Christmas Is… Over For Another Year

 

Christmas Is… Food Overload!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Is… Time With Family

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Is… Present Time!

 

 

 

 

Christmas Is… 5am Starts

 

 

Christmas Is... The Secret Present Stash

Wordless Wednesday– Cousins Just Hanging Out

 

Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday

Christmas: Festive Fatigue

It’s only 5 more sleeps till the fat man in the red suit shimmy’s his way down the chimney and I am starting to get very excited. I love just about everything about Christmas, putting up the tree, choosing the perfect present for everyone, baking the little gift packs, sitting around in our pj’s opening our presents before breakfast and of course sitting down together for the big lunchtime feast!

The problem is that real life is interfering with my preparations. Mr Bond working away, then coming back early, then thinking he had to go back all this week, then not needing to has made time management tricky. Food poisoning, houseguests, postal delays, teething and unpredictable weather patterns are all working against me and I have been wiped out with a case of Festive Fatigue.

In theory, I should be organised, I should be able to get ALL the things on my list done, and look like this while I’m doing it.

Image Credit

But this is not the 50s, I do not own pearl earrings and would not be caught dead in a red check apron.

So right now I actually look like this.

Constantly.

Happiness Is… A Little Helper In The Kitchen

 

 

 

Christmas: Baked Gifts

About 6 years ago when Clever Baker Friend and I worked together we thought it would be a great idea to make some baked Christmas gifts to give to the people we worked with. At the time we had about 6 people to hand our treats out to and since then it has become a tradition. At its peak we made 35 packs for people but fortunately we have down sized a little since then. Something that hasn’t changed in that time is the joy we get from giving these boxes of hand made goodies to our friends and family. They seem to enjoy them too because each year we get asked if we will be making them again – we couldn’t stop now even if we wanted to!

Originally we would spend 1 or 2 whole days together baking and packaging while we listened to Christmas Carols, but with 3 children under 4 between us we find it easier to divide up the cooking and packaging to do it at home. Not nearly as fun, but far more practical than trying to coordinate it around naps, feeds and other activities. The packaging changes each year depending on the best bargain available this year, we opted for white cupcake boxes with simple baking paper so the food is the star. Our core menu consists of:

• Coconut Ice
• Turkish Delight White Christmas
• Curried Fruit and Nut Mix
• Panforte

Wordless Wednesday… First Babycino

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday

 

Happiness Is... The Christmas Tree

The Summer of…Me!

Gemma at My Big Nutshell is one clever lady, she has decided to reclaim her right to her own summertime fun this year and even better she is encouraging others to share their plans for staking a bit of ‘self’ in the blur of Christmas celebrations and kids activities that we face when the weather warms up. I am especially excited about the idea as this summer will be the last months of my 20s so I feel it is an important reminder for me to not lose sight of myself and what I love just because I am also a mother and a wife.

Pre-baby summers

 

5 Years Of Walking On Sunshine

Today Mr Bond and I are celebrating our 5th wedding Anniversary. Of all the songs I painstakingly choose to be played at our wedding, the only one I really remember is entering the Marquee to “Walking on Sunshine” and it still beings a smile to my face when I hear it. This year we will be celebrating long distance as he still has a couple more weeks before his job up north is completed which is not ideal but given the choice between him being home for our Anniversary and being home for Christmas with his family, it’s a no brainer. We have planned to go out to dinner on the weekend though and it will be great to go out and have a meal together all by ourselves for a change! I don’t talk a whole lot about Mr Bond specifically on this blog but I thought today was as good an excuse as any to share some of our wedding photos and maybe say a few nice things about him.

Right in this moment he was telling me my dress was ‘awesome’

All I Want For Christmas: The Stocking Filler Edition

I know, I know, I already wrote a Christmas Wishlist, but Jess from Diary Of A SAHM tagged me from her’s recently and she is too gorgeous to refuse so I thought I would do a more realistic list of things that I think would make good stocking filler pressies. Most of these items are just basic things that probably aren’t considered ‘gifty’ but I do love getting little things that I can use every day just as much as the big ticket items (well, almost).

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The Non-Party Party

Like I said earlier, we decided to not have a big birthday bash for Skye this year, we thought it would be a bit much for her (and me) to have a big production when she would be just as happy with a few family members and a mountain of presents to tear through. I figure I have a lot of birthday parties ahead of me so I better pace myself now. Since the weather was so unkind and we woke to heavy rain I was glad we hadn’t arranged for 30-40 people to sardine themselves into our lounge room, we would have had to run something of that scale in shifts. That’s not to say that I didn’t get carried away with the catering anyway…

Happy Birthday Skye!

