McCarthy Christmas Wrap Up

I know that now is probably the time to be posting about the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, but in a fashionably late :-) manner I am going to share with you our Christmas celebrations over the last few weeks.

Lets start with a quick wander through Sydney, I happened to be there for work at the beginning of December and only had my phone to snap a few photos.

Our Christmas Party on the 16th was a success (well we think so any way!), we had a great time and we had just over 60 guests join us throughout the night. 

Then we managed a quick break in Gloucester at a place called Damn it Getaways, the first photo is the view from our cabin. It was the perfect spot for some R & R and it is pet friendly so Boss came along.

Christmas Day was in Sydney with my family. We ate lots as usual and then we got creative and decorated some Christmas baubles. We do this every year (mostly) and it is great to look back on our balls from the previous years, especially the kids as their efforts just get better and better. Hubby created a bull dog out of his! Blue and white, can you tell who his Rugby League team is?

Our second Christmas was in Wellington (NSW not NZ), again we ate lots and lots and my stack of pressies just got bigger and bigger, I got so spoilt!

........ and that's a wrap! 

I aim to spend some time catching up on all my fave blogs over the next few days, I can't wait to see what you have all been up to.

See you next year!

xx 

A McCarthy Christmas

Hello my lovely friends,

welcome to Christmas at our house!

Not many words today, just lots of photos

 

We are right at the end of our busy period.

The last day of school and work before Christmas

and our Christmas Party is tomorrow night

We are praying for good weather

We invite lots of friends and family for drinks and nibbles

We make it very casual as we know it is a busy time of the year and we invite people to pop in for the whole night or just stop in to say hello on their way to an event or on the way home!

We don't ask for RSVP's

It makes it a little tricky to cater but that's ok, we love it

 

Tomorrow I have the day to set up and decorate for the party, I am very excited

 

The Wood fire pizza oven is ready

 and we have had a trial run

I will try to remember to take photos

 

Ooops, I lied there are more words than I expected

 

 

Merry Christmas

xx

Christmas Clay Tags

I love Christmas,

I love getting creative and choosing gifts for people.

I love to give thoughtful gifts

and I try really hard to find something special for every one.

I have almost finished my Christmas shopping and I only have a handful of gifts left to get.

I do know what I am buying so it shouldn't take long at all.

 

Before I left for my week in Sydney I managed to make all of the clay tags (as well as a few more ornaments for the tree) and left them to dry.

I used the same air dry clay as last year.

You can read my brief tutorial here

Yesterday I got my new Christmas stamps out and my black ink (wish I had some red ink) and stamped away.

I was a little disappointed as some of the tags weren't quite flat so the imprint didn't work out properly but I was able to use most of them.

 

A little red and white bakers twine and voila!

 

I bought a pack of brown bags from wrap write and used some Christmas paper to decorate them, then I added my clay tags.

What do you think? Did they turn out ok?

Wishing you all a great week.

Hopefully I will be back in a few days with some photos of our Christmas decorations.

xx

PS.  Thank you to all my wonderful  friends  for all of the lovely Birthday wishes. I had a great day. Hubby drove to Sydney to pick me up and take me to Ikea for some shopping. I was very spoilt and my wonderful son made me pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. Love those birthdays that just seem to keep going.

A Minted Winner and Christmas Party Planning

Good morning all, I hope your weekend was wonderful!

We had a great weekend, there is lots going on at our place as usual. I am just so slack at keeping a record of it all!

Hubby finished building the new BBQ area and wood fire pizza oven. Yum! Photos will appear one day! I am not sure that we even got progress shots. I think we get so excited that we just forget.

Our Christmas decorations are up including the outside lights. I really wanted to have some photos to show you this week but alas I am off to Sydney for work tonight and will be away for the rest of the week! If I was more organised I would have taken photos and I could still blog while I am away but I'm not :-(

I am very disappointed. I love Christmas and I am really happy with the way the house is looking.

I have been planning our decor for our Christmas party that is coming up very soon (we'll be serving pizzas).

Here are some of my purchases (can you guess the theme?)

 from Occasion by Design

This cute set is from the lovely Rachael's new online store Gidgi

and these two are from Koko Vanilla Designs

Hopefully it will all come together well.

Last but not least the lucky winner of the Minted give away is

Anna D-B

Congratulations Anna, I will contact  you with the details of your prize.

Thanks to everyone who entered and thank you to all for leaving me comments and stopping by to visit me.

Have a great week.

xx