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

Friday the 13th - the tricky party edition

Greetings all,

Our children love all things spooky, so when our highschooler realised out it would be Friday 13th in the middle of our school holidays, she asked for a party.  It was so much fun, sweet girls, dodgy weather (to add to the gloom) & fantastic costumes!!

There's enough pressure on teens to wear the right clothes, experiment with make up & act cool, so a themed dress up solves many a 'i have nothing to wear' meltdown.  The girls zombied up in everything from Black Swan to Dead Princess ensembles.   

I do tonnes of preparation so the actual party runs smoothly & i can chat to any parents who hang around (none did.)  The trick is to not make it look like you tried too hard ("try hard") & let things flow.  My daughter has been to many high school parties where girls refuse to play games ("games suck") & soon get out of control as girls branch off into groups in other rooms ("totes drama".)  Being the holidays, lots of girls were away, so we had a neat group of 10, very managable.

Party preparation included dressing my 4 children as a Zombie Princess, Porcelain Ballerina Doll, Voodoo Doll & an Axe Murderer (so proud) along with labelling mineral waters as Ghost Wee, Pus, Slime & Venom.  A neat bunch of $5 Aldi roses hid the mixer & juicer on the counter + i lit all the candles on the table in advance.  The chickens watched on with much excitement through the windows.  We made the treadmill into a ghost too, easier than moving it!! 

The night before i blew up & hung black balloons from the ceiling (tied 30cm apart, overlapping rows, stuck with tiny 3M hooks) & the $3 paper lanterns over down lights + $1 cob webs & streamers.  I spent days making sausage rolls (+ rissoles for dinner) & had a sausage sizzle ready to go, but the girls were already full on pizza scrolls.  

For the party games we went old school - trying to pick up jaffas with chop sticks & the chocolate game (with $3 giant fluffy dice to roll "double 6s" for your turn to cut up a frozen block of chocolate with cutlery.)  Then they gobbled up chocolate dipped strawberries & hit the dance floor complete with smoke machine ($40 from Aldi last year.) 

 So the party ran pretty evenly, they even sat around & opened gifts, played a round of Spotlight in the back garden & chowed down on a huge chocolate mud cake ($22 from Costco, way cheaper than purchasing the ingredients + i doubt our Army issue oven could have baked it successfully.)  The party ran 4-7p.m. which had them arriving in daylight & leaving in the dark, unfortunately our $5 flaming torches didn't get lit due to rain/ wind/ cheap wicks - just imagine how awesome they would have looked though.  

 Tonight our eldest daughter is off to her 3rd party in 5 days, she still looks like a Zombie Princess (it's another sleepover too) . . . i'm totally loving her high school life, tonnes of lovely friends & great parties, i'm just realising how much effort & driving my own mother did for me when i had such a carefree social life!! 

Special mention to our disguised treadmill who ended up being like a theme-park-photo-opportunity-character.  Home parties, on a budget, you can do it too!!  Love Posie

PS win a copy of Birth Stories in this giveaway, giving birth seems like the easy part, huh??

PPS if you're visiting me today from Retro Mummy, welcome!!

i finally have a Christmas theme

Greetings all,
Well after being berated by many a Christmas decoration sales person & Christmas decorating enthusiasts (Tania!!) for NOT having a theme thought out for Christmas . . . it appears i finally have one.  Birds.  I've been scouring Myer, David Jones, Bed Bath Table, Typo & The Bredbo Christmas Barn for decorations, before i realised . . . i did have a theme after all.  I'm liking silver, white, red.

 With a good hint of aqua blue.

 I still love the hearts which are everywhere right now, giant jingle bells & a few angels for good measure.

There are more Babushkas to be added too. 

Christmas theme or not, these are the things i have found i'm naturally drawn to for our tree.  Tonight i'm working on more handmade items to add to the collection from Shop Handmade, yes, more birds, hearts, angels & fun things, like GingerBreadMen & jolly Santas!!  I bought 3m of felt today.  Then add the lot to the decorations we have stored in the linen cupboard, we'll have a beautiful tree.
  Off to chomp out some die cut paper garlands too.  I'm loving twine, washi tape, folk printed stickers . . . love this time of year, the preparation is as much fun as the giving, joy, Summer & smiles on Christmas Day.  Getting the children involved makes it even more beautiful.  Love Posie

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . decoration shopping time!!

