We got some fabulous gifts this Christmas - made all the more special by the effort family made to give us things that fitted into our wishes for things that would be environmentally friendly.
Among the gifts were two wood and canvas hanging chairs, some cool recycled fifties records (we have a turntable), some bottles of wine, a box of cherries...now picture all of those together and you'll see how we are relaxing under a shady tree in the beautiful days we have been enjoying.
Every Christmas I swear that I will be more organized next year. We like to make the few Christmas cards we send and make at least some of the gifts. This year I was again making gifts at the last minute - jars of crumble topping with instructions, and I made this terrarium, which was really easy. It is low care and very quick to make, with plants from the garden and pieces collected on beach walks. For locals, the glass is a vase from Spotlight that was on sale for under $20
Boxing Day saw me reorganizing my messy jewellery box after Derek made this cool hanger for all my necklaces. The cute knobs were a find in a charity shop a couple of years ago - I bought bags of them, at less than $1/ knob.
I then fished out some plastic gift packaging (that had been received & thrown out by someone else) to put all my earrings in order.Young Katie thought that was a good idea so promptly did all hers too. (Helping her to see a use in what she throws out).
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| Using plastic packaging to store earrings |
Another cool gift that I got (from Derek) was this battered old tin trunk, which we think looks great, tidying up a mishmash of pot plants.
We are off to Russell tonight to enjoy the other part of his gift which was tickets to NZ band The Feelers - looking forward to that!
I wish you all a Happy New Year. We will be rocking the night away with our band up in Paihia. May 2016 be good to you all.
That all sounds fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI spent an hour or so hand shredding all the paper and cardboard packaging from the kids toys, for the compost, just to ease my conscious a little!!
But I really did feel badly this year about the waste that was created, I will have to see what can be done about that next year. I have asked my mother in law who is one of the biggest present givers, to ease up buying the kids gifts, and to not give us adults any at all, but she won't! It's infuriating!
I spent a while sorting what paper came in too, trimming and folding the neat bits to use next year as Santa only ever uses reused (cheap Christmas) paper. Yes it is frustrating having so much unwanted stuff come in. We are in the Grandparent position now and try to be mindful, but not stingy.
ReplyDeleteThat chair looks so relaxing and fun. Great gift! Happy 2016!
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