Christmas (part 4)

Our school holidays start today! yay! and the girls dont go back to school untill the 29th of Jan....so looking forward to having some quality family time with them. The years are flying by and time together is precious, they are growing up so fast! (Mind you I may feel differently by the end of the hols hehehe, then we are all usually ready to start our new school year)

Anyhoo, heres another little Christmassy something....
Ordered some mason jars online and have plenty of ideas of what I can use them for. There are ideas all over Pinterest, hundreds of uses! not just for jams and pickling/preserving anymore.

I filled them with water and placed a sprig of pine in with a floating candle, I think they look simple and pretty, especially of an evening.

I am planning on using them for drinks too, especially with a nice glass of Pimms! found this image online (sorry cant find original source), but wanted to share...

(Obviously they would have to be served with the straws, cant imagine it would be that easy drinking from a jar....)

Where I got my idea from... Mason Jar for floating candles/berrries....this one from bell'alimento blog

.....what about a snowglobe style....this is cute!
(from mother rising blog)

Below is another image found online (original source unknown...will continue my investigating and update when/if I can find). These are gorgeous!

note: I do always try to link back to original source...not always easy via Pinterest, but all these images and loads more are all on my Pinterest Christmas board here.

Anyhoo, the possibilites really are endless! but I love this look. I found my mason jars on ebay (Australia). The company is Ball and Kerr Mason Australia
A box of 12 cost me about $40....half of that was pretty much the postage, but I do love them...

Bye for now!

Must go....girls are ready for some holiday fun

Deahne xo

Christmas! (part 3)

"Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...."

One of our fave Brigden Christmas traditions is going to a local Christmas tree farm at Luddenham and choosing our tree.
We often pass this particular farm and all year round the girls will wonder which one will be ours and even call out "hello little Christmas tree" hehehe. We literally get to watch them grow. So nice.

Here is this years tree....

And now some pics from past Christmas'.....

2012

The decorating...as I mentioned in previous Chrissy post, the girls pick out a new ornament to add to the tree each year. This year they decided on a little reindeer and a cupcake...

 a couple pics from previous years...(I get a pic of them each year)

And just a couple other extra special tree ornaments that we love.

Last year, Beaus first Christmas.

A video from 2010 to share...(still getting my legs on movie editing)

Every Christmas tree is beautiful, real or fake...

....till next Christmas post, I am pretty sure there will be at least one more.
Not long now! 15 days to go....

Deahne xo

Christmas (part 2)

Best time of the year by far! Its December, so we are getting super excited now....

We will pick our tree this week from one of the local Christmas tree farms, has to be up there with fave things to do as a family. So I will take the girls and Beau shopping to pick out this years special ornament. They pick one new one each every year to add to the tree and the plan is that when they leave home one day they can take their special ornaments with them for their own trees.

Its hard not to get caught up in the whole Christmas occasion and lose sight of what is really important. And we have always tried to teach the girls that its not all about the presents, decorations, etc....

I hope they dont lose sight of this as they grow into adults. And seeing so many shameless people posting photos or comments on social media of what they have received or are giving is dissapointing. We try to teach the girls and set an example of not being "showy". We dont like to encourage the girls to tell friends/family what they received. (Unless asked of course).

In saying that, of course we love to spoil our kids, who doesnt? and it is a great oppurtunity at Christmas to do so, especially though if they love the giving just as much as the receiving.

Anyhoo, on a less serious note....I have made a few simple decorations for the house that anyone can do. Just picked some nice paper and framed it! the possibilities are endless, I think they would look great with a few together with contrasting paper too.

I love this one above, infact I LOVE vintage wrapping paper full stop.

Here are a couple more fave, special papers that my Mum once gave me. 

Beautiful images by a favourite artist Carl laarson (Swedish painter). 

And a few more Christmassy things around our home...

(This star lamp above from Ikea)

And below, I did a little Christmas jjhhooughing to my deer with a simple paper star garland.

Bit of cotton and thread, a star shaped punch and some silver paper.

(I also had a washi tape border around it as well, but then I dont like things to be to fussy, so I opted to go without, but heres what it looked like anyway.)

Thats all for this 2nd Christmas post...there is more to come!

But have to share this little pic below of my lovelies....

....special little people, special time.

Till next post!

Deahne xo