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.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted, even the dear Michelle sent me an email to check I was ok, how kind is that! Thanks so much Michelle.

We’ve had loads going on and there just hasn’t been time for blogging or creating. We had to completely move out of our home for a month so Fletchers could send builders and decorators in to repair earthquake damage. Unfortunately the week of us moving out Grace suffered a febrile convulsion and was taken to hospital by ambulance and after many tests they found she had picked up a nasty dose of influenza which I later caught. It was one of those weeks where you really wonder what more could go wrong, but we got through it and Grace was fine after the flu disappeared. Whilst recovering from the flu myself we moved out then had to work with tradesmen and sort out paint colours for the entire house and other details, what a mission that was! As much as we’re happy to have it all done and it looks great, we’ve learnt tradesmen are not the best communicators!

I’ve been making the most of us emptying our house and have been sorting through everything. I’ve sorted  and re arranged most things so they work better and I think I’m getting there. The house is better to tidy and it’s much easier to keep on top of housework so I have more time for fun with Grace. Talking of Grace we moved her into my scrap room and I’m taking her old room for my creative stuff. She’s now in a king single bed and her old room would have been taken over by it. I have to do a major clean out and sort of my craft stuff as the room I now have is smaller but I’ve accumulated so much it shouldn’t be hard to move on some supplies to other scrappers. I’ll post some photo of our room makeovers when I get a little more sorted.

Every weekend lately has been either moving in or moving out, packing or unpacking and spring cleaning the house, sorting our stuff and cleaning the garden ready for summer. Now we’re back home and feeling settled we named this past weekend “Labour free” weekend in our house as we wanted to enjoy some down time. We did what we always do when we want to enjoy life, we entertain! It was wonderful, we had family over for homemade pizza on Friday night, some friend’s and their families over the for first BBQ of the season and the kids had a ball playing in the sun together and then we finished the weekend with a lovely morning tea outside with our coffee group families. It was just what we needed and was over too soon, we’re looking forward to our stay-cation over Christmas!

In September we celebrated Father’s Day and this year Grace was really into celebrating her wonderful Dad. We took some photos and made a cool “DAD” frame for Craig’s office, bought copious amounts of lollies for him (he’s a sugar fiend!) and Grace made a very cute no.1 dad card with her craft things and lot’s of glitter glue. We cooked a delicious breakfast of French toast, bacon, bananas and maple syrup, enjoyed a visit to the park for lunch and then dinner with family at night. Father’s day this year signified a special date for those of us in Christchurch, it was the year anniversary of the September 4th earthquake where our lives began getting shaken literally about. It has been a year of  emotional up’s and downs and we wanted to celebrate our families strength through it all. As I said we had some family for dinner and then as the Lights of Hope (two large spotlights in the red zone that shine out every night until Feb 22 next year) were turned on in the central city red zone we were outside to watch and shared sparklers. It was good to be together and know that hopefully the worst if behind us and our city.

Now that life has settled back down again I hope to get back into regular creating and blogging, it won’t be so long between posts! That’s if anyone our there still reads this lol I also think I’m coming up on five years blogging in November, might have to do a few wee RAK’s.

We’ve had a busy wee weekend so far. On Friday night I got to spend the evening cropping with friends. I didn’t feel creative at all, don’t you hate when you have the time but no ideas! After some chatting and a few cuppa’s I managed to come up with a layout. It’s a layout of Miss Maddi’s 3rd birthday, I may add another single layout with some journaling and a few more photos just to tie the event together.

We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine in the vege garden on Saturday whilst getting it in ship shape condition ready for the spring planting to begin. I took a few photos around our garden, there’s not a lot of colour about at the moment but the pansy’s, budding polyanthus & daffodils and our lemon tree full of bright lemons give hope that Spring isn’t too far away… I hope!

I finally got my garlic in the ground, apparently it needs a hit of cold to get nice fat cloves so hopefully I’m not to late.We planted more broccoli, we’ve been enjoying our home grown stuff lately and it really tastes different than shop bought broccoli. In went some more broad bean and snow pea seeds, Grace and I love to pick the peas straight from the plants when they’re tiny and tender. I’ve sown loads of broad beans, not a huge fan but I saw a great recipe on Annabel Langbein’s Free Range cook show for a broad bean mash, sounds delish.

A photo of our vege garden all tidied up and ready for spring planting to begin soon.

Today we headed off to the garden centre to stock up on plants and supplies. I bought some more strawberries, we already have 20 or so plants in the vege garden but I want to have loads to harvest in summer so we bought another 18 plants today to border the flower garden. I figure it will be nice for kids to pick there own strawberries whilst at bbq’s and get togethers which we hope to have many of this coming summer.

