Wishes for the New Year

Greetings lovely friends & readers  💕

Just getting in a final post as the year draws to a close.   We are getting good rain here today ... December rain is always such a blessing & the garden is just drinking it up.

 Vases of sweetpeas & dahlia's picked this morning between showers.

Christmas came & went again for another year.   We had two get-togethers ... firstly on the Saturday as eldest son & family were travelling down the Island for Christmas, & then another one on the 25th.

I always enjoy watching my Grandsons open their stockings - it brings me great pleasure  🎄

The week prior, I did some baking & packaged it up for friends ... just my usual Gingernut Bites & chocolate Fudge Slice ... a creature of habit I am!

My dear friend Sandy posted me The Most Delicious chocolate Christmas cookies, all the way from the South Island.  And look Willie ... I made Scroggin Slice !! 

I always enjoy "the twixmas days" between Christmas & New Year.    After all the hectic-ness that Christmas brings I love the slow, leisurely pace of these days.   I have been drinking Christmas Tea in my new-to-me Mug & eating delicious Christmas Cake.

Eldest son & his family gifted me this wonderful book.   The Topp Twins are New Zealand icons ... my dear Mum would've loved this book as she so adored their music & requested their songs be played at her funeral.   I am enjoying reading it a great deal.

We live on left-overs this week - so the only cooking I have been doing is harvesting & cooking up beetroot from my garden & blanching broccoli to freeze.  The Mr is growing cucumbers at the farm this year & is having a wonderful crop ... which is great because my plant produced One Single Cucumber before shrivelling up & dying !!

I packed All the Christmas decor away!  It took me two entire days but this was largely due to the fact that a certain Ginger Furry Being kept going to sleep in my containers, thus stopping me from using them ... being the soft touch that I am, I waited for her to wake up! 😉

GlassHouse Candle "Dancing Sugar Plums" gifted by my dear friend Sandy - such a gorgeous fragrance

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As the year draws to a close, I light a beautiful Candle & remember all those loved ones we have lost this year.   I include in this a special furry friend - sweet little Poppy Q who left us in July & who we all miss very much here in blogland  💗

From Donna Ashworth Words on Instagram

Though this verse brings tears to my eyes I LoVe it & think it is very true indeed.  Grief has been a hard thing to navigate this past year.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year dear friends.  Hand-on-heart I want to thank you all most sincerely for following along on my little journey here.  Your presence warms my soul more than words can ever express.  For those that comment or email, or even just take a moment to read my ramblings ... thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,

Julie & the furry three x0x0x0 ❤❤❤

A Mini Christmas Home Tour

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Warning ...very photo heavy post - apologies in advance  (I have made collages of photos to try & condense them up a bit)

As promised, here is a mini-home-tour-of-sorts to show you my festive decorating.  Our home is a humble 3-bedroom house & this year I've decorated the deck, kitchen, dining area & lounge. 

The decking table is one of my favourite areas ... walk up the steps & onto our large covered outdoor deck.   Yesterday Sid & I hung some beaded garland from the wrought iron candlelabra.

 

Mum's potted red geranium is flowering away merrily.  My entry is through glass French doors but I still manage to hang a wreath on them.

And into the kitchen we go .....................

I have a small galley style kitchen that leads directly into the dining room in an L-shape.  On the end of my bench, a small festive display on my egg crate.  Lean into your screen & take a big sniff of my citrus potpourri - it sure smells good 💛

 On the other corner of my bench I have just tucked some festive bits into things ... after all this is a well used area, not just for display.

I like to hang little christmassy bits from my cupboard door handles - just tuck them in here & there - a bit of cheer 💗

And directly into the dining area we go ... my vintage sewing table down the end has a large christmas display on it using my tiered tray

Lots of handmade creations here ..........

Remember to click on any of the photos to enlarge them

Along the wall to the right .................

I have wound fairy lights all through my plants on the fireplace hearth but they have decided today they are not going to work unless I stand there manually holding the switch wire 😐

This fire gets used nearly 6 months of the year - the reason it is in the dining room is because once-upon-a-time, this room used to be the Lounge.

The top of the dining room mantle 

My Advent angel made in * this post * & my Country Friends Christmas angel made in * this post *

A small round table in the corner with my knitted ornaments tree on it - I have not added to this as yet but I had grand intentions to this year (that somehow flew out the window) 😉

 

My vintage kauri dresser that often features on my blog. Mostly op-shopped china with some festive berries added.

A small display of bottle brush trees on top, thrifted transferware & Yes - I did sew tiny Santa hats for my miniature bears last Christmas 😯

And then through in to the Lounge we go ............  

Vintage typewriter on my antique Oak tea wagon & a prim display on my spindle-leg American Oak table.

Of all my displays, this top right one is one of my favourites - vintage feather tree with rustic & prim Santas & felt stockings - LoVe it

My fireplace - one of my absolute favourite areas to decorate.  This fire surround is faux - you can read all about it * here *.  Love, love decorating this area for the seasons.

Keeping it traditional in my colour scheme.  These ornaments are all gathered/purchased when I spent 20 years working in a Gift Shop. 

Beside the fire surround is my Gothic Mirror - stockings all gifted from friends.  The Tilda Father Christmas was made * here *

Little displays of toy vignettes that I tell myself are for the grandchildren but really they are for the grown up child Granny that lives here - Yours truly 😉

Under the tree I put my vintage wagon filled with mine & The Mr's old teddies ... the parcels are just empty boxes wrapped up.  

