my Christmas decorations. Continuing my love affair with red (and white) I've made some easy rag balls to give an injection of colour and fun. I've stacked them in bowls...

and in this op shop basket, spray-painted white (spray paint is now my new best friend), tied with a jaunty gingham bow. Ignore that fly on the handle.

Here is my hutch, which since I lack a mantlepiece, is my favourite thing to dress up

And some close- ups of my favourite things.

A stitchery I made a few years ago, when I still had time to make things more involved than a rag ball.

And this cute vintage bird which my Mum generously let me have on the weekend. She used to have two and they used to be some of my favourite things to put on the tree.

I couldn't show you the rest of the tree, because it's a disgustingly cheap one and looks really threadbare with a big gap right in the middle. I thought about forking out the money for a you-beaut tree but can't bring myself to spend that much. So I decided that after this year, I'm going to go back to live ones, cut secretly from the side of the road. (Shhh, don't tell anyone.) I know they don't have the lovely symmetry of a fake one, but they have THAT smell. And THAT was one of my favourite parts of Christmas. When I would walk down the stairs to the lounge room and smell that piney scent...then I'd know that Christmas really was here.

Missing - Christmas spirit and child-like joy

I just haven't been able to get into Christmas as much this year. Yes, the decorations are up and the tree is decorated, but thanks to the girls, not me. I actually went and had a sleep and let them do the tree. That is unheard of for me. What happened to my Christmas spirit? I was usually the one in my family that insisted on getting the tree (a real one...nothing else would do) and getting the decorations up. I remember one year getting my younger brothers together, packing a picnic, then dragging them across the creek to find a tree and chop it down and drag it home...all by ourselves. It was a fun adventure, never mind the fact that I was meant to be babysitting my toddler sister while Mum was out and I totally forgot about her because she was sleeping. Mum came home and found her over at the neighbours across the road where she had gone crying because she had woken up to a totally empty house...in a family of nine kids, a rare occurance which must have made it all the more scary. Sorry Veronika, I hope I haven't scarred you.

Anyway, I digress. This year I found myself getting stressed over getting the "right" arrangements up, not helped by all the beautiful decorating pictures I see on everyone else's blogs. I find that because I'm a creative person, I have to fiddle and tweak things until they are just right. I can tell they are right because of this feeling I get in my stomach, when everything just falls into place. If I don't get it right, then my stomach just stays churning. Crazy, huh? Well this year my stomach's been churning like mad and to make it worse, I just haven't had the interest in making it better. And I'd usually make things to fill spaces or as inspiration hits me, but again, no interest. I think it's partly because I'm busy making gifts so I don't have time for other crafts plus trying to get the giirls room finished. And I'm just burnt out after a year of work.

So, I found this in the school newsletter and I've had it up on the fridge, and it's been a good daily reminder. It calms me down when I feel like I'm just not doing things well enough.

1 Corinthians 13 - a Christmas (source unknown)

If I decorate my house perfectly with tinsel, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas biscuits, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully decorated table at mealtimes, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at Meals-on-Wheels, sing carols in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the tree with shimmering angels and snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the local choir but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn't envy another's home that has co-ordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful that they are there to get in the way. Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes in all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. X Box games will break, DVD's will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

And it got me thinking...when I was younger, we didn't have all the beautiful handmade decorations like I have now, but did that bother me. No! We had our few simple decorations that we hung up in the same place every year and I loved them because I was a child and it was Christmas and what could be more exciting than that. Ella's been trying to remind me of that. Nearly every day she says to me, "It's nearly Christmas. I'm so excited. Aren't you excited, Mum?" And she says she loves getting presents but loves choosing them for other people and giving them even more. Thank God, I have a child to learn from and to remind me NOT to grow up.

It's VERY blue.

Well ,I've finally painted the ceiling and I've put the first coat on the walls of the girls' bedroom. Now I know why they suggest painting a bit of the wall first with a sample pot of paint...because it is NOT the colour I was going for. But no, I grabbed a colour card, said that'll do and bought a whole tin of paint. I was aiming for a very, very pale blue...and it looked pale on the card but when you've got a whole wall of that colour, it is a lot brighter. Here's a sneak preview.

It doesn't look too bad with the white, unpainted wall to tone it down, but now all 4 walls are that colour. Whoa. I'm torn between actually liking it, especially in the morning when it looks light and fresh, to hating it, especially at night when the colour just seems to get darker and darker.

But the girls love it, and it does look nice with the white windows etc against it. And anything looks better than the original. Here's a photo on the first day we got the key to our house. Horrible lino in two different patterns and a rug which isn't too bad in a shabby chic way, but in bad condition. The walls don't look too bad, but they were flaking with gaps between all of the wall boards and ceiling boards. Just patching them up and painting over with primer made a world of difference.

The walls were a colour which looked like dirty cream, but against the white they turned out to be a horrible beige colour. The door in the photo below was the original colou of the room. The light's not too good in the photo.

But like I said, the girls' love it and are very excited about finally moving into their room soon. And Rosie's got hope now that yes, the rest of the house can be done up to look nice too.

School's Out!

...and it's sweltering hot! I'm at home, drooping like a cheap candle.

I'd like to be doing this even if I can't wear bikinis any more (damn, stretch marks) but I can't even muster up the energy to do anything except lay in bed and read the paper....and blog. But I deserve it. Usually my weekends are spent cleaning up that week's mess so I can be ready to start all over again on Monday, but now that I have 7 blissful weeks of holidays stretching out before me and all that time to catch up on housework, my urgency has left me.


And I'm still recovering from yesterday. We had our usual end-of-year staff party but after about an hour and a half I had to excuse myself, hurriedly drive home and flop down on my bed. It's been years since I've been properly, hug the toilet bowl, sick. It could have been the champers but I only had 2, okay...maybe 3 tiny glasses. But then I drink so little that one Strongbows can get me feeling light headed. Maybe it was something I ate or the Nurofen I had just taken. Fortunately the kids were at a friends house but when they came home and saw the condition I was in, they were great. They quickly got me a bowl and glass of iced water and a damp washer. Rosie even felt my forehead with the back of her hand and stroked my hair and kept coming back and giving me kisses and checking on me and Ella made dinner for the family. She would trot in and out of the bedroom asking things like "How much is a small tin of tomato paste?" "Just use about 3 or 4 dessertspoons." "Are they those big ones that you and Dad use to eat your cereal?" "Yes,dear."


I was well enough later to lay and watch the "Family Movie", a Friday night tradition that is so important that it needs to be spelt with capital letters. I knew they'd be disappointed if I didn't join in.


Mitch is down in Caloundra for his big fight tonight. He's fighting the horrible Matt Caltibiano again, but this time it's for the Australian Cruiserweight title. I'm confident that he's going to do well. It was too hard for me to get babysitting so that I could go too, but I'm kinda glad as the atmosphere was too nasty last time. But I told him to ring me the moment he could, so I know how he went. It would be nice to add an Australian belt to his two Queensland Title belts.

Christmas goodies in RED.

Now that my Christmas decorations are up and the pastels are put away for the season, I'm having a love affair with RED. I love the way it just brightens up the kitchen. But now I need more red things to fill the gaps where my pastels were. So to help in that task, here are some more Christmas present ideas, just in case you're having trouble.

How about a cute RED teapot, with or without the spots...

or a red colander, but not plastic.

A red mixing bowl would be good, but again, not plastic.

I've got my red dinner plates and red bowls and red mugs, but I need some side plates. These are nice...

and so are these....

but plain red is also fine. I hope this helps.