YOU are gifted!

Yesterday afternoon, as I was riding my bike up a rather large hill (in an artless attempt to work off an overindulgence of salt-n-vinegar chippies) I passed a church. Out the front was a large billboard and on it was this message:

"Some of God's greatest gifts are packaged as people..."

Given that I was only halfway up the hill, I had a while to ponder this.

And for some reason, it had a lot of resonance with me. People really can be a gift in themselves, can't they? I feel honoured to be blessed with some friends and family who really ought to be wrapped in paper and tied together with string, such is their gift to me, just by being themselves!

And then I thought, wouldn't it be a lovely Christmas gesture to recognise some of the special people in blogland who entertain, enrich, inspire and lighten our lives a little with their words each day?

So I'm creating my own award, it's called the 'you are gifted' award, and I'm going to give mine to a few special bloggers to recognise their gifts. And then I'm going to invite YOU to do the same.

Here I go:

Amanda from The Homely One. In blogland, I am yet to encounter a more supportive, encouraging person than Amanda. I know she visits many of your blogs, and faithfully reads and post comments week after week. Amanda, your gift is this friendship that you have extended to me and to many others. Thankyou.

Sonia from Tied with a Bouw.  You've got to admire this girl for her style - I adore her white, pristine modernist apartment in KL, and this is a girl who would like stylish in a paper bag! A girl with a taste for the finer things in life, she manages to write in such down-to-earthedness to inspire me to enjoy living vicariously through her! Congratulations on your beautiful (and no doubt stylish!) baby girl, Sonia!

Janette from My Sweet Prints. From humble beginnings, I've enjoyed watching Janette grow from a girl with a blog to a girl with a blog AND a thriving online print business! Janette, your gift has been your entrepreneurial get-up-and-go to inspire me (and many others) to just believe in our dream and go for it! Your prints are amazing, girl!

Maxabella from Maxabella Loves. Here's a woman whose posts are always witty, inspiring and written with such honesty. Maxabella's gift is her ability to recognise the beauty around her and motivate others to do the same. Loving your work, girl!

Jess from Life's Little Whispers. There is something organically gorgeous about Jess, and we share lots of the same decorating taste and ideas about living with and creating an environment for children. Jess' gift is in projecting such a positive energy about her and in making others appreciate the simple things in life!

There are so many others I could/should mention... but now its your turn.

It's simple. Just acknowledge 3-5 special bloggers like I have, writing a little line explaining their special 'gift'. Let them know about it, and invite them to similarly spread the joy! If you are the recipient of a 'gift' its always nice to acknowledge the person who sent it to you... but the fun here is in the 'giving', not the 'receiving' Feel free to steal my button above.

Special best wishes to every single person who has ever taken the time to comment on my blog, each of you hold a key to my little diary... where would I be without you? x

Show it Like it Is Challenge... O Christmas Tree!

Everyone knows it's illegal to mount your Christmas tree til December 1 (unless you are a department store -- in which case you have licence to do it in - oh - June ;). But I just had a baby and last Christmas Fern was still too young to understand what Christmas was, so we didn't make too big a deal of it. This Christmas? We're going all out. In truth, I'd barely scoffed the last of my Easter eggs when ours went up (well, maybe a slight exaggeration) and there are even presents under it!!

Which just goes to show how much motherhood has changed me, because in the past I had no qualms leaving my shopping til Christmas eve and wrapping the pressies late into the night... this year, I want to be super super organised and only leave SOME of my shopping til the last second. This year, I want to make gingerbread men. Have my photo taken with Santa. Leave carrots out for Rudolf. String lights around the outside of the house (ooops, already done). Make a Christmas cake. Play dodgy Bing Crosby carols. Watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (for the billionth time, that one never gets old). This year, I'm celebrating Christmas like I've never celebrated it before. Because this time, I've got my little family to celebrate it with, and its gonna be a cracker.

Anyway. So this year, my Christmas tree looks like this:

Tee hee. Yeah right!

My Christmas Tree this year has never looked messier. Or as garish. It's got no colour theme. It's plastic. And it isn't surrounded by snow. But I've never loved it more. Fern and I spent a good hour shopping together for some new decorations because suddenly my sophisticated collection of European silver glass seemed awfully inappropriate. Glass? Nope. Sparkly gold faux handbag? YOU BETCHA!

Here's our tree in all its glory:

Felt stars; sparkly balls; clip-on butterflies, little birds and some twinkly lights (hard to see in pic)... Yep, she's a beauty all right! Our picks for 2010:

Fern's choice...

... and mine!

Now it's YOUR turn!! Would your tree make Santa jealous or is it a mish-mash of  colourful kitch like mine? Do share, do! Mclinky provided below to share your joy. Oh, and please have a look at everybody elses trees and leave a comment, it really does a little extra Xmas cheer! x

'Show it Like it Is' Challenge... are YOU brave enough?

I love all those magazine and blog features where you get to peek into somebodys home to see how they live... doesn't everybody? Its inspiring and I get lots of ideas for my own home through peeking into others'....

But isn't it amazing how shiny and spotless their kitchen is; how their bedroom looks like an Adairs catalogue; how artfully the kids toys are arranged about their designer playroom?

We all know its a facade; nobody lives like that ALL the time... do they?

I will be the first to admit I prefer my home to look like it stepped straight out of the pages of Home Beautiful, and sometimes it does. For about five minutes. But it is next to impossible to maintain for more than an hour... at least while the kids are up!

And so, my friends, I'd like to extend a global challenge to:

Show it like it is when it isn't a showhome!


I know. You'll need to be very brave. But I feel you are up to the challenge! And just to prove I'm not afraid to air my own dirty laundry (so to speak), here's a little peek into my designer kitchen a couple of mornings ago:

I'll admit. It kinda depressed me a little. When my husband leaves for work each morning I always have a little cleaning up to do. But this particular morning, it really took the cake. Last night's dishes piled everywhere, food on the floor, breakfast ingredients all over the bench, coffee-splash up the glass splashback, bits of paper, half-filled bottles of milk, a box of garden round-up and snail pellets and god knows what else staring at me tauntingly, daring me to ignore the spectacle and risk an unannounced drop-in  (the horror!) by a friend or family member. Because we all know unexpected drop-ins only occur when your house looks like the above, right? Clearly, my home was not being photographed for Home Beautiful THAT day!

And now, dear friends, I'd like to extend the 'show it like it is' challenge to YOU!

Just to be extra cheeky, I'm targeting a few yummy-mummies to play along:

Kristi from The Way I See It
Jess from Life's Little Whispers
Tracey from Procrastination Mama
Lizeylou from It's Lizzy Lou
Kalen from K Loves B

Be brave, girls... and if anyone else wants to play, please please do! x