We’ve spent the morning at home today getting a few more things ticked off the list, the heartfelt and handmade idea is fab but takes a lot of preparation. At least in the most part I’ve been able to avoid the malls which I’m happy about, they are absolutely CRAZY!

This morning Grace’s advent calendar said to so a Christmas craft with me so we made some cute Christmas fridge magnet. I picked up this little kit at Spotlight last week and we’ve both enjoyed colouring them in and glittering them up, now just to wait for them to dry.

The other thing we’ve been working on it these cookie trees, Maddi and Georgia came to visit and they decorated their own small trees. We made some bigger ones too as gifts.We used this kit that I picked up at the supermarket.

I think the girls did brilliantly, check out this one Maddi made! Even Georgia who’s only just turned two had a ball decorating her very own tree.

I also purchased this gingerbread house kit from The Warehouse a few weeks back, it’s got all the cookie cutters and piping bags you need to whip up a little cookie house. Last year I didn’t have this and had to measure out the walls and roof etc., what a hassle! Might whip one up for New Years eve, at this point I think we have the sugar levels covered for Christmas hehe.

Whilst I was in the kitchen baking I made these wee rice crackle  Christmas puddings, I saw this idea in the latest Treasures magazine. Easy peasy, rice crackle cake pushed into mini muffin tins, chilled in the fridge then I drizzled the leftover white icing  over them and added some Christmas sprinkles. Voila!

About time I updated on the life of our wee elf named “Dumpty”, turns out he is a cheeky wee thing. Almost every night he causes some sort of havoc and is caught out by Miss Grace in the morning.

One evening he felt like some marshmallows so climbed up into the pantry, filled a mug with mini marshmallows and had a feast but got one caught on his pointy elf nose! lol

Then the next evening he decided he would be nice to us bake some muffins. He got out all of the ingredients and my recipe book however he couldn’t stop being naughty and Miss Grace awoke to find him making snow angels in the flour!!

Another night he got into a bag of chocolate buttons and was in Miss Grace’s playroom sitting at her craft table enjoying them, he’d also left a trail of them. What a naughty wee thing!

The next night he climbed up to the top of the Christmas tree and had a chocolate bauble for Grace, it took her awhile to find him this morning.

Then we found him hanging from the light in the living room, he must have been having a swing and got stuck upside down.

He was really naughty yesterday and was found in Grace’s room in her drawers with knickers on his head. She totally missed that he was in her room and was wondering where he had got too. lol

Then Nana brought some grapes for Grace and Dumpty just had to try some when we’d all gone to bed.

As you can see we’ve been having great fun with our little elf, I think January might be a bit dull around here after elf travels home to the North pole to see Santa.

Each year I add different Christmas movies to our collection, just like I add Christmas books to our collection too. I love to watch all the old favourites over the Christmas season to get in the mood for festive fun. Thought I’d share some of our favourites.

Yesterday as I said Grace’s advent calendar said to choose a Christmas movie, some treats and spend some family time relaxing and enjoying a movie together.  Together we chose “The Santa Clause”, I added this and “The Santa Clause 2 and 3” to our movie collection this year.

Another movie with Tim Allen in it that is on our must see list is “Christmas with the Kranks”. I think we all have moments where we think it would be great to ditch Christmas and go spend it on a tropical island but something always keeps us going through the traditions and in the end we love it!  I’ve just watched this tonight while finishing off some crafty Christmas gifts, I’ll share them soon.

Another movie added to our collection this year is this “Mickey – Twice upon a Christmas” dvd, it’s a range of mini Disney stories with Mickey and the gang. Grace has enjoyed it a few times so far, a good classic with morals and goodwill in most of the stories in true Disney style.

Ever since I was a kid each and every Christmas I’ve always watched “Home Alone” and “Home Alone – Lost in New York”, I guess I was just the right age when these movies came out to leave a memory imprinted.

Then lately Grace has been very taken with “The Grinch who stole Christmas”. She started watching in back in November and i thought she’d get a bit scared but she thinks it’s great and I’ve just found the book for our collection too.

I enjoyed watching “Four Holidays” last night, complete crazy family antics but funny

One from my childhood that I loved and really made me believe in Santa was “The night they saved Christmas” about a family that get taken to the north pole to meet Santa so they can convince their father to stop drilling for oil very close by Santa’s home.

