Last post for 2024...

 With just a couple of weeks left in 2024, and my husband on his two-week summer work break, it's the perfect time to write the last blog post for the year. I want to spend these next couple of weeks enjoying each day with him, being free to explore the countryside and our beloved Australian outback on our sunrise drives (when the tropical sun isn't quite so fierce), doing a few home maintenance jobs together (me mostly handing him a cool drink or perhaps a hammer), longer Bible studies after breakfast, trying some new recipes I've been working on, as well as doing a few things on our own - he has started a new online course, and I have a lot of plans on paper for Elefantz that need to come to life. 

We always go for a long drive at the weekend, to quiet places where we can mentally rest and just enjoy God's Creation. Last weekend we drove south to Alva Beach, a protected turtle nesting spot for Green and Loggerhead Turtles.  

With all the rain we've had so far this wet season the cicadas are everywhere, and their outer shells can be found all over the beachside tree trunks. 

We're spending Christmas Eve with Blossom, Ross and the children, and Christmas Day it will be just the two of us - which we do not mind at all. I'll make the main foods for our Christmas Eve gathering, and simpler things for hubby and I to enjoy the next day. Lately we've been watching some 'new to us' Christmas movies, older ones, like "It's a Wonderful Life". How odd that we'd never watched it before, but what a special movie! It will be a regular every year from now on. 

I returned three of my recent reads to the library, and as I mentioned recently, they were all books set in WW2 England. I loved every one! The author of the three novels below is Jennifer Ryan and I highly recommend them all. It wasn't easy finding her books as there's another author called Jennifer Ryan (who writes cowboy romances - no thanks), but eventually I got three from the library, purchased another (The Kitchen Front) and listened to the fifth on audio. 

As much as I loved making those two tiny Tilda bears for Rafaella, I decided not to continue with any more, because, in my computer files I came across a pattern set I bought a few years back for a tiny bunny, with full wardrobe and a bedding basket.

Rafaella loves to dress dolls in a variety of clothes, and she also loves to dress up in the many flower-girl frocks I find at op shops, so I knew just having a change of skirts for the Tilda dolls wouldn't be as much fun as a wardrobe of different clothes for a tiny bunny. The bunny is 5.75" tall...

...and is simply adorable. 

The outfits consist of dungarees, two styles of sundress and a jacket. They are fiddly to start with, but once I'd made a couple I couldn't stop (and there's more traced and ready to sew tonight)...

Adorable, right?! I still need to make the bedding basket, but first I have one more gift to finish for Cully May. Charlie David's gifts are made already, so I think I'm on track to have everything wrapped and ready to bless the grandkids with on Christmas Eve.

If you're after this set of Bunny patterns, I bought them HERE from a blogger in Europe, so you'll need to use her translate bar. She has loads of small doll patterns to choose from, but I can't remember how I bought them. I thought it was through Etsy, but I can't see an Etsy shop button on her blog. 

I long for a Northern Hemisphere winter, but the closest I can get is to use these fragrances in the diffuser each day. My favourites are Balsam Cedar and Winter Pine. It really added to the atmosphere when we watched It's a Wonderful Life. :-)

And I ended up sewing five Christmas cushion covers from that fabric I showed you recently. They added a lovely festive charm to the living/dining room, and with the tree all shiny and twinkling at night, old decorations full of memories scattered around, and some hot chocolate to sip on, I've been able to create a lovely sense of Christmas joy each evening. My husband loves it too. 

We've been listening to Christmas carols over breakfast, and also enjoyed watching the live A Drummer Boy concert on YouTube one evening. I'll link it below...

Well my friends, thank you for hanging out with me again this year, and allowing me to visit through the blog. You continue to bless me with every comment, email and prayer, but before I leave off I'd like to ask for prayer for Blossom and her family. 

Their rental lease expires on January 20th and they have to find a new, affordable rental home before Christmas (due to legalities with notices and deposits etc for real estate agents). Our town only has a 1% vacancy on rentals, so it's near impossible to find a home, and the rents are beyond exorbitant. But we serve a mighty God, a God who loves my daughter and her family. Would you join me in prayer for a miracle, please? 

God bless YOU, and your loved ones. May the Holy Spirit fill your hearts to overflowing with the goodness of Jesus, the hope of glory, and grace beyond measure as you await Christmas and the miraculous celebration of Emmanuel, born of a virgin, God's own Son, our Messiah, King and Saviour. 

Till January, 

Love, hugs and prayers,