A Collection of Thoughts

Advent Calendar DIY

EEEEK we are so sorry – our little Christmas countdown clock stopped there for a minute! So to make up for it I have for you a super dooper way of doing a fun advent calendar for not many dollars.

24 days of little gifts can certainly add up but it’s so fun and the magic of Christmas doesn’t really last that many years so it’s nice to try to keep it as long as you can I think.

My girls are on school holidays for just on one million weeks as of this Friday. They love craft and are always on the look out for activities so I thought I’d see what I could find that was free to download for an activity for them to do –instead of gifts and/or chocolate each day. I bought one of those share packets of Cadbury Crackle pixie elves thingys  and I did already have some little bits put away but when I counted up I still had 9 more empty bags! 

 

So last night I googled and surfed and have now printed some wonderful activities that require very little extra.

Here is my round up

1.  Cupcakes.

I think I may have shared these before they are so cute! The girls will love making these into cards or pictures. I printed these to normal copy paper and Ill add some cardboard into the pack. They can grab scissors glue stick and maybe some glitter from our usual stash
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2. Paper Dolls by Black Apple

I’m going to have the girls make these into a little banner – so I’ll add some string to this. The instructions are printed there too. These I printed to cardstock so they’ll be a bit more sturdy.
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3.  Colouring in

Always popular but this site has some really lovely patterns I’ve printed an extra one for me – I love to colour . We may even play with watercolours for something different.
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4. Sewing cards.

I just printed one for each of the girls – the one I thought theyd like the most.  and I will add needles and thread. These I printed to cardstock.
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5. Lacing Bookmarks.

Also stitching but really sweet are these. They will need a needle a  push pin  -  and some precut cardstock so they can make a few. I’m thinking these would be nice for some grandparents too!

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6. Cootie Catchers

These are all the rage in our house. I actually don’t even know if that name is correct but its what the girls call them. These lovely ones come in a variety of colours and I love their “answers” A bit of trial an error and I realised I was never going to be able to match the sides up properly for printing so I have printed page 3 and 4 to plain paper – they can trim glue and then fold once it’s dry.

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7.Fans. 

I’m a fan of these fans LOL – sorry couldn’t help myself.  Add some dolly clothes pegs  and  thread.  There is even a colour your own version ( saves on in! )
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8.Placeholders.

Two lots of cute as bookmarks I really love the rainbow set – You do need some of those magnet strips so either use old advertising magnets or I found mine at stacks which is a cheapie store.

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9. Christmas Prop.

We  had a photo booth  for the girls birthday and I thought it might be fun for them to do some for their instagram and maybe a Christmas card. This lovely set from O Happy Day has 14 pages of printables . I went with the Santa beard, cups and presents. All you need to add is skewers
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Three of my printables use thread so I couldn’t resist printing these little thread thingys from Wild Olive as well.  

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So there you have it 9 very fun and awesome quality printables to use for your advent calendar.
 
If you are looking for twelve and then do a lolly treat the other twelve days here are a few others which I checked out but don’t need to use.
 
Ornaments for your tree also by Wild Olive

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A lovely owl banner  I would print this to cardstock and add ribbon. (Though just quietly Sof would LOVE this I may have to do it for her just because)

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A set of alphabet books – designed for early writers but I did think about printing a T and S one for them to fill with fun facts about themselves and add some photos.

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Good luck if you do decide to quickly make an advent something J.  A link to the scriptures we use and activities is over here.  My tip for activities is to add them in the night before I so can’t plan ahead a whole month. You can see my advent bags from Ikea over here

Four Days until you need it time to get printing!

PS - I wrap the printables up as I would a gift - and pop a number on them so they know which one to open. So when they look inside the little ikea bags and there is not treat they will know to raid the pressie pile.

 Back soon with our christmas countdown post :)

Smiggle : Xmas 2012 Advent Calendar

via www.smiggle.com.au

 

With over 1,000 other things I must blog about I have just popped in to share this because we are SUPER excited about it in our house.

