Christmas

Look at the wonderful gift I recieved from my dear friend Jane. She is an artist and painted this just for me... what could be more perfect... my PINK rose!



While we are here..let me show you the gingerbread house that my little Savannah made. Savannah is 8 years old, and she is here to spend her summer holiday with me. Its so cute!





The flower arrangement with lots of Australian native flowers in it. I was lucky enough to have flowers all over my house for Christmas.. thanx to my family and friends.

Angel

How exciting is this? Debi at The Journey Ahead contacted me to say that I won her yaya giveaway. Does this mean now I am a real blogger...lol. Thank you so much Debi.. I am so excited about this. Its Christmas Day already here in Australia. Its been a real fun day and to open my blog and get this lovely surprise is just the icing on the cake.

This is the cute little angel that Debi is sending me... isn't she just adorable.

Party

Wow.. my birthday hasnt even arrived yet..and I have already had two parties. A friend gave a small dinner party last night, in a beautiful restaurant for a dozen close friends. We celebrated a 30th, a 60th, and a 90th. Guess what the major surprise was... ta da.... He organised to have the worlds number one guitarist.. of whom I am a huge fan.. Smokin Joe Robinson, join us for dinner and he bought his Mom Dad and two brothers and sister. Joe lives in my home town. He bought his guitar.. and WOW. He just blows me away!




Here he is with his little brother Adam.. another talented family member. Joe goes back to Nashville in February... he will spend time in New York as well. He is hoping to catch up and spend time with my daughter who is a singer and living in the US. In July he will tour Germany.





Me with Smokin Joe

Birthday.

Well, this weekend I am having a birthday party. My birthday is really on december 18but thats too close to Christmas to celebrate birthdays ..soooo.... my daughters are throwing me a bash. I have friends coming from all over... girls I went to school with oh so long ago.. some I have maybe seen once or twice in the past 40 years. How exciting is that!

Look at the beautiful flowers Heidi gave me to brighten up my little house for my visitors. Thank you Heidi!



This beautiful little snowman..and the blue teacup were sent to me by my youngest daughter last year from the USA. She and her wonderful husband will be unable to attend my party but we will have them there in our hearts.

So now I am waiting for family and friends to arrive. This is SO exciting! Expect pics from my party. I am sure there will be plenty!

Isn't this wheelbarrow full of petunias just delightfull. I went to a party for my beautifull God-daughter Angela, and could not resist taking this pic of the barrow in full bloom. Her future Mom-in-law had the most delightfull garden and I just wanted to photograph everything. Have a nice day all... hopefully will catch you all tomorrow.

Hi all.. Christmas in Australia is very different to the way most of you reading my blog will enjoy your Christmas. Here, its hot, green, we wear the minimum of clothing and footwear.. and the kids just play outside and soak up the good ol summer days. I cannot imagine a cold Christmas! No swimming. No stone fruits. No bbq's in the evenings.
We sit in the cool of the evenings with our candles for what we call Carols by Candlelight. Each little town holds them and the community get together with lots of little acts... much praise... and lots and lots of music. Of course in the cities.. these evenings are much bigger.... with huge choirs and well knows entertainers..but for me... I just like to sit with my family and enjoy our country sing-a-long. There is something about watching the faces of the children with their parents and grandparents.. faces shining... waiting for the moment when Santa arrives with a huge sack and passes out cold drinks, ice-creams and lollies (sweets). Then to hear the sweet voices of the people singing the time worn carols that we all know and love. There is always a feeling of love and joy in the air.. of peace and hope. The feeling of Christmas!

A work in progres.. my grandchildren working on the tree that will be out front on my porch. They did all the decorations themselves and are so proud of their efforts.
This was followed by a 'tim tam slam', another tradition. Tim tams are choclate coated biscuits or cookies and the children (and big children) nip off the adjacent corners and dip them into their hot chocolate, they suck one of the corners so that the hot chocoate fills the cookie and turns it into a hot messy mouthfull that has to be eaten really quickly before the cookie falls apart.

Some new little treasures.

Sorry this has been a bit slow in coming but I guess I was a little bit worried at having another go at it. However, with the positive feedback from some wonderful new friends on here.. here I go again.

These are some little treasures I have found recently. Some from opshopping as we call it here in Australia..or thrift shoping to my US friends. The Little burner and white vase, along with the white lace were opshop finds. That gorgeous little chicken was bought for me by Heidi from the Bellingen Markets. Anyone travelling this way should put those markets on their list of must do's..they are just soooo much fun. The lovely tin jug was from my daughter Candice and the lavender from my garden.


After looking at the blogs on here...I feel inspired to do some things that are new for me. Like painitng. Rather than start at the top as one usually wants to... I thought I would maybe start off small and recreate some things I already have lying around here.. so I chose some baskets and a little metal candle handle. Sooooo by my next post I should be able to show you the after shots.



I am also really excited about a new project Candice is doing. She is in the fashion design industry and has created a new line of t-shirts with...da daaaa... pics of me as a teenager on the front of them. How exciting. When she was here last she took home some little black and whites taken when I was about 17 and she has put her label to these t-shirts. Hopefully somewhere in the near future I will be able to see them and post one on here.

a> My daughter Candice and our beautiful Savannah. Isn't she like her mom?

Little Blue Tea House.

My daughter Heidi, grandson Liam and myself had a day in Port Macquarie. We stopped over at the Little Blue Tea House to say hi and to partake of the wonderful little goodies on offer there. This is one of our favourite spots! The decor is delightful and the cuisine is fresh and delicous. The management and staff are always super friendly and you feel like you are having a visit with a favourite aunt rather than 'eating out'. With their permission I was able to photograph and add to my blog for all to enjoy.

Anyone visiting Port Macquarie must make this a priority stop.

The Tea House


The Fare












The Decor















The Family

Hi, I am a shabby chic addict! Although,I do find it difficult to keep my thoughts into one order. My home has hints of country, contemporary, etc, and I even have a small corner with a Japanese theme! I intend to encourage my creative side by 'redoing' my house and teaching myself to renovate small pieces and create my own treasures from trash. I thought it might be fun to record my progress on here, so,to start with I have to decide on my first project!