I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has lots of big adventures planned for 2010! I have a really good feeling about the year ahead. Lots of changes here with Eloise starting school. It might even mean more time for me once we get our new routine down pat (or am I dreaming?!)!

December slipped by in a flash and was a fun busy end to a great year with lots of laughter and celebrating. It wasn’t me that had the busy social calendar it was the newly five year old!  The montage below shows just a few little snippets from our crazy December.

Top row: Rohan played ‘Santa’ at his work Christmas function and Caitlin was in on the secret calling him ‘Santa Daddy’; Eloise at her kindergarten ‘graduation’ complete with cardboard mortarboard. It was also dress-up day so she wasn’t ‘Eloise’ she was Barbie Thumbelina; more Christmas party fun

Middle Row: Eloise turned five! She had a brilliant party with her friends in the Enchanted Forest at The Magic Castle; Caitlin enjoying some post Wiggles concert icecream in Acland Street; Eloise backstage at the dress rehearsal for her ballet concert

Bottom Row: Eloise enjoying the last day of kindy; Eloise’s highlight was having Murray read out her sign on stage at the Wiggles Big Big Show; Christmas snow in Montmorency, the Recheilt Street lights!

Zine giveaway: Thank you for your lovely comments, I am chuffed that someone is enjoying my little collection of ‘stuff’! I actually have enough Zine’s left to give to all of you that left a comment. I think I have everyone’s address except yours Ali, so if you can email me your snail mail I will send it out in the next week.

I had a lovely surprise this week when I went to check the post office box. Thank you Norma for the beautiful vintage Christmas card and teeny tiny felt bears. Such a thoughtful gesture and I am glad you enjoy my posts enough to come back! I really enjoy sharing the things I find.

I am looking forward to a fun blogging year ahead and hope to be much more prolific than in 2009! Maybe I need to ‘nablopomo‘ more often! Hmmm something to think about…

Set those Butterfly Rocket* fireworks alight, this is my 30th post in 30 days! I have successfully completed the Nablopomo challenge for November! To celebrate I am going to giveaway one of my ‘Cut.Paste’ zines. To enter, leave a comment below. I will leave the comments open for 7 days (I will happily post it internationally).

Now this could be rather embarrassing as I have only had several comments in thirty days (Mum you’re in with a shot LOL!). The comments thing doesn’t really bug me as I do receive lovely emails, verbal validation and the site stats reveal a little of what’s going on. I really do blog mostly for my own enjoyment and to share the things I love hoping that someone out there loves them too!

The zine is small, but like the blog full of goodies that I adore including 6 removable mini postcards and a tiny ‘Clown Fairy’ print….

…and three Butterflyrocket badges! I really do love my badgemaker. Love it!

So go ahead, leave a comment below and you might get it by Christmas!

*a butterfly rocket really is a fire cracker!
** The Cut.Paste edition is a variation of a zine I made in this swap conducted a while ago by Nikki-shell. So if you have one of these already it is pretty similar, but a tiny bit different and it was sold during an exhibition earlier in the year.

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COMMENTS CLOSED!
I’ll get Eloise to draw the winner out of a ‘hat’ tomorrow. Thanks for the lovely comments ladies! I have more posts coming very soon, I’ve been a bit caught up with December festivities over the past few days and have a huge week ahead with a certain little birthday girl turning 5 next Sunday!

…right now…maybe not with the heat we’ve been having…but a nice 25degrees and a gentle sea breeze…yes that would be nice!

{Tathra Beach September 2009}

Featured Gem 21
Real Photo Postcard
‘Beside the Seaside’

Date: Unknown
People pictured: Unknown
Postcard Back: blank/unused

Notes: I really do find seaside images quite delightful. The fashion gives us a fabulous glimpse into the past, and the people pictured usually look like they’re laughing and joking around! Just look at these couples…they look like they’re having a great old time! Visually I also like the figure wading in up to their waist in the background. Off to trace the exact dates by tracing the swimwear fashion….the back of the card is unfortunately blank.

I have a deadline tomorrow and will be up until all hours tonight so I just thought I would sneak this post in with 10 minutes to spare before pumpkin time. This is my lovely Caitlin at Tathra Beach in September. She’s such a gem. She’s not well tonight and has been a bit under the weather since Friday with a tummy bug. It’s been a long week with not much sleep and we all can’t wait until the weekend!

I do however have a treasure trove of goodies to photograph in the morning for Thrifty Thursday. I am quite pleased with my latest haul of little things so stay tuned and cross your fingers I get time to get the camera out tomorrow!