Happy Christmas!!

I'm going to sign off for a few days & wish you all a wonderful Christmas. I really wish you & yours joy, peace & love!!

baha! I love this photo, it expresses my Christmas sentiment!

(I've been searching the internet for the original source of this photo but I can't find it. I found it here, but as far as I can discover it's a gap ad from 2007). 

12 days of a camera christmas - day 12

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

twelve characters of the Christmas story

eleven freshly harvested tomatoes

ten treasured pieces of jewellery

nine expectantly waiting presents

eight tasty varieties of tea

seven classic reads

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

Evie loves her nativity scene, especially baby Jesus, I often find him tucked up in her bed, or attending a party with the wise men! At our place we believe that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth, so we're pretty excited about the whole thing. Evie's getting a real understanding of the story now, and is sooo in love with baby Jesus!

12 days of a camera christmas - day 11

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

eleven freshly harvested tomatoes

ten treasured pieces of jewellery

nine expectantly waiting presents

eight tasty varieties of tea

seven classic reads

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

There's nothing like the taste of tomatoes grown in your own garden! We've also been enjoying fresh strawberries, peas, cucumber & kale lately. I've been eyeing off our carrots & beetroot that are almost ripe for picking too! I love having a productive garden (mind you, it's alot of trial & error!).

I must also give credit to our chooks here for producing lovely big eggs (although we only get one egg a day from three chooks, it should be a big one!) We recently added three more chooks to our brood & they fight so much! They've been together for four days now & wake me each morning with their kerfuffle. I'm really hoping they settle in to be friends soon!

12 days of a camera christmas - day 10

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

ten treasured pieces of jewellery

nine expectantly waiting presents

eight tasty varieties of tea

seven classic reads

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

I don't wear alot of jewellery, but the few pieces I do wear I love! Ok, they're a bit random, but so am I!

top row (L-R): my mums old necklace, Elk broach from a friend, another of my mum's old necklaces, broach my sister made
mid row (L-R): broach from an old lady at craft, Elk broach from my sisters, broach I made at craft group, badge (with Roger's initial) from a market
last row (L-R): Naomi Murrell necklace from my birthday last year, Tiffany & Co necklace from my bro-in-law

12 days of a camera christmas - day 9

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

nine expectantly waiting presents

eight tasty varieties of tea

seven classic reads

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

Evie & I have spent some lovely afternoons this week wrapping Christmas presents. She's gone crazy with her textas, stamps & glue to create some unique wrapping paper. I let her choose the ribbons from my collection (I save them from every present!) and I help with the finishing touches. I've loved spending this creative time with her.

I also love presents! I love giving & receiving. I would love to be the person that finds or makes the perfect give for each loved one, but I'm afraid that lack of motivation & laziness gets in the way! I read a cool quote somewhere on a blog the other day about needing less inspiration & more creation. It's so true, I'm constantly inspired by other blogs & Pinterest, but I really need to sit down & bring all these ideas into reality!

12 days of a camera christmas - day 8

On the eighth day of christmas my true love gave to me...

eight tasty varieties of tea

seven classic reads

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

I really love sitting down to a cuppa, it's got to be one of the most relaxing things, and goes so well with biscuits! I was given the above tea chest for my 30th this year, a perfect present!

Inside are some yummy varieties of tea: camomile, chai, peppermint, coffee bags (I know, not actually tea), white, green & jasmine, green & black.

12 days of a camera christmas - day 7

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

seven classic reads

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

I love reading & I've always been a big reader. I'm getting back in the habit of reading in bed at night, so lovely! There's nothing like being transported to another time, life or story!

Here's some of my faves that I have re-read countless times:
Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Far from the Madding Crowd - Tom Hardy
The Trumpet Major - Tom Hardy
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

12 days of a camera christmas - day 6

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

six sewn up items

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

I love sewing! I really got in the swing of it after Evie was born, although I've still got lots to learn! There's nothing more satisfying than making something from scratch, especially practical items like those shown above. (Which were completely free to sew thanks to material & elastic from my craft group & nanna!).

