Day to Day

Beetle bug

James also received something fun for Christmas, a remote control beetle bug.  There was a whole heap of building to do before the beetle could be used, so the boys decided to work on the project together.

Ta-da! One beetle bug that can pick up all sorts of things from the floor.  Excuse the blurry photo below, boys aren't that fabulous for keeping things still when they know you want a photo.

Don't forget that Tamar and I are starting our Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays series on Monday! You can read more about it HERE.

Wishing you a happy and safe new year! xoxo

Solar powered house

Santa Claus was kind enough to deliver a little solar powered house to Bella this Christmas - in kit form.  She was really keen to put it together ASAP, so with a bit of help from Dad (doing the wire hook up underneath) the house was built:

We actually popped some batteries inside - so it could be used straight away - and it's super cool.  There's a windmill that turns, a little light on the front and the world's most annoying horn sound when you open the front door.  Bella thinks it's wonderful!

Hooray for Santa!

Since Christmas.

A couple of serious Monopoly games.

Plenty of sofa snuggling and resting.

Reading + making from our new stash of books.

Plenty of pizza making + baking.

Playing new X-box games and building new toys.

Handmade Christmas: Gifts received

I was totally spoilt with the most beautiful gifts this year and thought I'd share a few of the handmade ones with you all.

This gorgeous journal cover was from my lovely friend Janelle.  It's just so pretty and I'm going to use it to record all of my handmade gift ideas for 2011.  I have so many things to make and give for next year, so this will be perfect to write them all down in.

All of the goodies above were from sweet Gigi. Every year we have a secret Santa design team Tarisota swap and this year Gigi and I were swap partners.  I only wish I had of taken a photo of everything all packaged up in the delivery box because it was totally cute - visualise the prettiest rainbow of tissue paper and everything tied up with pretty matching yarn.  The American candy + malt balls are oh, so good and my gorgeous new tea pot cover is just perfect - love, love, love.

Gigi also sent this darling amigurumi treat.  It's a little latte in a tea cup and well, Bella claimed it and has popped it in her bedroom. Totally cute.

My awesome friend Kama gave me this birdie pillow (by Cuckoo for Coco) - I adore it.

My mother-in-law knitted me a fab new cushion for the sofa.  I requested the colours and actually they're a little darker than in the photo. I love that it has a little bit of a vintage feel to it.

Also requested (I'm great at requests!) were a new set of knitted dishcloths (thanks Mum) and a vintage globe.  Squeal. I have two of these vintage lovelies now:

We're still pottering around the house, playing with our Christmas gifts and enjoying having some free time together.  Totally in full relaxation mode now!

Handmade Christmas: For her big brother

In keeping with our handmade theme this year, Bella also stitched up something pretty cool for her big brother - a Nintendo DS case.  She was insistent on putting the matching Nintendo squares on the front, which was a pretty cute cool feature.

It's a huge case - perfect for extra games and instructions.  James was so appreciate too, telling Bella how awesome it was.  

Did you receive any gorgeous handmade gifts this year?  Later today I'm going to share photos of what the kids made us for Christmas - I'm so in love with everything and feel totally spoilt!

Handmade Christmas: For Mum + Dad

Handmade + kids + Christmas = totally spoilt.  That's how Rich and I both felt this year, utterly spoilt with handmade goodness from James and Bella.  They both worked on these projects secretly (home and school) and wrapped them themselves, hiding them under the tree ready for us to open on Christmas eve.

♥ Bella made me the mini pompom bracelet (above) and the sweetest little pouch.

♥ She also made a pretty cool candle (at Scouts) for Rich.

♥ From James I received this beautiful jewellery box, complete with a stained glass lid and dove tail joints - made at school.

♥ Another project (at school) that James worked on this year was a huge bread board for Rich - and I do mean huge, it's such a great size.  We'll probably use it for wood fired pizza too.

How good is that?! I love handmade so much and it feels extra nice to know that our children have taken the time to make us both something really precious for Christmas. ♥

 

Handmade Christmas: For his little sister

It's no secret that James adores his little sister and this Christmas he spent a full afternoon making her something really special - behold the monster and her house:

The inspiration for the monster house came from HERE - I stumbled across the project a few weeks ago and book marked it, knowing it would be the perfect project for James to make for Bella this year.  He loved it too and did the majority of it himself, including the stitching - but I did help with the house because it was a bit fiddly.  We upsized the house from a match box to a soap box too.

Big brothers are so awesome!

Handmade Christmas: Needle/pin holders

Now that Christmas is all over for another year, I can share a few of the top secret handmade projects that we've all been working on at home during the last month or so.

Bella spent a few hours stitching some needle/pin holders for gift giving this year - these were presents for Nan Joan, Nan Marion, Auntie Beth and Auntie Doreen.

We packaged them up in individual cellophane bags with a hand written label on top:

I'll be blogging more of our handmade gifts over the next few days. xox

Christmas Day

I hope your Christmas Day was a lovely one.  Ours was, but oh my goodness, I am so tired tonight.  Lots of family time, good food and hilarious times with a shocking pen - imagine a pen that gives out a small electrical shock every time you press it.  Oh, yes.

I'll be blogging the last of our Christmas gift making over the next couple of days and sharing some of the awesome handmade gifts that we received.  Seriously, I think this was has been my most favourite year for presents (I can say that, right?) - totally spoilt.

xox

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas eve was spent relaxing at home, doing a few last minute jobs and enjoying the start of our holidays.  In the afternoon we opened our gifts to each other (our family tradition) and set up the table ready for Santa Claus to visit tonight.

 

We didn't forget Trooper either, there was a new toy to play with and some dog biscuits + treats:

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and thankyou so much for stopping by during the year and visiting my blog.  I hope your Christmas and new year are magical.  Mel xoxo