A VERY CHIPSTER CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone has had an amazing Christmas! I spent mine eating way too much chocolate, baking maple-glazed turkey, watching the Dr Who Christmas special and the cartoon version of The Hobbit, exchanging presents and hosting my very first Christmas party.

My boyfriend, Rob, and I hosted the little get-together at his house. His front patio is beautiful, because his dad has the greenest fingers, and of course the view is gorgeous.

The colour theme was Christmas-y red and white, so I picked out all the red and white lollies from a mixed packet. That's attention to detail, yo.

We had way too much food for such a small party, so much that I actually had a nightmare in which I was worried about where to put it all.

It was a gendered affair. The boys, all dressed in plaid, stuck to the barbie and their beers.

I love how well my friends fit into the colour scheme. Look at Jessie's bow!

Those straws! They took me so long to find, but they're so cute it was worth it. And Rob plays the ukelele, whilst looking adorable.

I made fancy jelly shots! The ones above are Frangelico and cranberry, and Bacardi and lemonade. The ones below (my favourite) are tiny Mojitos complete with tiny mint leaves! I got the idea for them here. They were so time-consuming to make, but also worth it because they looked fantastic.

And I think I have concocted the perfect Summer cocktail. Watermelon juice, with lemonade and rum (Bacardi and Malibu)! Served in jars, because I am chipster.

The night ended with some games. Twister, charades and Trivial Pursuit: Baby Boomers edition (which was insanely difficult). I rigged this game to force the boys into ridiculous positions, I am pretty evil.

It was such a pretty party. Hopefully all my friends had fun, but even if they didn't, at least the pictures turned out nicely. :D

CHIPSTER DETAILS: CHRISTMAS EDITION

This week I:

• Learned how to wrap gifts properly
• Put string lights up in my room (and they're staying there all year)
• Drank from jars with striped straws
• Made Christmas dinner!
• DIY'd a bunch of party decorations
• Made cookies for the first time ever (maple choc chip), they were delicious
• Made lemon tart
• Hung up a creepy mistletoe with Santa ornament (everyone refused to kiss under it)
• HAD AN AMAZING CHRISTMAS!!
  

CHALKBOARD BAUBLES

I promise this isn't a Christmas blog, but it's that time of year and my boyfriend just got his pre-order of that new Star Wars game, so I don't have anything else to do but Christmas DIYs! It seems that the only DIYs I can do are ridiculously easy ones (see Bolo DIY).

Things you will need:
- Blackboard paint
- Paintbrush
- Baubles
- Yup, that's it.

Rob bought me this blackboard paint for my birthday or for Christmas, or maybe not even for a special occasion. Lay down some newspaper, wet your brush in some water and paint over the surface of the bauble. Don't worry if it's streaky, you will have to do at least two layers anyway.

You could probably let the baubles dry more effectively by hanging them somewhere, but I just put them out to dry on newspaper. What this means is that the side that is sitting on the newspaper won't dry properly, but you can fix this up with a second coat. Leave the paint to dry for two hours before a second coat.

My baubles look streaky because I only applied one coat.

Other things to do with blackboard paint! Labels on jars! And this adorable piggy bank (which I didn't paint).

HOLY SHIT, I LOVE CHRISTMAS

Seriously, Christmas is my favourite holiday. I love it better than birthdays and anniversaries. I love it a million times more than New Years (I loathe New Years, it is a sad, sad time).

I am becoming obsessive about the upcoming Christmas party my boyfriend and I are throwing. I have never hosted a proper party before. I think spent about 20 hours sourcing red and white paper straws (ended up getting them here). Just as many hours were occupied making red and white pom poms. And the other day, I purchased a pack of doilies, one of the most versatile of DIY materials.

You can use little paper doilies as gift labels! They really help to cover up a shoddy wrapping job. Where do people learn to wrap gifts? My way of wrapping is to make 5 sides of the box look decent, but if you turn it over, a giant mess of scrunched paper and masking tape will be revealed.

Or thread some wool/string through and use them to decorate your tree! I don't have a tree this year, so I've just hung my doilies around my room.

Also, I bought this one big crocheted doily. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet. Maybe it can be part of a table centerpiece?

I know my boyfriend bought me a camera for Christmas, so in two weeks I will be able to take pretty pictures for this blog, including pictures of the party! I haven't even started to plan what food I am going to serve, I've been too obsessed with making the event appropriately chipster.

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS

There's something wonderfully nostalgic about vintage Christmas advertisements. Especially Coke ads, which some might argue defined our modern visualisation of Christmas - the jolly Santa Claus, the red and white, the perfect little nuclear family. I know that there are people who absolutely hate the holiday season - particularly the commercialism, but that's my favourite part! I love Christmas shopping and the decorating and food. I love walking into a mall in early November and seeing all the Christmas lights up already.

This book, Family Gathering, is one of my favourite Christmas reads. It was some random book I picked up at a Library sale years and years ago, but it never fails to cheer me up with sweet little short stories and poems.

And Rookie has an awesome little playlist of Christmas tunes that I am a little bit in love with.

< http://rookiemag.com/2011/12/holiday-playlist/ >

They left out one of my faves though, minus the date rape allusions (okay fine, I find that part a little bit entertaining).

A VERY DIY CHRISTMAS

For some reason, I seem to have a lot more free time this holiday season, so I've decided to go all out and DIY all my Christmas decorations. It's only the first day of December, and I have already made a paper wreath, some pom poms (for the tree, which I will not be DIY-ing) and paper bunting. Tutorials to come! I haven't decided if I will photograph or illustrate the instructions, because (as you can see) I don't have a very good camera at the mo - just my old iPhone.