You can read about my red car table in *this post*  - this area looks beautiful at night all lit up.

Beside the red car table is another round occasional table where I display my pomanders - I have tucked festive bits into here.

Opposite this is my Oak secretary desk - a small display on the top of this - again, just bits tucked into china 

My "Mum corner" ... Mums oak table, canteen of cutlery, verses, glass trinket box & her reading glasses.  💕

A comfy chair display (mainy for Madam Pip) 😉 & a small primitive table beside this.  You can read about creating Prim Mousie * here *.

Phew - well done friends, if you've made it this far.  To be honest I didn't even show quite a bit of it - too many photos as it was.  Yesterday I had Sid for the day & he had so much fun adding his dinosaurs to my "deer table" ... you can read about creating this in * this post *

As this is my last post before Christmas day I want to wish you all a most wonderful festive season & to thank you all with all my heart, for your support & encouragement throughout the year - it really does warm my soul & I have made some wonderful friendships through my blog.

Remember during the coming days ... be kind to yourselves & to one another,  🎄

Sending you much love & friendship across the miles,

Julie, Blackie, Pippi, Little One x0x0x0  ❤❤❤

A Green & Gold Christmas Coffee-Table Vignette

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Firstly thank you all So very much for your sweet kind comments on my last post.   The general consensus seems to be "Leave the stand silver & paint the star" - which I am more than happy with.    The problem here is that the star is currently missing - I blame the youngest four-legged member of the family & live in hope that I can find it again (!!!)  😸

Last week I decided to do a Christmas coffee table display in a Green & Gold colourway  💚💛

This largely came about because I had these 3 cherished items, bought home when I cleared out Mum's home            back in early March.  Mum always kept the Cherub candle holder & flower frog in her china cabinet & I found the gold Angel wrapped in tissue in a drawer.  I very much wanted to use these items as I especially loved the bronzy gold tonings of the cherub. 

 

I needed a tray for my display but had none apart, from silver ones.  I had bought this mirror home from Mums, actually lifted it off the wall at the last minute & thought I'd bring it home to donate.  It's frame was plain dark brown.  I unscrewed the hooks from the back so it sat flat & then went over the frame with my rub-n-buff ... it came up wonderful & just the right muted gold colour I was after.

                     Lights Turned Off                                 Lights Turned On                                                 

My only purchase was this gold glass "tree" which I bought online from Spotlight in their sale.  It has fairy lights inside & stands 36 cms tall.

I knew I had some thrifted candles that would fit in the cherub & found the perfect Christmas green.  All the other items on my tray are from past Christmas's or items I use daily around my home.  I sprinkled some gold stars over the glass when I was happy with everything.

The little wire heart tree in a pot also lights up & was purchased * here * back in 2020.

The gold baubles were a previous op shop purchase - you can buy bags of these very cheaply.  The bottom ones are actually broken but you just place them in the bottom & no-one knows  😉

 The tureens that the baubles are in are from the SPCA Op-shop purchased back * here * in 2021.

The wreath has been used for many years - I placed my glass tree inside it & wound some gold strings of beads around it.  Mums gold Angel sits just on the edge of it. The cream brocade tablecloth was a gift from my friend Joyce,  thrifted by her from the Church Op Shop where she works.

I LoVed my Green & Gold Vignette & when I sit on the couch at nights it makes me very happy to look at the treasures that were my Mums. 

Unfortunately I came in last night to close the curtains & what do you think greeted me dear friends .................... ??

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Go on .....  take a guess .........................

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Raise your hand if you guessed right !!!!!!!  😐 

And just look at the way her tail is curled so neatly around the flower frog making sure she doesn't stab her precious self !!!!!!!   She is honestly enough to make me give up  ....... & then yesterday I came home from town to this below  .....................

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Blackie parked up on my new outdoor table runner - Lord give me strength ! 🙏

I decided to paint the wooden fruit board that I showed in my last post as I wanted to use this special Christmas transfer.  Unfortunately it turned out too dark - I have photographed it outside today as it's such a dull overcast day - but indoors, in my house, the transfer barely shows up.  I should have used a light coloured background.  But it's okay - its all learning & not everything I paint turns out just magical & wonderful.

I have acquired a small selection of Christmas books & wanted something to display them in.  This box (top left) was in my sleepout - it had gotten damp at some stage & had watermarks all through it.  I painted it Vintage White & mod-podged this lovely piece of decoupage paper to the front.  The paint covered over the watermarks really well.

I'm really pleased with how this project turned out & Sid sat on the floor yesterday & read through some of the Christmas Children's books (all thrifted of course)

The felt elf boots (top left) have been on my Pinterest board for a couple of years.  Last night I decided I wanted to make some so I drew up a pattern, scaled it down somewhat & then sat & stitched a pair of elf boots.  Mine are in pale green felt with pink pom poms because Why Ever Not ? 💚💗

Before I close a mention regarding my last post .... the last photo of the $12 thrifted picture is actually Our beloved Late Queen as a young Princess Elizabeth.  Some of you realised this & some did not.  My dear friend Willie very kindly did some research on this & sent me * this link * if any of you are interested in reading about the prints.

Thank you so very much dear friends, for your visits here today,

I hope to be back in a few days with a Christmas-Home-Tour-of-sorts to share with you,

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week,

With much love & friendship,

Julie & the furry three x0x0x0