Wishing you...

... a wonderful Christmas. One where you get to slow down and notice the important people around you. One where you get to dance and be silly, eat and be very very merry.

Thank you for coming here over the past year. I've loved it.




A relevant Christmas

Three years on and I'm still getting used to steamy days and stormy nights when Christmas is on everyone's lips. On the one hand I quite like it: swims in the ocean and hose fights on the decking are the furthest thing from my mind when I think of Christmas, so I've been happy to ignore all the festive chaos and just go about our days. 

On the other hand, it feels a bit muddled. Café menus are decorated with snow flakes and songs sing of a white Christmas. I've been pondering this lately as creamy sweat drips down our faces. Of course, it's not muddled at all for Graeme who grew up in New Zealand: we weren't confused when we were kids. We knew Santa was slowly making his way from the snow.

Yes, there is that.

I've always said I prefer a cold Christmas, but I might be changing my mind, especially as this will be our first Christmas in this house. I like the bright days. I like talking about what meat we'll cook in the barbecue on Christmas Day and the prospect of plenty of room in the oven. I'm liking glasses of bubbly outside to the sound of our neighbour's Christmas music (even if it means rubbing bite cream when we come inside). It's different, but that doesn't mean it isn't equally joyous.

Still, now that we live here, I'd quite like the celebrations to be grounded in our season, to be about our here and now. To be relevant. Holly sprigs and log fires aren't so relevant.

I'm looking around me to see what this time of year means to me. Tomatoes, slowly ripening in our garden, hydrangea blooms and bursts of purple colour on every street. Stone fruit in my co-op box and big, bright yellow sunflowers.

Christmas sings colour. Just like this tomato wreath.

Graeme and I have a tradition of adding something new to the tree each year – one year it was a playgroup creation from Luca and last year was a vintage buy I couldn't resist. This year, Luca and I sat down and played with air-dry clay. He stamped with buttons and I experimented with the end of a rounded pencil. Hearts, stars, angels and flowers – I left the snowflake cutter in the tin!

Some were hung on the tree and some will be making their way as presents to family around Australia.

What about you? What does Christmas mean to you? Do you like it to reflect what goes on around you or couldn't you care less?





Spot the giveaway

I've been a fan of local potter, Aleida Pullar, ever since her spotty little pots caught my eyes at the markets. Her beautiful mix of porcelain and stoneware are made into a delightful collection of planters, blossom jars, beakers and trays.

I couldn't resist calling her up (especially as I'm celebrating my favourite artisans) and asking if I could pop round to her studio at Avoca Beach. She paints with landscape and turns porcelain beads into silver earrings. There are glazed tiles and indigo linen canvases. It's all very striking especially in her clean, white-washed studio.

But I still love the spots. Those cobalt and cornflower hues draw me in every time.

And the best bit is that I don't have to wait for the markets to get my hands on a new planter or flower jar. She's happy for people to call up and drop by for a browse.

If you live locally, Aleida is having a drinks and Christmas sale on Friday 30th November 6-9pm and on Saturday 1st December 10-4pm (Studio Latitude 33, 195 Cape Three Points Road, Avoca Beach). Mum, guess what you're getting for Christmas...

Oh, and Aleida is very kindly giving away one of her porcelain beakers to one of you. I do what I always do when I'm picking a gift for someone: I pick what I'd like to receive.

So you know it's a spotty one, and you know it's blue.

If you'd like to enter, leave me a comment to make me smile below and I'd love to know if you can make it to one of her open days. Think I'll go on the Friday. Boys to bed early and jump in the car for a... spot of Christmas shopping!

If you're not already a follower, you can join me with Google Friend Connect or on Facebook. Lovely to have you here by the way.

Giveaway now closed. Amanda @ mammajoy... you win!   





Happiness is...

Making ricotta again and stuffing it up again. I've now realised I'm overheating it. Instead of fluffy and light, my ricotta was a rubbery clump. Still, that didn't stop me from making it into a zucchini and mushroom lasagne. When Graeme and I sat down for dinner that evening, I said rather smugly do you know I made the ricotta for this? I know it'll be third time lucky and next time, it won't be going into a lasagne. I'm going to eat it straight from the cheesecloth (ahem one of the boys' muslins) and pair it with some honey and fruit.

Several days later and I'm still so excited about making my first batch of compost. Full of worms (and goodness knows what other creepy crawly grubs), it was thick and fudgy and reminded me of good chocolate mud cake. I really do love earthworms. It's magic what they do.

Giving hope. It's too early in my book to be thinking about Christmas, but October is the collection month for Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child. We filled one shoe box last year and this year we put together two sets of presents and clothes for two children in need somewhere in south-east Asia. There are drop-off points throughout Australia and New Zealand. Our local shoe shop was more than happy to give away some shoe boxes.

How about you? Do you make your own ricotta? Have you given much thought to Christmas yet?





Another Happiness is...

We're home

Our week in Queensland has come to an end.

It was nice to go away. Be somewhere different. Change of scenery.

It was really good to share the boys — in more ways than one. Great to share their many wonderful moments... and even better to have help at hand when it wasn't so wonderful!

The water was warm, so it was lovely to wade straight in. Graeme and I got to swim alone in the balmy ocean. Bliss.

Luca caught a mud crab with his Opa whom he cuddled up to and delighted with his endless chitter chatter. All. Week.

