This Christmas...

I'm getting ready for: the arrival of my aunt and uncle from England(if they even manage to come with all the snow they're getting over there, delaying most of the flights out of London) who are vegos so we've had to do a little extra preparation for them and we're having a vegetarian Christmas for them which is exciting as we're going to try all these new recipes out of the various vegetarian cookbooks we've accumulated over the years. A Sweet Potato and Leek Roulade with a Christmas Stuffing looks like it's going to be the main attraction on our Christmas table this year.

I'm baking: music note shaped vanilla cookies as per the recipe from the new Junior Masterchef cook book(recipes are so much easier and much more to my liking than anything that would be in the 'adult' Masterchef cookbook) using vanilla extract and not vanilla essence. I ended up making 6 batches of them for all of mother's 30 piano students.

I'm listening to: Glee's new Christmas album. We haven't bought a new Christmas album in a couple of years and have stuck to the collection of carol CDs we already have but I was itching for a new one and I knew the Glee album would not disappoint. All the songs on it new so joyous and truly embody the spirit of Christmas, even with all the new carols on it that I've never heard before and the gospel twist on "Angels We Have Heard On High" was magical.

I'm decorating: my dad's Christmas tree. He's a bit of a scrooge so he only bought his own Christmas tree a couple years ago after I asked him to get one. so him, my brother and I were putting up the ball-balls,tinsel and lights over the weekend and we bought a nice gold, sparkly star to go on top as we couldn't find one in the shops when we looked for one in 2008(we didn't end up putting the tree up in 2009). It's been really nice to celebrate Christmas not only at my mum's house but at my dad's too.

I'm buying: the majority of my gifts online for the family(and even for myself as my mum hasn't quite figured out how to use paypal and online shopping sites)as I can buy more unique and tailor-made gifts for the recipients to enjoy. And as always there are huge discounts usually when buying online.


I'm attending: a Christmas carol concert. My dad, brother and I went to one this weekend at the local park which was much easier than attending one in the city as the parking/walking distance was less of a hassle and as we couldn't stay for long we had no trouble leaving easily. It was really nice to just spend the evening with other families who were getting into the Christmas spirit. They had candles you could buy for $2 but straight away my brother blew it out as well as attempting to blow out the 'big' candle that the organisers were attempting to light all the other smaller ones with to give to people. Luckily we managed to keep the second one alight, even though I did have to put my hand over my brother's mouth every now and then.

I'm loving: the fact that the whole month of December is special if you put in the effort and relish the jolly spirit of the season; not just the 25th.

I'm photographing: Our lovely advent wooden 're-useable' advent calendar. I've never been a fan of the chocolate ones and this one is so much more exciting even though we've had it for years and I probably know all the trinkets off by heart. If you count you'll find there are 20 toys as today is of course the 20th of December(for the next hour and five minutes anyway...)

Have a lovely Christmas all!

P.S. Feel free to use this as a blog tag if you're in a 'jolly spirit'.

Milly The Cat

For the past two weeks we've been caring for an adorable little cat(for a friend of mine while her and her family took a trip to Bali), called Max, who is a girl cat. Being the feminine person that I am I couldn’t fathom calling such a sweet little cat … Max, so I changed her name to Milly as in Maxamillion(Who I think was some Roman/Greek god…? I only recognised it, as it was used in a film I watched recently). She’s been such a pleasure to have around and has really livened up the house, I’m really hoping we can get a cat of our own this year so I’m hopeful this ‘experience’ will persuade my mother.

Even though Milly is very girlie she can be quite mischievous at times, she scampers round the house, skidding on the slippery tiles(and has bashed into the glass back door a couple of times) and I’m pretty sure she's jumped onto almost every surface possible in the house, including:

The linens in the cupboard.



The top of the television cabinet, where she’s knocked down all the Christmas cards on numerous occasions.



The bookshelf and nearly the air conditioning unit.



The sinks.



Plus the piano, washing machine, dining table, kitchen bench(where she liked to drink water out of our glasses, when we had our backs turned), shower and the kitchen hot plates while one was turned on!(Luckily she didn’t touch the hot one and some aluminium foil along the edge stopped her from returning).

Did I mention she’s an indoor cat? So of course we took her for a daily walk with her leash and collar. She looked forward to going outside so much so she would whine and meow in the mornings until we took her out but she tried to do a runner a couple of times as she was able to slink out of the collar. She wanted to chase after bees; something that wouldn’t have ended well.



