Christmas Time 2011.

Merry X-Mas!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, with good cheer , food and people you love! Some of you might have had snow or just cold weather, but most of New Zealand had glorious summer sunshine! With soft sea breezes, icecream and strawberries, cherries and barbeques.
Its precisely what we had as a family in our new house, on the deck next to the flowering pohutakawa tree. Fresh new spuds, beans and asparagus, green salad straight from the garden. Steak and chicken and "huzarensalade". And for afters a marvelous trifle (Thanks sis-i-l, and you are right; trifle is wonderful as breakfast too! ) berries and meringue with  cream .
We will obviously still be eating part of it in the next few days.... Too much!!
On Christmas day a bunch of us visited the cemetery to my Mum's grave. That felt good with my brother and dad there. We had no flowers, but little nephew put 1 in the vase. It was very busy at the cemetery, and people leave all sorts of thing at the graves. I'll blog about it another time.
Last night (boxing day) we all watched Love Actually, which was Ma L.'s favourite movie, so she was with us too. I always cry at some parts of it, but also because I remember some of her comments when we watched it together. Of course we ate chocolates...

Our Pohutakawa/ Christmas flowers

We did not do presents, except for the little 4 year old nephew, because we have all we need.

How fortunate we are; all in jobs, with roofs above our heads, and food in the cupboards.

Yet my Love reminds me sometimes that that came about not through luck, but through hard work and making the right decisions. He's right.

 Life doesn't just happen to you; You have to make things happen yourself. Every day there is choice, sometimes small, sometimes astoundingly big.

Sure; you get thrown uncontrollable events like earthquakes or deaths. But you still have control about how you would deal with that.

Pohutakawa tree starting to bloom.

I have been away from school now for 10 days or so, and I have a tidy house (my girls' rooms don't count), had a great christmas day, and have already read 4 books! There have been a few walks with my eldest daughter who is home for the summer, and a lovely bike ride with my man yesterday.
And in the cool cupboard downstairs, against the hill side, 3 little camemberts are developing a good covering of white mould.
This week I intend to get back into sewing and making. Unfurling new ideas!

Unfurling.

Our beautiful bathroom is finished and in use! He was so meticulous and it looks so stylish and chique !

Beautiful tiling and shiny metal.

Luxurious shower.

Chique decor!

What a handy and clever guy ! "Golden hands" says his family!
Thanks Darling for making it happen.

Yo-yo bracelet up close.

I just stuck to what I know, textiles. At work we did "secret santa" with the staff, and I made a bracelet with blue vintage fabrics for my recipient. I think she might have guessed who it was by the end of the week, but if I'm getting a signature look in the things I make every year, hey, that's cool!
Unfortunately when they get picked by a teacher-aide they might have to expect budget presents, since we don't exactly get the same income as the teachers.... As a matter of fact the teacher-aides have been told that next year we all have to start work a quarter of an hour later every day. Better than losing one of us I guess.

Yoyo-bracelet in vintage blues.

I think I want one for myself too!

X-Mas Pixie!

And this is a new "Bushbaby" , she is a X-Mas Pixie, and she has the same dress as the Snowflake pixie, but in different colours. It was a special order through my web-shop (see top of page) but I think she might become a regular around this time of year in the future!