Our snowflakes became a little more detailed and fanciful this year. Inspired by our very favorite place to visit in Brooklyn, Acorn Toy Shop, I made these thematic snowflakes for their Winter window display. Created in the same method as we have done in the past { Snowflake Tutorial } but this year with reindeer, […]
To help make Christmas wish lists even lovelier, the girls and I were invited to play with some gorgeous items from Acorn Toy Shop. We hope these gifts inspire a simple and beautiful Christmas in your homes too. My ideas have changed over the years about what makes a good christmas and from the bottom […]
Life is full of interesting truths, and one to keep in mind in the age of social media, is that a photograph is one dimensional, therefore it does not tell the whole truth. There are a other senses involved to form a reality, that are just not available by the sight of a photograph. Sight […]
Oh it really is Christmas! Yay! I love this time of year, and getting a Christmas tree is one of the best days of the festive season…well it should be…but you know how life is, sometimes it just isn’t so. This year we had intentions of cutting down a tree, rather than buying a pre-cut […]
Now if you are part of my family – don’t read this, or it will spoil the surprise! I like to have a handmade Christmas gift to give my family each year. Last year we gave them needle felted toadstools, and this year they will recieve screen printed dish towels. Last week I had a little […]
I have been having some fun this year making gift wrap! A few hand made rubber stamps, some Wholefoods bags and a roll of ikea paper and tada…Christmas gift wrap! There is really not much to explain to the process. I carved stamps using the Speedball Carve block, and stamped using these stamp pads. An easy […]
As is our annual tradition, we make Christmas cards over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It seems to be the perfect time to make Christmas cards as we then have 10 days to write in the cards and get them to Australia before the Christmas postal cut off date. Last year I did not have a […]
The sweet aromatic warmth from our kitchen this week means one thing: freshly baked batches of Christmas cookies! Snowballs (aka Mexican wedding cakes) and gingerbread men were on my to do list for this festive season and so Tuesday and Wednesday we were busy baking. Elle and I went to work while Maya was at […]
To send us off on our holiday in iconic New york style, Cam organised for us to go to the Christmas Spectacular. I was so excited when he phoned me and said “Do you want to go the the Christmas Spectacular before you leave?”. I had thought we would miss out on going before we […]
We have been busy bodies in preparation for Elle’s 3rd Birthday party. One of the things we have been doing is making these cute little needle felted toadstools party favours. You might recall I made a few of these last Christmas as Christmas ornaments, and they seemed like the perfect thing to give our guests […]
I am sure it is not just me…but don’t you feel that Christmas comes and goes so quickly? Christmas is after all just one day, and that one day complete with all the festivity seems to fly by in the blink of an eye. This year I really dragged my feet when it came time […]
With Maya’s love of Dance, it was only a matter of time before I took her to see The Nutcraker Ballet. This year she was finally old enough! I wanted to take her to a traditional version and so bought tickets for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker by the New York City Ballet. I had heard great […]
On the days leading up to Christmas we like to make cranberry popcorn garlands. I really like the added touch of a subtle garland on a tree, particularly a natural element garland. My favorite being this delicate garland as it is temporary and has to be made fresh each year. When you see a tree […]
Strolling along 5th avenue between 60th and 50th streets at Christmas time is a lot of fun. The stores and buildings are decorated in the most fancy ways imaginable. Windows have story book like installations that attract throngs of viewers. I like to walk the 10 blocks downtown from Central Park to the Rockefeller Plaza […]
You can see how happy I am to decorate the Christmas tree…just beaming! I had two adorable little helpers which is always delightful and eventful! Elle went from one ‘helpful’ thing to the next. First hanging the lights, into a tangled clump. Then she put all the ornaments on the tree in one spot. Her […]
Today was Christmas tree day..YIPEE! This is one of my favorite days of the year. I am a little Christmas crazy and look forward to tree day with much enthusiasm. If you were in our house this morning you would have heard me saying, “Elle, we get our Christmas tree today!”…and then a little while […]
Last night was the Winter Spiral at Maya’s Playgroup. The Winter Spiral was made of Winter greens, which are fir branches bound together with wire and string to form a continuous rope of pine needles. The Greens are used to decorate at Christmas time. You will see them on patios, fence, around doors and on […]
Another of our Christmas traditions is to bake Gingerbread men cookies to hang on the Christmas tree. I like to use the Joy of Cooking gingerbread men recipe. It is a basic recipe, nothing complicated. The only thing I do different than suggested, is that I roll out the dough onto a flour dusted cookie […]
We have a few traditions this time of year as all do, and while many of us have similar traditions, within each family Holiday time is unique. One of the things we do in December is make paper snowflakes…in a bid to manifest real snow! Isn’t it fascinating that no two snowflakes are alike? Just […]