Well, that's it. Christmas is over for another year.

Our tree was trimmed, and the train around its base was a spectacular hit with the small humans.

There really is nothing like having children to bring the magic of Christmas to life again. We made sure to put out some food for Santa and his reindeer. He liked the wine, by all accounts.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve at our house - both our families, and all the kiddoes having a fabulous time in the pool. Christmas Day is a bit hectic with driving from one side of Brisbane to the other, so this is our way of kicking back and enjoying a slower more relaxed pace.

My refurbished cane setting was well-used. And the twinadoes had such a brilliant afternoon and evening with their cousins.

On Christmas morning the boys delighted in giving out our presents and tearing the wrapping off their own before heading off on our way.

And today we're off to the beach for a couple of weeks. I can't wait.

Christmas crafting et al

I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away! I'm not close to organised yet, but I'm strangely calm.

We've been having a lovely couple of weeks with some essential Christmas crafting:



We made a gingerbread house. Well, we decorated one. I'm lucky it survived to be honest. The boys were somewhat hyped up on all the lollies they kept shoving in their mouths, and didn't really grasp the concept of 'gentle', 'wait your turn', or 'let's make it pretty'...

I'm still decorating the house with christmas bits and pieces and decided to make use of the boys' blackboard, which takes up nearly a whole wall in the kitchen. I drew this for them while they slept one day, and you should have seen their faces when they woke and saw it!

The boys have been obsessed with letters and words recently, and can very easily read the letters out of any words they see. They can also read quite a few sight words, and have started wanting to know how to write. They wanted to know how to spell 'ho ho ho', so after I told them, they started scrawling it over every available surface! My beautiful tree was the first casualty.

And if you can't tell, the below is 'Lachlan', written by Lachlan, all by himself when I wasn't even looking. I turned around, and there it was. What a cutie pie!

It's been super hot here in Brisbane, so there has been a lot of this:

and this:

Kindy is finished for the year, so we whipped up these gifts for the boys' teachers. A little pot, a gardening glove, a packet of forget-me-nots, and a hand-stamped card with handmade chevron kraft paper envelope.

Good kindy photos too:

Our gardenias are out. I love them.

And I bought my Christmas Day dress.

Cane sofa refurb update

Yesterday was a fabulous day for painting. Dry air, a slight breeze, and warm but nothing like the 39 degrees we had earlier in the week.

I am so happy with how my street-side sofa find is working out so far. I adore the vibrant blue and while I also contemplated a french grey (which I'm sure would have been beautiful and elegant), I just couldn't go past this colour.

It still needs another coat and the poor thing has had a bit of a hard life. Some of the seat spindles (are they called spindles?) are missing, and although it still feels sturdy, I'm sure it's a slippery slope once a few go.  Just to be safe, I'm going to get a piece of ply cut to the seat size, paint it to blend in, and add the seat cushions on top.

Next stop; fabric shopping!

And here comes the Christmas train

Look what I found...

... on the SIDE OF THE ROAD.

I know!

I'm going to paint her turquoise to match my reburbished cane chair. I'm sure they'll be very happy together.

The first day of Christmas

We're a 'put the tree up on December first' family. So, yesterday was the day.

Here it is in all its [almost] monochromatic glory.

And here are some of my favourite ornaments. Hmm, some people don't like glitter and sequins. I'm not one of them! I don't think you can ever have too much silver, or too much glitter.

And look at that gorgeous teeny tiny train engine, complete with glittered wheels, of course. My boys are rather train obsessed, especially Hame.

I put some fairy lights in my kitchen. Why not have a prettily framed view if you can. Besides, if it's good enough for Nigella, it's good enough for me.

Rocky has also perfected his 'Gangnam Style' moves and has been busting them out all weekend. I filmed him, but unfortunately his dancefloor prowess has also coincided with a nudist phase, so there'll be no sharing here on the www. But if I can capture him doing it clothed, you can bet it will be here.

I'm procrastinating. I really am. We've had a 'welcome to summer' day to celebrate my lovely mother-in-law's birthday, spending the afternoon in our beautiful breezy garden with champagne and then hours splashing about in the pool with cousins, parents and siblings. It's been fabulous on this sweltering hot day. But now I should be working. In fact, I have three speeches to finish writing.

Ah, best get on with it then.