Christmas Wishes

Well, only one more sleep to go and aside from another layer on my ice cream cake for tomorrow's lunch, I'm all set to go. Even though many of you have already signed off for the year, I wanted to wish you all a lovely Christmas - I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating with your family and friends, enjoy all the delicious food and receive a nice prezzie or two.

Through blogging, I have connected with so many supportive, kind hearted, beautiful individuals and made some truly wonderful friends who inspire me through blogs of their own each and every day. I appreciate the time you all take to read my posts and leave me comments and would like to say thank you to all who follow and read Homely One.

Warm wishes and big hugs to you all and I'll see you back here soon...

I've been flicking through Christmas photos from the past few years - it's been so nice remembering all the special times spent celebrating. I can't believe how little Grace looked in her Christmas photo from last year and how much she's changed in 12 months!

I've just noticed that this is my 200th post - how lovely it fell on Christmas Eve.

Pretty Christmas Presents

What a busy few days we've had recently! On Friday night, we had the cousin's get-together at our house where lots of fond memories of Gran Ivy were shared. On Saturday morning we organised a last minute catch-up with friends of ours from Boston who are in Western Australia over Christmas. Luckily our house was nice and tidy after my big clean up on Friday but I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking sausage rolls, whipping up some chicken and aioli sandwiches and baking a chocolate slice. Sunday morning we visited my Mum to swap Christmas presents (she has since left on her trip to the UK and contacted me last night to say they had landed safely in Manchester). Sunday afternoon was a Christmas party with extended family at Paul's uncle's beautiful home overlooking the river. Finally, yesterday was Paul's Gran's funeral which was a lovely service and fortunately, I managed to keep Grace occupied with bits and bobs from my handbag and she was very well behaved all day.





As for Christmas preparations, I've finally wrapped all our presents. I went with a red and white colour theme and used red and white printed gift wrap and a roll of polka dot paper too. With some gifts, I wrapped a band of contrasting paper around before tying on a ribbon. I didn't wrap all our presents prettily (especially not the children's presents!!) I just focused on the gifts for friends and family who I knew would appreciate a carefully wrapped gift. It was wonderful that the ribbons and bakers' twine Catherine included in the little package she sent me were all red and white colours too as they fit in perfectly.

As for gift tags, I used a combination of the lovely ones Catherine made and sent to me (you can see her kraft paper ones in the photo above) and then, the other day I spotted a roll of packaging tape which matched the one she had used on her tags so I bought some and used it to make some more simple tags of my own. I also used the tape on a few presents which you can see below.

I truly do enjoy giving gifts more than receiving them. I like to think I've carefully chosen a gift that will be appreciated and enjoyed and even more, my favourite part of Christmas preparations is wrapping all the presents. I do still have half of one gift to buy (although I'm hoping Paul will sort that one out for me) and I need to get something small for Grace but apart from that, all I need to do before Christmas is make two desserts and I'm all set!!

How are all your Christmas preparations going?

Friday Flower

Today I thought I'd follow Laura from A Place For Tea's lead and write a Friday Flower post. The pretty bloom above is from the potted hydrangea on our patio. I'd like to dedicate this flower to a few special ladies...

Firstly to Paul's Gran Ivy who passed away this week. She reached the amazing age of 90 and I am hoping that the funeral next Tuesday will be a real celebration of her life. She was a sweet old lady and I know Paul has many happy memories of her from his childhood.

Secondly to Nicole and Mirela who passed on some lovely awards to me this week and to my good friend Janette who gave me the 'You Are Gifted Award' she received from Nicole too.

And lastly, to Jane of My Pear Tree House who has a tough road ahead of her - she needs all the prayers and positive thoughts she can at this difficult time.

Now I'm off to tidy up as we have all Paul's cousins coming around to our house tonight to work on writing a tribute to be read out on Tuesday. Our house is a mess so I need to do a quick tidy up. The Christmas present wrapping I had planned will have to wait until tomorrow - I'm going with a red and white theme and will share some photos on the weekend. Enjoy your Friday evening...

Two Lovely Awards

I had a lovely end to my day last night after discovering I was the recipient of two blogging awards from two lovely blogging friends…

Mirela from Melli’s Designs has passed on the ‘A Blog With Substance’ award to me. Mirela is so sweet and such an encouraging friend and I am honoured to receive this award from her. Now I would like to pass it on to two bloggers whose blogs I feel make for great reading and provide lots of inspiration:

Jane of Life On Planet Baby
and
Abby of Two Little Dicky Birds



Also, Nicole from Bubby Makes Three passed on the ‘You Are Gifted’ award which she’s started up to celebrate the Christmas season and to recognise the gifts of fellow bloggers. Nicole’s posts are always entertaining – I love her wit and her humorous style of writing and I relate to so much of what she shares. I was so happy to be included in her list of bloggers.

I would like to pass on this award to the following lovely ladies:

Anna from Lona de Anna – Anna's blog is full of inspiration for all things interiors and she is such a supportive blogging friend. The comments she leaves on my blog are always so honest and wise and for this I am very grateful. Her gift is the way she encourages others through her kind comments.

Sarah from One Perfect Day – Through her blog, Sarah shares the special day to day moments with her precious little boy. Her gift is the way she encourages others to appreciate the simple pleasures in life and for being such an inspirational mummy to me.

Tina from Rubies Place – Aside from being one of the loveliest bloggers I have encountered here in blogland, Tina is extremely creative and shares the most wonderful ideas and tutorials on her blog. Her gift is the way she inspires us all with her DIY projects and for the generous way she encourages us to give such projects a go ourselves.


There are so many bloggers I could have passed the above awards on to – so many of you inspire me every day with the posts you share and are such wonderful supporters of my blog – I appreciate each and every one of you.

Forgotten Photos

I love that feeling of discovering something you'd forgotten about - money hidden in a coat pocket, a chocolate bar stashed at the back of the pantry or as was the case for me on the weekend, photos I'd forgotten I'd snapped. Since getting our new DSLR, our poor point and shoot hasn't had as much use. However, yesterday when I went to bring it to a Christmas party, I discovered some snaps I hadn't yet downloaded. Here are my two favourite ones...



Yesterday's function was an extended family lunch with cousins and aunts and uncles. We had a great time catching up and enjoying all the delicious food. This coming weekend we have Paul's work party on Saturday night and a family get together with Paul's side on Sunday afternoon. Such a busy time of year but so lovely spending time with family and friends.