oh Christmas tree

Greetings all,

How do you . . . 'Christmas tree'??  I grew up with a rather superior faux tree, from England.  It was quite the big deal to put her together each year & decorate with ornaments collected from all over the world.  Check the lights work first, then apply tinsel & finally . . . the decorations.  Being the last child, i was in charge of the family Christmas tree for many years, until i got married & left home at 22.  Mum said the tree was never ever the same again.  Sob.  Perhaps it had something to do with letting little grandchildren decorate it??

 We do something different every year, as so often - we are moving interstate at Christmas - i'm afraid many years we haven't even put a tree up!!  There has been tinsel hung on palm trees in Darwin, a picture of a tree stuck on a hotel wall in Sydney, a stack of pine cones in the Brisbane bachelor pad & a small faux tree from in serviced apartments in Canberra.  Purely for the children, i'm not religious & my husband has missed 5 Christmases  due to war zones.  I think they are beautiful though.   

 This year we skipped the annual trip to a tree farm to pick & chop down a tree, instead we've gone small scale with an old merchandising prop of mine, with simple lanterns, all popped on the bench in the entrance way.  I like it & you can see it from the street!!

 I've added a few simple felt decorations, with natural wicker & this cute mini pinecone ball, now i need to wrap all the gifts & ensure everyone is ticked off the list.  

 This cost practically nothing as the bench was from a shop window display, i had the tree & the lanterns are a combined set of $1 broken ones from Typo.  Love my wicker star below, it's so witchy.

 Do you go for a real tree, enjoying the smell of pine throughout the silly season, or fake/ faux/ sticky?? All out enormous with every decoration you have ever acquired, or different themes, including minimalist??  When do you put your tree up, if at all??  I started fiddling last week but from the looks of Instragram, mid November is acceptable.  I grew up with it being a 1st of December event, & strictly down on the 6th of January.  Happy decorating, love Posie

fa la la la la, la la la la, our Christmas tree

Greetings all,

Saturday we headed to the Santa's Shaped Christmas Tree farm in Gundaroo - not to be confused with 'Santa Shaped Christmas Trees' . . . they are NOT shaped like Santa Claus.  Anyway, we're repeat customers & they never disappoint.  You walk from the driveway to the latest crop of trees . . .

 inspect the trees

 up & down the hillside

 tie a ribbon on your favourite tree

 out comes the chain saw

 toss in the trailer & bring home to decorate

 a special decoration for my soldier

 lots of birds, hearts, angels & bells

 voila, our beautiful angel on top of the 9' tree

Hello to my Northern Hemisphere readers - you might notice our pine trees in Australia are 'upsidedown' - this used to make my English Grandparents laugh so much!!
The children decorated the tree, i love it, there are clumps of decorations then big bare patches, now it's time to get wrapping gifts & ticking all the relatives off the list (including our 19 nieces & nephews!!)  My darling children have not asked for a single thing for Christmas, they're happy with our decision to get them each a new bike.  Our children have actually never really asked for anything, they are so happy swimming in the Summer holidays & playing with each other.  They're just happy to have their papa home.  So we'll toss in a few books & handmade goodies so they have little things to open, we're set & racing off on our bikes!!
I refuse to stress into Christmas or attempt a car park with maniacs on the loose, so i start early & enjoy the silly season.  I mean, i'm still sewing!!  We're having Christmas at home, ahhhh, lovely, just the 6 of us.  12 days to go, Merry Christmas!!  Tomorrow all the teachers can have their gifts.  Love Posie

i'm grateful for . . . things that make me happy

Greetings all,
I'm joining in with Maxabella Loves I'm Grateful For today . . . all the things that make me happy.  I'm pretty easy to please & today, even a $79 parking ticket i found on my windscreen for spending 6 minutes in a 5 minute zone while helping a friend out this morning, can't bring me down!!  Merry Christmas parking dude, you're clearly excellent at your job!!
Last night the Handmade Living. launch at the Shop was fabulous, today we're using the book for recipes & styling ideas for tomorrow's Handmade Living High Tea.

 Cake decorations make me happy!!  Thanks Donna Hay, you are also excellent at your job, in a much sweeter way than a parking bully.

 Love the relationship between my husband & our eldest, she's even starting to forgive him for buying her a massively baggy large Little Athletics shirt!!  My husband isn't trying to be cool with his hood up, he has horrible hayfever & we went to a Christmas Tree Farm today straight after athletics.

 My twins are best buddies, i love it, they are so different, they barely ever clash & their love for stationery & little desk projects makes for a happy weekend.

 At the Handmade Living. book launch, guess who won the Kellie Christie headbands lucky door prize??!!  How perfect, especially as i only took these two children with me.  Thanks Kellie, i can assure you they went to a good home.

 This girl, number 3, always stops to pick flowers, she lives in her own world, truly.

 Handsome soldier vacuumed today, without any request, true happiness!!

 Then he told me the shoes i chose to wear to a tree farm were ridiculous.  I tripped & slipped a few times, especially while fleeing the 3 spiders' webs i walked into.  He is always right!!

 Boys . . . do rocks & dirt ever fail to make them happy??

There you have it, so many simple things to put a smile on my face.  More on the Handmade Living launch later (when i can steal someone else's photos seeing the camera i took didn't have a battery in, d'oh) & lots of shots of our Christmas tree in all it's birdy wonder.  Love Posie