Christmas Cleaning!

Well, we all know the countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun - EEK!! So, this last weekend, I decided it was time for a pre-Christmas clean up around the Meares' Madhouse. I know, those of you who know me well are now fanning yourselves to recover from the shock as you pick yourelf up from the floor, but it had to be done!

While I was dusting and wiping, all the while bopping away to the funky tunes of Bernard Fanning, I decided it was time to admit Christmas was on its way and toss around a few decorations. I'd decided not to put an actual tree up this year due to lack of space and so hadn't really intended to decorate much at all, but I thought a clean lounge room was worth celebrating, so out came my favourite decorations. WARNING - quite a few photos to follow, so you may want to grab a cuppa and get comfy!


Here's the little scene I've set up on my old pedal sewing machine in the hallway. I know we don't get snow here in Australia for Christmas (well, mostly!) but I painted this little folk art girlie in a class a few years ago and was rather proud of how she turned out!


These angels hang in our bedroom doorway. They started out as Christmas Angels, but I loved them so much that they live here all year round - they just have some festive company around this time of year!


Also on our bedroom doorway at the moment - what's better than one Santa to give pressies - three Santa's - Ho! Ho! Ho!


This Santa has his sack of goodies open ready to leave gifties behind - hmmm ... a holiday to Fiji ... a gazebo for the back yard ... will have to wait and see!


This Santa is supposed to help count down to Christmas day, but do you see his little blackboard it blank? Couple of reasons - firstly, I have a friend who is a little OCD and when she visited me close to Christmas last year and I hadn't changed the number of days for a while, it sent her a little loopy and she just HAD to fix it for me, so I figured I can't get it wrong if I leave it blank! The second reason - I'm in denial that Christmas is so close and if I write the countdown numbers, it will freak me out! Tee! Hee! Hee!


Here's the heart of Christmas - the Nativity scene. I'm still looking for a nice larger one that's in my price range - all the ones I fancy are a little bit too rich for my Christmas budget, so this cute little one will do for now. Oh, and you can see some of our wedding photos in the tri-frame behind it - hmmmm ... there was a lot less of me back then! Tee! Hee! Hee! Oh! And you may not recognise her with all that blond hair, but that's Lynette as my bridesmaid!!


Here is the little Santa scene on top of the TV - don't look too closely, this was my first try at folk art! See why I keep saying I need a few lessons with Kerryanne?!?! Oh and by the way, this is a kit I bought from Kerryanne way before we became blogging buddies! In fact, when I stopped and had a look, quite a few of my Christmas pretties are from Kerryanne's fabulous folk art patterns, painted either by one of my clever crafty friends or me under same clever crafty friend's watchful guidance!


And here is the little angel seen in the photo before, this time at night with her Christmas light shining. I just love the soft candlelight and how it changes colours!

Hmmm ... there were a few more photos than I realised, so perhaps I'll keep some aside for my next post. In the meantime, I think it's time to go and light those Christmas candles! Hope you're having fun preparing for Christmas! Til next time - Christmas Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS