December Daily: An update finally!

Hi everyone :)

I’ve been MIA for several days… to be honest I just haven’t been feeling all that good and have barely left the sofa.  This morning I’m feeling a bit better so I thought I’d ‘make hay while the sun shines’ and catch up on my December Daily project.

December 23

The 23rd turned out to be a really busy day.  Esther and her elf (Raz) arrived on Monday morning and we spent a bit of time catching up.  Then we were off to pick up Mikayla from the farm.  It’s 120 kilometers there and back so it took up a fairly big portion of our afternoon.

Dougal decided that he wasn’t coming with us because he didn’t like the ‘smells’ in the country.  He’s such a city boy!  Toby on the other hand was NOT going to be left behind.  He wanted to see Jazz (the dog) and Midnight (the pony) and the new little kittens that had been born.  Unfortunately for Toby, Mummy cats don’t like the idea of great big dogs looking at their kittens so it was out of luck on that score!

Esther and I went to Lone Star for dinner which was really great and then we headed to the supermarket.  I figured that it wasn’t going to get any quieter than late in the evening and to be honest I’ve never done my groceries at 10.30pm before but it wasn’t too bad!

When we got home from Pak’N’Save it was really late but Dougal and Raz were quiet happy to help us out with the groceries… I think they might have been hoping for some treats!

Dougal also helped me with my teriyaki marinade for the chicken nibbles and in spite of me telling him that it wouldn’t taste nice until it was cooked he just couldn’t keep himself out of trouble!  He has now decided that teriyaki should in fact be called ‘teri-yucky’ because it’s horrible!  I bet he changes his mind when he sees (and smells) it on Christmas Day!

By that stage it really was late and Raz was getting grumpy so we all headed off to bed.

December 24

Christmas Eve was great.  Esther and I spent a little more time together before she headed off back to her family and then the boys and I got stuck in with all the food preparations.  I tried to make it as easy on myself as possible and getting all the marinades done ahead of time worked out brilliantly.

We also made a yummy white chocolate rocky road for the kids and I’m pretty sure Dougal and Toby were pinching the marshmallows as we made it! 

While the boys were having a little afternoon nap I got all the presents wrapped and hidden away again… I’m not trusting Dougal this year after he renamed all the presents for himself!

By the time the boys had woken up again it was pouring with rain so Mikayla and I sorted out some Christmas movies to watch and we had a lovely time being entertained.  The boys snuggled down on the sofa with us and it was wonderful.

There was also a fair bit of ‘wondering’ going on… you know what kids are like! 

I ‘wonder’…

• what Santa will bring me?
• what Grandma will bring me?
• if Mumma will like what I got her?
• how many presents will be under the tree for me tomorrow?
• what time will we have Christmas lunch?

After dinner they had ‘wondered’ themselves out so Mikayla got out their December story from last year and they all settled down by the tree to read it.  It was such a lovely time to watch them all together.

Of course, once Toby heard the click of the camera he HAD to pose for me!

Dougal was very happy with this page because of all the red glitter!!!  He went off to sleep dreaming of sparkly things :)

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

Today is the last Friday for 2013!  I’ve got the music to ‘All is Calm, All is Bright’ stuck in my head so I went looking for pictures of ‘calm’ and kept coming back to one of my favourite blogs so this week all the images are from Honeycomb Creative.

The blog is by Courtney and here’s how she describes her blog:  This blog is mostly about my adventures in decorating, a passion of mine since I was a little girl. I'd describe my style as farmhouse industrial with a touch of vintage minimalism. I try to achieve this look on a budget and hope to share some of my tips and tricks for thrifty finds with you. I love things that are light and airy and strive to use neutrals in most of my decor.

I really like her home décor ideas, her use of neutrals and her budget conscious ideas.  I picked several of my favourite images from her blog for this weeks Feel Good Friday:

I don’t know about you, but these images whisper ‘calm’ to me.  My album is almost full… there’s just the back page to do and I’ve got an idea in mind for that which I’m hoping to share with you before 2014 begins.

For those of you missing the ‘Dougal updates’ aka December Daily, I’m planning on doing a big update on the last few days later on today.

