G’day friends!  That greeting rolls a little easier off the tongue today since I have a wonderful friend visiting from Australia. I think it’s so fascinating to read how different people in different countries celebrate Christmas around the globe, so earlier this year I asked my friend Sarah of A Beach Cottage to share how she celebrates the season with her family, Aussie style. 

Sarah’s story is fantastic, she was born and raised in England, but now spends her days with her husband and three children on the sunny beaches of Sydney, Australia. I’ve followed her blog for two years now and secretly wish we could trade lives for a few weeks! I adore her cheerful approach to life and ideas for living simply and we share a love of old furniture and an affection for white paint.        

Sarah’s table is a great example of how it just takes a bit of sparkle and a dash of color to create an effortless table for your holiday home. Please welcome Sarah from Sydney and enjoy the tour of her beach cottage tablescape and Christmas traditions!     

“I love styling for the holidays . . . it sure is one of my favourite times of the year, I get to play around with one of my fave hobbies, decorating and making things look pretty but all wrapped up in sparkly bits too. . . bliss!  

Since our sea change to Australia from London, Christmas and celebrating nowadays for our little family, means lovely long warm summer days and Christmas Day starts off on the beach.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Well here we are again caught up in the the holiday hustle and bustle and how quickly it can get overwhelming. If you were standing in my house right now, you’d laugh at the scene inside. Well maybe not laugh, but be relieved that yes, our house is messy, and so yes, we’re perfectly normal.    

The dining table is covered in artwork and letters for Santa, the kitchen is a mess, there are bins and boxes of holiday decor everywhere, and the living room is unrecognizable because I’ve been moving furniture around again. There’s not a clear surface to be found, but I really don’t care. The messes are evidence we’ve been busy making Christmas memories.

I made a decision a few days ago to not get caught up in the craziness of the season but instead to choose a slower pace. Since Friday, we’ve started each day hiding in winter pajamas under flannel sheets and emerging on our own time, not one dictated by the clock.  We eventually dragged all the decorations out and now they’re all over the house. I managed to plant poinsettias and suspend a few ornaments on the front porch, but that’s it.  It’s simple and pretty, so I thought I’d share. And why not some thoughts on the season to go with it.       

As mothers, we set a pace or a rhythm in our homes. That pace can be chaotic, it can be crazy, or it can be be comforting. As of today, ours qualifies for all of the above, but mostly I’d like to think it’s leaning towards the latter. Sure it’s chaotic because of looming holiday burdens and oh heck yeah is it crazy because of all the holiday decor strewn about. But mostly it’s comforting because of the choice to prioritize our time spent together – it’s more important than anything else.    

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings all, I hope you’ve enjoyed your turkey day with friends and family!  Black Friday is upon us and I’ll probably head out to do some shopping during actual daylight hours. If you’ve had your eye on a Silhouette electronic cutting tool, there’s a great deal that starts at midnight that I want to share with you.   

I’ve owned a Silhouette for over a year and it’s such great crafting tool. Last year, I made a seasonal noel pillow and here is this year’s version made with the very same Silhouette cutting tool.  I found a simple red velvet pillow at World Market for $10 and used the white heat transfer material to make this modern wish pillow.   

For the Black Friday discount, enter the promo code CENTSATIONAL at the Black Friday page for a discount on the Cameo starting at midnight and continuing through the 28th. If you use the code CENTSATIONAL, you’ll get a 40% discount off everything else in the Silhouette online store for crafting (excluding the Cameo, subscriptions, download cards, and gift cards). 

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure it’s readily apparent around here but I have big thing for faux bois. Truth be told I didn’t really know the fancy term for wood lookalike decorative objects until a couple years ago when faux bois starting showing up here and there and all around the design-osphere. I had to recall my long ago lessons from high school French to decipher faux bois meant ‘false wood’.

I’m pretty much obsessed with any decorative object that looks like bark, especially if it’s white, so I thought to myself why not make some faux bois vases for the holidays. For this project, I worked with two products I’ve combined in the past: glass and silicone.  Remember these dessert stands?  I still have them. I learned with that project that silicone and glass bond really tightly together.  For Like Ever.  In Hollywood terms, like Paul and Joanne and unlike Kim and Chris.

I used the same combination of products to create these fun ceramic look vases, but this time I used the silicone to create the bark like look. They turned out pretty cool.

To recreate a similar version, you’ll need four things:  a glass cylinder vase, DAP household silicone sealant, frosted spray paint; and white spray paint or primer.  

Read the rest of this entry »