Saturday 31 December 2016

Laser Light Show Melbourne Town Hall

Creating family memories is something that is becoming more and more important to me. Over the years we have immigrated twice and have had to say good bye too many times ... Growing up in a Military Family meant that we moved often and said good bye often too but in all honesty I don't remember it being a big deal because my parents always made the holiday's a super special time of the year.  A few years ago the town of Melbourne put on a laser show on the town hall which we attended.  It was wonderful.  These have now been shown a few years in a row and this year was a beautiful show.  We went to town with our home school friends and Paul did a live stream of the projections.  The best part was that my daughter in Sidmouth UK happened to be online and watched the projections live with us!  Such an amazing special moment. 


I blew the dust off my SLR and took a photo story of the lights this year.  I loved how they made a story of Christmas in Melbourne from shopping for the gifts, unwrapping and celebrating.  I couldn't make up my mind to which photo's to share so I will share them all.

Merry Christmas from the city of Melbourne.

The countdown begins ...

Melbourne gets dressed for Christmas


The shops are ready for Christmas and open for trade

People come to town to shop

Flinders Station welcomes people to Melbourne

What's Christmas without lollies?

Gingerbread Village arrives in Melbourne

Gingerbread Village is here

The Nutcracker looks on

Night Falls and all is still ...


Santa gets busy wrapping Christmas


All is quiet and the elves are out to play in Melbourne.

Christmas arrives in the Town Square

The Christmas Tree is up and Santa is here in the Square

Christmas in the Square

Christmas in the Square

Christmas is on the bridge and at the Art Center

Gifts appear beneath all the trees.

Santa and the Nutcracker celebrate


Celebrating the season


I'm looking forward to going into Melbourne to see Christmas next year and hope the laser show will be on again.  It's so beautiful to watch with lovely music.

Blessings
Chareen

Friday 30 December 2016

Looking Back at 2016

Wow I can't believe it's the end of 2016!  My space here on my blog has not been as consistent as I would have liked and this is something I aim to change in the new year.  Looking back I have come to realise a few things.



In Our Home ...
God opened a door and blessed Paul with a ticket to go home to South Africa to care for his elderly parents for two months.

He has also been selected to do a Fellowship with Zoo's Victoria and go to Tasmania in the near future for ten days.

We enjoyed a lovely week of holidays in March and a second week in October.   I'm still very tired which has made me realise that I've taken on far too much this year.

In Our Homeschool We ...
We did attend a few trips this year although I did not manage to share our journey as regularly as I had hoped.  I have heaps of photographs languishing on my computer.  This is something I hope to change in the new year with a few Throw Back and Field Trip posts. One trip we did enjoy was viewing 200 Years of Australian Fashion

We have continued with art class and explored new things each week.  I hope to continue sharing our adventures each week in the Virtual Fridge link up 
 
Personally I have ...
  • Completed my first year as a leader with the Homeschool Review Crew. It has been fabulous getting to know my co-leaders and learning new skills.
  • I have learned how to use Picmonkey and how to blog on WordPress!  
  • My Facebook page finally clicked over to 1,000 likes
  • I've resurrected my photography Instagram account Macro_Passion.

On This Blog 
My top ten posts this year have been
 Top five search terms
A Question to Ask
As I contemplate the year ahead I'm wondering whether to start doing the Homeschool Mother's Journal again.  Is this something you would like to see continued here ?

Blessings
Chareen


Homeschool Review Crew Reflecting on 2016
You're invited to share about your year in review and link up with the Homeschool Review Crew. This link up goes live on Friday 30th December at 8 am EST.

Thursday 29 December 2016

Annual Hand Made Christmas Decorations {Virtual Fridge}

This Week
A couple of years ago my Mom invited us over to do some Christmas art and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to make it an annual event.  This year she blessed us with making two things each! After seeing the hand print snowman ornament on Pinterest I had always wanted to make these but never got around to it.  Well my Mom surprised us with this as one of the crafts.  It was super easy to do too.  It was fun watching the children personalise their snowmen.


Next we made a ribbon and bead tree (Pinterest). These were a lot trickier to make but very satisfying once they were completed.


I also saw these great glass bauble ideas and my Mom surprised me with a bauble to make one.  This was a HUGE challenge.  It was rather interesting trying to get the decorations in through a tiny hole and then glued into place but it was very satisfying once it was accomplished.
Back of the bauble

Front of the glass bauble

Are you on INSTAGRAM ?  You can now use your IG account to link up an show us your art adventures.


This weeks Feature

This week I would like to feature two posts:  The first is a How to Make Swirl Painted Christmas Baubles tutorial from over at Our Unschooling Journey Through Life.


The second one is a Last Minute Gifts You Can Make Today – Handprint Christmas Tree over at Adventures in Homeschooling.


 Your Turn

I invite you to take some photo's of your children's artistic pursuits put them in a post and link up with me I would love to come over and see the wonderful art your children have enjoyed doing.
Virtual Fridge Link Up

Blessings
Chareen

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Add YOUR LINKS from your BLOG or INSTAGRAM


Please NOTE by adding your links to the Virtual Fridge link up YOU are giving the hosts of the Virtual Fridge link up permission to use a photograph from your blog to feature 
your ART along with a link to your art/tutorial.


Thursday 15 December 2016

God's Special Surprise Chalk Drawing {Virtual Fridge}

This Week
Whew it's certainly busy season around here and I had not realised how long it's been since I last blogged! Due to the busyness of the season our art co-op class has not been quite as regular as we all wanted it to be.  We recently completed our second lesson from See The Light DVD: God's Special Surprise.  It's the first time I've used chalk pastels and was rather surprised at what it was like to use.

Top - Mine
Bottom Nathaniel
This weeks Feature
Holiday Stamping on clay tutorial over at A Learning Journey.

Your Turn

I invite you to take some photo's of your children's artistic pursuits put them in a post and link up with me I would love to come over and see the wonderful art your children have enjoyed doing.
Virtual Fridge Link Up

Blessings
Chareen

Connect with me
 Facebook Google+ Pinterest Instagram YouTube RSS Feed


Your hosts are


Add YOUR LINKS from your BLOG or INSTAGRAM


Please NOTE by adding your links to the Virtual Fridge link up YOU are giving the hosts of the Virtual Fridge link up permission to use a photograph from your blog to feature 
your ART along with a link to your art/tutorial.