All the trees of the field shall clap their hands
Can you guess what my theme is this year? I made these two nutcrackers from a Tilda pattern just before things started becoming so crazy busy.
I’m excited that Christmas is nearly here! You don’t have to be a child to love the mystery of Emmanuel, God with us.
I’ll be taking a break for the rest of the school holidays and look forward to catching up again in February 2020.
Have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Much love,
Sarah xox
It’s been quite a bit longer than the promised week (I’ve been caught up with Christmas festivities and end of school events), but I’m back to share the details of the annual bookclub Christmas dinner I hosted recently.
As always, it was a beautiful evening with amazing food which we bring and share, joy, laughter and wonderful conversation. I often pick the theme for the table decorations almost a year in advance, when I have a chance to read the Christmas magazines and become inspired after all the busyness of the season has died down in the new year. This year I chose a green, white and orange theme.
At each place setting was a pomander (clove studded orange), which my Mum had helped to make (in between ferrying girls to dance concerts), the weekend before. These smell amazing and if it is not too humid will last for a long time. I also made some feathers out of old book pages for each setting which I stamped with some ink. I try to tie the book theme in somewhere! The little sprig of berries was from my ficus tree, which happened to be fruiting just at the right time of year and to look very festive.
Down the centre of the table I used some pine branches overlaid with some twinkle lights and the beautiful Australian Christmas tree, which is bright orange and looks very celebratory. I also used some antique jelly moulds containing tea lights down the centre of the table.
Finally, the pièce de résistance, this beautiful cherry and lemon jelly (from the latest edition of Delicious magazine), which was my contribution to our delicious feast. It was all a lot of fun and I can’t wait until next year!
Christmas is a wonderful sparkly, shiny time of the year when we celebrate all that is good with the world. Our annual bookclub Christmas dinner is one of the highlights of the social calendar. On the eve of hosting this year’s dinner, I’m sharing these photos from a past event.
The theme for this dinner was silver and white. It was fun to wrap a present for each place setting (a Christmas mug), using the traditional Japanese technique of wrapping in cloth (furoshiki). This is a great way to wrap using materials that can easily be recycled.
As we celebrate Christmas in all its shiny and sparkling goodness, I’m reminded of the greatest gift giver.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
Next week I’ll share all the details of this year’s event!
I love making things at Christmas, but I often find myself running out of time with all the other end of year events that pop up. I’ve started early this time to see if I can squeeze in a few projects. I had a lovely time making the wreath above which was inspired by a Mollie Makes calendar I saved from a few years ago.
I started with a wire coat hanger which my son kindly bent into a circle shape for me. It’s great having kids who’ve grown old enough to help you with things like this! Next, I cut some long thin strips of Christmas fabric, put some multigrip glue on the back of the fabric and wound it around the wire, overlapping it as I went. I also used a strip of fabric to make a hanger. I glued this together, but also put a row of hand stitching at the base to make it secure.
After this I glued some vintage Christmas cards, which I had collected over the years from antique shops and fairs onto the wire base. I love anything vintage (and especially old cards), but you could use some more modern ones if you prefer. I left the cards to dry overnight and then stuck on some embellishments and some old stamps from my childhood stamp collection.
Ta da! A fun and quick project, finished and ready to hang once I added some fresh pine branches.
Do you run out of time for the fun of Christmas crafting with all the busyness of this time of year or do you start your projects way ahead of the festive season?
This is the second part of my post about our Christmas tree themed Christmas from last year. Last week I shared all the details about the food and today I’m sharing the table setting details. One of the fun things I like to do each year, is to make a special little present to put on the Christmas table for each person. For each of the female guests, I made the trees pictured above from vintage napkins I found in an op shop and cinnamon sticks.
For the boys I made cars in jars parked in the snow with mini Christmas trees strapped to the roof (pictured above). These were easy to make and a lot of fun to put together. The link to the tutorial I used is here. The men received some “Christmas tree” chocolate from Cadbury wrapped in Christmas tree paper with a sprig of fresh pine and a Christmas bell on top.
We managed to find some Christmas tree serviettes and I made little individual Christmas trees from old corks and rosemary sprigs to place at each table setting. The tutorial for making these is here.
Even the crackers had Christmas trees on them! For the table centrepiece I filled one of Mum’s old wooden boxes with some freshly cut conifer and some white pillar candles. It all looked stunning and my little nephews loved the cars in jars! I’ll leave you with a photo of my cute nephew impatiently waiting for all the festivities to start!
More Christmas decorating ideas coming next week!
“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat. If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do, if you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you”. I love the version of this song by Harry Belafonte and could listen to it on repeat over and over! Christmas is indeed coming and I’m ready to embrace it in all its exciting glory! I’m definitely not one of those people who roll their eyes when the first early signs of Christmas start to appear.
In the lead up to my favourite day of the year I’m going to share the details of some of our past Christmas celebrations, beginning with Christmas last year. Each year, in consultation with the rest of the family I choose a theme to plan the event. I love working with themes and particularly enjoy tying all the little details together. Usually the theme extends to the table, the tree, the gift wrapping, and sometimes even to the food. The theme may simply be certain colours or icons and is usually inspired by things I see or read throughout the year.
Christmas last year was on the farm in Newdegate. The theme was Christmas trees and I was excited to be able to extend it to the food as well! I enjoyed making the traditional French Christmas cakes shaped like logs (Bûche de Noël). They look spectacular and are easier to make than you may imagine. We devoured these as part of our Christmas Eve meal.
