Harry's Preschool Christmas Party

Harry's preschool recently held their annual Christmas party and being a working mum, I am usually not able to attend. I was thrilled that this year it was held the day after my last day at work for the year...yay!

Harry was very excited that I was able to come as they had prepared a special performance and Santa would be paying a visit as well. I think I was equally as excited! :)

Harry in his Christmas outfit

Harry played a tree (yes, a tree...I think he may take after me with his drama skills) and sang the songs with his friends. I was a proud Mum. :)

Harry with his tree "costume"

After the show it was time for Santa's visit. Harry is very reserved when it comes to Santa, he prefers to keep his distance. I had explained that Santa would call his name and that he could go and collect his gift and say thank-you to Santa...

and he did! He was also very patient while he waited for the rest of the children to get their gifts before he opened his. :)

Santa got Harry a Transformer and a special orange cup with his name on it. He was very pleased with his present.

Harry loves his preschool and he really enjoyed having me there to see him perform. I was really grateful that I was able to attend and spend some special time with my little guy. :)

Christmas Party Cupcakes

We had a Christmas party to attend earlier this week so we decided to whip up our signature chocolate cupcakes and give them a festive touch.

These striped cupcake papers are my absolute favourite and they make plain cupcakes look a hundred times better. We then used some mini wooden Christmas trees and wooden ice-block sticks to make cupcake toppers.

Finally, we added some edible red stars and we were all set for the party! I love baking at this time of year and sharing treats with others is a great way to get into the festive spirit. :)

Harry's DIY Christmas Decorations

Harry's favourite colour has always been orange so of course he chose to make his Christmas decorations this year...orange!

He spent a lot of time working on these at preschool and I love them! He made a Christmas card, cracker, gift tag, felt star and an orange 'creature' ornament. Aren't they cute?

We have added them to our collection of decorations on Rosie and Harry's tree and as you can see, the tree is pretty full now. They have loved making all their special decorations this year and placing them on their own tree. It is a great new tradition for our family that we are all enjoying. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Harry!

Four years ago at just after 9pm, our little Harry was born. He remained nameless for a couple of days, despite having known we were expecting a boy for several months.

Now we can't imagine him as anything but a Harry. :)

Today we started the day with a few presents and Harry was thrilled with his new cars and Zhu Zhu hamster.

He also has a new rug (Ikea, again!) for his cars and has already tested out the 'roads' by zooming around the tracks with his cars. This was also a present for our floors, to protect them from the banging or scratching of a busy four year old. :)

We made this chocolate cake for Harry to take to preschool to share with his friends.

We laminated a picture of him dressed up as Spiderman and then covered the rest of the cake in his favourite lollies and some candles.

Harry kindly shared a piece with Rose and I after we collected him this afternoon. :)

We finished the day by going out to dinner as a family and Harry was able to choose his favourite book to read at bedtime. It has been a lovely day and it saddens me to think how fast the time is flying by. I want to savour every little moment with my littlies, they are only small for such a short time. :)

My Baby is Almost Four...

Yep, it is Harry's birthday tomorrow and we are having just a little family celebration until we have his birthday party with his friends in a few weeks.

It really is rough being born at this time of year, but we are trying to make tomorrow as special as possible for him. It definitely doesn't seem like four years ago that he arrived, but one thing is for sure...

he was the best early Christmas present I have ever received. :)

What Decorating Style Are You?

What decorating style are you?
I recently found this fun quiz over at Sproost which was surprisingly accurate, for me anyway! It is quick to complete and you are shown a variety of photos. You simply click on a button to show how much you like the picture and from that they are able to work out your decorating style.

Have a go! :)

My results were:

60% Vintage Modern

20% French Eclectic

20% Cottage Chic

Here is my summary:

"Flea Market anyone? You know you are drawn to modern furniture and interiors, and yet you really don't like a space that feels cold and sterile. And who could blame you? And that's why Vintage Modern is so appealing to you. Though the backdrop of the room, the walls and windows, are many times white or monochromatic, the furniture and accessories have the color, shape and texture to bring the warmth into the space.  

The great thing about Vintage Modern is ease of mixing different styles in the one space. You can have a new modular sofa mixed with a great pair of chairs that your grandmother purchased in the late 1950's and the new and old work appear as though they were destined for each other. What's great is that even if you don't have time for swap meets and garage sales, so many of the pieces from the mid-century were so great that they have been remade and mimicked year after year.

The other great thing about Vintage Modern is how low maintenance it can be — fabrics such as cotton, microfiber or ultra-suede and leather all look great and function even better. So whether you are having a cocktail party with friends, or kids are in the picture, the room and the furnishings can handle it.

Because the style harkens back to the early twentieth century, the innovative developed during that time are very popular: acrylic, plastic and fiberglass, chrome and steel, and molded plywood. Concrete floors, countertops and furniture are also very popular and lacquered finishes are very common.

When it comes to color, walls are seen as backdrops for the room. Neutral tones of gray, white, beige and brown are very common and black is a common accent color. Pops of color on the art, furniture and accessories can vary dramatically based on the person, however very common colors are teal blues, army greens and yellow as well as deep oranges and bright reds."

These photos are all examples of the vintage modern theme and although I don't love absolutely everything in each of them, there is a lot I do love!

It is all a bit of light hearted entertainment and I hope you enjoy the quiz as much as I did. :)

It's Official...

