:: Christmas - 2011 ::

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

I hope you all had an amazing day filled with love, laughter, family, and friends. Our first Christmas as a married couple was fantastic. We woke up early (not too early though!) and cooked a big breakfast for Mr LG's brother who came over to our house. We swapped presents and hung out for a while before heading over to my parents house to see all my brothers and sisters.

I was given some amazing presents this year. Words cannot even express how loved I felt. Everyone put so much thought and love into each and every present. I love watching people's faces light up with excitement when they open up a gift.

While I adored every present I was given, there was one in particular that I was blown away by. I won't give anything away, because it deserves a post of it's own. I can't wait to tell you what I got!!

Now the count down to the new year is on, and also to my birthday! Can you believe I'll be 29 soon? I can't!

:: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ::

Slowly, but surely, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our little house. Can you believe Christmas is so close? If it weren't for the Christmas decorations up around our house, I wouldn't believe it. It feels like it should be August or something - where did the year go?!

This will be my first Christmas in our house and I'm super excited! We have plans to have Mr LG's brother over for breakfast and we will feast on a delicious vegetarian breakfast ... that I have yet to get recipe ideas for. I really should get onto that soon!

The two nativity scene photos were taken for my sister's church Christmas window. I can't wait to see them in the window soon!

Mr LG and I have decided not to give each other Christmas presents this year because we're going to Melbourne for our one year wedding anniversary in January (see what I mean - where did the year go?!). Instead we have been using our advent calendar to surprise each other with fun little gifts every second day. I can't wait to share with you all the fun things Mr LG has given me!

Two more crafty things I have made lately are a shabby chic star wreath from fabric scraps, ribbon and buttons; and, a wreath made out of lollies! Mmm!

Pretty cool, hey? So far I have resisted temptation and haven't eaten any of the lollies on the wreath! I'm not sure how long my resolve will last though.

The last three photos were taken at my parents house. My Mum has the most amazing Christmas tree. It's a piece of art! I'll share photos of it soon! I love the white LED lights on her tree and hope to get some for our tree next year.

Has Christmas made an appearance in your house yet?

:: DIY - Christmas Tags ::

I've been feeling extra crafty lately, so I channeled my creativity into making some super cute (and easy!) Christmas crafts. I decided to make some Christmas gift tags out of paint sample cards. I drew my inspiration from a pin I saw on Pinterest (by the way, how good is Pinterest?!).

I went to Bunnings and chose some cute coloured paint sample cards, then took out my stamps, corner cutters, Christmas hole punches, and got to work! This is some of what I created ...

You know what the best thing about these gift tags is? You don't even need stamps and cutters, all you need is a hole punch and a permanent marker to write your gift recipients name with. It'll still be super cute and everyone will love it!

Do you have any Christmas crafts you're working on at the moment? I've also made a wreath out of lollies and a shabby chic style star wreath out of fabric scraps and buttons.

PS. This is what my room looked like after the weekend!

:: Happy New Year! ::

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a fabulous New Year! Christmas was a huge day for Mr LG and I. We started the day by opening our presents from each other (he gave me a box filled with crafty things - stamps, ribbons, pens, stickers ... I was in Heaven!) and then headed to his brother's place to spend time with him before going to my parents place for the rest of the day (and night!). We were truly spoilt by our family and friends and our day was filled with love and laughter - what more could we have asked for?

We spent New Years playing Nintendo monopoly with my sister and her boyfriend. I lost ... big time! But, I still had a tonne of fun! I have officially started my holidays and yet, I still feel so busy! My days are filled with wedding crafts and errands while trying to move out of my room. Have any of you tried to move after 17 years of accumulating stuff? Wow, it's a huge task! I'm not generally a hoarder, I'm actually quite good at throwing away/donating things I don't need or use anymore. And yet, I still have SO much stuff! My room currently looks like a bomb has hit it!

It is my 28th birthday in a few days (the 6th) and I can't even begin to think about a way to celebrate it while my wedding 'to do' list still has so many items on it. None of them are huge tasks, but some do take time. My latest project has been stamping cute little brown paper bags for guests to put lollies from our lolly table in.

Can you believe I get married next weekend?! Everything is starting to feel more and more real as we do things like final dress fittings and finalising menus. I can't wait to share the actual day with you all via what will probably be multitudes of photos!

I hope you are all having a fanastic break over the new year!

:: And the winner is ... ::

A big thank you to everyone who entered my Christmas giveaway! Ladies (and gentlemen?) we have our winners!

The winner of this adorable spotty make up bag/pencil case and goodies is Gracie from GracieBellaButterfly!

The winner of the cute tartan make up bag/pencil case is Chloe from Chloe in Reality!

Congratulations ladies! I'll be sending you an email shortly to get your postal addresses.

Thank you all for your generous comments on my wedding invitations. I'm glad you all like them as much as we do! We are currently working on our Orders of Service and a survey for our guests to fill out about us!

:: And so this is Christmas ... ::

So, I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Christmas has crept up on us quite quickly once again! Mr LG and I put up our Christmas tree a few weekends ago and I think it's quite cute. We chose red as our accent colour this year, but we plan to change the accent colour every few years. This weekend we will start wrapping our presents! I can't believe that in two weeks time Christmas will be here!

To celebrate Christmas I have decided to have another giveaway. This time there are two prizes up for grabs!

Giveaway number one is a cute spotty make up bag/pencil case, some gel pens, an assortment of sticker seals, a pearl and glass bead bracelet and a shimmery lip shine!

Giveaway number two is a cute tartan make up bag/pencil case, a little notebook, an oversized paper clip, an eraser, some lip shine and some hand repair creme.

Here are the rules as to how you could win one of these prizes:

♥ The give away will end Friday 17th of December

♥ The give away is open internationally

♥ I will be selecting the winner using a random number generator

Mandatory Entry:

♥ Follow my blog and leave me a comment containing your email address and tell me what your favourite part about Christmas is.

Optional Entry:
♥ Blog about this give away and leave me a separate comment with the link.

To top it off, each prize will also contain a little surprise from Gracie's adorable etsy shop!

Good luck!

PS. Isn't my Mum's Christmas tree to die for?