A Red and White Christmas

Our pergola has been decorated in red and white. Ikea had some great decorations this year and Marion had given me the large snowflakes last Christmas. The photos don't do it justice, but it looks lovely.Husband even got my 99c chandelier working!! Love these serviettes....I'm glad that my red embroidered trees, didn't sell earlier in the year

- they have now added to the colour theme.And this is my new, favourtist decoration - cut from paper. (I've blurred the photo a bit) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas - stay safe and happy.

I'll catch up with you all again, after Christmas sometime.

I am very patient....most of the time

I've been waiting very patiently to see what the poles of the National Art Gallery are looking like, since they have been covered with lots of luscious knitting and crocheting. I found this photo on the Gallery's flickr page with some of the pieces laid out on the floor in readiness for the installation. Imagine being able to see it all in person - how wonderful that would be.

On to business....it has been quite a hard slog this month getting items ready for The Chocolate Crow Trader's "Christmas in July". The ideas were there, but why do they all come flooding in with just 3 days to the deadline! So this is what we have ended up with, for this coming month.These are long (48cm) antique children's stockings from USA - they come complete with ‘authentic” age spots and small holes!
We have attached some beautiful, wide antique lace around the top of the stockings and added a hanger from bias cut ribbon. An old photo in a replica frame, ribbon bow and a crystal heart have been attached to the front of the stocking. On the foot of the stocking is a fabric banner with “Christmas 1910” printed on it.
We have stuffed the stockings lightly for the photo, although they look quite nice without any stuffing as well. This is your chance to own a real, prim stocking! We only have two available.Christmas Trees
(Tree’s height 30cm & 23cm)
These thick felt, free standing trees needed some embellishing to turn them into something special. There are antique mother of pearl buttons scattered throughout and lots of ‘doodle embroidery’. The ‘insides’ of the trees have had red and white fabric adhered to the felt, to cover any ends of embroidery threads and to make them look special too.
Whilst we only have one set of trees already embellished we do have 2 sets of green trees (see the background of the photo) and another set of red trees that can be embellished to order.

Needlefelted Baubles
A set of 6 needlefelted baubles that would be suitable for all year display,
on a feather tree or a prim style tree.
We are happy to do other colour combinations or patterns for you.

If you are interested in any of these items or would like

to know more about any of them, please contact me.

So that is what I have been doing for the past few days, what about you???

A White Christmas

After all the ice in Ohio, "Big Brother" had a White Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Remember to hang up your stockings!

Marion and I wish you all a Merry Christmas - (especially Jayne & family in Melbourne, and Andrew & Nancy in Ohio).
Thank you to our friends, customers from The Chocolate Crow Trader and family for a wonderful year.

Stay safe and happy! - Ho Ho Ho!!!

A Christmas Dinner with Friends

When you walk into a house and greeted with this sight, you know that you are up for something special! We were invited to Kirsty's place for a Christmas Party. All of these large decorations are paper mache (like pinatas) with chocolates inside. Kirsty's children helped her to make and decorate them. See the bird as well?

The baubles are all hanging from the ceiling by nylon line (fishing line) so you can hardly see it at all! The circle of pipberry and lights directly above the table just added to the magical effect. But there was more! At each of our settings, we all had personalised little plates that Kirsty had made - look at my skinny legs - that is definitely a first!And then we had these HUGE bonbons - the kids had printed off jokes for each one, we had paper hats made from wrapping paper. Kirsty had just cut long strips and then cut points out of them - then when wrapped around our heads she came around with the packing tape dispenser and taped them to our heads.....LOL. Marion and I both got 2 red tealight candles with glass holders and some chocolates. You don't get anything like that in the bonbons you buy from the shops!

Our dinner was very yummy too, just to top off the evening.

We took our fairy floss machine, so the kids enjoyed two rounds of fairy floss - before and after dinner.
If you have a look on Kirsty's blog, you will see photos of the Christmas card that she made too, they are soooo good.

This is N - the morning after the night before, still in his pj's and watching TV. In his bonbon was Sack Boy (character from a current computer game), which Kirsty had crocheted.

Thanks for the lovely night.

Favourite

This is my all time favourite large Christmas decoration - made by my friend Karen of Tumbleweed Stitches. Her work is always amazing.

The Weekend

The weekend has passed too quickly, now there is only 2 more weekends before Christmas! We had the Youth Group from church here today on a progressive lunch so I made Pavlova Rolls again. The berry syrup was seeping a bit too much so I had to plug the ends with extra whipped cream!! Last night I made a button Christmas Tree. I still need to fill in the gaps but wouldn't one all in white buttons and white pins look great?
Marion was borrowing my 3 tier cake stand today and I had it out ready to take to her so I decided to fill it with gold baubles while the lunch was happening. What an easy centrepiece!

I love my new spotted bowls from Myer too, just need some yummy things to fill them. You see the funniest things when you are busy doing Christmas decorations! A brown nosed Rudolph????

I buy a new Christmas decoration every year for the boys, so that when they are ready to leave home, they will have some of their own decorations - and they will already have a story behind them. As N loves cats, this is his.

And this is B's - to signify the year that he got Spike.

I'm off to Adelaide again tomorrow, this time for a girls shopping trip -with Marion and Kirsty - and we are having a sleep over!!!

Sam's Christmas Wish

Waiting for the floors to dry, so I've just been playing around with some online scrapping!

Marion's project

Remember how I am teaching a button bracelet class at our craft group? This is what Marion will be teaching. A Gingerbread Sleigh full of decorated biscuits and chocolates. The sleigh is a gorgeous red and white with lots of little white stars stuck on both sides. Marion has done up the biscuits etc like an Advent calendar, there are little bags filled with treats and all have a tag with the date stamped on it. Children will have to delve inside the sleigh to find the right bag for the date.
The sleigh looks terrific all packaged up in cellophane - with fairy lights, candy canes and a big bow. Christmas is just around the corner!!!!