You know its been a good day when.....

you have heard the following:

"Where's my coconut balls?" Jordan
"Dads got sticky cheese on his trousers!" Mum talking about Dad spilling cheese sauce
"I need a wee and some sugar." Tracy (I'm not taking responsibility for that one) hehehehe

We ate way too much food, received some lovely gifts but not too much this year which was good, but didn't drink enough. Oh, and Aidan is now the honorary winner of the Poker Trophy.

I hope you all had a lovely day, now its time to relax and enjoy the holidays :)

The doll roller skates (40's/50's) were part of my present from Mr T and the plaster lady was a recent purchase that arrived last week :)

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

Handmade Christmas Cake Decorations

I am linking to the last Knicky Knacks Handmade Christmas Challenge. India and I decided that since our oven still isn't working (yes, Carl still hasn't organised for the electrician to come and change the element and I am not doing it on principle!!) then we will buy a store made cake and decorate it in a Christmas theme.

We used Wilton Ready-to-use fondant and 3 colour pastes (rose, blue and ivory) and spent a few hours making little bits and bobs. India loved it, as it is like play dough but you can eat it :) They are drying at the moment, hopefully they will still be o.k. by Christmas morning :)

This will be my last post before Christmas. I would like to wish you all a Safe and Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday.

Thank you all for taking the time to visit me over the past few months even though my posts have been quite random; a little mix of vintage, collections, and everyday life. Also thanks for all the lovely messages, it gives me reassurance that I am not just talking to myself, and that others share the same passions, and that maybe I'm not as crazy as my husband thinks.

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas! I hope you get everything you ever wanted and more :)

A Few More Treasures

I haven't been out and about much lately, mostly due to being stuck at home for the past 6 weeks recovering from my operation, so I have only picked up a few things. Last weekend we made a trip to pick up some xmas pressies so I popped into the YMCA shop. I found the bamboo handles above which were perfect for the linen bag I had sitting in my cupboard for about a year or more. This is now my new work/day bag. Its great and only cost $4 in total.



My arm was still bandaged when the last church sale was on so I dragged the whole family along. I bought some sequin fruit and a bag of doilies. Mr T lost the beaded jug over on the way to the counter:( The small cup and saucers sets above were $6 for the pair.



On the last trip to the tip shop I found this cutie. It is only small and has ceramic flowers on silk under the glass ~$1.



Plaster house plaque, handmade and painted in Portugal, YMCA $1.



Ridgway Grecian transferware plate ~$1 from the tip shop.



Best of all is the poker tournament trophy $4. This is perfect for our family poker nights. Now we have a trophy to pass around to the winner. The winners names will be engraved on the back and passed on. Kade found the poker glasses at the 'Hot Dollar' store for $3, he will wear these for the next tournament on xmas night. Kade has a good poker face and has won the last two game nights (did I mention he is only 8? hehe).

p.s. The kids had a photo taken with Santa last weekend. Santa asked their names and what they would like for Christmas. India answered 'Bitty Buttons' (her favourite) and Kade answered 'Paint'..what?? We think he choked under the pressure because he really wants a remote control toy..hehe

Love him or hate him?

Yesterday we took the kids to see Megamind...oh so funny. It was awesome because while everyone else was shopping we pretty much had the cinema to ourselves (along with 4 other families). Megamind was GOOD, can't wait to get a copy and watch it again.

It got me to thinking, you either love Will Ferrell or you hate him. In our household we love him. One of our sons favourite movies is Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, he has watched it a zillion times. Our favourite part is the flute scene, hilarious!!

Our top Will Ferrell movies:

1. Old School
2. Step Brothers
3. Anchorman
4. Land of the Lost
5. Blades of Glory
6. Semi-Pro
7. Wedding Crashers
8. Kicking and Screaming
9. Zoolander
10. Stranger than Fiction
11. The other Guys
12. Elf (what could be better at this time of year??)

So do you love him or hate him???

