A Chocolate Party for Emily

The end of November and beginning of December are always crazy.

But I think we are over the worst of it, now!

In the midst of that craziness,

the day of my brief Christmas Moment

and in the midst of renovations

we held an afternoon tea party for Emily.

Emily's birthday is in January, but it's hard to gather friends in January,

so sometimes we have a party in December, instead.

Emily is old enough to do some of the planning and organising herself,

so she took care of the games and the chocolate truffles,

I made the cake, tidied the house and planned the craft.

The table was set with a purple cloth and chocolate-themed serviettes.

(I was setting the table at the very last minute, throwing the streamers over the fan ...

it was a crazy day - on top of the mess of everything stacked up around the place,

I'd had an electrician in spreading dust ...

just as well 

I'm used to moving boxes and furniture daily now 

... running on not-enough sleep and adrenaline....)

We had a chocolate fountain with fruit, marshmallows and savoiardi,

 a chocolate birthday cake (with cream and jam!)

chocolate truffles, 

lamingtons 

and chocolate biscuits.

Plus a few types of chips for something savoury.

All Emily's choices.

The girls played the chocolate game

and made dresses for Polly Pockets with lolly wrappers, 

which they did really well at.

The girls voted for their favourite to choose a winner.

We made necklaces and the girls also took home lolly bags.

Emily's friends were lovely 

and I think a good time was had by all.

And I leave you with this evidence of Emily's dedication to chocolate.
Her morning Milo
protected with a little dropsheet of its own.

Almost grown up

Laura

off to her (end of) Year 6 dinner

in a lovely dress of soft blue/purple/green

with sparkly grown-up shoes

and a pretty necklace

lovely hair

and smiles and sillies that won't stop.

(so she's not really grown up!)

We love you, Laura!!

Winter Wonderland

A happy hour spent on the sofa

in this cosy winter-ish weather

(although technically it's summer)

no builders here today

Bing Crosby walking in a winter wonderland

Christmas tree lights

A new crochet project

in colours inspired by this book I bought yesterday:

Lovely.

* * *

But keeping it real ....

in case you think it's all rosy and perfect here ...

the other half of the sofa I'm sitting on looks like this:

and behind our Christmas tree looks like this:

because we need to be ready for dust at a moment's notice

... and the other half of the living room looks like this

where my craft and broom cupboard was ripped out 

and where stairs should go in, next week,

and the bedroom looks like this

where the carpenters unexpectedly ripped open the wall and popped in a pole.

* * *

So, I'm just enjoying sweet moments as they come.

Pink Hydrangeas

On Monday a gorgeous bunch of pink hydrangeas arrived in our home,

from here.

I am so enjoying them 

in the sparseness of my kitchen

... decluttered because of our building.

A look I could get used to ...

Christmas at the Piano

Christmas has come to our home!

On Saturday we put up our Christmas tree, after all

Now we just have to cover it with a dropsheet every time the builders work inside.

Not a great look, but worth it for the evenings :-)

And one other area I managed to decorate ... our piano.

The piano is the centre of one of our Christmas traditions, 

singing carols together.

And my piano pupils are in here each week too,

but let's face it, I really did this for myself ;-)

Over my vintage framed sheetmusic 

(some of which belonged to my nanna and great-aunt)

I draped a white leaf garland.

Then I decorated with

a bottle brush tree

white lanterns,

a thrifted deer

and carols sheetmusic

&

vintage books

(about music)

All of which makes me happy!

(even though the rest of the room is PACKED full of junk

that had to be moved suddenly afterwards,

the building continues in the oddest places ....)

Cheerleading Girl

This year Laura has danced in a Cheerleading class.

I didn't even know that such a thing existed here in Australia,

but apparently it does.

Her group of friends were all in the class with her,

and Tuesday afternoons were busy with cheerleading and flute lessons,

requiring 5 trips to or from school.  

Way too much back and forth!

On Sunday we saw her perform in the dance school concert.

She did well.

Next weekend: ballet concerts.

And then for 2012, I think ballet and flute will be quite enough!

A Christmas Moment

Despite ...

... a constrant stream of tradesmen inside this morning

... hammering, sawing and drilling above

... a birthday party for one teenager plus 9 friends to prepare for this afternoon

... dietary restrictions

... unseasonly cold (but sunny) weather

... and no Christmas tree until the builders' dust subsides in a few weeks ....

I still managed to steal a Christmas Moment for myself.

Lovely Christmas music

A gluten-free, dairy-free and delicious Melting Moment 

A real cup of tea (for once)

A lovely Christmas magazine

Perfection.

And then the electrician came back in, this time for real with a ladder and drill, creating "snow" on my freshly cleaned surfaces.

But worth it, because the house is looking like this:

and this:

and this:

Couldn't be happier with how the extension is going 

(once we get that pesky weatherboard cladding exactly right ...)