The Dolls House

before

This has been a long time coming!

Well over a year ago I purchased a wooden dolls house while out "treasure hunting" one day. It had just come in to the store and the price on it was only $10. The house wasn't a flash one and to look at it, it seemed to have been well loved by it's previous owner. The curtains, wall paper and flooring choices told me that it had probably been made a very long time ago and I'm sure it was made with lots of love. It was the perfect project for the parents of two little girls!

So I took the house home and it sat and sat...and sat down under the house just collecting dust but recently we decided it was time to give the dolls house a make over, ready to give to our girlies for Christmas. We have spent many hours downstairs painting and sanding and doing more painting while the girls slept - the house had to be pink, Miss M's favourite colour! We purchased the groovy furniture and a little family online and made little curtains and here it is....

....our labour of love - the dolls house.

after

Keep Your Cards

At Easter time we save shiny egg wrappers to use in our art and craft and at Christmas time we save our Christmas cards to use in all kinds of Christmas fun, the following year. This craft is just a simple Christmas collage using Cel Mix glue (or glue sticks) and the pictures from the fronts of cards. Too easy!

Angel Art

I hope you don't mind if am a proud mummy for a moment....

Miss M (4.3) was asked to paint a canvas as part of a display of children's artwork telling the true story of Christmas. Her painting now hangs on the gallery wall of our church amongst a line up of other beautiful paintings. How excited was I!! I had to remember that I wasn't the one commissioned to do the art!! She was so excited too and thought it was wonderful to be asked. As she painted she said, "I am a real artist Mummy!"

Miss M's part of the story was the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she was going to have a baby. Her painting is the first you can see on the left. She used acrylic washable paint and some gorgeous starry glitter to make her painting light and bright. (from the glow of the angel)

Our Nativity

In amongst the madness that surrounds Christmas there is a story that quietens our hearts and makes us think about the true meaning of Christmas - God sending his Son to earth as a baby on that first Christmas.

As a family we try to focus much of our Christmas time celebrations and activities around Jesus birthday and for some time now I've wanted a nativity set to help us do this. A beautiful ornate one on top of a shelf would be lovely but I also wanted one that my girls could interact with. In my days as a carer in child care I would make a toilet roll nativity to bring this story to the kids and last year SquiggleMum posted about the toilet roll nativity her family had made. It inspired me to make one again. So, throughout last week we began creating our very own family nativity together. We had toilet rolls, cotton wool and paper everywhere! Since then, each night as bedtime stories begin, the girls have retold the Christmas story using the little figures. This has been a very special time.

You may like to make a toilet roll nativity with your family so I suggest you head over to SquiggleMum to see how they made their gorgeous one.

We've placed our nativity under the tree with the presents surrounding, so it's a great reminder to us that Jesus is definitely the best gift at Christmas. He brings us love, hope, an inner peace and joy!

Holiday Fun - Wet Chalk Drawing

Soak your chalk in water,

then let the kids get creative on a path, side of the house or chalkboard.

They'll love this activity - the chalk will be much more vibrant in colour.

Five Great Christmas Outings in Brisbane

Sisters at Southbank

1 ~ City Christmas ~

It wouldn't be Christmas for our family if we didn't take a trip into the city to see the huge Christmas tree in King George Square or the spectacular Myer windows dressed to tell a beautiful tale. Take the City Cat in and enjoy all that the city has to offer this Christmas.

Flipside Circus will be performing in King George Square from Monday 20 - Thursday 23 December. The cost is FREE - yippee!

2 ~ Library Fun ~

Brisbane City Council Libraries are packed with Christmas cheer in the lead up to Christmas Day. Check out their latest brochure online. We'll definitely be seeing Domino's Christmas Caper which is showing at several of the library locations across Brisbane. Domino the Jester is a great performer so I'm sure his Christmas show will be fantastic!

3 ~ Swim at Southbank ~

If you're like us and you don't own a pool or you just want to get out and have some extra fun, why not have a dip at Southbank. The water play area is just right for littlies. They will have a super fun time splashing about. We've already enjoyed this outing a couple of times this summer and will return for the free fun very soon.

To find free or cheap parking go to the river road which heads into the Kangaroo Point cliffs. The money you save on parking could go towards some fish 'n' chips or an ice-cream - yum! This is a fun cheap outing for the whole family.

4 ~ Lights Displays and Shows ~

One of our favourite lights displays is found on the western side of Brisbane in Dewar Tce, Sherwood, at the top of the hill. Spectacular lights shows to music run every 15mins from 7.00pm - 10.45 each night. This is one display not to be missed! Of course heading out to see any of the lights around your neighbourhood can bring smiles to the faces of the kids. We love to do this at Christmas just to see the girl's joy.

5 ~ A Walk Through Bethlehem ~

On December 21 - 23 from 6.30pm, Indooroopilly Uniting Church bring home the true story of Christmas as they hold their annual 'A Walk Through Bethlehem'. This is beautiful. It is an event we have set on our Christmas calendar! They have stable animals for the kids to pat, guards, Bethlehem stalls, wise men, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and more from the Christmas story.

Do you know of any other great Christmas outings happening in Brisbane? Please share them in the comments area below, along with any links you may have.

Our Christmas Countdown.....

Oh we're a little slow off the mark with this one but then we're a bit slow with everything at the moment in this house. Apologies for the lack of blog posts. I'm going to have to post when I am able to as I've been out of action quite a bit with a crazy back, neck and head. (Would you believe I put it out having fun with the girls?)

So here is our Advent Calendar for this year. I drew a simple tree design on some green cardboard, added a star, trunk and bucket out of coloured art paper, then raided my scrap booking stocks for lovely papers to make the numbered baubles. Nothing too fancy and nothing too well thought out but it's a hit with my girlies and they loved helping to put all the baubles on. It's almost hard to wait the day out before removing the next number when daddy gets home! I've had to keep our calendar simple this year. It would have been wonderful to come up with Christmas activities and outings but for now we'll just keep it at sharing a yummy treat.

Our Christmas fun has begun!

Do you have an Advent Calendar? What does it look like? Why not share your pics on the Busy Brissy Mum Facebook page.