Clockwise from top left; 9 month trackies for baby, trackies for Evie, nighty for Evie, trackies for baby, pj pants for Evie & knickers for myself! (Just have to blow my own trumpet here, these were all sewn in the last two weeks, so productive!!)

12 days of a camera christmas - day 5

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

five fixings for a gingerbread house

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

We're making an Ikea gingerbread house today! This represents one of my loves, doing things together as a family. I know it doesn't really matter if we end up eating the house or not, the fun is in choosing lollies, spending an arvo decorating & keeping it until Christmas as a reminder of the fun we had. Together time is awesome!

ps - playing along with 12 days of a camera christmas are:
little adelaide kate
Neenish Arts
gretel girl draws
Mama's Alphabet Soup
Blossom Heart
HD Photography
Studio Vivid
Photography by Miss Sarah El

12 days of a camera christmas - day 4

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

four little animal cuties

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

I love having little animals around the house on various shelves, they bring a smile to my face! The piggy bank & deer are from oxfam, and the hand-carved giraffe & bear are from aqua living.

ps - I won a blog giveaway the other day on ecomilf, a really cute robot backpack from Kindred Gifts. Evie loves robots & is very excited about her new backpack, & is taking it everywhere with her at the moment!

12 days of a camera christmas - day 3

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

three delightful prints

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

I love filling our walls with artwork that makes us happy - we don't buy expensive art, we just get things that make us smile!

The big one in the middle is Apple Papple from Fine Little Day, and the two smaller are from Sandra Juto.

12 days of a camera christmas - day 2

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

two thrifted tops for a darling boy

and a lovely big pregnant belly

Cute, right! I love thrifting, there is nothing like the thrill of rummaging through an op-shop & finding the perfect 'something' for a couple of bucks! My favourite finds are usually children's clothes, crockery & housewares, books & craft supplies.

12 days of a camera christmas - day 1

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

a lovely big pregnant belly!

Ok, so I'm a day late to join in, but this is the first in a series of '12 days of a camera christmas', joining in with my friend little adelaide kate and her crew.

I've decided to do my photo series on things that I love, so each day leading up to Christmas you'll get a glimpse into my mind & heart (scary!)

This first one is a self-portrait of my 30 week pregnant belly, not long till we meet this little boy now! I'm wearing a dress that I thrifted for $3.50 & cut shorter, gotta be happy with that!

Keeping it simple

Rog has been out tonight so I've had some time to myself, such a luxury! I'm in the midst of making some new bibs for our impending arrival (only 10 weeks & we'll have a baby boy, aah!) so I spent some time cutting them out. I'll show you pics when they look a bit more impressive.

Then I snuggled on the couch with a pot of tea, some dark chocolate & 'The Young Victoria'. Man I'm a sucker for period drama & romance, double whammy!

How has your Friday night been? Are you a party animal or do you like to keep it low key?

Perfect pendants

I came across these pendant lights the other day, and to me they look perfect! In my dream renovation of our dining room I can't decide whether to hang two single pendants or the chandelier over the table?

pics from here & here

In this fantasy renovation we would see wood floors throughout the dining/kitchen/living areas, a brand new kitchen, lovely white walls and big windows. While we're at it I'd probably also knock out a few walls, change the kitchen location & build a proper pantry. Aaah, to dream!

Yeah, I'm a book nerd

I finished reading The 'Caine' Mutiny last night, what a fantastic book, I learnt alot about the American Navy in World War Two! I really devoured the book towards the end, reading for a couple of hours before bed each night, I'm looking forward to no more dreams about ships and the ocean! I've found out that it's also a movie with Humphrey Bogart (which somehow I've never seen), I'm looking forward to watching it!

pic from here

Do you have any book recommendations for me?

ps - today is the first day of summer, crazy! I can't believe it's almost Christmas!!