CHRISTMAS DAY

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM

MOUNT MARTHA BEACH

This morning as is the usual for Max and I on a Christmas morning it was breakfast on the beach

One special thing was this writing on the beach

It says 'Pumpkin will you marry me'

Our son Daniel proposed to his girlfriend Candice

From behind the boatsheds this is what we saw

Aaahhh....how sweet

Of course she said yes.

The four of us then had breakfast on the beach.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.
Tomorrow we head off (driving) to Queensland to see my 86 year old father who isn't very well.
On the way home I hope to call into Cathy Penton and Angela Osment's shop Simple Things Small Joys in Highfields

See you all again about 10th January.

My store Alison by the Bay will be closed until 10th January.

Any purchases or emails made will be dealt with on 11th January

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

This year I put a little christmas tree on the kitchen table and put some of my mother's vintage decorations on it.

Such a wonderful reminder of my beautiful mother

Such a cute plastic angel - love her smile

Pearly/silver beads on this little boot
and a glass garland

Glass/tinsel flower on top of angel

Poor Santa has lost his feet and his arms have turned orange

Blue flower

Pearl/silver beaded bell

Love this little gazebo with the deer

Here is my orange armed Santa again

Love the heart shaped mouth on this little elf

This little wooden man (the daddy) was bought by me for christmas 1976, 4 months before our first child was born. He is part of the set below

This little family group was representing the impending birth of our first baby born in April 1977.

This was the mummy (me) - lost her leg somewhere!!

There was our sweet little baby to be

This lovely flocked bell has such a cute Santa inside

Another little angel with gold glittered wings

This sweet angel on top was given to my mother by my cousin

I always loved the soft hair on this angel

Santa hanging out in his tinsel wreath

Lots of special memories on this tree - my beautiful mother who passed away nearly 17 years ago. Not a day goes by when I don't think about her.

OH CHRISTMAS TREE..OH CHRISTMAS TREE & WE HAVE A WINNER

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

Oh Christmas tree

why did you have to go cream???

Last Sunday I was going to put up my 'White Christmas Tree'

I opened the box and screamed - my white tree had become white AND CREAM!!

After much and I mean MUCH whinging "How could this be???"

Just look at the cream leaves on top of the white in the above photo.

Then I realised if all the creams could be together - just how they have been for the last few years and facing the afternoon summer sun and heat of an Australian Christmas - then that is how they turned cream.
I was so annoyed I just chucked it back in the box.

So yesterday I decided I had sooked enough and it was time to get it out again and just place the cream to the back and against the window to face another Aussie Summer
I decided that as it was so late going up I would just use my silver and white decorations.

I love this battenburg lace angel with her little pearl head

Here is another one holding a blue flower and it is next to Riley's decoration.
Everyone in the family has their name on a silver christmas ball.

Pretty ballerina changes colour as the sun shines through the window

Here is my cute Vintage Santa Wreath on the bookshelf next to Barbara Jacksier's wonderful book Waterside Cottages. I love that there is a wreath on the book cover next to my Vintage one

This sweet Santa is on my hutch next to the photo my Grandad is in.

Angel with presents next to my milk glass lamp

This beautiful silver Fairy is on top of my christmas tree

This photo was taken last night. So hard to take a decent photo of the tree in the window.

As much as I hate the timber blinds behind it, they are the only thing that works on that window. The sun is so intense in that window that 2 pair of drapes have faded so badly over the last 6 years that the timber blinds were a last resort.

This one is with the lights on

This is one I took today in the daytime light

I love these cream felt angels that hang down one of my doors

AND THE WINNER IS...........

Kylie from A Bite of Country Cupcakes

Kylie was comment No. 19

Kylie is the winner of a $90 voucher from Buysterrugs.

Kylie send me your details and Maree from Buysterrugs will be in touch.

AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE, OI,OI,OI - IT'S A GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY FOR AUSSIES
As I have told you before Maree from Buysterrugs contacted me

about having a giveaway on my blog.

I selected a cute City Streets Kid's Rug for myself as I knew Riley would love playing with it on the days that I babysit him.

The rug has arrived and Riley is having such fun.

The giveaway gift is a fabulous $90 Gift Voucher for the winner to spend at Buysterrugs

Check out their website and see the great range of rugs they have and maybe work out which one you want if you are the lucky winner

Riley has such fun running the cars around the roads.

Sorry but this Giveaway will only be open to those from Australia as Buyster is based in Australia and only ships within Australia.

All you Aussie girls let your friends know about the Giveaway - if they don't have a blog then get them to leave an email address so I can contact them if they win.

The winner of the Giveaway will be drawn on Saturday 12th December.

Sorry but this Giveawy will only be open to those from Australia

Just leave a comment to be in the draw.

PINCH PUNCH FIRST OF THE MONTH

PINCH PUNCH 1ST OF THE MONTH..WHITE RABBIT

Who still says 'Pinch punch 1st of the month, white rabbit'??

Oh..well that would probably be me!

Being a bad sleeper I was awake at about 2am, max was stirring in bed, so I had to say it,pinch punch......... - he thinks I'm crazy.

1st December means our first day of Summer

Look at these two photos out the front of my home this morning.

Beautiful Summer blue skies

TIME FOR A CHANGE

I was well and truly ready for a change of look from shabby chic to - mmm.. I don't know what it is ...maybe family history.

So I went from this Shabby Chic look


To this
Everything on the shelves of the hutch has family history attached to it.

Starting at the top we have Max's Nana's clock

There is an inscription on it from 1924 and it was a gift for her upcoming marriage

I love the detail on the side

The leg has pretty detail too

Love this tattered leather binocular case and of course the binoculars.

They belonged to Max's father, Stan who passed away 2 years ago

This oh so tarnished silver dish belonged to my Grandmother.

I must admit I am loving the tarnished silver look.

I think my grandmother used to put butter in it

I love the detail of the goat handle

Next is Max's fathers telescope

Max wants to make a stand for it. It looks beautiful when it is extended.

This is the telescope in it's case. The two caps come off the ends.

This is a trophy max's father won for Rifle Shooting in 1948

Here is some milk glass that I have been givenby my Aunt Nancy who this year was 88

This photo is of my Grandfather's war buddies when they met for a March

He was in the 2nd Division Engineers in the World War 1. I will have to check on that history with my Aunt Nancy. On googling it, it appears to have been formed in 1915.

Here is my grandfather in the middle without a hat.

I was very close to him when I was young, sadly he passed away when I was about 8 due to the effects of Mustard Gas used in the war.

This silver and glass dish always had jam in it at my Grandmothers. Perfect for scones, jam and cream.....yummy

Love the cute little knob on the lid

This beautiful angel belonged to my gorgeous mother who passed away at the age of 66 in 1992. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her and miss her. mum had the angel on the shelves in her lounge room.

This sugar dish was handed down to my mother from my grandmother and now I have it

Love the spoon

Look at the detail

This pretty bell came from my Aunt nancy

Love the sweet crown on top

Next is my Great Grandmothers bible - quite tatty

Just look at the beautiful crumbling spine

Inside it has a newspaper clipping on her passing

These bone handled knives came from my mother in law Dot.

This beautiful statue was a gift to me from Max - she has such a pretty face

This silver bowl came from my Grandmother

The combination of the heart and watch to me means that we need to watch out for our hearts and the heart is a reminder of how fragile our hearts can be.

This watch belonged to Max's grandfather.

Crystal Compote was a gift for our 15th Wedding Anniversary in 1991 (yes I was a child bride!LOL) and of course I had to put some of our beautiful local seaglass in it

Slowly but surely many changes are being made in my life

Hope you enjoyed some of my family history