Hut Christmas 2013- decorations are up!

Sorry about the break in Christmas posts. 

Finally on Tuesday I decorated the hut. It doesn't take long. The tree is all ready, we just pull it down out of the loft and plug it in. I added a few new decorations this year, some cute clay angels, another red reindeer, some red wooden hearts and of course the Swedish Santas.

The paper honeycomb decorations are quick to put up too.

A few Santa hats in the breezeway brighten up that room.

Both Maggie and Elisabeth are intrigued by the red baubles.

Hoping to get some baking done over the weekend.

Hut Christmas 2013 - red theme

So if you have followed me on the blog for awhile you will know I am quite fond of the colour red when furnishing the hut.

It is no surprise therefore that my tree and room decoration theme is red and white. 

I put up the rainbow birthday decorations and got a little excited to see the tree up in the loft. Not long now. 

I was a bit busy today, and have only half written the next installment of the birth story. It is quite a long post. I'll catch up tomorrow. Oh and my 52 project post too! 

A flower for Friday: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So yesterday afternoon I totally undid any calm or peace I may have felt after pregnancy yoga by my second attempt at maternity bra shopping. The less said about the bra I ended up with the better. In my defence it was the only one in my size in Hobart and I really needed one. (Rob's verdict was not pretty, when I was trying to get dressed this morning, the words "the most horrible bra ever" may have passed his lips, needless to say I have jumped online to find a less grandma like bra this morning and I am just praying it gets here QUICK).

Anyway, I drove home to find Rob had cleaned the whole house and picked fresh flowers from the garden. This stunning rose was next to my bed. Which instantly made me forget the shopping.


I exclaimed over it's colour and form, and how beautiful it was. I couldn't tell which one is was so asked him. Rob looked a bit sheepish, and said "you're not going to be happy about this, it's Limona". I didn't quite get it at first, as Limona is a pale yellow. Rob had to spell it out, they've mislabeled the rose and I've planted it in the middle of my yellow roses! Maybe I shouldn't be so particular about my rose plantings, but this is going to stick out like a sore thumb! May need some rearranging over winter.
This weekend we're having guests over for lunch on Sunday, so there will be some cleaning, baking and cooking to be done.

Snap it {breakfast}

Those of you who follow me via Instagram will know that Saturday and Sunday at the hut usually start with breakfast in bed for me.
I know I'm spoilt rotten. I do appreciate it. Rob will surprise me with a tray including orange juice or coffee, and depending on his mood/inclination:

• thick pancakes with fruit and yoghurt or maple syrup
• sourdough toast/home made bread/crumpets with honey or jam
• muffins (he I have to say makes the BEST muffins, Baklava, raspberry, jam doughnut, orange, the list could go on)
• home made granola with poached fruit and yoghurt
• a full cooked breakfast.

Whilst I love pancakes and muffins, I have to say I think if I had to make a choice for my last breakfast ever, it would be something savoury. My all time favourite breakfast? Is left over spaghetti and meatballs on toast. 

If anything this collage demonstrates just how much I love our red plates and red gingham doona cover (which is fading because we wash it so frequently!)


Playing along here.

Window seat spruce up

When we finally got our new window seat upholstered last year, we bought two acrylic rugs to cover them up and didn't even buy proper cushions. Just bought some red pillowcases and put them out. After awhile I admit I don't notice these things, but it drives Rob nuts!
A few weeks ago we came up with an easy solution (not sure why we didn't come up with it sooner). We bought 3m of the red gingham fabric and the same length of red polar fleece. Then last weekend my personal seamstress (Rob) hand stitched the two together. I found some red themed cushion covers and we put it all together on Friday. We're pretty happy with the new look. The cover can be removed and washed in the machine easily.

Snap it {red}

I saw today's theme and knew this would be a cinch for me.
Inspired by Sarah and Ally. I decided to do a collage of my favourite red photos.
As you can see red features a lot in our hut, I'm trying to find some more red for my wardrobe too (today I'm wearing a new red skirt).
I look forward to checking out some of the other red links later today.

Playing along here.

Friday Flowers, my phone manner, Christmas and an anniversary

Just a paper daisy today for my Friday Flower pic. Things are still a bit dull at the hut garden.