Skye turned 2 over the weekend and I had intended to do a birthday dedication post on Saturday but we were so busy with celebrations that I didn’t have the energy to write it. I didn’t want the occasion to go by unmentioned though so I am sharing a belated dedication today instead. This post is purely self-indulgent because I wanted to capture Skye as she is right in this moment. She changes and grows so quickly and just in the last week she seems so much ‘bigger’, so here is a snapshot of my little girl and what she loves right now.

For The Love Of Carbs

Carbohydrates have been getting a pretty bad rap lately. It seems that whenever someone embarks on a weight loss mission the carbs are one of the first things that get cut. There are a whole range of fad diets such as the Zone Diet and the Atkins Diet that advocate the restriction of carbohydrates. I can understand the appeal, so many people appear to have great success in reaching their goals by using this approach, but I just don’t understand how it can be a long-term eating plan for anyone. Many nutritionists will tell you that cutting out any major food group will help you to lose weight in the short term, but it is not a feasible long term lifestyle change to cut something as vital as carbs out of your diet. Your body NEEDS this fuel to function.

Christmas: Printing and Gifting

Ever since we had Skye I have found getting Christmas gifts for some of our relatives so much easier. Generally Grandparents and Great Grandparents love anything that has a photo of a small child slapped on it and it’s far less weird now that I can use photo’s of my own child. The list of items you can personalise with a picture is amazing, so you are sure to find something that will suit. Last year I gave out personalised calendars and they were a big hit with everyone, this year I hope to do something similar and have also ordered some canvas prints for some of the relatives. The budget and scale of your personalised gifts is also flexible and here I am going to share some of my favourites.

Raiders Of The Lost Wardrobe

Last week I talked about the amount of ‘gifted’ items we have cluttering up the house and how I struggled to get rid of these items despite them taking up space and remaining completely unused. With the holidays approaching and the likelihood of extra guests coming to stay I have felt the need to do a bit of a clean out and this week I am focussing on our built-ins. After a quick assessment of my clothes I was able to throw out a whole garbage bag of ugliness I was never going wear again and there is more to come, but I couldn’t resist the chance to share some of the pieces I pulled from the depths of my wardrobe.

Bye-bye dagginess!

Batman? I Could Take Him (and my first GIVEAWAY!)

Batman probably thinks he is pretty tough with his cool car and six-pack suit, but I doubt all his special powers and tricky gadgets would be any match for a feisty toddler. In fact, I am willing to bet just 1 afternoon with a 2 foot tyrant would be enough to send him running back to the bat-cave so Alfred can pour him a drink and run a nice hot bath. You see, as impressive (and often attractive) as a Superhero is, their powers are really limited to dealing with people with bad make-up and silly hair. Besides, when was the last time you were threatened with a ray-gun? 

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Being Polite and Acquiring Ugly Things

Fighting the clutter is a constant battle for many of us, no matter how regularly we do the big clean out, the ‘stuff’ just continues to creep in. The new stuff isn’t what I have trouble getting rid of though, it’s the older stuff that has been hanging around for years, not being used but can’t be disposed of because of the obligational attachment. Case in point is a dinner set that has been passed down to me. It has been sitting in the same box in the top of my wardrobe for the last 6 years, in fact this week was the first time I have even looked at it since I first received it. The whole set is in excellent condition but it is a brown floral 70’s nightmare and I quite simply can’t imagine myself ever using it.

Almost this ugly Image Source

A New Relationship

You may recall I have had a few issues with my hairdresser. If it was only the irritating conversation that bothered me I would have put up with it for the sake of convenience since she is a 2 minute walk from my house, but I have never been thrilled with her performance in the cut and colour department either. I continued to go back there as my mop is a little scary to new hairdressers and I hoped that in time things would improve. Sadly in more than 12 months we were still having the same issues and I decided that it was time to move on. With great trepidation I consulted with Clever Baker Friend on the merits of her hairdresser (since her hair always looks fab) and decided that it couldn’t hurt to give them a try. Besides, worst case I could just wear my hair back until it was time to get it fixed and since I have been doing quite a lot of that lately anyway I figured I had nothing to lose.

Boofy pre-cut hair (sans product). Yeah, it scares me too.

All I Want For Christmas Is… A Whole Bloody Lot Actually!

Usually at this time of year I am so busy thinking about what gifts I am going to buy everyone else that when it comes time to offer my suggestions to other people I got totally blank and end up asking for something a bit random. This year though I have a quite lengthy and at times expensive wish list and since there is little chance I will see most of these items, I am just going to share with you while a dream – care to join me?