We needed rain but I think we have enough now!

photo source

Whilst Europe, the UK and US have all been covered in snow, Australia has rain and lots of it. Queanbeyan (NSW) experienced the worst flooding yesterday in 30 years. Queanbyean and parts of the Palerang Shire (where we live) have been declared a natural disaster zone. The water has cut the town in two, so any access to Canberra must be made via the Federal highway. News links here.

Thank goodness I picked up our Christmas layby at Target on Monday!


photo source

Apparently the fishing is good at the Captains Flat lawn bowls green:)


photo source

I think you might need more than a par 5 for hole 16, don't you think :)

Another miserable wet day :( Hope it clears soon.

More photo links here

Collections: Chenille Santas

Vintage chenille Santas have to be one of my favourite all time collectables, as you can see I have a few :) I have been collecting them over the last few years. Last year I found an original goose feather tree at our trash and treasure market and decorated it with the little guys. This year we are being a little low key with the decorations, so I placed the vase that I store my Santas in on the mantle instead.

Well, I survived my first day back at work today, after 6 weeks, I didn't miss the place one bit. My wrist was quite sore so I am taking it easy. OMG, the place is soul destroying, so quiet and gloomy and even though it is nearly Christmas my work mates spirits are low. They have not even organised a xmas party this year, what the??? Tomorrow I think I might pull out our tinsel at work and make it a little more cheery :)

O.k., I'm going to bed now to watch Four Christmases (starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) before I have another day in struggle-work :)

Friday Favourites: Lollies of the 70's and 80's

Ok, something a little different this time :)

• Giant Life savers lollipops , they were huge and delicious. The red ones were the BEST!
  
• Paddle pops ; Pink bubblegum and vanilla (also vanilla with a chocolate top)
• Kool mints and Kool fruits (in the cardboard cylinder and metal lid)
• Arctic mints
• Sherberts, milkos, red skins and spearmint sticks
  
• Tab soft drink (only one calorie)
• Melodie pops
• Pop rocks
• Lolly gobble bliss bombs
• Ice creams with a haunted house, a ghost would appear on the wrapper in the window when it was unwrapped..cool. Chocobloks, rocket icypole, barney banana, big choc, iceblocks with the jelly centres.
• UFO chips
• Chickadees (chicken type chip)
• Licorice straps
• Chocolate fags which replicates real cigarettes
• Flintstones bars
• Lolly necklaces
• Cobbers
• Clinkers (love the pink ones)
• Frozen Polly Waffles and frozen mini mars bars...yum

What was your favourite lolly or treat???

Sheet Music Xmas Gift Pockets

Once again I am joining in on Knicky Knacks Handmade Christmas Challenge. Please pop on over and check it out.

I bought a few plastic bag tags yesterday morning from the newsagents while I was waiting for my physio appointment. I thought that they would make cool name tags for xmas presents (only 55 cents each). I drew each initial on the paper inside to keep it simple.

I grabbed my stash of old sheet music and folded to make some little pockets (no cutting required). Simply place in a little treat (candy cane, chocolates etc) and tie with a little string and and add the tag. Voila, easy peasy.








'P' for Poppy :)

Shabby Vintage Junk 100th Post Giveaway

Wow! Tamarah (with an 'h') @ Shabby Vintage Junk along with Gina @ Vintage Junk in My Trunk are celebrating their 100th blogging milestone with the most fab-u-lous giveaway imaginable. Click the links to enter.

And the winner is.....

The lucky winner is Pam @ Bayside Rose. Congratulations! Please send your details and I will pop it in the post.

Please ignore the date stamp, I used a northern number generator this morning so that is why it is stamped the 29th :)

Thanks to all that entered. Have a great day, Tamara

Handmade Xmas Tree

I've been faffing around this afternoon, while it was quiet, softly raining and the kids were at school. I saw these wonderful trees at the Curios Sofa Diaries and they gave me the inspiration to make my own. I had a small silver candlestick in the shed (you would be amazed at what we have in there) so I popped out, grabbed my supplied from the granny flat and sat down in front of the tv for a while. Its also good physio for my hand. (***click the pictures for a bigger view***).

Don't forget you have until midnight tonight to enter my xmas giveaway...good luck to all that have entered.