Greetings all,

Our Saturday pared out well, athletics in glorious sunshine, then quick shower of the children & dressed into various themed party ensembles & started delivering them around Canberra.  The last drop off & first pick up was in Jerrabomberra (NSW side of the bottom tip of the ACT) so after Shop Girl's tip to check out the Christmas Barn in Bredbo, we were off down the Monaro Highway towards the Snowy Mountains.  Bredbo is a tiny town north of Cooma & EVERYONE was at the Christmas Barn.  Husbands with arms folded & rolling their eyes, wives squealing with delight at decoration mania.  Judging from the ELF plated Audi out the front, the Christmas decoration business is very good indeed.

Super friendly service & so much variety, glitter & sequins, we had to do a lap before we picked up a single item.  My husband was overwhelmed, arms folded & rolling his eyes.  We were offered a basket & i started filling it with jingle bells & turtle doves.  Yes, i jingled all the way.  We were asked if we needed assistance . . . "what is your colour theme darling??"  Um, i looked at handsome soldier who was already covered in glitter & said "oh, we don't have a colour theme, a guess multicolour for fun".  So underprepared for this was i!! 

The Army tends to relocate you at Christmas time so we've had maybe 3 Christmas trees in the past 10 years, often using a hotel room fern as our tinsel & star encrusted attempt at a make shift Christmas tree to stand over the children's gifts.  So often my husband is away in a war zone on Christmas, we make other family celebrations a big deal, to take the pressure off a daddyless Christmas period.  This year my husband is home & wants a decent Christmas tree. 

Now i grew up with a plastic European Christmas tree.  I remember it well as it was strapped to me . . . aged 4 in 1979 it was my duty to drag it through the airport on the trip home from London to Sydney.  The box still has "Jennie QF2" all over it.  My husband is a genuine-pine-needle-dropping-real-tree enthusiast.  I grew up with an angel on top of the tree . . . um, acquired from a Policeman's Christmas Ball/ Dinner/ Dance in the mid 70's, my mum just really wanted it & held up my sister to reach it & the commissioner smiled - that's my mother's story (we just refer to it as the 'stolen angel' behind her back).  My husband's family Christmas Tree was real, with a star on top, purchased legally.  So this year it's a real pine tree with an angel on top (& proof of purchase)!!

Finding the angel was difficult but gave my husband something to do while i kept gasping at the Babushka decorations & wondering how an owl could fit into Christmas booty.  He found a beauty!!    

Voila, our contained collection of decorations for this year.  Love the folksy style & simple silver, all a tax deduction too as they are used as props & merchandising at my market stall, yippee!!
Have fabulous weeks everyone, love Posie
PS nice little plug for my new range of boys' fashion range METRIC over at the Handmade blog in Shop Handmade now, not far from the GingerBreadHouses of course!!  Thanks Tania!!

Mathilda's Market this Sunday in Canberra - back in the swing of it . . .

Greetings all,
Well it's time to dust off my market skills, warm up my smiling muscles & pack for my first market of 2010.  As the decorator of Mathilda's Market Canberra, i put together a welcome display . . . here's a little taste of what it will look like . . .

My Betty Jo (Lino Forest) Babushka necklace will hang around my neck & i have 9 of those large blue IKEA bags filled with products!! 

Making sure baskets still have tags & are topped up with stock!!
  We have to bring the whole family so we're using the trailer.  My husband's car is in Brisbane & the children have parties during the market, not sure who is working harder tomorrow??!!

I try to take new product ranges to each market to keep things interesting, like my Euro screen printed dresses; new range of children's suitcases (will be available in various colours, sold as singles or sets of 4); something for boys & those who love to bake!! 
These images went to the Canberra Times for a promotion too!!

Of course lots of pink products as i can't help myself after lots of girls!!

Posie is a founder stall holder at Mathilda's Canberra!! 

Mathilda's Market Canberra in it's new home - the Hyatt Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue Yarralumla (next to Albert Hall) with free parking, free entry, EFTPOS & almost 50 beautiful stalls packed with lovely things for babies & children.  Always a gorgeous shopping experience, 9a.m. to 1p.m. Sunday 28th February.  Love Posie