i made: a christmas tree p1.

I am so excited.
It is now officially december, which means I can go Christmas CRAZY!! The wreath is on the door.. and the Christmas tree is now up!

I should start by explaining, ever since morgan and i have been together, each year we make our own Christmas trees.

The first year we were dating, we made a tree out of old phone books. I can't remember why, but my housemate at Tara had a heap of old phone books from work, so we ripped them up, and created this tree.. I looks more like a palm tree..

The next year, morgan found this crazy green wool at the craft store, and so we made a tree using that. It hung awkwardly off the smoke detector in the doorway of my room.


This year, however, our tree is much better than those in the past. This year our tree is amazing.

I love making a new tree each year. I love using scraps and creating something that represents the fun of Christmas..

So, place your bets. What do you think this years tree is made out of?
kim

i see: iphonie

morgan has had his new iphone for a few weeks now and has been taking some sweet shots. I love the ones he gets with hipstamatic. I wanted to share a few of my faves.. so here they are.. enjoy.
kim

we love our church

This week has been a lovely time to be reminded of the beautiful community we are apart of. Our church, Goodlife, is celebrating its 10th birthday as a community centre. The church was founded 22 years ago (interestingly on Kim's 1st birthday) and founded the Goodlife Community centre 10 years ago this Thursday.

Here is a lovely video my friend Grace made for the celebrations..

10 Year Anniversary Celebration from Goodlife Community Centre on Vimeo.

Every time i watch this video it makes me giddy. I love my church. I love this community. I love that I get to be apart of this great thing.

Community is what connect us, and make us whole. I love that we have created a facility that is able to serve our local area, and open our hearts to all around us. This is not a Church with a Community Centre. This is a Community Centre, which is a Church. We have both spent time working in the centre Cafe.

If you are not a part of a great community i urge you to find one, get connected, and love that group.

ps. check out more of graces amazing work here. she is super talented.

5 things...

Danielle from Sometimes Sweet did a guest post the other day and shared 5 things she was thankful for. We thought in the lead up to thanksgiving we would each share 5 things we were thankful for, so here they are...

Kim's 5 things..

1. Opportunities to be creativeI love this time of the year as it gives me so many great opportunities to make pretty things, and share my creations with others. I am LOVING making gifts for my family and friends, and conspiring to create things they will love and enjoy. I also have a great job, which although I am just kinda the administration girl of the Creative Department, I am given opportunities to make creative decisions, and this is great. I am so thankful for my job, and general Christmas cheer.

2. MorganThis would have been number 1 but I didn't want to pull the obvious one out too early, then couldn't help it. As I have said before I have so many reasons to be thankful for my morgan. He encourages me, makes me giggle and gives me all the love and affection I constantly need. I am so thankful that I have a friend who I get to hang out with everyday, and who makes me feel so loved. Yes! I am so thankful I married this man.

3. My scooterBuying a scooter was one of the best decisions I have made. I have no regrets. I love zipping around on my yellow beast. So cheap and easy, but I might talk more about this soon. I am so thankful I made this decision to sell my car and get a scooter.

4. Our homeWhen morgan and I found this little unit we loved it as soon as we stepped inside. It is so perfect for us, and allow us to do so much. We have a craft room, a great dining room for sharing meals, a massive kitchen for creating, and a perfect room you can make dark to watch movies during the day. What more could we ask for? I am so thankful for our home.

5. My familyI have an amazingly supportive family. I love that they have fallen in love with morgan as well and that they all get along. My sister is the best, and I love each moment we share, she is my best friend.
My parents inspire me to do great things, and to think outside of myself, and to make a difference. I am so thankful for my beautiful Family.


Morgan's 5 things...

1. A wife who loves me regardlessIt's only been 6 months since we've been married and it's been a lot easier than I thought. I know, I know apparently the first year is the easiest, but honestly I never would have thought it would be this much fun. I even like arguments. Kim does a few things that really annoy me as I do plenty to her also. But realistically I don't think I would love her as much without these little quirks. I know I can be a pain and the fact that each day ends and begins with big smiles, bad breath and big hugs is amazing.

2. My first iPhoneiPhone 4, thank you for making simple life easier, and allowing me to be creative at the same time.

3. The fact I get paid to do something I LOVEMan oh man do I have the best job, I get to hang out with primary school kids, inspire them, encourage them, play games with them and help them with any problems. I laugh a lot at work and think everyone should spend time with young people to learn from them and be a role model for the next gen.

4. Great friendsWe have made some sweet friends over the last few years. I have also adopted a new family (kims) and they are a lot of fun. It's hard when you get marred other people automattically think you're too busy for them, so to those you stuck around and know they're always welcome round, thankyou.