I’d admired these Nutella Christmas trees on the internet for a while and it was a special treat to make one for Christmas morning breakfast. These are very easy and fun to make with the kids. The link to the recipe I used is here.
Last, but not least, I used fresh pine needles to make a cocktail for Christmas night. The picture on the left is of the pine needles I collected marinating in gin and the one on the right is of the completed cocktail. I’ve put the recipe (adapted from The Cocktail Guy : Infusions, Distillations and Innovative Combinations by Rich Woods) below in case you want to try it. It was delicious and really creates a talking point!
Pine Infused Espresso Gin and Tonic
200g pine needles, washed
700ml gin
1 tbsp sugar syrup
Tonic water
Single shot of espresso, cooled
1. Make the pine needle gin by placing the needles in the gin in a glass or ceramic bottle or container with a lid. Leave covered for a minimum of 24 hours.
2. Once infused strain the gin and place in a bottle in the fridge until required.
3. Make a sugar syrup by bringing equal parts of sugar and water to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cool and store in the fridge until required.
4. To make each cocktail, place a shot of the pine needle gin and the tablespoon of sugar syrup in the base of a glass and add a handful of ice. Top up the glass with tonic water to three quarters full and stir to combine. Add a sprig of pine to the glass and tip the espresso shot over the top. Enjoy with friends!
I’ll leave you with a photo of the beautiful Christmas Eve sunset on Holland’s Track Farm viewed through one of the quintessential Australian trees, the sheoak. Creation in all its glory getting ready to celebrate the very special day to follow.
In my next post I’ll share all the details of the table decor. Do you love Christmas and using themes for decorating? Or do you like to go with the flow and take it as it comes?
What better way to celebrate the festive season than with a hot chocolate party? It really evokes the feeling of “hygge”, which is a Scandinavian word describing a mood of coziness contributing to wellness and contentment. I may live in the wrong hemisphere for getting cosy at Christmas, but supping on hot chocolate certainly creates comfort and joy!
It has become an annual tradition for us to host a hot chocolate party (the photos above are from last year). It’s a really easy way to entertain and the kids enjoy adding lots of decadent toppings (such as caramel sauce, whipped cream, marshmallows, Lindt balls, choc chips and candy canes) to make their own special brew. To keep the evening easy and relaxed I use festive paper plates and paper hot beverage cups to which I add Christmas stickers. The hot chocolate recipe and my initial inspiration for the party comes from littlespicejar.com. For the party this year I reused the swan tablesetting from my previous post.
Sometimes we do a simple craft activity (last year we painted Christmas images onto rocks, which we later hid for others to find). This evening has become one of our kid’s favourite Christmas traditions, so I think we will be hosting it for some time to come. Merry Christmas everyone and I look forward to catching up again after holidays in the New Year!
The lead up to Christmas is my favourite time of year – I love the sense of anticipation created by this special day. As we begin to feel weary and world worn as another year draws to a close, the hope created by the baby born in the stable so long ago quickens anew. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
I’m sharing these photos from our annual bookclub Christmas party which I host each year. Styling a Christmas table combines a few of my favourite things : Christmas, entertaining and decorating! I like to pick out a theme and decorate with that in mind. This year I was inspired by the seven swans a-swimming from the Christmas carol, The Twelve days of Christmas. The seven swans a-swimming are a reference to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord), which are found in Isaiah 11:1-2.
I am indebted to the very creative people at The House that Lars Built for inspiration. The link contains the tutorial to create the swan centrepiece and the free printable for the swan place cards. I also used some tea light holders as little individual vases at each place setting (these were gifts for each person to take home). Other table setting details included a set of the Twelve Days of Christmas plates from Pottery Barn and some “Wee Willie Winky” candlestick holders for added ambiance. I hung my daughters’ beautiful swan themed ballet costumes around the room (they were too pretty to be only worn once).
Do you love the anticipation of Christmas?
It really is my favourite time of the year and not least because of that little baby born so long ago who brought good news that brings great joy for all of us.
I am one of those people who LOVE Christmas and really enjoy all of it’s preparations. The photo above comes from a recent Christmas dinner I hosted for my bookclub. I wanted to incorporate the book theme and made some little houses for each place setting by folding old book pages and then gluing some feathers or a paper flag on top. The link for the tutorial I used and adapted is here.
I used some eucalyptus branches as a table runner. I had to embark on a nature hunt to find these (complete with eye rolling from children), as this particular variety of eucalypt with soft grey green leaves and white branches is not common in Geraldton. On top of the eucalypt I added some pink and metallic baubles as well as some silver tea light holders. Inspiration for the large candle holders came from here, although I did need to shave my copper candles quite a lot to fit inside the bottles, which necessitated gluing on some moss around the top.
The napkins are vintage and were sourced at a recent antique fair in Geraldton. The tablecloth was purchased online from Hale Mercantile Co.
Our bookclub Christmas dinner always involves a hilarious, present stealing game of kris kringle. To carry the book theme through to my gift, I created a cacti book planter using this tutorial as inspiration.
I would like to keep sharing details of other Christmas parties and festivities, but I will need to save that for another time, as I must away to attend to my packing for the trip south to spend time with family. A very Merry Christmas to all and I look forward to sharing more posts with you in February 2018.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 9:2