McCarthy 2012 Christmas Wrap

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, it is sad to think it is all over for another year.

We love celebrating Christmas and we're so blessed to have been able to spend time with all of our family this year over the course of a few days. Hubby's family arrived Sunday evening and stayed through to Christmas Day evening and my family arrived Christmas Day lunch and stayed until Boxing Day evening. We all had lunch together and the extra time either side with each family was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone.

I was just so thankful that I was able to stay out of hospital and spend the time at home :-)

Once everyone left I confess I have been rather exhausted mentally and emotionally, finding that I am getting very teary and upset easily. So I have been catching up on sleep and just pottering along cleaning and preparing for bub. 

I have finally bought a car seat and pram online (yesterday) as well as picked up the bassinet from my mum's house (today), fortunately God has been so faithful and our little boy has stayed put for so much longer than expected. 

Next Monday we hit another milestone and if I go into labour the Dr's won't do anything to stop it and the good news is that I can deliver here in Orange, provided bub has no complications we can stay here as Orange Hospital has a special care unit that can take babies from 34 weeks gestation.

It has been quite a journey and an eventful year for us. I doubt I will be back prior to the New Year so I wish you all the best! 

See you in 2013!

xx

Christmas in Store at McCarthy Designs & Occasions

Because  I am stuck in hospital this year I cancelled my big Christmas orders and only bought a few new things for the store this year :-(

I am also so disappointed that I am not at home to arrange them and take some pretty photos for you, however I am sure that you will be able to think of lots of wonderful ways to use my goodies in your own home or you know someone that will.

These gorgeous Christmas baubles come in a hexagonal box, each box contains 14 pieces measuring 7.5cm and they are $26.95 each

Find them here and here 

I love these mercury vases in two sizes

18 x 30 cm for $21.95, find it here

or 14 x 26cm for $14.95, find it here

Add a lovely glow to your home using these hurricane vases, just add some candles, the vases are available in silver or red, measure 9 x 11 cm and are only $9.95 each

Red here

Silver here

Place a few of these sparkly pretties around you home for only $4.50 each. These candle holders measure 7 x 8 cm and are available in red or silver

Red here

Silver here

What do you think, I think they are just gorgeous.

xx

PS. I reached 29 weeks pregnant yesterday and am still in hospital, all is still going well with bub and my cervix is still closed and  holding at 2 cm. Still hoping to be home for Christmas :-)

Happy 2011

Welcome to 2011,

 I pray that the year is full of wonderful blessings for you!

I hope that you all have had a fantastic festive season full of love and laughter

December is always a very busy time of the year for us

We finish off the end of the school year and the working year

with a nice holiday, just the three of us.......

This year we spent a lovely 7 nights at Diamond Beach, NSW

and we were blessed with gorgeous weather

We celebrate my birthday, along with my mum's and my Brother in laws,

We celebrate Christmas with both of our families,

this year it meant 4 days of celebration

with two of those days hosted by us,

we just love Christmas!

we celebrate our anniversary,

on the 29th December 2010 we were married for 3 years

and every day it just gets better and better

Then we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of a new one!

Happy New Years!

xx

We were married in the botanic gardens by Nick's minister and serenaded with live music by family, friends and a rendition of Amazing Grace on the bag pipes.

Young Nicholas gave me away and was also involved in the ceremony by reading a passage from the bible.

We had family photos in the Gardens and then we had our bridal party photo shoot at Mayfield Vineyard. The Vineyard has a restaurant and this is where Nick proposed to me.

Nick's brother worked there as an apprentice chef at the time and it was our favourite restaurant. Nick arranged for a special dessert with the proposal written in chocolate on a plate that held the engagement ring.

Nick did drop to one knee to propose and our song played in the background,

I was so surprised that I don't remember if I said yes or not!

I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful and loving husband

and I am looking forward to spending many many more years together

and celebrating many many more anniversaries.

Merry Christmas

I am sorry that I didn't get back prior to Christmas to share more of our decorations

or to admire yours

We had a lovely break by the beach

We enjoyed some beautiful weather and had a great time together

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who have stopped by to visit me and leave me so many encouraging comments.

It has been a wonderful year full of many new friendships

I pray that you all have a fantastic time celebrating the birth of our Saviour.

and I hope you get very spoilt

We are spending the next week celebrating with family and friends so I will be absent for a while longer and looking forward to visiting you all in the New Year!

Love and blessings to you all and have a

Merry Christmas

xx

Christmas Cheer

Well it's over,

we had our school Thanksgiving Service

 the students were presented with their awards

and performed for us.

I love our Thanksgiving Service,

the students, the teachers and the parents all come together

to give thanks for another school year

 it is so lovely to see the many wonderful things that they have achieved.

School is now over for the year!

and for WH and I, work is over for the year too!

This last week was a mad rush of trying to fit everything in

and finish three weeks worth of work in one...

but now it's over.

We can take a deep breath and stop for a while

So if I am absent for a while you know I am just recharging my batteries

and hanging out with my boys

We're planning on having a break for a week or so,

then we will get busy again preparing for all of our Christmas get togethers

We have some half finished,

ok lots of half finished jobs

but we're not going to think about our half lit front yard,

or our half built courtyard

or the half built outdoor setting. 

I may work on my Christmas tags though

they are fun, not really working at all

and now that I have some hints from Kerry and Spencer on what to use for the writing

I should enjoy it even more!

Hope you are all able to take some time out to just ENJOY!!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of our Christmas decorations,

our theme is red, green and gold, just in case you didn't guess.

I'll be back with some more before Christmas

xx

Clay Tags

I have always admired the gorgeous clay tags

that the lovely Ness from Marley & Lockyer makes

I finally got around to making some myself

 I worked on them a bit more last night and was so excited to share them that I used my phone to take some pics!

Excuse the quality of the photos, it was dark and I was tired.

   

Some are for me

Some are for gifts

I want to personalise these star ones to use as place tags for our Christmas lunches

That way everyone will know where to sit and they will have something special to take home and use on the tree next year!

What do you think?

Ness has no worries about me taking over her business

but I am happy with the way they turned out.

xx

Raindrops keep falling on my head......

Its raining and it looks like it is set to stay, this is not great news for most of our farming customers as rain during harvest is not very helpful at all!

I am still extremely busy at work and at home but I have been stopping by to visit but not always leaving comments.

I have really been enjoying all of the fantastic Christmas decorating that has been featured lots throughout blog land and we have made a start with our decorating at home.

I will hopefully get organised and share some photos of our home decorationa with you soon! 

In the mean time given the weather we are having I thought I would brighten the day with some of the lastest photos from our garden.

I'm all about keeping it real and that's why you see cobwebs on the pots and chicken wire around our plants (keeps the dog from eating them).

It has nothing to do with me being too lazy to style my shots!

The great thing about all of the rain we are having is that the plants have all really taken off. Sure beats watering the garden with a bucket for an hour each week!

and just to keep it even more real, this is our latest project. Currently on hold because of the rain, however I can see us having to get out in the rain in the evenings after work if we want to get the yard looking presentable for Christmas and all of the festivities that we have planned.

Ooops, sorry about the photo, unlike today it was quite a sunny day when I took that shot!

Hope you are all loving the build up to Christmas!

xx