5. JesusYou help me everyday. Nuff said...

j'écoute : two

This month the release of the infamous St. Jeromes Laneway Festival was announced. Kim and I are frequent festival goers but have never been to Laneway Festival. Last year the line up had, Mumford and Sons, Florence and the Machines, Echo and the Bunny Men, Eddie Current Suppression Men and The XX. I knew little of the lineup but wished I could have gone, regardless. Next years line up was another which I did not know very well, but we made the decision that we would not make the same mistake as before.

Having already loved Warpaint, Beach House and Foals we went out purchase from majority of the lineup. So in saying that, our new favourites are Two Door Cinema Club, Local Natives and most of all Stornoway.

Stornoway - Zorbing from TGC on Vimeo.

We are very excited about the festival, and excited to receive Stornoway Vinyl Beachcomber's Windowsill in the mail very soon. If you have never checked out InSound, you should definitely do so.

Also check out the Laneway line up here.
::morgan::

ps. Matt and Kim have a new album out. check it out. it will make you smile.

i made: christmas wreath

Source image

so last week i saw a post as part of Elsie's Ticks and Treats series that got me very excited. This post was by Elise (thats a little confusing to type) who shares a dyi to make an autumn wreath. Well, it's not Autumn here in Australia, but i immediately decided I would make one for Christmas, and last weekend i did!

So i made went through my fabric box to find as much green and red fabric as i could. there wasn't much there, which made me realise how much i like blue and that i don't have many green things.

I did however realise i have heaps of recycle green bags from the grocery store, so i found an old one getting a bit tattered, and cut that up. Worked great to add some more green to the group.

So this is it, my Christmas wreath. I know its super early to be talking about Christmas, but i am so excited and was inspired so ran with it. Don't worry, i promised morgan i wouldn't put any Christmas decorations up till December 1st, so i took it down after we took a picture, hee hee. But according to the iphone app, there is only 50 sleeps till Christmas. wooo hooo..
::kim::

Second hand/ Handmade Christmas

Source besimo

I love Christmas! It is such a great time for me as I get to gather with my whole family and share joy, memories and kindness. I love giving gifts, (and receiving them) but I hate when this becomes such a big thing for people and it just turns crazy.
This year, as a family, we are going a Handmade/Second hand Christmas. This means all our gifts must be either Handmade (by us or others) or Second hand (from markets, op shops or vintage stores). I am so excited about this and the amazing fun things we will give a receive.
Morgan and I have just started planning what we will create and search for to give to our family and close friends. Hopefully I will be able to share some of it here. I love this so much, conspiring together how we can spoil our friends and make them feel great
::kim::

Source wildolive

Ok, so I hate Christmas....I know you you should not say the word hate, but really growing up christmas was such a weird thing. My mum and dad separated when I was 3, leaving christmas an un-family time. Until my dad remarried and I adopted a very a Australian step family (considering my parents are French). But I never liked christmas because there was always this pressure to see who gave the best gift and just a lot of wasted money on pointless gifts we will not use. Of course in time I became a Christian which now forces me to love Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus. But I was still torn. Kim is like the number 2 fan of christmas (right after santa), she has helped me to get that it's about thankfulness and togetherness, and NOW we get to do a second-hand/handmade christmas......which is what I'm all about. So I'm sure in time...i might grow to at least like christmas.
::morgan::

Our Garden

I have to confess, I am horrible at looking after our garden. It's not that I don't want to I just seem to always run out of time, and never get around it to. Lucky for us, morgan is a bit better with his time, and has been able to keep our plants thriving for many months since we moved to this house. I am so bad at it, that at my insistence to get some flowers in our garden, all but one have died because of my neglect. Woops.
We did however enjoy many months of beautiful lettuce leaves fresh from the garden, and while many other plants are struggling and going to seed, our herbs are soldiering on and keeping us in supply.
Lets see how summer treats them...
::kim::

the little patch next to our front door has been slowly fading. We had a great 4 months over winter and spring, but as it get hotter, our garden withers. Our rocket, lettuce and spinach has gone to seed and bok choy almost all eaten. We roasted 6 beautiful beetroot fresh from the garden but now, in a position that gets only the afternoon sun, it is getting harder and harder to find things that work. I have decided this summer I would grow flowers, that can bear the heat. I chose, in honour of my grandma in the south of France, lavender. Lavender is probably my favourite aroma next to thyme because they remind me of summer in French province. I also found another beautiful purple flower called Skullcap which hopefully will last the hot summer.
::morgan::


This is the view from our back deck. We have a rainforest behind out house. How cool is that?!