- The Prettiest Pinecones on this Earth, thanks to the brilliant Krokotak.
- I adore this Menorah from Dim Sum, Bagels and Crawfish.
- This is the week that bloggers blogged about what bloggers would like for Christmas… Successful Blogging had 21 Killer Gifts Bloggers… I reckon a stash of Haagen Daz in the freezer is the ultimate gift for a blogger. Just saying!!! Actually what I really need for Christmas is a new front doormat… seriously I think I may spend the whole Summer sweeping if I don’t address that really soon.
- I liked the Anti-Gift Guide: Charitable Giving on Apartment Therapy.
- And out into the garden… you have to take a look at the bug hotel on Nurture Store. I have a feeling that hood #6 has one going already because our entire lettuce patch has vanished as she feeds her precious bug collection.
- Fun things to do with Instagram… printables, magnets, postcards – who knew!!! But if you aren’t on Instagram already then get there, it is lots of fun!!!
- I knew if I waited long enough the perfect post would pop up… And here it is: “How to Keep Your Blog Banging When You Need a Break.” By Annabel Candy on Styling You. If you are a blogger… then you have to, have to, have to read this post!!! I love blogging so much that I hate to take a break I just dash on to the next post as soon as I hit publish… and I can never write in advance because I love to publish posts!!! This post is full of ideas for the “Quick and Easy Post” and ideas for taking a break – it is that time of year!!!… I may well go and take a photograph for our Saturday Spot this afternoon… you could well get your Sunday Snippet on a Monday this week!!!
- This week on Org Junkie’s 52 Weeks we are at Week 50: Go Vertical With Storage.
And the se7en+1th Thing: If you feel like organizing!!!
So we are taking a two week break from school. I know no school will get done while the father person is on leave. We are four weeks away from finishing our school year and I would really like to push through, I am alone in this endeavor and I give up. I think what changed my persistent mind was a morning spent under the kitchen sink… thanks to Hood #8, who thought it would be a good idea to adjust the plumbing. It was a dreadful mess of dirty dishes water everywhere… and I just called it a day off school and put on my plumbing hat. Then I thought who am I kidding… and we have two weeks off.
Last year when we started our Summer break it was at the beginning of our 52 week journey and while I had done heaps of decluttering and purging beforehand… it had all been a little chaotic and unfocused!!! So at the beginning of this year, when we began our Summer break from school I literally took weeks going from cupboard to cupboard and book shelf to bookshelf getting rid of stuff. I remember feeling somewhat cheated that the summer passed so fast… but now I am so grateful, because after a sort or three or four… we can now put our minds in gear and actually sort through our whole house in an effort filled morning. And that’s what we did on the first day of our holidays… Everyone did their space and a little more and we were done and ready for the reward of friends coming over after lunch. (Let me tell you setting a time limit is a great motivator and house guests are a great motivator!!!).
Now I have to say how things have changed this year… How much of our Christmas preparations have always been about doing a huge house declutter and Spring Clean every year before Christmas… but this year there is none of that. So… Christmas is coming and all my usual bussyiness just isn’t there… so lots of chilling out and reading stories with the kids and playing… and if we weren’t so enjoying late night swims we could actually get up early enough to go to the beach before all the madding crowds arrive for the day!!!
What I have done for Christmas is get all our postage ready… And there is a pile of packages waiting for a trip to the post-office. And this week coming we will be doing our gift preparations: making and creating, baking and painting… serious planning!!! Somehow, after a year of decluttering, there just isn’t a need to do any extra shopping. We all have our treasures, we are all content… and yes there will be treats and a few packages on the day there just seems to be no need to go mad. I am a bit concerned about all the blog posts about people that have finishing their shopping and finished their gift wrapping, seriously I haven’t begun with any of that!!! One year we did everything really early and it was a bit of a let down… we kept finding more things that we needed to do. I know now to leave it to closer to the time, much closer to the time, so that we can have a bit of “hardly” suppressed excitement lurking in the air!!!
That’s us! Time to break open our Christmas Box… Hope you have a fabulous week!!!
HI HAPPY HAPPY ALMOST CHRISTMAS! I bet that blogging gift link will have lots of great goodies for us blogging fools. :):) and I’m excited to see how to take a blogging rest! I might need some rest someday? Hope you all enjoy this magical week before we celebrate the birth of our KING! xoxoxoxoox
Hello My Friend, KM, Totally loving the photographs of your little one. Enjoy every moment!!! Excitement is mounting… tomorrow we will be swapping names to see who is gifting who amongst the kids – Huge excitement!!! Not to mention trips to the beach… I see the bag is already at the front door waiting for the morning!!! Totally loving that summer has finally arrived!!! Lots of love… to all of you!!!
Interesting thought about too early being a let down. I’ve never had that problem. 😉
You are so right about a time limit and house guests!! Ha ha.
By the way, I just checked on the Alisa Burke giveaway update (what a good one that was!), and there you were! Congratulations to you!!
Enjoy your Christmas week!
Hi April, I think what I am saying is that a task takes the time you give it… one time we were completely ready way in advance… but just kept thinking of more and more and more things that HAD to be done!!! Most of them didn’t at all. Being pregnant or having a tiny baby taught me that we didn’t need to do nearly as much as we thought we did and we still have all the fun!!! Now I leave it a little later and works for us to still be doing finishing touches on Christmas eve!!!
And isn’t that amazing about Alisa Burke – I really can’t believe its true!!! I am thrilled about it – you have no idea how thrilled!!! Happy holidays to you all!!!