Today is the first official day of the school holidays and I must say, this is always my favourite day. There is a long stretch of summer days ahead and they are filled with hope and the possibilities of what you might achieve...trips to take, books to be read, lazy mornings and lounging by the pool. Ah bliss, if I achieve half of these things in the next few weeks then I will be happy. :)

Fishy Business

I have grown up around the sea, from the the isolated bays on the East Cape and the beautiful beaches of Melbourne, through to our lovely North Shore beaches just a short drive away. Part of living near the sea for our family has always meant fishing and gathering seafood of all kinds.

We grew up with surfcasting days at the Fishing Club, gathering scallops at Titirangi and picking pupu's off the rocks while Dad was diving. I treasure all of these memories and it has struck me recently that part of city living and a busy lifestyle, has meant my kids are missing out on these precious experiences that I remember so fondly.

I have been enjoying seafood since I was a toddler, when I apparently used to teethe on paua straight from the sea. I still LOVE my seafood and appreciate all the effort that goes into gathering it.

Imagine our surprise to get a knock on the door from my beautiful Dad earlier this week, with armloads of fish and other treats for us! This was a very new experience for Rosie and Harry and they watched as Papa scaled and filleted the fish for us. They were fascinated, as well as a little scared.

We managed to get them to touch the freshly scaled fish and they were surprised at how smooth the texture was. Rosie even agreed to attempt to try and hold the fish, but as you can see, she was sceptical! It is important to me that my littlies have an appreciation and respect of the sea and I am grateful to Dad for helping to create some special memories for them, even if they were a little nervous at first! :)

Christmas Gift Bags

Rosie and I decided that it might be nice to make up some little Christmas bags to share with her class this year. They were quick and easy to make, and are an alternative to traditional Christmas cards.

First we made some basic sugar cookies and dotted them with these yummy Christmas themed M&M's, available from K-Mart. We then wrapped them individually to keep them nice and crisp.

The tags were from yesterday's post and they were glued onto white card to make tags. We also used some red ribbon to tie up the bags after filling them.

We popped a cookie into each paper bag, along with a lollipop and Rose filled her name in on each tag.

It is a nice little activity to do together with your children at this time of year and as Rosie pointed out to me today, "It is more important to give at Christmas, isn't it Mum". I fully agreed with her and asked where she had heard this pearl of wisdom...apparently she heard it on the Imagination Movers' cartoon! I guess the odd bit of TV isn't too bad after all. :)

Paper Crave Holiday Gift Tags

Today I thought I would share a link I found to some gorgeous free printable holiday gift tags. In case you hadn't guessed, I LOVE red and pale blue as a colour combination for Christmas so I couldn't go past these for a little gift project Rosie and I have been working on.

Paper Crave is run by a talented graphic designer who specialises in paper and paper accessories. These gorgeous tags can be found here. They have also just released their free gift tag printable for the 2010 season here...beautiful!

Christmas Cushions

I am a cushion girl so I thought it might be nice to add some Christmas cheer to our living area by adding some of these lovely cushions.

I found some great red and white striped canvas from Spotlight and was all set to sew up some cushions but thought I would prewash the fabric first...you can guess what happened. The white stripes became pink and unfortunately no amount of treatment would restore them. I was very upset!

I contemplated going back to buy more fabric but then I found these red and white stripe cushion packs at Ezibuy and decided to adapt them.

 

I love stripes of any kind so these fitted the bill perfectly. They originally came with tassels which are really not my style, a pair of scissors soon fixed that!

The tassels were binned and I got my cheery Christmas cushions after all. :)

DIY Christmas Reindeer

Ok, so you don't get much easier than this for my rustic looking Christmas reindeer. :)

As you know from my previous posts, I love the natural finish on these decorations and was lucky enough to find three of these cute little guys at Spotlight a few weeks ago.

They are designed to be painted and embellished to your own tastes, but my tastes dictate that they must stay in their raw state.

All I did was tie a red gingham ribbon bow around their necks and I love them just as they are. :)

Summer Sunscreen Station

With the warm weather finally arriving in the last few weeks I have finally got around to finishing our summer sunscreen station.

I got the inspiration from Jade over at Super Organiser Mum and it is a great simple project for keeping all your summer sunscreen essentials handy in one place.

These cute summer tags are available at Babalisme and I laminated mine for extra sturdiness. I grabbed some ribbon from my craft stash and the job was almost done.

The wire container is from K Mart ($8 on special) and is actually a revolving cutlery

stand! It was a dark cream when I first bought it and wasn't quite the colour I was looking for so I gave it a coat of white spray paint to lighten it up.

I have learnt a lot from Jade's blog and I love the way she thinks outside the square when it comes to organising around her home.

This simple solution means there is no more searching around for misplaced bottles of sunscreen when heading out to the beach and it is easy to take the whole thing down to the pool for swimming time. Yay for summer!

Cookie Cutter Storage

After yesterday's post regarding cookies for Santa, I thought I would share my cookie cutter storage boxes. I know these are not rocket science but they really have made my baking life a lot easier!

We have accumulated a lot of cookie cutters over the years, from all sorts of places. They have been used for playdough, drawing and tracing, as well as the obvious...cookie making! As a result of their multi use, they could be found in every conceivable place in the house, including the bottom of toy boxes and underneath the sofa.

It was a constant job to try and round them all up again so now I have created a central place for them to be stored and they are all easily accessible when needed. On my last trip to Ikea I found these great stackable storage boxes. They were cheap and cheerful too!

Rosie and Harry are now responsible for rounding up the cutters when we have finished, and placing them back in their boxes all ready for next time. Such a simple solution that I wish I had done sooner. :)