So somehow my week has disappeared again. Yikes, I've only got two weeks of work left until my month off, so I'd better get my skates on, I still have to write a 12 page newsletter for distribution and organise a media event, as well as hand in my annual work plan (6 months late!)

Last night we had dinner at my parents house. Truthfully, my mother doesn't really like to cook, she finds it stressful, but last night it was nice to just have dinner with them and my brother who still lives at home, rather than the whole clan. She made an "Italian Beef" casserole, and was quite adventurous with the dessert, a orange and lemon flavoured custard with risoni pasta, topped with a meringue with currants and almonds in it. I've never had anything like it before. I quite like the currants and almonds in the meringue, and the custard was tasty.

In our after dinner conversation we started talking about people who dominate conversations, or just simply talk too much or too long on the phone. Rob said, well you can always use Hazel's classic line, - 'well I'd better let you go now, bye.' I was stunned for a second, and asked him do I really say that? Apparently I do, all the time. Driving home, I ran recent phone conversations over in my head, then I asked Rob, do I use it on you? There was a little pause. Yes. I started apologising, I felt a bit sheepish really, perhaps everyone realises this is my captain subtext (to borrow a Coupling term) for I think you're talking too much, I'd like to go now! He laughed at me, and said it was ok, he didn't take it personally, but rather admired that I managed to make the other person feel like they had so many more important things to do! My only excuse is, that I'm not really big on talking on the phone, I don't really enjoy it, so I guess I'm trying to minimise my phone calls.

So with that uncomfortable realisation shared, I'm looking forward to the weekend. We're going to make a Christmas tree. That's right, we're going to get some wire and tape, and a pot with some rapid set concrete and we're going to attach the little led lights to the branches. Fingers crossed it works.
I've been finding little decorations for my red theme. Some little red stocking garlands to hang up around windows, and some cute reindeer for the tree. Also some of my recent online purchases have started to arrive, some stationery love from Kikki.K (had to be very disciplined there) and some wrapping paper and accessories from the Wrapping Paper Co. Oh yes, I've got it bad and there's still 30 sleeps until Christmas.



Indulge me with one more photo. This day last year we drove down to the Huon valley, a little nervous, but very excited, and picked up this ragamuffin. She was a bit naughty in the back of the car, barking and trying to play with a shell-shocked Nigella. We got home and she took over the backyard, claiming all the toys and running around like a crazy thing. She has grown up in many ways, but Claudia certainly lived up to her kennel name "Mistress Very Sassy"! Despite her attitude and chewing habit, she does make us laugh, she is a very good snuggle dog, a companion for Nigella and us, and we wouldn't feel a complete pack without her now. Wonder what the next year will bring?

Window seat = tick

Before



After



Love.

Christmas is coming

I know it’s still October, but I can’t help myself when it comes to getting excited about Christmas. This is our first one at the hut too. So I’ve been thinking, just a little, about how to decorate our hut.

This slight obsession with Christmas decorating is thanks to my Dad. Normally he is quite conservative with his spending and decorating, but come December he changes overnight and no decoration is too kitsch or excessive. On a day early in December he braves their roof cavity to bring down box after box of decorations. Mum’s domain is the tree. Well apart from the lights. Dad always puts on at least 6 different sets of lights on the tree. Over the top? Oh yes. More alarming is when he puts them on the strobe mode, and the 6 sets of lights flick on and off randomly. The tree could cause some sort of fit!

Dad is in charge of decorating the house. Not the outside, the inside. Every surface is Christmasfied. I mean every surface, door handles, light fittings, door and window frames. Foil decorations dangle from every conceivable spot. Christmas ornaments adorn every flat surface. He puts out the main nativity set (yes, every room gets one of it’s own) under the tree. But only the cow gets to hang out there prior to Christmas. The other characters, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the donkey, shepherds and their sheep, and an Angel all turn up on Christmas Eve, whilst the three wise men are late arrivals- they’re allowed in a week later.

I think the most outrageous decoration is the musical robin. Activated by loud noises (such as clapping) the robotic robin jiggles and flaps it’s wings whilst chirping a selection of Christmas carols!

When I was old enough to help my parents decorate our home, my favourite decorations were two aging honeycomb decorations, a pink ball and a green bell. I loved unfolding them and hanging them up from the window frame. Which may now explain my fondness for honeycomb decorations.

