daydreaming in aqua...

okay, I've accepted it now..

..that Christmas IS just around the corner..and I've started getting my
act into gear..now that the shopping is finished I'm certainly feeling more
in the spirit..which is just as well, because the lovely Christy has passed on
this award..thanks Christy!  Pop over to Sweet Tidings for gorgeous ideas! :D

 

Christmas Spirit Award rules:

• You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.
  
• The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.
  
• You must link back to the person who gave you the award.
  
• You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas.
  
• If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space!
  
• Pass the award along to as many people as you like.That can be 1 or 45; it's up to you.
  
• You must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going!
• Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

So here are my 5 things:

1. Baking sweet treats with the girls
2. Wrapping presents..I have always loved to do this!
3. The Christmas lights tour on Christmas eve..being daylight savings here we don't start
until about 8pm so the girls are nice and tired when we return and sleep through Santa's visit!
4. The food!..need I say more (also a drop or two of sparkling wine!)
5. Watching the kids enjoying their pressies on Christmas morning..for the last
2 years we've all played with the new lego..last year we built Hogwarts School :D

I'd like to pass this award on to:

Pat from Mille Fiori Favoriti
Beth from Blossom Cottage
Annette from In this Life
Mel from Day to Day
Karin from Ute och Inne



I made the above ornaments from paper scraps using the great tutorial on
Design Sponge..they slowly spin around when hung from the ceiling :D



I also did a wonderful free Doodling Class on the Boxx, run by the very talented
Leeann Pearce.and it was heaps of fun..and nice to get the old watercolour
pencil and paint brushes out..something I'd love to do more of soon



this is our new advent calendar..it's beautifully made and I found it  at the
Oxfam Fair Trade Shop earlier this year..the pockets are tiny though so
if the gifts don't fit I just peg them onto the front :D

I'll be back soon with some more Christmas fun to share..happy Saturday all Gx
p.s I felt like a different blog look...not sure if I like this one more..time will tell,
it might have changed again the next time you visit :D

Fruit & Nut Chocolate & Jesse again!

Here is the Fruit & Nut Chocolate recipe {as requested by Cindy}
It's super easy, rich and should definitely be enjoyed throughout
the year!  I found it over at Orangette ~ a wonderful blog to get
your culinary inspiration ~ so many gorgeous recipes to try out.

Since cranberries are not so easy to find here in Australia, I used
some dried apricots instead. I'm sure you could experiment a bit.

..and Jem asked for me to show a pic of her with Jesse today. He's
not easy to photograph, must be patted to stay still for a moment!

The Big Day!

A wonderful day was had by all.. a day of love, laughter,
contentment, {bubbles} and copious amounts of chocolate!!

Jem in sleeping cap {which she made & wears on special occasions}

Rhiannon woken up by her little sis at 6am ~ trying to look awake!

Grinch came too late! He was invited to lunch & had his own cracker

Most of the morning was spent building the Harry Potter Castle!

*Christmas Wishes*

*Wishing everyone a truly wonderful Christmas*
  *May it be a happy day with your loved ones*

Crackers? ... Check

Phew...finally got them finished ~ thought it would be a quick job!
2 hours later...9 personalised crackers with chocolates, joke & hat
I've already bought next year's kits & plan to start in October 08!

How is everyone going with their last minute Christmas list? Maybe
a silly question..mine doesn't seem to be getting much smaller!

Starry Eyed Men

Another thing to cross off the 'to do' list! I couldn't find the last recipe
we used {not unusual when you have at least 50 cookbooks and 3 boxes
of recipe clippings!} so we used this one  and doubled the mixture.

No Mess Gingerbread!
The girls have enjoyed the Christmas goodness over at Jenny B's
Blog Allsorts. Of course I had to have a go at decorating the
gingerbread house! Check it out for heaps of fun stuff! :O)

More Gift Tags

 

Pleased to say I'm finally getting towards the end of the Christmas
card making. These are to go with the main presents for the family.

Easy Fruit Cake

This is my Aunt Patty's recipe for Moist Fruit Cake.  Amazingly enough
you only need  3 ingredients to make it! You can find the recipe here

 
I bought this gorgeous tile today for my parents for Christmas.
[Don't worry - they don't have a computer!]

They have recently built a new house, which is very modern and
rather minimalist so this will help brighten up the bathroom

Luckily this was the last one left in the shop because I'm sure
I would have come home with two!

Treasured Angels

No new creations from me today ~ I've had cold symptoms for a
couple of weeks [more like hay fever] but feeling a bit worse
today with a migraine brewing, so just having a quiet day.

I thought I'd share this beautiful fleece angel, made for Rhiannon
by her Kindergarten teacher 5 years ago. It has been displayed
on our lounge room wall ever since ~ next to the smaller
angel Rhiannon made.