On my way to Tassie at Melbourne airport I popped into Smiggle to see a clean eater stationary lovers dream!  A smiggle advent calendar! No more cheap yucky chocolate advent calendars in our house

 25 little windows behind which are I am guessing 25 cute as stationary goodies.

 $24.95.

I have made a deal with my two that when we open it each day we all get to play jun ken pon to see who gets to keep the lovely behind it!

Sold out online but I picked up ours from Robina - I know they also have them at Harbourtown - might be worth a call to your local store before you head on in to snavel one.

Happy happy days :)

PS we will still do our activity and scripture advent but we HAD to have this too :)

Clean Christmas Baking

I am not ashamed to admit that I was slightly worried about my traditional Christmas baking and where it would sit with our clean eating. To be honest I'm sure Richard and the girls were too!

While I intend to adhere 90% of the time to our philosophy of clean I wanted to try to come up with some healthy clean eating Christmas recipes. I was thrilled when a Product Talk by Nuffnang opportunity from Lucky came up as it gave me the chance to start playing with cleaning up some recipes for Christmas.

At Christmas time more than ever you want your recipes to work and what I like about Lucky is that they are the leading cooking nut brand in Australia and have been around for 50 years. Lucky almonds are Australian grown – in our very own almond orchards in the Sunraysia and Riverina districts. Can't really get much cleaner :)

This is a take on my favourite Banana Bread recipe I didn't think it could be improved upon but I love the addition of the Lucky Hazelnut Meal.

Banana Hazelnut Loaf

Makes one loaf

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Lucky Almond meal
• 1/2 cup Lucky Hazelnut meal
• 1/4 cup shredded organic coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 small ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 cup Lucky Californian Walnuts
• cinnamon

Method

1. Mix your nut meals, coconut  and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, mix the mashed bananas, eggs, oil, honey with a fork until combined.
2. Add your wet to dry and mix until there is no dry - do not over mix.
3. Pour into a prepared loaf tin - flatten out and press the walnuts into the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake in a moderate oven about 20 - 25 minutes.
4. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave cool before slicing.

Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble is a new product that has just been launched and is a mix of Oven Roasted Almond Meal, Flaked and Slivered Almonds and Oats. ( nothing else  - yay ) - available at Coles.  With peaches being so beautiful at the moment I made this yummy peach crumble - rather than your traditional crumbles laden with butter and brown sugar this one uses no butter and no refined sugar.

So good.  Perfect to take to a BBQ or just to have as a mid week treat because it takes literally 5 minutes to prepare.

Peach Crumbles

 4 - 6  serves

Ingredients

• 4 fresh peaches halved with pits removed
• 100gm Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble
• 2 tablespoons of Macadamia Nut Oil
• Lucky Almond Slivers
• Organic Maple Syrup

Method

1. Place your peaches into a baking dish
2. Mix the Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble and oil together until it forms a crumble consistency. Add a little more oil if needed.
3. Spoon crumble over the peaches.
4. Sprinkle some Lucky almond slivers over the top.
5. Drizzle with maple syrup and bake in the oven for 15  minutes or until golden

Serve with a dollop of yoghurt.

and finally- as I always say dark chocolate is good for you... and it is something we do indudge in - these little Almond clusters are divine. Just one after dinner cuts the I must eat a bar of chocolate craving that I used to get.

Almond Clusters

 Ingredients 

• Dark Chocolate  200 gms
• Lucky Slivered Almonds 110 gms
• Dried Cranberries  100gms

Method

1. Melt the dark chocolate either over a double boiler or in the microwave at 70% power for two minutes.
2. Mix through the Lucky Slivered Almonds and cranberries.
3. Spoon into small patty tins ( I use the alfoil ones because I find they retain their shape well and peel off easily- available at coles in the baking section ). Place in the fridge to set.

 Enjoy with your coffee whenever you need to.

