christmas ramblings...

Sorry to all my lovely readers for leaving you alone and abandoned in the wilderness of the interweb for the past week. I have such a backlog of stuff to blog about that I'm feeling somewhat bewildered - I don't really know where to start and this post is liable to ramble along in a haphazard misshapen fashion much like a sweater that has begun to unravel in the washing machine. Where to begin?

My quest to create the ultimate Christmas has somewhat got the better of me. I had grand plans for a completely hand-made christmas but the universe seems to have other ideas. I think we must have left an umbrella up somewhere inside the house or broken a mirror without realising. Just as I was beginning to feel like life was getting back under control after all my neck issues we have been hit with a series of injuries in the household. Within the fortnight my husband has been bitten by a blue ringed octopus, had a white tail spider bite, and had to have a biopsy of a suspected skin cancer. Before anyone gets too worried, he is fine, just largely useless around the house and feeling decidedly sorry for himself. And just to make life even more interesting Turi snapped my glasses clean in two, so I am now have the choice of being blind or wearing contact lenses.

Enough whinge.

I have managed to get a fair bit of sewing done despite all the dramas (most of which I can't share yet as they are gifts). I made this little outfit for Minty to wear to an upcoming wedding. I used some of the precious liberty fabric for the skirt, and the top is a total and complete rip off of one I saw at Heavenly Creatures (I'm too poor/tight to buy the real thing- so if you like it go there and buy one because no doubt it's better than mine!!) I attached the wings down a bit too low, and because I used a press stud to attach them (they are removable for washing purposes) I can't move them. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry and give up sewing. When I realised what I had done I told my husband I had lost the will to live. He said that was surely a little dramatic… maybe, but I'm nothing if not dramatic.

We have been chugging along with the advent calendar (apart from a few slack days when frankly I couldn't face any more christmas activities with my overtired and fractious kiddlets). I won't bore you with a complete blow by blow, day by day account but instead here is a cliff notes version - the highlights and lowlights…

Lowlight

We made Christmas cards. I cut out little christmas tree shapes which Minty decorated by gluing on sequins with homemade glue. All very cute and we had grand plans of posting these to all the relies. However I left Minty with her dad for an hour and when I returned she had picked every sequin off because apparently they didn't appeal to her design aesthetic. So we were left with a batch of wrinkly discoloured paper christmas trees. Frankly I couldn't fagged starting again so we chucked them and gave up. Sorry to any of you who were expecting to receive a card from us this year. Do not wait by your mail boxes… there is no card on its way.

Highlight (kind of)

We went to San Remo for a night of Christmas fun. There was a jumping castle, face painting (we gave up on waiting as the line was too long), lucky dip, an appearance by the fat man himself and much to my delight we decorated our own gingerbread house. For $18 the local bakery provided an undecorated gingerbread house, a piping bag of icing and enough lollies to make all your Hansel and Gretel dreams come true. Everyone ate far too many lollies, there were some tears and an announcement by someone small that 'I didn't have any fun' - so I think we can clock that day as a resounding success.