Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I thought you might like a tiny taste of Christmas in New Zealand, so here is a picture of the Pohutukawa Tree.... here it is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree.

It is a coastal tree and flowers with these beautiful red blossoms every Christmas.

Most kiwis will spend some time sitting in a shade of a giant pohutukawa down at the beach at some time during the Christmas holidays.

Christmas is the start of summer holidays for us - last Christmas Eve our family spent the day at the beach and we're looking forward to lots more of that this year! It's way nicer than last minute Christmas shopping!

So for those of you who are having a white Christmas, chuck some snow around for me and I promise to wriggle my toes in the sand for you!

May you and your family have the most wonderful Christmas ever!


with lots of love from a kiwi girl in New Zealand!!

Christmas is coming early!

It feels as though Christmas is coming early at the Shabby Cottage. Last week I opened a parcel to find the most beautiful little miniatures, which had been sent by Iris (Lataina). She hasn't got a blog for you to read (maybe we can talk her into it!!). I was amazed at all the little things she has made. These are her first attempt at minis, so I am most impressed!

Iris had included some absolutely gorgeous little birdhouses to add to the "birdhouse wall". I just love them. She is certainly a dab hand with the crackle glaze and has an eye for putting colours together.

Among the presents was this absolutely stunning little peg board for the little boy's room. It is so beautifully done! And Iris even went to the trouble to find out what the New Zealand flag looked like and has painted an approximation of it on the sails of the little boat. Iris - thank you so much - this is so lovely.

....AND THEN....

... a couple of days later, before I had even had a chance to put any pictures or thank yous on this blog, ANOTHER box arrived from Iris, with more amazing little minis!

You can see how good she is at crackle paint effects - this little tub is just gorgeous with its pretty pink and blue.

And it is just the right size to fit these flowers! You can also see Jenn's cute little birds egg soaps, which I don't think I've shown you before.

Iris made all these tiny pencils!! They look adorable in the little boy's room.

Here is a photograph showing all the little birdhouses. My father visited in the weekend and said that they were all too close together because birds are teritorial and don't like to use nesting boxes which are too close together, so I have spread them out a bit. I'm not sure if imaginary miniature birds are as fussy as real birds.

It was my friend Dorothee who inspired me to want a wall of birdhouses. She has made some for her cottage (we all made a cottage from the same kit)....this is picture of her cottage wall with its birdhouses.
And when she saw that I had started adding birdhouses to my cottage, she brought these ones round as a gift! Thank you Dorothee!

So you can see that Christmas has come early for the Shabby Cottage, with all of these lovely things arriving recently.

I haven't forgotten the tour of my first dollshouse - I will show you the living room next....