western birthday party

Ruby's 5th birthday celebrations were celebrated around here Western style.

A perfect chance to get a little creative and put to use all those hours spent browsing on Pinterest!

Red and White Checks

Bandanas and Stetsons

Straw and Twine

Pin the Tail on the Donkey

Skittles

Hoop La

Western Tattoos

Cow Piñata

By the time the birthday cake tower of doughnuts came around, the Birthday Cowgirl

had become a Princess

(as did many of the other little friends - dressing up box explosion!).

A surprise visit from Buster the horse added to the excitement.  All the little friends (and not so little big brother Luca) had rides on Buster around the garden in the sunshine.  Yee Haw!

Turning 5 was so much fun.

the world in a room

So we are still hunting for a new family home here in the US. Who'd have thought that with the housing market at a low that we would still be looking for the right one?  Not me.  Maybe we were being too optimistic?  Maybe we should settle for a home that doesn't tick every box on our list, just most of them?

In the meantime, I'm gathering together all kinds of ideas for when 'the' house comes along.  And I cannot wait to unpack all our stuff again (which has now gone into storage here) and make a great home for our family.

For now, I will keep storing all the ideas and plan rooms in my mind, on my Pinterest boards and in my ideas folder filled with pages torn from magazines.

Starting with Luca's bedroom.....

I'm thinking 'maps'.  A wall covered with a huge world map.  A globe he can spin and plan world adventures.  And possibly a huge chalk board / wall too.

(This one will be perfect for helping us all to learn our US states!)

images via Pinterest

What great ideas do you have for boys bedrooms?

fun birthday party ideas

Fun birthday party ideas to keep in your 'inspiration' file.

via here

via here

Birthday Rules!

Ghosts of Christmas decorations past

Our front door

When the Huzz and I had our very first home and our very first Christmas tree together in 2001 there was a bit of a clash in tree decorating styles.

Over the years, I'd collected all kinds of colourful decorations, new, vintage, from childhood, home made, from parents etc, and had naturally assumed we would continue to decorate our tree in all this finery. And so I did. DISASTER! "We can't have our tree with all that on. It gives me a headache. It completely destroys my karma." were his words! I was more than a little shocked. So harsh! I had been used to this kind of tree ever since childhood (and with extra added tinsel, chocolates and mini-crackers in those days!). But I gave in. And I have to say it was for the better.

Since 2001 (when I completely stripped down the tree and went shopping), our Christmas tree has been dressed in only silver decorations of various size and design and white lights. Our decorations in the living room are just a few huge glass balls in silver and red hanging by the window, and candles, silver branches and pinecones on the fire place. The wreath decorating the front door is made from twigs with silver jingle bells. I love it. And the Huzz's karmer is still intact! Elle Deco eat your heart out!

Those of you who love a fully loaded tree, do not despair. My motley collection of decorations from Christmas's past have not been thrown out or donated, and they do not sit lonely in a box in the attic remembering how they were once admired. Oh no, we have our 2nd tree for the kiddos, which gets the full on treatment now. Not only does it get covered with all my old treasures, but even more now that Luca comes home from school with the most "creative" of decorations imaginable. Candy canes are piled on top of the decorations and if you're lucky and you're standing at a certain angle, you can just about get a glimpse of a little green tree staggering to hold itself upright underneath. But we shy away from the tinsel these days!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way......