2016 Archives - Felicia Thomas

In Blogging/ House Love

Christmas 2016.

Suddenly it is 2017. 2016 has passed by in a blur.

In four days the decorations will come down. December just vanished, we were all busy, but it went by so fast.

Just in case this year passes as quickly I want to document our decorations. I had great intentions of doing this as soon as they went up. The blogging world was full of ‘Christmas decor tours’ in November!

Traditionally we put the tree up sometime around the 10th December. That was my Dads birthday, so it has always been that way. I wanted to put hem up earlier but I lost that battle. I wish I had though because they will be down so soon.

Without further ado, here is our tree:

I’m really glad I bought this last year. It was so much easier to take it out of the attic then go to get a real tree.

I got it from The White Room in Kenmare. There is never really a ‘theme’ but the colours this year were silver , white and a little red.

These white baubles also came from The White Room – in fact I have started a lovely collection from there!

These snowflakes were added this year.

A little bit of gold was added by these Scottie dogs. They are the cards my Mum gave us, but I liked them so much that they will come out again next year to sit in the tree branches.

The Fireplace.

Right next to the tree is our stove. The mantle was decorated with real fir branches and holly. These candles are battery operated but look very real. Real flames and greenery are a dodgy combination! The star garland is made of twigs and I’ve had it for ages, and I made the stockings a few years ago. There is only one here this year, the rest are on the banisters.

I couldn’t find any holly with berries on this year, so I added some red baubles.

The fireplace in the kitchen got a garland and two Christmas wooden houses. The large one lights up (as you can see) because Tim is a genius! You push down on the chimney pot and the windows light up.. too clever for his own good.

We had a lovely time, it rained and we didn’t leave the house all day. Since I’ve given up chocolate, I didn’t over indulge in goodies – unless you count roast potatoes?

We had good fun, good food and most importantly lovely company. I hope you also had a beautiful day.

Felicia xx

02/01/2017 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

Happy New Year!!

Well, its 2016 already, Christmas this year seemed to fly by which was odd when you consider that the build up seemed to start forever ago. We had a lovely time at home, we ate lots and often with family and friends, wine was poured, fun was had and many photos were taken.

I usually love the week between Christmas and New Year, I brim with ideas for projects and organising my home, but not this year. I think its the weather, Ireland (in case you don’t know) is sinking under the rain that has fallen continually for weeks now. We are fortunate to live on a hill so we haven’t had any flooding but my heart goes out to those people whose homes and businesses have been destroyed.

So, at the start of the new year I buy a new diary and a new notebook: the diary is essential, I am a list maker. I make lists of things I must do, phone calls I must make, shopping lists, menu plans, things the kids must do (which is ridiculous because the youngest is 19, but once a Mum….) every morning while i’m having my breakfast I look through it to see what must be done. I never use the phone for saving appointments, i’m strictly a paper and pen kinda girl (plus stationery shopping is one of my favourite things!)

This is a cheap as chips diary from Dealz that I prettied up!

The notebook is for my wish list. Each year for the last five years I have made this list, its for writing your biggest dreams, things that you want to happen, things that seem impossible but write them down anyway and send them out into the universe and see what happens! It is suprising when you read them back what has come into being, not necessarily in the way you thought it would but in an ‘Everything happens for a reason , when one door closes another opens ‘kind of way.

I realise that sounds totally airy fairy, but try and it and see.

Anyhoo, I haven’t written this years one yet, but it will get done soon.

What have I done?…….

Well, Molly’s goddaughter turned one on the 28th December and I have made her a rabbit. It is about half and half hand sewing and machine sewing and once I got the ears on the right way round (which took several attempts) it was finished quite quickly. The stitching isn’t great, but she is one and won’t care 🙂

My December Daily is finished! I only did up until the 26th but its finished. I had all the photos taken but only printed them out every few days so it was the 31st of December before I finally got it done. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

Tomorrow is back to work for most people and a bit of normality will return, i’m going to start my lists now for the coming week, have one last glass of wine and ignore the chocolates that are still hanging around.

I wish anyone who reads this a very healthy, happy and prosperous 2016!!

Felicia xxx

03/01/2016 By felicia