From us to you

Finally Festive

It's taken a while to get our house into the festive spirit -  I wonder if working 6 days a week coupled with a busy social calendar has something to do with it? To be honest, I think it's just because we won't be spending any time at home over Christmas, we'll be staying with family so no one but us will get to see any of my creative decorating. But that's just why I got into gear - I appreciate it when our house smells of pine and the Christmas stockings are hanging up - I love that festive feeling and I think you might too....

We haven't had a proper Christmas tree in this place - it's just too small. We've decorated the conifer that my parents had given me when I was 10 years old, and it happily sat in an old wine barrel in our courtyard up until a few years ago when it started to go backwards - not enough sun for either of us out there I guess.
Last year I decided there was no reason we couldn't have a little tree, it just wasn't allowed to be plastic - behold our wooden Christmas Tree....

This year I made an Advent Calendar for my husband (well actually my sister did all the hard work a few years ago, I just filled it!)

- here are the Nice & Naughty notes he's received so far...

Our wedding cake stand does double duty with the pinecones we collected from Lauriston a few years ago.
I scored all the pine branches from our local fruit shop- these are the offcuts from their customer's trees.

I sequinned our stockings many years ago and have never had a place to put them without them being in the way of cupboards or drawers - next year they'll have a spot of their own on our new mantlepiece.

Rossi has his very own stocking too...

Our wedding gift graces our entryway - perfectly fitting the Christmas theme...

And what would Christmas be without carols?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

A very merry, sandy Christmas to you all!

It's a wrap

How's your Christmas gift list going? We’ve found that as long as you prepare in advance, a hamper of goodies can be the best solution – and making said goodies and putting it all together can be lots of fun too, so this year we’ve come up with another homemade hamper idea.

Marinated Kalamata Olives
Spiced Onion Chutney

Biscotti

Spiced Cherries

It's such a pleasure shopping for the tasty ingredients at the local shops and farmers market!

The best thing is that each gift can be given individually as well, solving all our gift giving dilemmas of all sizes!

Each gift will be presented in a brown paper gift bag or a basket - always with a big bow and a gorgeous letterpress gift tag from Ruby Victoria...

Have I forgotten anything?