It wouldn’t be Christmas day without each of these movies being on TV. “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and on Christmas morning you have to watch the old classic “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer”.

This year we’ve added these to the list of must sees, I’ve never seen either but I’ve heard great things about “The Polar Express” and with out little house guest Dumpty I sure the “Elf” movie will go down well with Grace.

I’m sure there are many more that I’ve missed. What are your favourite Christmas movies?

Little Dumpty the elf has been having a load of fun at night when all is quiet and still. Each morning Grace has been waking up to find what he’s been up too each evening and she gets so excited.

On his first morning she awoke to find that he had climbed up to the top of our TV and was peering over holding a chocolate Christmas bauble.

Day two found him stuck head first in the cookie jar, he’d been caught in the act but must have got a cookie or two first as there were crumbs!

Then this morning she had to really search to find him, he had cuddled up with the Santa bears and was giving a little teddy a big hug.

Gosh knows what mischief he will get up too this evening?!

The other excitement in our house in the morning it the opening of advent calendars, Grace is very lucky this year and has two! The first is a traditional chocolate one and she is a chocolate nut so that goes down well. Then this year I have made a range of little notes with Christmas activities, experiences and some let her chose a little gift from under the tree.

So far she has selected two gifts, a Santa hat headband and also a reindeer cushion. On Friday she got to decorate this little tree for her bedroom complete with twinkle lights, bargain of the century, the tree cost $1.99 at the Warehouse!

Then this morning the advent calendar said to enjoy a family Christmas movie complete with treats, so when Craig and Grace were shopping this morning some popcorn and Jaffa’s got thrown in the trolley and this afternoon we enjoyed watching “The Santa Clause”. It was a relaxing end to a busy weekend. Today we enjoyed a picnic at a local park which had fab wee model trains that you could ride on, it was the preschools Christmas party and even Santa made an appearance. I can’t believe that I’d never been to see the trains before, it’s only in the next suburb and was great fun, the only downer was all three of us ended up with hay fever. We’ll defiantly be heading back over Summer though!

Grace, Maddi and Georgia enjoying a ride on the trains.

This week the Christmas spirit has well an truly hit as well as the aroma of Christmas baking wafting through the house. I’ve been trying to get a few things crossed off our to-do list so we spent a few days pottering about in the kitchen making several Christmas cakes, several traditional Christmas puddings, fudge for gifts, Christmas mince pies for the freezer and these super cute reindeer cookies. I’ll share some of these recipes over the month but first the cookies. I know I’ve  already mentioned it but I LOVE Pinterest!! So many great ideas and we’ve been having a ball trying out cool new ideas. These cute cookies were no exception, here is the original link to the instructions and recipe. I used my own recipe for the cookies however and as I couldn’t find chocolate covered pretzels I used plain. I added them to the cookies before baking too, the original says to add nose and pretzels after baking when cookies are still warm but that didn’t work for me. Also buy more Jaffa’s than you need as Rudolph’s nose seems to be very popular with little girls aged 3! She had the tell tale Jaffa eating red lips! hehe This batch is almost all gone so will have to make some more. I read on Debbie’s blog about using a gingerbread biscuit recipe and turning the gingerbread man cookie upside down then icing it like a reindeer, might try that next. Such a fab idea!

These ones are care of the Martha Stewart website, another great place for Christmas crafts and ideas.

December is upon us and we have a little visitor. Last year I came across this idea of “Elf is in the house” on Melissa Goodsell’s blog. I knew this year we had to have an Elf in our house too over the Christmas period. The trouble was trying to track down the perfect elf, I went all over the place and a friend Vicki also helped in the search reporting back to which shops had elves, thanks Vicki! I finally came across the perfect one.

Meet Dumpty, one of the rules of his arrival was the child of the house had to name him and that’s what Grace came up with. She loves the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme at the moment so Dumpty he is.

I made a parcel for my nieces as well so the elfish fun can continue to their house too. So it was great this morning when Grace found her parcel and unwrapped it to find her very own house elf.

Apparently Santa can send you a nice or a naughty little elf, I have a feeling that our wee elf might have a mischievous streak hehe

I’ll keep blogging about our Elf’s antics over December, his main job is to report to Santa whether Grace should be on the good or bad list but I think he might just cause a little havoc too!