Happy Friday everyone xx

Project Life: Week 51

Hi everyone :)

What a busy week!  This time last week I had just finished my last day at Selwyn School and now I’m ‘almost’ prepared for Christmas with my family.  There’s still a million things to do including actually buying all the food at the supermarket and preparing it before everyone arrives… but I’ve still got time!

Here’s an overview of my week:

I’ve already told you about heaps of the things in this weeks photos through the December Daily project… like packing up my classroom and the flowers that Maia’s mum made for me so I won’t go into more detail about that today.

On Tuesday I went to Tirau for a look at the shops and there were some fabulous window displays!  Santa was everywhere and there were lots of quirky ideas!

Krystal arrived during the week and we got busy in the garage throwing things out.  It’s been really good to get rid of junk that’s been hanging around for a long time… and we did recycle as many items as we could!

Here’s a close up of the start of my week:

Carey presented me with a gorgeous book about a local Rotorua myth and the illustrations are absolutely amazing.  I know it will definitely share this story with my 2014 class!

Poor Toby has been really suffering in the heat.  He gets himself all worn out and the other day he lay on the sofa with his head on a cushion… was too cute not to get a photo!  Today it’s cooled off heaps and he’s a much happier boy!

Our place has been like Grand Central Station this week with friend dropping in and every time Toby hears the knock on the door he gets himself all excited!  He especially loved Krystal coming home for a visit.

Here’s a closer look at the second part of my week:

In amongst the rest of the Christmas madness I had a calming couple of hours being pampered at the hairdressers.  They’ve re-touched my colour and got rid of all the blonde bits which is great! 

Then it was onto some Christmas decorating.  Toby seemed quite confused that there was a tree in the big box… it looked like a tree but it didn’t smell like a tree.  He’s quite fascinated with the diffusing oil though and quite often goes up to sniff it!

I’m really pleased with the tree… yes I know I keep saying that but I really am over the moon with how lovely it looks… especially at night!  The vintage Santa and lamp post made their first appearance and I’ve finally been able to do the table up with the Santa runner I bought. 

The flowers Maia’s mum made me went perfectly with the colour scheme on the table and I’m thrilled to bit with my stars too.  It looks lovely at night with the candles lit!

We’ve got a full house here at the moment since Esther has arrived from Wellington to share some Christmas time with us and today I took her and Toby with me to go and get Mikayla from the farm… that’s a 120 kilometer round trip! 

Mikayla is home until early January so I’m sure I’ll be able to get her to help me with some packing and sorting!

I hope you’re all having a great day and getting your preparations done.  I’d better go and finalise my list for the Christmas menu so that I can get all the goodies sorted.

Have a great day xx

December Daily: Dec 22

Hi everyone :)

We had a really busy time here yesterday and the before I knew it the day was over so I’ll be back later today with an update for Project Life!

In the meantime, I’ve been busy doing lots of Christmas decorating.  I’ve opened all the boxes of decorations now and it’s all ready for when my family come on Christmas Day.   I asked to host Christmas this year not knowing that I’d be moving to Gisborne but it’s worked out perfectly because we’ve never had a full family Christmas in this house before which makes it a bit special for me.

I’ve had to change a few things around this year to accommodate the new tree… totally worth it though because it really is gorgeous!  The train that usually sits under the tree won’t quite fit so it’s found a new home on the mantle piece.

As I mentioned in the journaling there was a little drama with my vintage Santa and lamp post… and if there’s going to be dramas around here you can be sure that Dougal is involved!  It seems that while he was in London EVERYBODY peed on lamp posts… that’s according to Dougal anyway.  So what did he do??? Yes you guessed it!

Poor Santa nearly got his boots wet thanks to Dougal!  He was definitely not the most popular person around here after he did that I can tell you!  He spent most of the afternoon whimpering and clutching at his wee behind like he’d been done a real hardship instead of just a quick smack!

Toby was pleased though because Dougal has gotten him into a few problems this December and he was quite happy to see Dougal having to deal with the ‘consequences of his actions’. 

p.s. In spite of the whimpering, Dougal is back to his old self again today… although he’s a little bit more careful about where he’s lifting his leg!