Silly Season Update featuring our Elf on the Shelf: ELFIE!!!

Okay... 

so life can get a little crazy around this time of year.

It doesn't lessen one bit my love for it though - the magic and joy of children at this time, the Christmas carols playing at home, the sparkle of my girls eyes as the watch in awe of the Christmas lights.

And of course there's Elfie! 

My girls are MASSIVE believers and they ADORE Elfie and his antics.

Here's a quick photo montage to bring you up to date (I'm such a slacker at keeping you posted!):

DAY 6:

The art of the Elf

Elfie found the toothpaste tube and thought it was the perfect way to remind the girls to be good (whilst still getting to release a little elf mischief at the same time). 

Oh and yes, why thank-you! I do have the most lovely retro grey-green, black and salmon pink vinyl tiles... urgh! I do love retro but just not my bathrooms style of retro! It matches the lovely pink hand basin and bathtub... my bathroom screams renovation - but it needs to get in line and take a ticket! Hopefully our kitchen will be getting a facelift in the next month or so... then, maybe then we'll start the bathroom!

DAY 7:

Just Hanging About

Elfie was taking it easy today... just sitting about in the Christmas tree with a couple of new jingle jangle baubles.

DAY 8:

Sleep Over with Elfie

We were in the city visiting my brother and his daughters and Elfie of course was along for the ride. The girls awoke to find he'd been digging into the Christmas candy and thought the perfect way to introduce himself to the cousins was to spell out his name.

We all had a great day with my brother and his two girls... park picnic for lunch,

 feeding ducks, on the swings and slides and then off to the berry farm to pick some berries...

How gorgeous is this entrance to the wonderful family run bramble farm?

So after an afternoon of berry picking the girls and I set off on the 4+ hour drive home and with a bucket full of berries Elfie got busy that night!

DAY 9:

A berry berry nice pie

1/2 way there

How pleased does Elfie look with himself?

And out of the oven...

Then presented to the girls... oooh, that Elfie knows how to impress!

And so we are almost (okay maybe not really) caught up... but it's super late and I need to be catching some Zzzzz's so I'll continue with the catch up REALLY soon...

If you are ultra keen to catch up on Elfie you can always head to my facebook page: 

SpaNGle*

or follow along on Instagram: 

the_spangler

Take care and I hope you are staying safe, being merry and spreading joy and cheer!!!

xoxoxo

Thrift shop love and an Elfie update...

Who loves thrift stores, op shops, and random second hand or vintage stores?

Oooh, me! ME! ME!!!

Here's some of the latest material objects of my affection, having been found at a local thrift store for loose change!

I'm always curious of the life vintage and retro pretties have had before coming to my hands... oh to be able to hear the stories of previous owners and the tales of the items themselves!

I have a whole HUGE tub full of vintage and retro patterns - one day I will begin to work my way through sewing up each and everyone of them... one day - could be a very long way off, but one day!

How cute is this Japanese strawberry plate? For a single coin I just had to have it!

Oooh... my favourite find of the day: 

A set of six perfect and gorgeous little Yamato China teacups and saucers with the most beautiful pearly finish together with such delicate gold trim and pink accents... so so pretty!

This is why I will always love being thrifty!

Tell me about your most favourite thrift store find... I love hearing of amazing and pretty finds... you know the one that is "Thrift Shop Gold!"

And now onto Elfie... the girls are loving him as much as last year if not more!

Day 4: REINDEER GAMES

Elfie was up to some old, tried and tested Elf games... He turned up on a brand spanking new and sparkly silver reindeer and in possession of a rather bright red lippy!

He of course had painted their noses so they could be reindeer's too!

He left this note for them:

"Oh girls, 

What sweet reindeer's you'd be,

If you'd travel to the North Pole with me!

Look in the mirror for then you will see, 

What games I've played - little mischief me!

Love Elfie"

xoxo

Day 5: DECORATING ELFIE STYLE

Elfie decide to add his own touches of decorating to the tree...

The entire contents of the girls underpants draw now hangs from the tree, whilst our cheeky Elfie surveys his handy work from the air balloon he fashioned from Christmas decorations and another pair of the girls underpants!

Oh boy, that cheeky Elf!

The girls thought it was hilarious and my Big Little Miss M was envious of Elfies view and air balloon - she wanted to try it out herself!

So do you do Elf on the Shelf? 

Time for me to go for now, I must help Elfie get organised for Day 6!

xoxoxox

Time to decorate...

Well, it's all about Christmas... 

Some Chocolate Brownie Christmas Trees I made last week using THIS   brownie recipe - a nice recipe but just a bit too cakey rather than brownie for me... I'm thinking I'm going to try these in a Chocolate Fudge next time!
Candy cane and tree idea courtesy of that Pinterest addiction so many of us have ;)

Elf Radio is playing non-stop here (www.eflradio.com.au)... my girls without even thinking about it have been playing, eating and getting about whilst dancing, foot tapping, humming and singing along to all the carols. Listening to their renditions of Christmas tunes and seeing the happiness that is Christmas oozing from them is simply pure BLISS!

Elfie had been up to his Christmassy fun and games last night and had "trapped" the girls in their bedroom whilst they slept with some genuine elf-made streamer decorations... Maybe it was a hint that we should put up more decorations? It was fun for the girls - they had a great time experimenting with different escape and re-entry methods and agreed that we should put up more decorations... One can never have enough decorations can they?

So as the sun sets on another day you can be certain that the next page of the Elfie diaries is about to be created!

I hope you are enjoying the lead up to Christmas as much as we are here!

