I can start the upcoming year with a relative clean slate. As I have gotten older I have realized I enjoy preparing for endings of things and beginnings as well. If I was to name one thing I have done this year and have been proud of it, it would be that I have started my jewellery business. But the challenge in 2010 is to now prepare and treat it like an actual business and not a hobby. That is the scary bit!!! In recent weeks I have made quite a few sales and am now getting asked for business cards and whether I have a website. Mmmmm none of the above just yet!!! So the challenge for me is to yes design and print some business cards - I am not to fazed about these, I can do this. But a WEBSITE - oh my dear what do I do - do it myself? Pay someone else to do it - Mmmm I have a problem with spending money on something I MAY be able to do. But the question is when will I get around to not only researching but actually doing it!! Every time I start to think about it - it makes my brain hurt!! But I am going to do it - I am not going to let the procrastinator in me take over.
nce I have had a crayfish and I just love love them. We went to the Vic Market to get some other seafood and the Crayfish were $50.00 a kg and Jack got this one from a Cray Boat owner for $20.00 kg. I think it is going to be our Boxing day lunch. 
ugh early on a Sunday morning. Alice gave Shane and I a great little 
Chrissy gift. When you are an AFL football supporter in Melbourne it doesn't matter whether it is "Footy Season" or not it is still good to get something with your teams logo on it. Shane got 3 Chrissy Baubles for "Carlton Blues" and I got 3 St Kilda Saints Baubles". They look very pretty on my tree.
very exciting day today - it has been filled with housework. So I haven't even got a Christmas decoration to show as I haven't taken any photos. So I thought I would just share a coup
le of fabulous pictures from Old Dame Penniwig. I am using some of them on some of my past Christmas's' scrapbooking pages. She does such a wonderful job sharing these with us. Now that Dad is all settled down for the night, Shane and I are going to veg out in front of the telly and watch the latest X-Men Origins - Wolverine movie. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and just enjoying the lead up to Christmas - life is to short to get stressed. 
ellery is that you can ask for a specific design to give someone for Christmas. Well that is what Rachel has taken advantage of. She was wandering the shopping centre looking for a bracelet for ??? (can't say she may read this post) when she remembered she had a very talented Mum ( May as well praise myself). So this is the bracelet I have made for ???. I also had a play with some necklaces - I don't normally do necklaces, don't know why just don't. 
ily Christmas traditions is our "Christmas Lolly (Candy) Tree". I've made it since Shane and Rachel were tiny little humans. It is a polystyrene cone with lots of lollies in wrappers and colourful curly ribbon pinned all around it. I make it about 2 weeks prior to Christmas Day, but the first person to take a lolly from it is Santa on Christmas Eve when he is leaving our gifts. When Shane and Rachel would get up on Christmas morning some of the lollies would have been eaten and a trail of papers would lead to the chimney. Even now with Shane and Rachel all grown up and not living with me anymore, I still make the lolly tree and no lollies are eaten until Christmas Morning. This year I also made Rachel one and she had to make sure Luke (her partner) kept up with our family tradition. One day I will get to make one for Shane and Stacey - it's just a bit hard to get theirs to the top end of Australia in Cairns seeing I am right down the bottom. 
Sydney - thank goodness for the Internet, we are able to keep in touch easily. Today was a pretty good day, I also had a day of getting my Christmas shopping not only organised but also finished. But today did have a downer - I had a little car accident. My poor little car is
a bit sad but I am OK. 
not have a green thumb at all, but this time of the year something happens and the plants take care of themselves. This beautiful mauve rose is called "Blue Moon". It is Shane's latest pride and joy. I just bought the orange daisies and put them into a black pot and they look OK. As for the delicate blue flower - I have no idea what it is - it just came 
up and surprised me. 
inary day until about 6.00pm when I went for a Christmas BBQ with Kath, Di and Lyn. I worked with these girls about 7 years ago. Isn't it weird how when we work with people they tend to become your friends by just working with them. It does
n't matter if you have nothing in common with them, you still socialize with them. It isn't until you no longer work with the girls that you realize which ones are real friends and which ones you really don't care if you ever see again. Kath, Lyn, Di and a couple of others who couldn't be there have become some very dear friends to me and I know that we were placed in the same work environment for a reason - to benefit each others lives. Notice how we all how our own variation of red Christmas shoes (mine were actually orange - but that is sort of red if you squint your eyes. 
le everything). Well that didn't help my headache - there were so many historic reasons, I wished I hadn't wondered at all. A couple of historic reasons were that in ancient Rome, people used decorative wreaths to symbolise victory and eternal love. It's circular shape represented eternity since circles have no beginning and also no end. For anyone out there that has some other meaning I would love to know it. I made my wreath and I really like the two little red robins on it - mainly because they have weird scary eyes. Don't ask me why their weirdness attracts me it just does. I thought I would also share another one of my Santa's with you. This guy stands about 65cm (about 26in) and he has the sweetest Santa face I have ever seen. 
ooks beaudyful!! I find decorating my Christmas a very relaxing, spiritual, reflective time. I have felt like this all my life but more so now that I am older and about 90% of my pieces have some sort of history to them - like my little Christmas Elf that climbs his little ladder at the base of our tree each year - my little Hershey man on a sleigh that I got when we visited Hershey Park in Hershey, PA and my Bonnie & Clyde Gangster Car that I got from Warner Bros. Studios in California. Each piece I place on my tree has my mind wandering, reflecting on some time in my life - both happy and sad, smiling at some of the antics my kids did during their tiny years. Maybe that is why I love Christmas, it is filled with so man
y feelings and memories. 
e room they need, they can spread out all over my shelves. But when December arrives they all have to get a bit cosier to make room for my Santas. My collection of Santas started when I lived in New York and I usually buy a new addition (or 2) each year during the Boxing Day sales. 
nuary. I am a bit of a collector, so I love to collect Santas. This photo is of my newest inclusion - two little Santas on a see saw. OK now where do I put all this stuff???