Bringing the Succulents Inside

When I picked out these three succulent plants on Mother's Day this year, I was hoping they would add some life to our overly minimalistic home decor. The man who sold them to us reassured me that succulents were easy to care for and actually preferred to be neglected. 

A few months later, they were starting to appear, well, neglected. This was not exactly the look I had in mind and it definitely didn't create feelings of life and energy. It actually did the opposite. 

I knew they needed some TLC but I didn't have anything to replant them in so I left them alone and the continued to grow.



Then, a couple weeks ago, while having brunch at a local restaurant, I spotted a big, red "SALE" sign in the window of the home decor store next door. We popped inside and I exercised an enormous amount of restraint to walk out with only enough for what we needed.

After an afternoon of repotting, my plants looked happier and I could finally bring them inside to fulfill their original purpose. 

Much better. Now that's the look I was going for - calming and alive.

Around Here (Christmas Edition)

With only a couple sleeps left until Christmas day, our home is finally looking more festive. Our tree is up and there are little decorations sprinkled throughout the house.

The hardest part about decorating in a rental home is finding a way to hang things up without damaging the walls. My solution: 3M Command Clear Hooks. These hooks are strong and clear so they don't stand out too much. 

This year, instead of just leaning against the wall, our stockings are hanging. I can't wait to fill them up, and for the boys to discover them.

Here's our little collection of Christmas cards, most of them addressed to Nathan. Next year, my goal is to send out Christmas cards. 

I would love to send (and receive) photo Christmas cards one day, especially when we move home. It'd be so nice to keep in touch with our friends from all over the world this way.

There's been a fair bit of festive crafting going on around here. Unfortunately, many projects didn't go according to plan but the ones that did were a big hit around here.

Nathan added a little bit of festivity to his room with this tiny tree. Those snowman ornaments were from my mom and they have each of our names on them. Our new baby elephant from Bali Zoo is guarding it this year.

The lines of snowflakes and stars are hanging on a piece of twine, hung across two Command hooks.

This year, we have snowflakes to remind us of the white Christmases from back home. I got the idea for these from this pin, and added my own little twist. Nathan loves these ones that are hanging in his playroom and he's asked for another set to put in his bedroom. 

Andrew did a fantastic job making those snowflakes, don't you think?

I am participating in the #3M Christmas campaign. I received a VISA gift card for this post courtesy of 3M via Digital Parents Collective. I am also in the running to win an iPad3. As always, all opinions are purely my own.

Yellow Burst Cushion

It's been rainy and gloomy for the past two weeks.

I don't even remember what the sun looks like anymore.

All this miserable weather is making the fact that we can't find a suitable entrance table for our place even more depressing, so when I saw some yellow fabric at Ikea, I snatched it up right away. We needed something to brighten up our home.

For my first make-our-rental-homier project, I made a cushion.


I used this tutorial as a guideline and made a few alterations of my own.

I stitched two lines across the opening edges to reinforce it. I like the look of two lines; it looks more finished to me.


I purposely made the case a little smaller than it should be so that the pillow would look puffier and not saggy like some of the cheaper Ikea pillows. Right now, it's a little over-puffy but I'm hoping that with the boys jumping on them and sitting on them, it'll flatten it out a little.


And here it is with my other brightly-coloured cushions. They're not all the same size, but I'm okay with that.

Bits of Christmas

A little while ago, Andrew mentioned that it would be entirely possible for him to be here in Australia and not ever celebrate Christmas. Not because he doesn't want to celebrate Christmas, but because you don't really see signs of it here like you do back home.

First there's the obvious - Christmas is in the middle of summer here. You don't get the first snowfall to warn you that Christmas is just around the corner.

Then, there's the blatant lack of decorations and festive music. You walk down the streets or around the malls and you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find Christmas decorations hanging. The Christmas music is playing so softly in the malls, you can barely hear it. You'd probably miss it if you weren't listening for it.

Needless to say, we've been missing that Christmas spirit this year so I decided we needed to put forth a little effort in bringing the Christmas spirit to our home. And now that Caleb's birthday has passed, it's officially prepare-for-Christmas time!

Here's our tree this year. Nathan's friend actually gave this one to us as they had two since they bought one while waiting for their shipment of house stuff to arrive after their move from South Africa.


It's as tall as Nathan, and if I hadn't been so over-eager with my ornament buying (aka, if I had opened the tree before purchasing all the "baubles"), it wouldn't look so dwarfed.

And here's our reindeer, standing in the middle of our table.


Typically, I'm not a glittery person but we're missing the magical sparkle of snow this year. I couldn't even find fake snow to sprinkle around our reindeer so we had to settle for feathers. Super fluffy feathers.

That's all we have so far.

Now, off to Pinterest to look for more Christmas decoration ideas!