It’s almost Christmas giveaway time!

This year I’ve decided to be super festive and hold a Christmas giveaway. For the next three Fridays, I’ll launch a little competition with some cute little goodies on offer.

There will be some pretty little stationery items from Lantern Studios…

Images: Lantern Studios

…as well as this very regal-looking Décor Luxury Duck from Bud (you may have spotted his twin brother in our bathroom already).

Image: Bud by designroom

I may add a few other goodies into the mix as well.

To enter, all you’ll need to do is leave a comment with your details on each of the giveaway posts. Each winner will be drawn on the following Thursday before the new giveaway starts the next day, and I’ll do my absolute best to get all the prizes in the post before Christmas!

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment or goods for running this giveaway. All items have been purchased independently by me.

Shopping up a storm

One rainy day last week I made a lunchtime trek into the city with the intention on buying one or two extra Christmas presents for John from Typo. My mission was a success! But, I also successfully spent a whole heap more money on stuff for myself. Some of it was stuff that I 'needed', like this stainless steel water bottle.

 

And then there was the stuff I'd intended to buy for myself at some stage anyway, like the matching measuring spoons to accompany my matryoshka measuring cups.

And then there was super-expensive washi tape, which is 'essential' for the wrapping of Christmas presents. As you can see, I've already commenced this process. Mr bunny is looking on in horror.

I also found these cute little Scrabble tile canvases and couldn't resist. John doesn't know about these yet. Surprise!

It's no wonder that Typo don't have an online store. Much like Ikea, they rely on suckers like me to walk in with the intention of buying one thing and walk out with half the store...

New impromptu top

This morning John went out on his bike for a few hours, so I decided to use my time constructively and finally sew the top I'd been meaning make for ages. The pieces have been all nicely cut out for more than a month, but I haven't found the time (or patience) to tackle it.

I used the same pattern that I did for my last top. At the last minute, I decided to do away with the plain black sleeves and instead use some vintage checked fabric that I picked up from Lifeline in Toowoomba recently for 30 cents (yes, 30 cents - and I only used about a quarter of it). Everything went quite smoothly today, and I only needed to unpick a couple of times.

And look! I even took some close-up shots without having to be asked by my readers! The brooch is from That Vintage, and was a treasured birthday present from Shilo earlier this year.

Christmas decorations ahoy!

I currently have these gorgeous decorations on their way from one of my favourite stores, Polli. They are printed on 100% recycled card, which means no guilt for me!

Image: Polli

I'll be using them to decorate the home-made Christmas tree that John and I fashioned from bits and pieces recycled from Reverse Garbage last year.

I'll be doing little brown paper packages again this year, but instead of the brown twine I'll be using this candycane-inspired twine that was in my awesome package of red things from Cerebral Excrement earlier in the year.

What are you doing to prepare for the festivities in your home?

Office pinboard

I'm going to try and make an effort to regularly curate the material on the pinboard in our office, rather than letting it get cluttered. Here is my first attempt...

Four things about four things about me: Part two

 Here's my remaining eight things about me (started in my last post).

Four things I would like to have done but didn’t

1. Paid more attention in biology class. I took biology in my senior years at high school, but I unfortunately did quite a bit of mucking around. I find these kinds of subjects very interesting these days, so I just wish I’d paid more attention back then.

2. Not gone to see Marilyn Manson on his last tour. Sometimes when bands I loved in my youth tour, I go and see them to reminisce. Even though I would not consider myself to be a fan these days, usually when Marilyn Manson tours, I go along and am thoroughly entertained. I wasn’t so entertained last time. He was older and fatter, and the fantasy was gone.

3. Taken more photos at the Big Pineapple. As you can see over at my other blog, recently my friends and I took a trip to the Big Pineapple. What we didn’t know when we went there was that it would actually close down two days later. It had been for sale for a number of years, but was only quietly sold last month. Apparently it will re-open as a car museum before Christmas.

4. Said goodbye properly. My close friend Shilo is currently (as in, right this very second) on a plane home to NYC. It will probably be a while before I see her again. We will catch up on the internet, of course (after all, it is how we met in the first place), but it would have been nice to have done a proper goodbye in person. We saw each other earlier in the week, and assumed we’d catch up again before she left. But we didn’t, so I didn’t get to say a real goodbye. There is a personal story to explain why saying goodbye properly is particularly important to me, but I won’t share that here.

Four things you may not know about me

1. I just got my licence, aged 28.

That’s right. Last month, in fact. I started lessons with a driving school back in March, having been renewing my learner’s permit since I got it when I was 16. I even went all the way and got a manual licence. I’m still not entirely comfortable driving, so I’m yet to venture out on my own. But I’m getting there!

2. I don’t like dried fruit.

I find it disgusting. No sultanas, dried apricots, or even dried goji berries for me. Gross.

3. I have floppy ankles.

My ankles have roughly 50 per cent more rotation than most people’s. I believe it’s somewhat connected to me walking pigeon-toed as a child, and sitting in some rather awkward positions as a kid. I still sit in awkward positions, often on my feet with them all curled up. It still freaks my husband out. Thankfully I have excellent bones, which I attribute to my excessive milk drinking throughout my life, so the many instances of me rolling my ankles have never resulted in a serious injury… yet.

4. I was a teenage goth.

No need to say any more about that one.

Now, it's time to nominate four more people to participate!
1. Tracey from Quiet Paws.
2. Emma from Down to Girth. 
3. Emily from Kuberblog.
4. Sandrine from histoire de soie. 

Four things about four things about me: Part one

So I guess that means sixteen things about me!

Nadiah over at Playing Fair tagged me for this meme, in which I have to tell you all kinds of personal stuff.  I'll give you eight over this post, and the rest later on when I have more time to think! Enjoy!

Four things in my bag
1. Amazon Kindle. I've had it for just over a week now. I've downloaded some free public-domain classics to start, as well as a trial subscription to Time magazine. Isn't it pretty?!

2. B.Sirius wallet. This is from a Melbourne company that I discovered a little while back.

3. Boston umbrella. This is the best umbrella I've ever owned. It was pricey as far as umbrellas go (about $35), but it folds up really small and can't turn inside out and rip - genius!

4. Ear plugs. We go to quite a few concerts, and many of them are pretty loud. These ear plugs are good at reducing the decibel level without distortion.

Four things in my bedroom

1. Birdy bookmark. This little guy is from kikki.K, and he was given to me by a friend.

2. Fez-wearing monkey. This dude belongs to John, and he's had him since before we met. I am unsure of his significance. Perhaps I should ask. He's kind of cute though, and his head wobbles.

3. Childhood art. You've probably seen the vintage suitcases that we have in our bedroom, but I've never shown you what's inside. The red one contains all the paintings and drawings I did at kindergarten and preschool - my mum kept them all in this little case.

4. Sudoku book. As you can see, I got rather frustrated with some of the medium puzzles.

In the next post, I will reveal more serious matters such as four things I wish I'd done but didn't, and four things you may not know about me. I'll also tag four lucky (or perhaps that's unlucky!) people to go next. Stay tuned!