Christmas decorating small space big ideas ...

This small tree in a vintage hatbox is the perfect apartment tree it sits atop the TV unit amidst a sprinkling of bells.

I made the little Christmas door after being inspired by similar ones on a blog/
Love using these display cupboard doors like mini Xmas windows,

Of course small trees are apt to appear everywhere here at Christmas even cups sprout some tiny trees.

I never put lights in normal places these ones just wanted to be in a drawer that is opened a crack
so the magic comes peeking out.I looks much more magical than the pics came out.

Ahh my Christmas forest is back ,This year it grew in the alcove on the buffet and hutch,
poppy of course is totally spinning out with all this decorating but she has some bells and plastic ornies all her own.

i love the moon that is battery operated behind the forest.

vintage apothecary jars hold many many vintage glass baubles and the feather tree has garlands of mercury glass.

This tiny cloche and stand house a changing scene and mica flake snow,

Cant believe how much i love my bedroom decorating
vintage vintage vintage
My 100 plus year old bed looks fab with vintage Dec's.

Here are many vintage Santa's and angels on a tree that is sprouting from a top hat.

don't you love this pic.

I made this swag years ago it has my boys names on the stars

Childhood Places-Magical Spaces Come fly away !!

When i was young (and yes even now) i would see tree houses and sigh, A tree house is a childhood place
but it takes a grown up child to imagine and create those magical spaces.Its not just tree houses oh no its forests and pathways where you just know that a dream has come to life and you are glad in your heart you got a peek.
I have created my own dreams at times inside the places i have made my homes.The pictures below tugged at my heart ,they snagged at my spirit and they took me away on wild little flights of fancy.
I have saved these on my computer at different times so i cannot credit those who are responsible for such beauty (except to say to you  all that whatever souls are made of yours and mine are the same !)

Just follow me along the path-

You have to love  a castle and a tree house combined.

Watch your step and bring a wrap it can get chilly out !

Pygmies did someone say pygmies !!

I do believe Fairies reside here !

Getting tired lets stop for tea !
{photo from Style Me Pretty, by Gia Canali}

A good story lives forever

It makes you laugh it makes you cry,It takes you away so you may fly.
So was the series that was Harry Potter,The children of Harry Potter grew up with my son Alex and he and i shared their adventures avidly.It was magic on a grand scale and it was all there for the taking,From Harrys room beneath the stairs to hanging candles in the great hall at Hogwartz we shall never forget it.
Now my son has the DVDs and if he wants to watch the very first he says to me" no mum you will only cry." And i do because just like my little boys they have all grown up in the blink of an eye,
The Harry potter books gave a whole generation of children a thirst for reading and thats the most magical thing of all.I watched this video below and yes i cried alot.Get your tissues.

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Its beginnning to look a lot like christmas

Aah so crafting Christmas has begun and its spreading its mess and glitter all over my apartment.
i have only a little space in this place to craft and I'm afraid the overflow knock on effect is vast hehe,
Here are a few things i have recently made and more to come have made the most darling Christmas doors inspired by some i have seen on my blog travels.For now i have done up a few plain hatboxes this year for special friends and here is the first already in Queensland with Cheryl who took it home when she was down to await opening on Christmas morning.

Here it is dressed in its bow !

love my cuttlebug sowflakes with bling in the centres
add heartwarming vintage stickers and graphic 45 christmas past papers and im happy.

OMG however did you sneak in my little Poppy
Asleep on her bunny in her wagon with my cupboard behind that says Dream...
Just too adorable not to share !.

Its little Witching hour

Its the witching hour (the one for itsy bitsy teen weeny god daughter type witches) Which is a lot earlier than the later witching hour hehe

Its also the time for older type skeleton brothers,Aren't Caleb and my Maddison too sweet,Seems like only last year my little Maddie was just a tiny pumpkin and

now here she is sweet as pie This is her third Halloween and she loves to dress up.

Happy Halloween to all of you !

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Face of an unborn Angel

Yes isn't technology a wonderful thing when i can look upon the face of my first Grandchild. Already knowing she is a grand daughter and little Sophia Rose is due to be born around January 20th.
My son sent this on his mobile phone and i cried when i realised it was Sophia.This is a scan of her little face and chubby cheeks.I love her already and she isn't even finished yet,

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"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."Steve Jobs (as stolen from nic Beltanes Facebook status)

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The Reader

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       My son Joel has always been a reader as is my eldest son Matthew,They definitely inherited that from me as their father would never read a book for fun ever,Like me they were readers from a young age and escaped into a world where for the price of a book you can travel anywhere you like without leaving your own little room.Matthew commissioned a caricature of his brother Joel who with his widows peak hair and dark good looks would be a fabulous book character,I think it really suits him ! The artist is Mike Perry from No Dice Comic  he does commissions for only $10 and i think they would be great as presents.

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Side Bar love

 

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Don't you love your sidebar thingies widgets links pics and what have yous. I know i do i only have ones that mean something to me and that i love.Be it Tinkerbell dancing around and around or a bottle full of wishes . A year ago i got  several years of my blog printed into a book to keep by blog-2-print.I was very happy with it and its a keepsake full of memories and like a diary with photographs documenting some things i would have forgotten and others that i treasure,The only disappointing thing is that the backgrounds and headers and sidebar stuff that make our blogs so US is not printed,I suppose it would be a lot of ink and i understand but it was a shame.Anyway i had put a post the last thing before it was printed of all my favourite homemade blog banners and they are in my book so i have them,So this time i am doing this post on all my favourite side bar things to record them for the next blog book i have printed,so here they are my favourites,

 

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and here are a few of my favourite backgrounds

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Even Fairies Have bad days !