Do you do Elf on the Shelf? If so, what has been yours or your childs favourite Elf antic?

xoxoxoxo 

Elfie Diaries... Making the dough!

Yesterday my girls pleaded with me to make some homemade play dough for them... 

I would have loved to but unfortunately it was a crazy day and by late afternoon when I finally found five minutes to cook up some coloured squishyness I discovered that I had only enough salt to make a half batch when I knew they were hoping for a full rainbow selection that would have taken at least 5 times that! Urgh... what's a mum to do?

I promised that it would be a priority in the morning after a trip to the supermarket for salt. 

But guess what?

Elfie does not only have eye's everywhere but apparently ears too... 

The girls awoke this morning to discover Elfie had slaved away (actually, it's a super easy play dough recipe that takes less than 5minutes per batch... but Elfie is only small and his little arms could only stir so fast) and whipped up 7 wonderful big and bright playdough mounds... he then fashioned a wishing well, filled it with coins and scattered a few coins about for some extra girly wishes!

Recipe link for the play dough is from fabulous blog "Musings of a SAHM" and can be found  HERE... the only thing I did differently was to knead in a little extra oil in after it had cooled on a plate slightly just to give it an even smoother/silkier texture. Seriously, the quickest and most simplest recipe for fabulous playdough!

The girls were so thankful to Elfie and spent a good 3 hours playing, moulding, and shaping dough whilst making random wishes...

Then it was all systems go for another hectic day of ballet concert rehearsals... thank goodness my big girl will only be taking classes at one ballet school next year - I don't think I'd cope with another year of multiple ballet schools considering my littlest miss will also start ballet at a different ballet school again come February next year!

There's something I can't quite put my finger on that I just LOVE about this  'inbetween' shot of my beautiful little ballerina.

And of course my little miss never misses a photo opp... She loves to pose, she loves to smile, she loves to dress up... She does NOT love having or keeping her hair done!

And after ballet concert rehearsals some play time in the sunshine was just what we all needed!

See what I mean with the hair? Ah well, hair done or not I still think she's gorgeous - I love how easy a smile spreads across her face and deep into her eyes. ♥

Till next time...

xoxoxo

He's back in residence... ELFIE!!!

♫♪ So this is Christmas... ♪♫

I just love Christmas with children... and my two love their elf on the shelf - Elfie!

Last year December 1st 2011, he arrived for the first time to spend 24 days of fun, tricks, shenanigans and games.

He flew home to the Nth Pole last Christmas Eve with a promise to return and this is the beginning of his 2012 Christmas adventures... 

It all began on November 30th when a mysterious parcel addressed to my two little misses turned up on the doorstep whilst we were out. 

It contained Elfies book and a letter from the star of this adventure himself!!!

This led to a flurry of Santa letters and drawings and a trip to the local post office to stamp and send a letter direct to the North Pole.

Sure enough, Santa's mail service is like no other in the express department, for at the crack of dawn today, the 1st December 2012 there were squeals of delight and excitement!

Elfie was back!!!!

Same cheeky smile and glint in his eyes...

He'd been busy during the night and prepared a wonderful feast for the girls of fruit, waffles and a couple of treats for later in the day.

(I seriously was nearly sprung helping Elfie get ready this morning... the girls were up before 6am!!! Crazy... I think it's time I put a clock in their room!)

So... I wonder what troubles, mischief and fun Elfie will get into this year?

You can follow "The Eflie Diaries" here on my blog (although I am sometimes a little behind - as I am today... grrr blogger was giving me grief!)

or

over on my Facebook business page SpaNGle*

or 

for the earliest peek of the day at Elfies shenanigans follow my Instagram feed: 

the_spangler

Updates coming daily!!!!

xoxoxo

Memory Banking...

There's been some firsts that really need to be documented (especially since motherhood stole my memory and left me with something resembling a kitchen colander instead)...

This big girl lost her first tooth...

The tooth fairy came and left some surprises...

A fairy door with direct access for all fairies from FairyLand to our house!

(At some point I will get a tutorial and supplier list up so you too can assemble and make a customised fairy/elf door of your own)

A teensy tiny fairy written note and the required gold coinage. (The note took multiple drafts and a hand cramp to write out that small but she thought it was so special).

That same big girl is now no longer in training...

No training wheels needed! I would post the video but I need to edit it first... maybe I'll get round to it eventually!

...and tooth number two happened only a short time later...

Ballet concert no.1 for the year has been danced (she attends two ballet schools so her next concert is in a couple weeks)... she was a beautiful snowflake in the Nutcracker production.

Here's a pre-concert shot (hopefully the professional photo's will arrive before Christmas - she looked so gorgeous in her white tutu on the night).

And the little Miss was SOOOO excited to get dolled up and watch her big sister dance on stage. It was so cute, every dancer that entered the stage prior to her sister was met with a head shake and a quite mutter of "nope, not Rara" ..."nope, not Rara" (Rara is her nickname for big sis) and then she leapt to her feet when she finally spotted the one she looks up to so much...

And yes...one day (hopefully soon) I will pull my finger out and get the tutorial done for these cupcakes - I've had loads of requests for it from near and far (the latest from a lovely SpaNGle* follower in Florida)... I will get there soon!!!

The day's are turning to night just far too quick and all the while the weeks continue to roll by and morph into months in what seems like a moment... 
Is this what getting older is all about?

I'll be back soon I hope... 'tis the crazy season (but I absolutely LOVE it)!!!

♥

Memories...banked :)

xoxox