We did have a bit of a mini disaster occur when I went to go put out the washing once. You see, we have a fairly large gap at the bottom of our flyscreen door(from when we used to have rabbits that nibbled their way outside) and while the cat had been vacationing with us I always made sure the glass door was shut, as I didn’t want to risk her escaping but on this occasion I only left the flyscreen door closed and I started to have a mini heart attack when I noticed it open as I was about to come back inside. My first thought was that the cat had escaped as she’d been following me round the house all day and was desperate to go outside. Before I went into a full-on heart attack I went to go look for her inside the house as I was probably overreacting but even with my mother’s help looking in every nook and cranny we couldn’t find Milly. Back came the mini panic attack as I searched the whole garden, driving the neighbour’s crazy calling out “Miiiiiilllly!”(after a while I was starting to think I was pronouncing it wrong as I’d said it so many times). I peered over the back fences of a couple of the surrounding neighbour’s gardens but no such luck. I was really starting to doubt I’d ever see her again, we have 6 neighbouring gardens that surround our backyard so she could have been in any one of them plus she wouldn’t really recognise anything as she was in a new neighbourhood. Next I went round asking the neighbours to look out for a ginger cat that may or may not respond to either Milly or Max(I got some strange looks there) but no-one had seen her. I was deciding whether or not to cry as I walked back into our house, about to phone the local ranger in case anyone called in saying they’d found a cat, when my mother yelled out saying she’d found her! Milly was fast asleep laying on top of a row on magazines on a bookshelf that was hidden by a sheet(my mother seems to have a phobia of dust and covers everything up). I was so relieved I wouldn’t have to tell my friend I’d lost her cat; one of the happiest moments of my life.

But other than that minor hiccup everything went smoothly, except for my feet which kept getting scratched by the monster under the bed.

Christmas Beading

Thought I'd do some last minute crafting before the big day, it's ever so close now!
I've been meaning to make my little Christmas tree earrings for a while now(by that I mean years!). The inspiration for them was when I saw a singer in a Christmas carol concert wearing something similar and even though I've never really beaded before, I knew I was going to make them. It took me ages to figure out how I was going to join it all up and to do so neatly but about an hour and a half later I finally got the better of those miniscule beads!



I'm planning to wear mine on Christmas day when we visit our family friends, I'll have to hunt through my wardrobe for a matching dress, something red shall do nicely.

Please tell me I'm not the only one planning their Christmas day outfit?!

The Wishing Tree

Last year I didn't exactly have the perfect Christmas but I'm sure many had a much harder day and at least I received presents, lovely ones for which I'm very grateful for. There are lots of families out there who are really struggling and can barely afford basic necessities let alone presents so for the past couple of years I've been joining in with one of the nearby department store's(Kmart) Wishing Tree Appeal where they ask for Christmas presents in the form of gift cards or actual goods. The Salvation Army charity will then hand the gifts out to local families in need. I really enjoy participating in the appeal as it combines my love of shopping with my other love of donating to charities. The previous two years I donated toys that would be suitable for little girls(whom I have a soft spot for) so this year I wanted to give something for the older kids who usually miss out. The Salvation Army said they wanted things such as sport equipment, board games and Cd's for teens and tweens so I decided to opt for an Australian "Here And Now" version of Monopoly which was quite cheap at $36, usually they'd be $60 upwards. I thought the game would be appropriate as poor families would be likely not to own a game of Monopoly which has to be one of the best board games out plus it's a unisex presents and can be a two player game which is handy if they aren't many people in the family.



I think next year I'd like to give multiple gifts and especially one suitable for an adult so I'd better start saving. I'd urge everyone to donate a small or large gift to these Wishing Tree appeals as most large department stores are participating in them and this year there's been a huge plummet in donations due to the global financial crisis. People are able to donate to the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal until 24th of December so you still have time left.

Virtual Christmas Shopping

It's officially the Silly Season and while many of you may be busily rushing around for Christmas presents I'm quite relaxed as much of my Christmas shopping has been done online this year. With my discovering of Paypal, and how easy and safe it is to shop online, I have become quite addicted to it! Not only because you can find unique Christmas presents but sometimes you can really snap up a bargain even with the postage included.

For my Dad, I've purchased a upside down tomato planter and strawberry planter for a snatch at only $15 each, as opposed to the $60 each you pay for the ones advertised on the television.

(credit: Bostonfixed)

(credit: Harriet Carter)

If you find a good few online department-style stores then you can definitely grab some bargains, I bought both the planters at Catch Of The Day where they sell heavily discounted products, one of the reasons being because they buy in bulk, but there is a 'catch'; they only sell a handful of products each day but it's definitely worth the daily checking, and to make it easier you can sign up to their mailing list or follow them on twitter.