Its all in the face and i know that face hehe

and sometimes its all in the arms !

But even mad fairies are awfully cute don't you think ?

I have to say in the fairy's defence (my 3 yr old beloved god daughter) that she had reason.
my poor fairy's  mother had been ill for a few weeks and in hospital for over one,And even though her father
was doing his fairy best she just missed her fairy mother (who returned home this very day).
And for a very first this fairy didn't love her godmother for a whole four minutes,You see we have a few disagreements on fairy apparel and such (this was approximately the 800th outfit i think !) I have been ordered for one to rectify her shoe situation "me need pretty shoes ,you buy me some auntie Jullie '( and i have Tinkerbell ones no less), After four sons that's an order that's a pleasure to fill.

Thinking of my Dad on the first day of spring

The coming of Spring is bittersweet for me,Dad passed away you see on the first day of Spring,Just like spring comes as a relief after a hard hard winter so Dads passing came after a hard hard battle.He was tired and he was ready to go ! So many things remind me of you dad,Words that bring me to tears songs you used to sing that come from my lips when im not even thinking of you,Strong you were and stubborn as a mule.The inventor the fixer of almost anything the ultimate handyman and my dad who called me love and told me to wear sensible lace up shoes and loved any new Frock.Who talked like a country bloke and worked in a laboratory doing difficult chemistry,A good bloke in any language.

My Dad was smart enough not to even want a marker when he left this earth you see he knew that we may go there and weep on days like this and that as he said he wouldnt be there.It bothered me a lot until i realized where he was ,he was where he shall always be beating inside my heart,singing in my head and in every fibre of my stubborn little self.Inside all of us who loved him and now thats enough for me !

Love you Dad now and ever.xxx

My son the Cook and Magician

I have two sons that like to cook Matthew the eldest loves to make difficult things and even made the masterchef V8 cake once.He sent me a pic of this the other day and said mum what do you think


To be honest I thought the burger a little messy but it looked yummy

 I actually thought he made the masterchef hamburger and chips,being a crafter i was very impressed with the chip cone ,Then he surprised me by saying on skype where we were typing each other
one word CUPCAKES i thought whats he talking about ! Then he said mum they are cupcakes
he made a tray of each for a birthday at work. See he is a magician not a cook.
i like to think the creativity came from me hehe. Ingenius dont you think.

How clever these are puff pastry with icing sugar in newspaper cones



These are vanilla cupcakes with chocolate cake meat and shredded coconut lettuce

 

Just a kitten and a balloon

Here is our naughty Poppy who when i left my sons 18th birthday bag of presents overnight on the table (with his balloon weighted inside and the string touching the ceiling and i  thought  it Poppy proof)
hopped up on the table and inside the bag and wound the ballon down till she could put a claw in it.
Alex decided the day after his birthday after poppy adoring the ballon to gift her with it.




hmm its very high up there.....



Lucky i can climb well !





Is it there ,is it still there ? Am i dreaming ahhhh balloon !!



Well it was worth the balloon price for the laughter she gave us watching the love of a kitty for her balloon.She would jump up and grab the string and lay looking up at her prize then totter off across the room with it.In the end tired ney exhausted she put it up on her fav lounge and went fast asleep.Every now and then she would drag herself awake and check her ballon was still where she left it.

Oh this ballooning is simply exhausting !!

Heart of my heart-blood of my blood

Heart of my heart
yesterday when you were small
leaving hand prints on the wall,
Bringing drama to my life
always into lots of strife,
Showing all your dimpled charm
any trouble to disarm.
Now a baby yours to come
this time i am not the mum',
A nan or gran this time to be,
No one is happier than me !
I loved you all before we met
before the first nappy wet.
I knew then as now forever more
more than life i loved you four.
Already i feel the clenching start
of tiny hands upon my heart.

congratulations to my son Timothy and his wife Megan who is due in January 2012
7th generation Australian-with Maltese and Dutch blood mixed to perfection.

Sometimes words make me cry ! ( even Winnie the Pooh !)

Well yes i know what you are thinking everything makes me cry.I cant stand to hear that song you are my sunshine my only sunshine cause when it gets to please don't take my sunshine away that's it I'm gone.I used to love that song " I wish everyday could be the first day of spring" and then my father went and died on the first day of spring so if i start singing that one i end up in tears. Bette Midlers from a distance and the allelujah song ( oh god i love that song).Yup i guess I'm just a sap.Words have always meant a lot to me, Some people call me the Wordsmith i don't mind i like that title.I am a writer and a reader i was born that way.I can be reduced to tears reading a book or i can end up laughing aloud like a loony.Reading is the cheapest holiday you will ever take.
It will however take you far away to another time and and another place.
As a young girl i once wrote a poem that ended
"For i am a writer of fairy tales
                and once upon a time all alone in a tower
                                                         a princess was waiting ,
                                                                                   and waiting...
                                                                                          and waiting...."
Little did i know then just how long some princesses have to wait
and sometimes a knight doesn't show up at all and she must rescue herself.
And i really do pity the fat ugly princesses of this world cause its bad enough when you are a commoner
and you dare to be born plain.Anyway i do so love quotes and words.I have passed this trait on to my sons all four love quotes and a few of them keep journals and are themselves wonderful writers.
Ah we may lack many things in our family but imagination we have in bucket loads. I want to know since when did Winnie the Pooh get so wise and deep .That Pooh  he is a real thinker ,i think should we meet i would like him an awful lot. Id probably love Eeyore too and i bet my bottom dollar that Rainy days and Mondays always get him down.

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