See you in 2005

Christmas Eve comes whispering in. The wind was blowing through our open window before dawn and heavy grey skies promise a far cooler day than yesterday. I love Christmas Eve – entirely magical.

From tomorrow evening there will be a house guest using this room so I am going to take a blog break and be back in the New Year.

Thank you to those who visited loobylu this year (my fifth year!) and to all who left encouraging, supportive, useful and/or entertaining comments. Thank you for your emails and for buying Christmas cards. Loobylu continues to be one of the most wonderful things in my life just because I feel a part of a bigger community of like minded souls. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday break and that 2005 begins with high spirits, high hopes and belly laughs.

xx

Stocking up

Even though I am spending copious amounts of time painting rooms in various colours in my head and figuring out exactly where the herb spiral might be located in our paved wonderland out the back of our new place… there are still plenty of real world things going on right now to keep us busy and plenty of other things which will occupy the next 60-90 days before we actually get to move in.

This week is all about hurried baking, hurried rough drafts to be sent through to clients, hurried last minute market visits, hurried decisions about salads to serve on Christmas day and hurried pre-christmas get togethers. Fortunately (oh so fortunately!) I haven’t had to hurry my contribution to December’s Month of Softies – I finished it the night before last, calmly sewing the lining into place rather than frantically throwing it together which has been my habit until now. Here it is hanging in the lemon tree. You can see that I have drawn pretty heavily from the cushion I spotted in Home Companion magazine which you can see here. I tried to put my own twist on it but I am not sure how successful that was…

It’s pretty huge – more like a Christmas Ugg boot but perhaps it will last well into Amelia’s teenage years when Father Christmas might be asked for a pair of shoes or a lap top… ok it’s not quite that huge (nor is Father Christmas’s budget), but it’s certainly roomy. Large enough to put in this year’s heavily requested sand-pit toys.

The buttons all come from old family collections, apart from the gingerbread girls who have been in my own personal collection for a few months now. I think they’re sassy.

I used a scrap of my favourite Liberty print as one of the wrapped presents at the base of the tree. I love that fabric. I want to use it as little as possible on the most important projects so that it lasts and lasts (apparently it’s a seasonal fabric which will mean they may not get it again) but at the same time I want to splash it everywhere.

Big-P and I are doing lunch for the family on Christmas day. We have decided to go simple and recognise the fact that no one wants us to heat up the house by doing a roast so we are getting some take-away hot chickens from the very nice local hot chicken shop and then making a treasure trove of salads. My favourite will be the Chickpea Salad with Ginger Dressing – I have posted the recipe here because it’s so good:

Chickpea Salad with Ginger Dressing

1.5 cups of Chickpeas soaked overnight (but I use canned)
salt
4 tablespoons of Ginger dressing
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cored, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

Ginger Dressing (makes a fair bit, keep for later! very tasty)
3/4 cup peanut oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
clove of garlic
2.5cm length of ginger, grated finely

Drain the chickpeas, place in pan and cover with cold water. Bring to boil and simmer for 1.5 – 2 hours or until softened, adding a little salt towards the end of cooking.
Drain thoroughly and place in a bowl.
Pour over 4 tablespoons of the dressing and toss well while still warm.
Leave to cool.
Add the remaining ingredients, toss thoroughly and transfer to a serving dish.

Presents – check, shoes – check, applique – check

I think I may have finished all my Christmas shopping — I am quite impressed that I didn’t do my usual last minute panicked dash out to Chadstone to join the jostling hordes to find totally inappropriate presents for unsuspecting family members. I managed to avoid altogether the tire-kicking crowds that bring out unexpected and quite scary misanthropic feelings. There is still a bunch of baking to be done (any one have a good shortbread recipe?) but otherwise I am all set to go – mostly thanks to the awesome powers of Lotta Jansdotter – whose stationary will suit young and old and is very cool and classy and not too expensive.

Now it’s time to kick back and cut out some paper snowflakes – and enjoy yet another incongruous decoration for a Southern Hemisphere Christmas.

I also went out today and bought shoes. Carrie Bradshaw I am not – I hate buying shoes. I have troublesome feet so the selection of shoes to choose from is pretty limited and mostly designed for old ladies who also have troublesome feet. Luckily there is always something decent from Kumfs but I will have to plod around feeling none-to-glamorous.

I have finished working on the hard stuff (which is the applique) for my contribution to December’s Month of Softies, now it’s just a case of sewing it all up and lining it. It is indeed Amelia’s christmas stocking. I am being extremely sentimental by using bits and pieces of fabric and thread and buttons that mostly mean something. A button from a cardigan from when I was small… some of the previously mentioned thread from great great grandmother’s stash… some gingham from one of Amelia’s old baby wraps and so on.

Meanwhile Eleanor is going bananas on ebay – which is great as it is all going to UNICEF.

Speaking of UNICEF, Amelia, Big-P and I are enjoying UNICEF’s Advent Calendar this year with illustrations by one of my favourites Elisa Kleven. Amelia springs about each morning until we get it down for her so she can open the next window. I used to love Advent calendars when I was little – such a simple delight.

Speaking of delight — Christina has posted photos of the amazing “Dicken’s World” that she and Paul put up every Christmas. I am in awe. Big-P just stopped by my computer to check it out and we have decided we will have to make one next year! Ha! We’ll see. :D