Lucky also have a website with a whole slew of recipes  - these ones are on my to try list

• Honey Almond Toast ( made with my homemade Artisan bread )
• Walnut and Fig Truffles
• Smoked Salmon and Avocado salad  with Hazelnut Dressing ( this is on my dinner party entree make list )
• Fruit and nut slice  (a totally clean delicious treat)

Bliss. Clean eating recipes that are simple to make.  Thanks Lucky and Nuffnang.

 

Saying Goodbye to Tassie

Good Morning :) 

The sun is shining here in rather chilly Tassie and the morning is beginning to bustle around me. Sadly I have to go home - not that I don't love home but I have had such a lovely, lovely time here and it's gone far too fast.

 I have bombarded my instagram stream with photos 

There are so many pretty things to see and do and good food to eat. Mel and I have spent our days drinking tea - about a million cups and catching up on stories. I feel refreshed - good friends have a way of doign that too you. I have learnt to crochet and Mel has mastered some fun things on her computer. We've even managed to fit in some crafting too thanks to the fab projects in the Etzcetera workshop- Jingle Bells. 

But all good have to end and we are already makign plans for me to come back in April - eek it's going to be even colder then!  Double eek I hope Richard doesn't read this before I have a chance to let him get used to the idea :)

 Happy Days - Hope you have had some lovely things happening too. 

Tamar xo

Best Photography Apps

I go through spits and spurts of using different apps for my photos on my phone. I find I have some that stay as a favourite - and then others tend to drop off. I like just a few steps and I love if they integrate with instagram- it's a pain to save then reload- I like fast:)

Today I'm having a crazy to do list day - life happens like that and so I'm snapping more as I want to grab snippets of it.

If you haven't jumped on the instagram bandwagon yet - you so need to - even if you don't do the followers thing and just keep them for yourself - it's an easy way to document the little things.

via pinterest.com

 

So my current favourite apps are

Instagram ( of course ) and I add all my photoaday shots to  Project 365 ( here is an android version )

Typic - simple interface  6 nice filters not too OTT - white words with some nice fonts you can add a frame or not and integrates with instagram

AfterGlow - awesome for contrast brightness etc - as it has a little slider and it changes as you slide. The filters are VERY subtle I like them alot  and it has a cool feature where you can make your photos into a circle with a white background

Snapseed- I really like this - not as simple to use as some of the others and allows for  tweaking to get your photo as you would like- some good filters grunge and frames which I tend not to use - I use this one just for editing. It's also available for desktop too you can see all the details on their website here

Vintique - LOTS of filters - many I don't like but that's because I tend to take everyday moment shots rather than landscape arty ones - so quite a few filters are a bit way out for my liking - BUT - easy interface and easy to use to increase decrease saturation  brightness etc - I use it when I take a "bad" shot and I want to fix it because it captures the moment- and I nabbed it when it was free

Foto Frame - is still my go to app for making compilations - which I do like to do. It's no longer available though.  I'd love some recommendations for another one. I have had a look and found one called Pic Frame which looks good but I haven't tried it.

  Time to start taking some more photos I think ;) Hope you are having a lovely day

 

Christmas Countdown - Advent Candles

It's official with 50 days to go I am excited. I'm making plans for how we are going to spend our day and I'm thinking of changing stuff around. It's all about traditions but traditions have to start somewhere right?

We have always done an advent calendar in some capacity - usually using a scripture to read and an activity to do and then a small gift/ sweet.  I made some  cute bags with pegs and numbers a few years ago and was going to just use them again.

 

 Then I went to ikea. Oh boy - they had these!

 

24 cute cute cute little bags - 10 cm x 10 cm  each side and they even come with the numbers--->  $9.95. I couldn't resist - so this year our advent calendar will be made using these bags.