We also started our advent calendar today but I think that will be another post.

It’s almost that time of year again, time to start the December daily albums. For the last two years I have created one of these albums about everyday events and traditions through out December. The idea is from Ali Edwards, many great inspired albums from her over the years. Check out my previous albums here, here and here.

After much thought I’ve decided to use the Fancy Pants Brag Book as my base for this years album. The past years I’ve used die cut chipboard pages held together with rings. This year I wanted something premade and hopefully a little easier but I think this will really challenge me. I’ve just found this blog post from the Fancy Pants designers where they have shared their use of these albums for December Daily albums. Hopefully they will continue to share them as the month goes by, gosh knows I’m going to need all the ideas I can find! Great to see fantastic NZ scrapper, Rachel Tucker amongst them too, love her work!

It was hard to find a paper range that I really loved, until I found Echo Park’s Season’s Greetings and love the entire range. It’s the perfect mix of bright yet classic and reminds me of childhood Christmas’s, perfect!

So far I have pulled the album apart, it has so many pages it could become December all year! I need to cull and figure out how I’m going to lay out the pages. I can feel it challenging me already.

I have however got a cover, not 100% happy with it. I feel it still needs something but will work on that as the days go by. Check out the cute snowflake ribbon though, what a find!

I’ve found keeping the album up to date daily is too hard with printing photos etc. but do like to catch it up each week. I hope to share my updates and Christmas ideas and things as we progress through December, I won’t go crazy and say I’ll blog each day because I know I probably won’t but hopefully a few times a week I can find time to share cool Christmas ideas that we’re doing.

A friend Debbie has started a fab wee blog called Handmade and Heartfelt so check it out as she’s sharing lovely Christmas ideas to bring the true meaning back to the season! So important I feel.

Over the weekend this little girl turned 2, I can’t quite believe our niece Georgia is two. Seems like only yesterday I was posting about her birth here.

My sister is not into party planning in the mad way that I am but she put on a great party for Georgia on Sunday. The theme was rainbows so I wanted to share the cute things that got made. Thanks to Pinterest for continually giving us ideas, if you’re not a part of it you’re missing out! I whipped up the fruit salad rainbow, such a quick and easy but inviting way to display fruit. The wee cupcakes and jellies were also a big hit with the kids.

She made this cool cake which was delicious and the pebbles were soon picked off by the wee ones.

We even managed to find just the right wrapping paper for her gift and i blew up some wee water balloons and added them to make it extra special. The balloons were a hit and it took her a while to want to unwrap the git she was to busy playing with them hehe.

The three cousins are growing up so fast and the bond between them is so cute to watch.

Lastly I just had to share this cute photo of my wee girl, I picked up this wee dress at a craft market on Saturday and I love the colours. It will be perfect for summer.

Another blog post about our garden, things are growing and changing so fast. I’ve been spending a lot of time and energy trying to keep things tidy and planting new flowers to spruce the place up for summer entertaining and have already started reaping the rewards. Last week whilst Grace and I were pottering in the garden she came across this snail and was enthralled with him, she let him slither all over her hands while she watched and took it all in. She loves creep crawlies she finds in the garden, normally it’s the fat earthworms she finds in the vege patch.

This week the vegetable garden is looking very neat and tidy,I’ve been keeping on top of the weeding whilst watering by hand every second night. Christchurch has been put on water restrictions post quakes so we are only able to water alternate days and only with hand held hoses. Although it takes much longer without my trusty sprinkler, it is lovely to stand in the fresh air on a warm evening and take in our hard work.

I’m patiently waiting for the space that is being taken up by the broccoli and broad beans for some more tomatoes and a bed of courgettes. It’s getting there slowly, I feel like we will be eating many a meal of beans and broccoli. I really want to track down a yummy salad recipe that can use the broccoli and jazz it up a bit.

Yesterday I completed the garden bed under my bean netting, I headed off to Bunning’s with Grace and we and loaded the car up with the wood and supplies got it sorted before Craig even came home from work, sometimes waiting on husbands just takes to long. So I’ve planted three varieties of climbing beans including a butter bean. Yum!

