Balloon Pocket - A Fun Addition to a Birthday Card in the Mail

I love to send good old-fashioned mail.  Especially birthday cards!  Today I thought that I would share with you a little something that I added in with the birthday cards that I posted last year.

Organising Cards & Presents for the Year Ahead - 2013

Yesterday I reviewed my presents list for the new year.  I keep a Spreadsheet detailing all of the presents for the year, and this is how I allocate a fortnightly allocation out of our pay that gets automatically transferred into my Presents Account.  The past two Christmas' I have come out with money left in the account (yay!), so this indicates to me that this system works, needless to say that we will be continuing with this system again in 2013.

Two Cute Little Christmas Presents

Pinterest is such a great place to get ideas for presents.  I find it shows ways to turn a gift into something that is thoughtful and much more meaningful.  I am sure that lots of you have already seen either one or both of these little gift ideas, like those floating around on Pinterest, but I just had to share them, as I received both of them from a very special friend this Christmas, and I knew you would love them both!

'Merry Kissmas' Lip Gloss

A Lime Green, Black & Silver Graduation

At the end of the school year, I had the pleasure of being involved in decorating our school hall for the year 7 graduation.  We have a beautiful hall (it is not at all like a sports shed!), so it was a lovely space to work with.  The main issue we had was that there was 200+ people for a sit-down meal, so making such a large space look good was our challenge!

Candy Cane Christmas Piniata

I shared with you earlier this month our family tradition of having a piniata on Christmas day.

This year, I decided to make the piniata in the shape of a candy cane...

My Christmas Cards 2012

This year, I was rather behind with my Christmas preparations, due to the 16 weeks of sickness that I felt at the start of my pregnancy.  Every spare moment was spent resting, so being super-organised for Christmas this year was just not going to happen!

Last year, I put in lots of hours making these handmade Christmas cards.  I loved making them, and I loved giving them.  But this year I needed a solution that was a little less time consuming.  That is when I came up with the idea of a digital Christmas print of my baby bump!

My Christmas Gift Wrapping 2012 (Red and Gold)

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas with their loved ones.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family to share such a special time of year with.

I thought I would share today my gift wrapping from this year.  I obviously chose red and gold to match my 2012 Christmas theme, which I shared earlier this week here.  I always try to keep the wrapping simple, as I always have lots of presents to wrap!  And like last year (you can see that wrapping here), I kept the embellishments flat - so much easier for stacking under the tree and it also means it doesn't get squashed during transporting the gifts...

My Red and Gold Christmas Theme - 2012

Here is a little peek at how things are looking around here this Christmas!

We love our new Christmas tree...

Christmas Baking Treat - Star Cinnamon Cookies

I decided to bake cookies as a Christmas treat for my staff at work.  I found these adorable square pink baking cups at a variety store, and made a simple little label to stick onto the front, which I cut out with my scalloped punch.

Christmas in the Kitchen - 2012

This is how I have brought the festive spirit into my kitchen this year...

Secret Santa - Guess Who? Game

Do you need a creative way to get your Secret Santa to guess who you are?!  At my work, in December we play the game of Secret Santa.  Each day for a week (or two) we provide our Secret Santa buddy with clues (and little presents), so that they can guess who you are.  It is a really fun way to end a busy working year!

I heard about this Secret Santa idea many years ago, and last year, I put it to the test...