Each year we also light  advent candles. Mostly we keep it fairly informal - we light them before tea each Sunday- give thanks for our week and pray. This year I have found some lovely scriptures and prayers and have formatted them ready to add to my christmas box so we always have them. ALSO at ikea were these candles ( I really like Ikea candles they burn for an age and are relatively inexpensive) $7.99

While they aren't traditional ( purple or pink and white) I really liked them so this year our advent candles will be these with a red candle in the middle for the 5th Christ candle to burn on Christmas Eve.

 You are welcome to my formatted files. You will need a pdf reader to open them.

Download Advent Prayers

You certainly don't have to be Christian to introduce a little candle ceremony to the month before Christmas. There is something about candles that makes things calmer I think. So maybe this year you might like to grab 4 or 5 candles to light for the month. This year you light one each Sunday night starting December 2nd, then on the 9th you light two, 16th you light three and  23rd you light four. On Christmas Eve you light all five.

Each Sunday has a different meaning- Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. So maybe light and then think or share our thoughts on those themes.

I also found these sweet poems (non religious very santa related and not too much about snow LOL )

My christmas wish, My christmas wish list, Santa Reindeer and Toys of my dreams are lovely. Or perhaps read a Christmas Story.

 If you'd like more ideas for an advent calendar here are some of my favourites

follow the links for DIYS

1 Magnetic Holiday Calendar

2 Advent Tree

3 Printable Advent

4 Envelope Advent

5 Christmas Book Advent

Whatever you do in the month leading to Christmas now is the time to give it a little thought.  Do you do the same thing each year ? or do you change things around?

 Don't forget to visit Mel's blog - she continues her countdown tomorrow.

Next countdown I'll be looking at Teacher gifts - aghh I have many many teachers to organise for. I must get a plan the end of year will be here before I know it.

Art Journalling

For the longest time I have dabbled in art journalling - taking the odd class here and there, creating bits and feeling like they weren't right. I'm not sure who they were supposed to be right for. Everything you read about art journalling tells you there are no rules.

Over the last year I have slept with a notepad or ipad beside the bed and as the night drifts around me and sleep eluded me I would jot. I wasn't sure what I was doing it for.  Just to get it out I suspect. Over the last few weeks I have felt myself being pulled back to those jottings.  The need to create has been growing until it's screaming at me but each time I have sat down to try I haven't been able to make it work.

Suddenly with a few heart felt conversations with some who know me far too well I have found the push I needed.

So I have embarked on a new creative adventure and I am just doing it. I'm playing with digital stuff and using Tangie Baxter's Tangible Plans - they are like building blocks for art journal pages. Tonight I made my first page.

Words - photos and mixed media style papers are going to be my foundations.

If I grow enough pages and I learnt to accept what I make then I hope to turn it into a little book for me to keep. One page done - here's hoping I find many more.

Brooches

I love brooches. No really I do - LOVE them. On cardigans, on a jacket, or scarf, popped onto a bag. It just makes me instantly feel dressed up - silly I'm sure. They are usually very reasonable priced and I think make a perfect gift.  As I was tidying up my little collection I thought I would share my favourites with you.

 By The Sentimentalist  ---- love love love this one.  It's acrylic on top and wood and paint underneath. You can see more of them here

 

Next up is this style - I have one of these in a different pattern popped away for a friend for Christmas - but I'm personally coveting this one  - also by The Sentamentalist  you can see all of the designs here - and yes they are hand stitched ( crazy woman!!)

This one I found while at the Suitcase Rummage market in Brisbane.  Sconnie and Jam a cute cute talentedcouple who were nicknamed  Sconnie and Jam by their families when they were young - then they met - and how gorgeous is it that their nicknames match? Also available on etsy



This fox is from Hanaletters on Etsy and is so beautifully made. She has an amazing number of designs and they start at just $4.50. The girls also have some very cute ones from her too.

Last but not least is from Kirbee Lawler also available on etsy. I am seeing a pattern here - a love of wood and forest animals :)

Do you wear brooches? Please share your favourites I would hate to be missing out!