Whilst there I stocked up on some seedlings, last year I tried to grow a lot from seed but at this point I just want to get the growing started so have opted for seedlings. I planted lots of spring onions, I found some red ones too. A load more lettuces, some Cos lettuce, Butter crunch and trusty old Iceberg then sowed more carrots and radishes, planted some more red onions and the first of the basil.

I was able to send these veges over to my sister, its great  to be sharing the produce.

The very first strawberry of the year was gone in a flash, soon as it was spotted Grace had declared it hers! I will be keeping a keen eye out for the second one, will be nice to get a taste at some point lol

The potato bed is looking great, first year growing potatoes in the ground. Last year we tried the potatoes bags and they were a waste of time for us. I’ve got a range of varieties in just to try them and see how we go. We’ve gone with several rows of Jersey Benne, Maris Anchor and another one I was told of at the garden centre by a helpful lady whom I ended up sharing the bag of seed spuds with, I can’t remember the name now though. Hopefully all this planting will mean lovely baby new potatoes for Christmas *finger crossed*. I’ve also been enjoying the splash of purple flowers covering the sage and previously the rosemary earlier in the month. I seem to be able to grow these herbs very well, just like parsley but don’t really have use for sage or rosemary, any ideas would be great!

Finally a photo of our grape vine for my auntie and uncle, I don’t think we’ll be getting much wine this year.  hehe Was lovely catching up and hope to see you over Christmas some time.

Anyhow my craft room is calling, looks like a craft bomb exploded and I have so many craft ideas and Christmas things to do that I had better get a wriggle on and get some sorting done. I’ll be back to share some Christmas goodness soon, at the moment I’m wondering just how early I can get away with decorating our home! lol

I think it’s about time for a garden update, trouble is we’ve been to busy gardening and sorting things around the house to blog about anything. Last week I managed to spend the whole day in the vegetable garden and weeded all six beds so now it looks much tidier and ready for Summer.

The strawberries are doing so well now that the weeds have been cleared and Grace and I are eagerly awaiting the first red juicy ones. She’d already taken the first broad bean down to preschool to show the kids and teachers and we’ve promised a big bowl of strawberries to them for the kids to share.

The trouble with my vegetable garden is my plans exceed my space. I want to grow so many different vegetables but with only six beds I have to limit myself. However Dad helped me turn an unused space into a great area for our for runner beans. He framed up and added some chicken wire and now the whole end of the sleep out will be covered is three different variety of climbing beans.

Talking of beans, our first broad beans are growing rapidly and the white and black flowers are so striking amongst the green foliage.I must get on to finding some more recipes to use them while they are young.

The warmer days have brought out the poppies and gosh they are striking up close. Next year I want to try some double fluffy looking poppies, they can be stunning too. Hopefully soon the larkspur and roses in my border will be in full bloom and colourful in time for Christmas entertaining.

Each week I enjoy reading the email for “Get Growing with NZ Gardener”, it’s a great read of hints and tips and weekly jobs to get done in the garden. It fills in the time between the NZ Gardener magazines that arrive in my mailbox. A month or so back they asked people to submit there favourite flower and the reason why and the best ones would be used in there “NZ Gardener Home grown Flowers” book, I emailed them about my love of peony roses.  I completely forgot about it but yesterday I received a copy of the book and and a letter saying my memories of peonies had been used in the book. I’m stoked, only a small thing but how cool! I’d grab a copy if you’re into gardening as they are full of fabulous advice and beautiful floral photos and make a fab gift! It’s on page 42 for anyone who has this book if not here’s what I wrote.

“Sarah Bernhardt” peony roses are my favourite. I love them so much we named our daughter Grace Peony and had them as flowers on our wedding day.  They hold special memories of my Grandmother, they flower in her birthday month and it’s tradition to buy her bunches for her birthday, she has Alzheimer’s now but I know she still enjoys seeing the beautiful big fluffy flowers. Such a precious flower to me.”

Anyhow I hope you’re all looking forward to the weekend, here in Christchurch we’ve had Canterbury Show Day today so the day off for us. However we’ve spent the day clearing, sorting and dumping a pile from our blimmin huge 3 car garage (we thought it was great when we moved here but it just means 3 times more space for junk!!!) , more to do tomorrow then hopefully Sunday I can put my feet up, relax and admire our nice clean and tidy garage.