On Monday an exciting box turned up from the states. I’ve mentioned before about finding this company, and their amazing array of decorations. Well, I couldn’t help myself, the red ones looked so enticing, I put in an order a couple of weeks ago.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I don’t think Rob realised that not only do the beams hold the living room roof together they are perfect for hanging things from. We may only have a small tree this year, but I don’t think you’ll miss the Christmas season at the hut with these! I’ve promised Rob I’ll never get as bad as my father. I hope.

Mid-week pick me up

Thank you for your reassuring and sympathetic comments on my post about the driveway. I’m feeling better about it, our friend doesn’t think it will get much worse, but he won’t be able to fix it until it dries out. So we’re just keeping an eye on it, and driving on the opposite side of the road! It’s our only access onto the block; we have a very strange shaped block of land, a big triangle with a narrow access (only 20m) at the wide end of the triangle. It just so happens that it’s also incredibly steep and goes over a creek! Anyway, we’re being positive and hoping the wet weather stops soon.

So I thought I’d share a few things that have made me happy this week.

This guy is seriously cute with curly black hair and his white tummy. The “Oreo” bull (really a belted Galloway) lives over the back fence, which is about 10m away from the hut. We have a series of long narrow windows that run down the hall and smaller windows on the back wall of the living room, as well as the breezeway French doors. So as I wander down the hut, I often lock eyes with this dude. He seems quite calm. Just happy to munch the grass and watch the crazy antics of our dogs!

More red in the hut. I just had to go back a buy a few more of these candleholders from Spotlight, ahem like seven more!

Finally, we got around to finishing off a project we started in June last year.

Do you remember the two unloved Blackwood chairs we found at the tip? Rob had sanded them back and oiled them last year. But with nowhere to put them, recovering them didn’t seem that urgent. When we moved to the hut, we popped them up in the loft and forgot them again. Last weekend we picked up some red fabric and Rob pulled out the many staples and replaced the horrible dirty blue hessian fabric with the new bright red. Now I’m thinking I’d like to recover the four pale blue chairs with red too….watch this space.

Hope your week is going well, mine has certainly picked up!

 

Red

My clandestine love affair with the colour red had remained hidden until recently. I don’t think I can deny it any longer. I thought perhaps I’d moved on from red. The hut was going to be cream, blue, and sandy yellow.
But red has been creeping back into our life.

It started when I unpacked our favourite red stoneware plates and bowls. Suddenly, I wanted to serve all our food on them. I know white dinnerware is more chic, that most food looks better on white. But every time I opened the crockery draw (that in itself is quite a novelty!) my hands would pass over the neat stack of white plates and choose the lovely glossy red plates.

Then I remembered a happy afternoon spent in an Italian café at Cottesloe Beach, and loving the look of their bright red napkins on the long communal timber tables, and thinking one day I’m going to have a table just like that. So I picked up a set of plain red cotton napkins recently.

Our bedroom also got the red makeover. We’d always had a cream bedspread. But then we got Claudia. She can’t help herself, she loves beds. But she also loves mud. So we thought this red check would camouflage the worst of the paw prints.

My favourite jam just came back in stock at Coles, I love their gingham lids, as you can tell.

Rob found us these Fler Narvik chairs on ebay, we’d be on the look out for pair, and happily for us they came newly upholstered, in lovely soft red chenille corduroy.

So now that Rob shares my love affair, I can quite openly sneak some more red into the hut. I found these red reindeer tealight holders at Spotlight on Saturday. Kitsch I know, but also beautiful at night. It’s going to take all my will power not to keep using them every day until Christmas.

Finally the window seat arrived last week. We’d oscillated over the colour of our cushions for over a year. Blue? Sandy yellow? I’ve ordered enough samples from Warwick to make a bedspread! But none of them were quite right.

We sat on our makeshift cushions. We looked at the samples. I looked at Rob. “You know what I’d really like?” He laughed, I think he already knew, “I’d like a red check just like our bedspread!” Not quite as elegant as we were originally planning, perhaps a bit clichéd, but at the moment it feels right for our little hut in the country.

Welcome back red, I’ve always loved you.