My mum, is an unbelievably picky present receiver, and lets just say last year's presents weren't received well(She really didn't need a whole new set of large,heavy plates that we'd never use). She likes things to be practical yet she has all the practical she already needs and most gifts aren't exactly practical. She doesn't really have any hobbies so I can't give her any associated presents. She doesn't find time to read books so there's goes the most practical present out. She also has really sensitive skin so there's no point buying her beauty products or jewellery. Luckily you can find almost anything on the internet so I came up with the following:

-A copy of the 'latest' Ten Tenors CD, she had actually requested I buy her this early on in the year and there was no way I was going to forget.

(credit: Miamenewtimes)


-A fabric flower bracelet(the third one down), it's something pretty and since it's made out of fabric it shouldn't(I'm crossing my fingers with this one) irritate her skin.

(credit: Tinyhaus)

- An adorable card from an adorable little company, Bell & Boo and even with postage from UK it only cost $8! Plenty of fancy cards I see at my newsagents cost more than that and this way I'm supporting independent/handmade sellers.

(credit: Belle & Boo)


- An organic gardening book, called The Organic Garden(original, huh?). Now I know I said she didn't read but she actually did ask for a gardening book and I was running out of ideas.

(credit: Biome)

- I was going to get her these keyboard wrists rests as I thought it's something practical that she didn't yet have but just my luck, they contained flax seed which is illegal to import into Australia so they were seized and destroyed by customs. The seller was really understandable about it all and since it was mainly her fault she gave me a full refund including the postage, at her own expense.

(credit: ComfyCreations)

For a friend who didn't know what she wanted for Christmas(and who I'm hoping doesn't read this as I haven't given it to her just yet) and is a bit quirky and likes her animals I got her a 'toy grabber' necklace from Etsy. Aint' it cute?

(credit: Mariska)

Anyone else been doing virtual Christmas shopping?

Un-Christmas Christmas cards

School broke up really early this year due to the exams but I didn't want to abandon my yearly tradition of giving out Christmas cards and a little extra gift to go with it. As per usual of me I left it to the last minute but I did have some idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted the cards to be eco friendly and made out of recycled newspaper. I realised though I couldn't just make them out of newspaper otherwise they'd be much too flimsy. So instead I mounted pictures from a festival guide on the back of cardboard shoeboxes and cut out a bauble shape in the corners of the card, to detract slightly from the text/images on the newspaper.

The cards were still a bit plain and not hugely Christmas-y so a bit of gold and white paint sparingly swiped along the edges made them more to my liking.





Then to finish them off I wrote the greeting and inner message in some calligraphy-style felt pens that I nabbed off my mother(which was NOT easy can I tell you).





My cards weren't largely Christmas themed but since I handed them out so early, not even in December I think that suited well plus my friends enjoyed the quirkiness of them(I hope!). I'm attempting to make this an eco Christmas and I'd say it's going well so far; handmade cards out of newspaper and cardboard and may I add that I even picked out all of the tiny little paper scraps from the mess I produced and put them in the recycling bin.

The little gift I added were these handmade friendship bracelets/anklets that I found in this new little boutique in my local shopping centre, Tree Of Life. I'd previously seen their products advertised in magazines so it's great to be able to finally buy them. They sell all these beautiful home wares made in India. They also sell all these beautiful handmade dresses in to-die-for fabrics. I'll show you a picture later of the one I bought. I'm really glad they're adding great little shops like it to shopping centres, I am so sick of all these rubbishy chain stores that essentially sell the same things year and year out.

I shall hopefully have a tutorial for the cards posted up closer to Christmas on the Cut Out & Keep crafting site.

Happy November!

There weather is definitely heating up over here but all the flowers in our garden have started to come out including these lovely little blue ones(no idea what they're called). Unfortunately for some that means hay fever season but luckily for me my immune system is like a brick wall, nothing can hurt me.

2009 seems to have flown by! And Christmas is right round the corner, I'll really be able to enjoy it this year as school will be finished by November 25th for me so I'll have all of December ot really embrace and enjoy the season.

Thought I'd get a new desktop background to celebrate the new month, a cheeky little blythe doll to keep watch over me.



I was in the mood for baking the other day so I decided to make some wholemeal fruit scones. They tasted much better than any of the ones you find in the bakeries or cafes, plain white flour ones that are just really stodgy and not particularly good for you. Mine had a lovely crunch on the outside and a real 'homey' taste to them plus they're healthy too with hardly any butter or sugar.



Have a lovely November all!