'Tis the season to feel ...

...well a bit frazzled really. I thought I had Christmas under control, but a combination of a domestic crisis or two, a ridiculous work schedule, and my child minding arrangements falling through this week is leaving me feeling on edge. A cup of tea and a glimpse at Domino magazine's website is helping somewhat.



Shiny and pretty and Christmas is nearly here!

Now, back to work...

Now is the time for Christmas

While I love my overseas magazines, it always seems a bit ... well, sad ... when the Christmas issues appear in Australian newsagencies in January or February. Which is why I visited the Livingetc site this evening to see what's what at Christmas, at the right time of the year.

Here's what they're featuring right now.





And my favourite image. It's all that white again.


Of course, we do some lovely Christmassy issues of Australian magazines too, including my favourite, Inside Out. This is a particularly lovely issue ... a real celebration of how we do Christmas here.

What I'd like for Christmas please

Now I've got most of my Christmas shopping done (including the shopping I need to help my mother-in-law and brother-in-law do), I've been thinking what I would like for Christmas.

While a new black handbag would be nice, what I would really like is some Bison ceramics. My Mum gave me a beautiful big teardrop vase like this for my birthday recently - it's a grey green colour, and it looks fantastic with glossy green leaves in it.



I would love one of these beautiful platters ... but they are on the expensive side. And anyway, I happen to know that my very generous Mum has already purchased a bright blue platter from one of my favourite shops (Market Import) for my Christmas present.


So I'd be delighted to receive some of these bowls. I already have plenty of bowls in different shapes and sizes, but there's something about the shape of these ones, and their weight, that is so delectable.




I'd be just as happy with a selection of these little milkbottles to put flowers in.

Really, anything Bison would be just lovely. But which of these juicy colours would I choose? They are all delicious.

Christmas is coming

I love Christmas. Always have, and hope I always will.

My love for Christmas comes from being part of a family that has always really celebrated it. We're big on traditions - what we eat, what we do, and what we enjoy. And I'm really enjoying sharing these traditions with my own three children now.


It starts each year with an advent calendar. Over the past five years or so I've been lucky enough to have a Matthew Rice advent calendar - here is the one we have this year.

They don't seem to be available in Australia, and while the Emma Bridgewater site does mail order, her postage costs are ridiculously expensive. (Emma Bridgewater, one of my very favourite china designers, is illustrator Matthew Rice's wife.) My source of calendars is my own family - if anyone is travelling to the UK in the latter part of the year, we always request that they bring several of them home.

And my kids love them too, fighting over who gets to start them each year (my ten year old daughter was the one this year). Although I suspect they would like them better if there was chocolate lurking behind each of the little doors...