On Christmas morning, I loved hearing the sound of Luca rushing out at 5.30am to see what Santa and the reindeer got up to, and seconds later to have him breathlessly and madly announce how Santa had eaten the Christmas cake and drank the beer, and how the reindeer had nibbled the carrots and cherries and left a trail of poo on the decking. It was magic.

Then as the rest of the house still slept, the four of us crept onto the balcony and suddenly caught sight of a beautiful rainbow framing the sky. Amazing complete arcs of colour. I'd never seen a rainbow like it.

But days later when our holiday came to an end and as the plane made its descent into Sydney airport, the pilot announced it was ten degrees cooler here. I felt instantly calmer.

And when we all climbed into the car and started heading to the Central Coast, I was happy.

It occurred to me that this was the first time we'd been away for any length of time (from where we live now), so I was watching to see how I would feel.

I couldn't wait to get home. To see our pooch. To see my garden.

I missed just being in my home. Just us. And I couldn't wait to begin stage two of our holiday. At home.

I'll finish this post with a picture I took of a Christmas present from my sister. I love things wrapped in brown paper, and the red and white string finishes it off perfectly.

Simple. Quiet. Tasteful. Unbusy. And it sings to me (unlike everything at Christmas that shouts and screams at you).

Hope you had a lovely Christmas. One that made you sing...

Craft at Christmas

I can't get over how much craft I'm doing lately. I'm discovering a completely different side to me.

I made this set of three felt canvases for my nephew - OK, so Graeme and I did it together.

Love the different textures: paint, felt, buttons. Am planning on doing a similar set for Luca and Kian (if I ever get the time).

What do you think???

Next on the Christmas present list was Luca's teacher. I wanted to make her something very special to say thank you, so I got out some old Christmas/birthday cards, along with magazines and felt.

I painted a large canvas in pale blue, made felt letters, tore up pieces of pretty card, used Luca's butterfly punch and found other bits and pieces in my craft box.

I even found a snail!

Not bad for someone who claims not to have a crafty bone in her body – even if I do say so myself!

I'm really thrilled with how it's turned out... I've got an idea for something similar to hang on the boys' bedrooms now. 

I knew all my bags and boxes of old cards would come in handy eventually!

A Slow Christmas

Image above via Pinterest

A while back I wrote about how I miss Christmas when it's cold outside. Funny thing is my prayers have been answered because we are having one chilly December all right.

On Sunday we went out for a walk dressed in long sleeves, cardigans, socks and shoes. Except that wasn't even enough for me and I pinched the wool-lined jacket Graeme was wearing. Brrrrrrrrr. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas (OK, it's not that cold, but you'd definitely be asking for your money back if you've flown in specially from the northern hemisphere).

Then we spotted a mass of brambles and started picking blackberries. Such a lovely surprise to find so many ripe berries, and yet it felt odd to be picking blackberries in December. It still feels all topsy turvy!

What I am really enjoying about December this year is that it's quite a bit slower. I don't know if it's because of where we live now, but I'm not finding it as energy-sapping as Decembers in England. (Actually, if I really think about it, it's because one: the boys are sapping all my energy and there's nowt left to sap, and two: we had friends and family close by in England which meant social gatherings, parties, evenings out and lots of baking in the kitchen. If you don't have any of the former, then you don't have much of the latter. Boo hoo.)

Seriously though, I am working towards a Slow Christmas in the same vein as Slow Food, I suppose. Buy less but buy good quality is my thing but it's certainly very appropriate for this time of year.

Have a read of this:

I get overwhelmed at all the gifts my daughter receives at Christmas. I’m sure she does too. I’ve watched her move from unwrapping one gift to the next without pausing to register what she had just unwrapped. I’ve also seen her struggle to decide which new toy to play with, only to give up and play with a box or wrapping paper.

Those are the words of Tricia from Little Eco Footprints. I read this and felt annoyed with myself for not putting a stop to this in our family sooner. Deep down I've known it's not right, but often when you combine presents from different members of the family, you get this scenario. We might set some presents aside for Boxing Day perhaps. What do you do in your family to avoid mass hysteria or do you think that's part of the fun?

Anyway, I'm mindful of it now and while the boys have a few presents to unwrap, they're things I've been collecting over the past few months – some from second-hand stalls, some from markets and some online (anything to avoid noisy shopping centres). Books are always at the top of the present list for us (I don't think you can have too many good books). Also from Santa: a wooden toddle truck for Kian, a clock for Luca and building blocks for both of them to play with. I'm happy with that.

We've decorated the tree. Luca is enjoying his advent calendar from Grandma second time around (above) and I might get around to some quiet baking at the weekend with Luca while Kian sleeps.

With Luca nearing four, I've decided to make this Christmas a time for us to do something charitable involving the boys. I gently explained that some families don't have a lot of money and so we packed a shoe box with toys, clothes and stationery to send to a child as part of the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. Luca enjoyed helping me pack the box and choosing the toys. We included a little note and a picture and as we've opted to 'follow our box', I'm hoping Luca will get to see a little person opening it soon.

That's definitely been the highlight of my December so far.

By the way, there are a load of drop-off points around Australia. The deadline is Saturday, so you still have time if you'd like to pack a shoe box with a few special items.



P.S. There I was thinking I may have coined the phrase Slow Christmas and then I find it has its very own website. All about slowing Christmas down.