Christmas Italiano

One of my families more recent traditions is to theme our Christmas meal.

Last year was Caribbean, and the year before was French.

This years choice was influenced by art, villas, coffee, fish, and olive groves: Italy!

My job was to make a few dishes and decorate the table (always my favourite activity!)

 

Buon Natale!

Gingerbread Lane 2013

Kelly Christmas Colour

This year our Christmas decor has changed from traditional (here and here) to rainbow!

 Our tree (borrowed from a friend so that we could upsize from a mini tree), with wool 'tinsel', hand strung paper ball garlands, coloured baubles and lights, kid-painted ornaments, and these wool wrapped stars (oh-so therapeutic to make and a good reason to sit and watch 'The Holiday'!)

 We let the kids decorate the tree here, which makes it far from shop-display-worthy, but perfect for our home!

 A quick change of string made our advent bags more colourful. They have a Little People Nativity play set piece in each of the twelve bags, and a daily Christmassy activity.

This display nativity was a second hand set that I picked up on Ebay (for under ten dollars). I spray painted all the pieces with a few coats of white, and then hand painted each piece with a bright kids acrylic paint! I plan to spray paint with a clear gloss but may not get around to it this season.

We are, after all, a colourful crazy family.

And we love to celebrate this holiday, which is so meaningful for us, in a lively way!

A Picnic Party

Two Novembers ago, I felt that she was on the precipice of knowing who she was and being confident in that knowledge. A couple of years on, and she seems like a different person, though actually, she is not at all. She has become truly her. And she has grabbed a hold of it, running, smiling, laughing and with her whole heart. 

She spends her spare minutes drawing, crafting, creating.

Or dressing up and singing to her mirror image.

She notices people and what they might be feeling, and tries to make life happy for others.

She gives gifts and gets so much joy from it.

She loves friends and flowers.

So for her sixth birthday we gave her a flowery picnic with one special friend and her family. We ate her favourite foods, used fancy glasses and dined on a picnic quilt that I made for her. 

And it felt like a very special day, for a very special girl: India Eve!

Fluoro Week: Twirly Skirts

A couple of cheery cousins cavorting in a couple of cute skirts.

(Tutorial here)

This fluoro orange skirt (unworn except for modelling purposes) will be auctioned off in the next few months to raise money for charity. Stay tuned!

Fluoro Week: Ombre Fabric Chandelier

White with a pop of neon was the brief for my sister's baby shower.

Above the all white table of food she wanted a fabric chandelier centre piece. My sister let me choose, create and then surprise her with the final product. I began by cutting out circles of three different sizes, from three different fabrics, for each of the three different colours. Then folded each circle in quarters and pressed them. Finally, I thread them onto fluoro twine from a hardware store, making a knot underneath each circle and hung the strings through an embroidery hoop.

This would look beautiful in pastels, or neutrals, or primary colours too! But I love this style in it's neon colours, and it now hangs happily in baby Arden's nursery.  

Fluoro Week: Weekend Bag

She doesn't go on many weekends away.

It's a shame because this bag is the perfect size for it.

(Perhaps we should, just so that she can use it?)

Instead it is her ballet bag. It fits three pair of shoes, two skirts, shorts, leotard, tights, hairbrush, hairspray, lunchbox, and a drink bottle, and still manages to look much smaller than the tote bags carried by the other prima-in-training girls.

I would love to share a pattern but I made this one up as I went along.

 Yes, un-choreographed!

Fluoro Week: Tooth Fairy Bag

A whole week of fluoro posts and projects.

Because I can't help but love it!

India's first wiggly tooth required her own tooth fairy bag. 

Each lost tooth is a memorable occasion in the lives of my children: the excitement when it first wiggles; the countdown and day-by-day mirror peering; and the decisions about when and how to give it the final pull. Though the tooth in the bag is swapped for a coin, I hope that these pouches will also keep hold of the memories and that they will become personal keepsakes for my kids (Elara's is here).

India's was inspired by this and this. 

And it's out!

Picking Pockets

One girl in my family is fascinated by all things nature.

She would run her fingers across the grass and smile at the sound of a rustling leaf, as a baby.

She grows seeds and draws tulips and notices the patterns in the clouds.

She picks flowers.

And a girl who picks flowers needs pockets in her skirts.

So I made her (and her sister) one each from this tutorial.

To celebrate this girl, and affirm her love of creation, we got up close and personal with some blossoms in a day trip to Toowoomba's Carnival of Flowers.  

All the kids had a turn taking photos so that they will have plenty of visuals when they want to sketch or remember.

And the girls ended the day with some dancing in a gorgeous garden at dusk.