Etsy is mocking me

Why is it that exactly when you are having a financial crisis you find the most awesome stuff ever on Etsy?


I'm also wondering whether my love for all things Swedish came before or after I started working at Ikea? I'm thinking before, but it has enhanced the effect. I went to the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar (fete) in Toorak a few weekends ago and it was fantastic. I wish I had taken my camera so I could show you the amazing things they were selling. I bought a few really beautiful papercut ornaments and decorations for myself and my mum and chowed down on Danish pancakes and Swedish waffles, yum!


I can't wait for it to come around next year and hopefully this time I won't have to go alone because it really is a fun atmosphere to be with family and friends, I strongly recommend it (oh and you get to gawk at all the ridiculously huge and beautiful Toorak mansions which is also fun).

One of many Christmas traditions

StickyScreen, leave yourself a virtual stickynote, I love it!

I know I've been a bad blogger as usual, despite my promises of keeping you in the loop. It seems that once you finish your degree and stop getting AusStudy payments you actually have to work more than one day a week to support yourself, who knew? So I have been slogging it out at IKEA most days, trying to be as polite as I possibly can while explaining once again why it is that we don't provide plastic shopping bags, and why you have to load up your trolleys yourself, and why you can't take the trolleys to the carpark. I try, I really do, but when you've dealt with the same snippy remarks about exactly the same things with every third customer can you really blame me if I don't answer with a smile?


But all that doesn't matter, because it's almost Christmas and I'm only working one day between now and Christmas so I have plenty of time to wrap, bake and shop. Our little flat is a tremendous mess because I either haven't been home or I've been too tired to care about the random mess strewn across all rooms, unfortunately I will have to clean it all before the parents arrive on Christmas day. Shame that.


I thought I might share with you one of the many Christmas traditions I seem to have acquired while living in Melbourne, and it basically involves eating, drinking, and looking at Christmas stuff in the city with one of my fellow ex-hometown compatriots. For the last three years we have ventured into the city to view the Myer windows, the Fed Square advent calender, and the Crown atrium show. This year we followed this with the cheapest and best dumplings in Melbourne from Shanghai Dumpling, my new favourite place to eat in the city, and then cocktails at Cookie which are always huge and amazing (despite the 20 minute wait). It's one of my favourite Christmas traditions despite how increasingly disapointing the Myer windows are and how both Fed Square and Crown seem unable to give up what they have done for the past few years for something new.

One of the other Christmas traditions I have is with my parents and my aunt, every Christmas Eve we watch Carols by Candlelight (in the dark, with actual candles) and drink champagne, eat cheese and sing along badly (they are all tone death) to the carols. This year we are taking it one step further and going to the rehearsals which are on the day before, Mum is packing us a picnic and I'm hoping to have time to bake us up some goodies as well, I can't wait!

Eye Spy what I want for Christmas

Well here we are on the first of December, I put up my Christmas tree last night because I knew I wouldn't be motivated enough to do it today in between gym, acupuncture and packing for ye olde hometown. You may or may not remember but my Christmas tree for the past two years has been a bit sad, a bit lean-y, and a bit small. So we upgraded to an adult-sized tree this year, which means I'm more than lacking in the decorations department. Mum told me just to say it was a 'work in progress' and that it's better to have buy a few nice decorations every year rather than a bunch of cheap crappy ones. I definately agree, we've never been ones for the whole matching ornament department-store looking tree, where's the tradition in that? I can appreciate how pretty they look and how crazy ours look, but these ones are built up over years of memories and milestones.

Since 'This is' wrapped up I've been a bit worried that I might run out of things to talk about on here, and I'm almost out of polaroid film so that also presents a problem. While I didn't always remember to do my 'This is' post it at least gave me something to think about when I was trying to come up with something to post about. So I've decided to jump of board the 'Eye Spy' which is fairly similar, only a bit simpler and open for interpretation. A big thanks to Bug and Pop for hosting it. The first topic 'what I want for Christmas' is so difficult for me to answer, I have a million things I want for Christmas, but I know I won't be getting them. I already know one thing I'm getting after I almost bought it for myself and my brother rushed in and said 'you might want to wait until after Christmas'. So here is a hypothetical list of things I would hypothetically like to have for Christmas:

- new subscription to Frankie mag
- subscription to Dumbo feather, pass it on
- a facial and massage
- a pretty brown bag
- new Kikki K diary
- proper BBQ for the balcony
- food processor and mixer
- a cabinet for my Granny's awesome collection of salt and pepper shakers I have inherited

That's about all, a girl can dream can't she?