I bought some roses to add to our collection. A  salmon pink climbing rose called “Compassion”, a rich red called “Lasting love” in memory of my grandfather (mum chose this rose for us to both grow in his memory) and a beautiful soft pink rose called “Heritage” that I just loved and the name reminded me of the heritage that has been lost in the recent earthquakes.

I’m also going to try my hand at growing some dahlia’s. I remember them vividly from my childhood, I never liked them much cause they always had earwigs hiding in them but recently I was reading Lynda Hallinan’s gardening blog (she’s the editor at large of NZ Gardener magazine) and she had these as her wedding bouquet which rekindled my interest. I’m going to start out small with six or so simple pink and white shades but if they do well next year I’ll be ordering some interesting ones for a mass of colour.

Of course we had our special wee helper enjoying getting out in the fresh air and having a ride around in the wheel barrow. I love how her face got all squished when she tried on the ear muffs..so cute! hehe

As a wee reward after our garden efforts we enjoyed some delicious cupcakes from “the cupcake collection” for afternoon tea, I was surprised as the gluten free one was the yummiest and most flavoursome.

I hope your weekend was wonderful and that the sun shined a little for you.

The lovely Janine recently organised a swap with a few ladies themed around self-care, spending time doing things for yourself. I heard about it and though it sounded like a wonderful idea. We each had to fill out a questionnaire about our likes and dislikes, what we enjoyed doing in our spare time, fave colours etc. then Janine kindly matched up with another lady to partake it the swap with.

My swapee had put that her favourite colour combo was chocolate brown and turquoise so I tried to do the swap around these colours. Then I found this butterfly quote and loved how it spoke about how they lead you to the sunny side of life and everyone needs a little sunshine!

“Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.”  ~Jeffrey Glassberg

The photos are a bit rough as they were taken at night.

I filled the turquoise box full of little treats that I got ideas for from her questionnaire and to give a range of “me time” moments.

I went for some girly DVD’s, popcorn, lollies and chocolate for a night on the couch. A turquoise mug with some of my favourite chai tea to enjoy with my homemade double chocolate chunk cookies and one of her favourite magazines. She mentioned baths were a special treat as on tank water so I wanted the next one to be even more special and added some bath salts, a bath puff, some baileys to enjoy and a ceramic flower with chocolate scented candle. I hope the little pack gives a good excuse to take time out and do some relaxing.

Then earlier in the week I got a courier delivery and was happily surprised when it was addressed to me, that hardly ever happens at our place. Some of my very own happy mail!

What a wonderful array of special treats for me, my swappee Mrs Frizz aka Michelle had been very busy filling a box full of lovely things just for me. I laughed when I read her wee card that said “ A girl can never have enough flowers” and gosh she sent me some stunning Prima ones!! She even included a sweet little lip balm for Miss Grace. I got some of the cool cardboard cake boards that have featured on her lovely layouts lately, must use them on a layout soon!

So to the darling Michelle, I send you many many hugs and thanks for such a wonderful package. You brightened my day no end! You are a true sweetie.

Also a huge thanks to Janine for organising such a wonderful swap and getting us all sorted, you’re awesome!

This past month I tried to complete all of the challenges at Scrappin Patch and for me they were challenging. The month’s theme was “Winter Wonderland” which sounds simple but I don’t have many photos of snow and certainly didn’t have any of Grace. I dug out this old photo of my sister creating snowmen with my Nana back in the 1980’s. It was a sketch challenge but also came with a colour combo. So I flipped the sketch around and found this Fancy Pants winter themed paper which worked with the colour scheme and voila!

Funnily enough a day or so after I’d got my layouts sorted Mother Nature dumped a huge load of snow on us and I now have lot’s of wonderful winter photos! lol

Then I completed this layout for the multi photo challenge. I really love this layout, I think it captures how much fun Grace had in her new gummies. The Fancy Pants paper is fab with the snow covered branches which I used kindy glitz to highlight and some dimensional magic to bring out the splashing title.

We also got challenged to do a OTP project and it was to create a little box and fill it with a gift in wintery colours with bling. I made this little box and filled it with 5 small notecards. A wonderful gift for someone special!

I created a few of these boxes as gifts, they are so super simple! You can find the instructions here.

This was for a friend’s birthday and I filled it with her favourite chocolates.

Then this one for a friend who recently had her second baby daughter and loves chocolate so I too filled this one with chocolates.

Then I made this card for Grace’s 3rd birthday, so pretty in pink.

I never shared this card but I love the colours and how it turned out for my niece Maddi’s 3rd birthday.

I’m off to crop again this weekend so hopefully I’ll have some more to share soon!