10 things I have to have in my pantry

1. Tinned tuna - must have for making a quick pasta or rice dish, a salad, or lunch.
2. Frozen vegetables - peas, corn and beans, as well as celery bits.
3. Herbs and spice in small jars so that turnover is rapid.
4. Plain flour and SR flour. Small purchases made (2 bags of 1kg eah) at a time to stay fresh.
   
5. Eggs (always a half dozen at least), milk (UHT), cream (UHT) and butter.
6. Butter - did I mention that? A couple of 250g blocks as well as a few wrappers from old blocks so I can grease pans.
7. Vanilla extract.
8. A surprisingl number of different types of sugar - brown, white, raw, caster, vanilla.
9. Pasta and rice and cous cous and polenta.
10. Cheese - grated in the freezer, block in the fridge. Cheddar, mozzerella, parmasen.
    

10 Craft things that I have on my brain

Yep there are 10 projects that I want to get through before Puggles arrives. Which is in less than 100 days. So plenty of time!

Some of these need me to be using power tools which makes me really happy to!

1. Decorate gumnuts to be silver bells for Midsummer
2. Make a 4 seasons tree
3. Replace the glass in 3 frames - broken by moi, and by the cat, and by the heat dropping one off the wall
   
4. Hang all framed pictures on wall hooks!
   
5. Make a cotton reel board
6. Make wall buttons and decorate the bedroom wall
   
7. Make 2x baby quilts
8. Finish Puggle's Duck Soup jacket
9. Decorate the bed head
10. Put the decals on the kitchen table

What I want to recycle next

I have a tshirt and 4 placemats that I need to do something with. Suggestions? I also have a lot of mdf and ply wood etc to play with.

I warn you - I have a staple gun, and a hot glue gun, and a sewing machine, and I'm not afraid to use them.

I'm going to use the placemats in something, and I have a heap of cork rounds that I want to decorate for the walls that are blank, cream, dull and ENDLESS in this house.

I also have wall plugs so I can hang some of the heavier items. Three have had the glass in them broken after falling off the wall, so I need to replace that glass as well. I used one frame for my FIL's 60th birthday gift:

10 things on my mind

1. December is such a crazy-busy time of year that I sometimes forget to do important things, like pander my feet. That's my plan for today!
2. The back fence to our property faces our back neighbour, who recently built a new pair of houses to mirror the pair of houses that ours is part of. The fence is half down and lying in their yard. We are a naked house. And that means my pregnant belly is in full view of their house and I. do. not. CARE. Fix the damn fence or negotiate with the owner of ours to replace it with something of decent height.
3. When did I get all grown up? Just this last weekend I took my pregnant belly out and went house hunting with Kate and it was weird to be doing all this Adult stuff.
4. But it has got me thinking about buying a house with the settlement that I'll get from the accident on 2007. A little house all of our own? That'd be amazing. I've never really thought about owning a house but now it's on my mind.
   
5. I have one more woman due to birth this year and then I'm done for 2009. Which is sad. I have none lined up for 2010 which is scary.
6. Less than 100 days to go til I'm a mother and really that means nothing to me because what the heck is 100 days? 3 months, 12 weeks, etc etc, are much easier to comprehend.
7. I have painted toe nails and am happy. Despite being 6 months pregnant, it's not that hard to sit on the ground and paint them, or shave my legs. Which I do approximately quarterly ;).
8. I am starting to feel "nesty" and that's amusing! I have gardened this week, and cleaned up Puggle's room, and started some Christmas stuff as well.
9. What I haven't done recently is knit. Which is surprising given that I was not that long ago OBSESSED with it. I think I need to start knitting some baby things.
   
10. I have conquered my ipod - I've managed to rename it, convince its calendars to synch with Google calendar *and* Facebook, get my old music off my old ipod and give it on to TheHusband, and upload music to it with gay abandon!
    

What giftmas means around here...

Christmas is one of those things that we don't really get in to around Chateau Archer - mostly because it's so commercial and because we are not Christian so it's strange to celebrate a festival such as that.

However, we are both Aussies and it is such a core part of our culture that it's hard not to enjoy bits of it and to be caught up in it. For example, I love singing carols because I'm a soprano, and I love the descants, and it's fun. But some of the words are annoying, and some of the themes/stories go against my grain, but in the end it's part of my culture still.

So we kind of have a hybrid celebration of the end of the year. We do gifts, but it is minimal and not hugely over the top, and limited to close family and friends. Not-so-close family and friends get a card, or something small and foodie. This year I'm planning on making vanilla sugar, and some gingerbread people, and maybe more lemon butter if I can get my hands on lots of jars.

I also like to craft for Christmas - this year I'm planning on making modern paper ornaments from Design Sponge, and decorating some pine cones for wall art, and scenting some for a centrepiece. I also want to make a wreath, and put it on our door. I don't want snow-themed goodies, or snowflakes etc as it doesn't snow here, and it is hot during summer so it's not true to form - but I do want some colour and theme around here! Maybe something like a puzzle piece wreath, or else a pine cone one, or a ribbon one?

We actually celebrate the summer solstice more than Christmas anyway. The solstice is also someone's birthday this year, and the day after the Carols by Candlelight that I'm arranging people to attend because it's fun. It's about the longest day of the year and the turning of the seasons and the celebrations that should surround that. It's about eating food that is in season (oh cherries, how I love thee!) and being with people who've made the year what it was.

Part of thinking about this is because next Christmas, we'll have a Puggle to bring into this. We are leaning towards a toy-free giftmas approach, and a focus on what we are celebrating rather than what others are celebrating. It's also about family and friends and what makes us part of a community.

Traditionally for us, we go to the Adelaide Rowing Club on Christmas morning and carol to raise money for our choir. Then we go home, pop a roast in the crock pot, veges in another, and then relax on the couch with "Love, Actually". Then we open the house from about 2pm for any waifs, visitors, travellers, Christmas orphans or those that are between functions (after lunch and before dinner). That carries on into the night when we fire up the bbq and have a progressive dinner, and my sister provides dessert, and we celebrate the end of the year together. Then we'll pack the dishwasher and go to bed.

This year we are doing that but are going to the SIL's place for lunch. Which is fine but by that stage I'll be 30 weeks pregnant and will not be up for cooking, cleaning, dish washing, child wrangling or other activities, especially if it is Hot. I will try to be cheery when spending time with extended family that annoy me, and I will try to enjoy being pregnant through summer.

Oh and lastly - I always buy myself a Christmas present. I pick something I really want, and I buy it and enjoy it. This year I am buying myself some Birkis because I am starting to struggle to do my shoes up, and they are SO damn cute that I will be very happy with them: