Hi Everyone!

Hope you had a lovely Christmas and for those of you having family holidays at this time, I hope you're having a really relaxing and wonderful time!

Our lead-up to Christmas was intense with all the things we needed to get done before our holiday break, but we have just enjoyed two wonderful weeks touring around my little island home visiting family & friends and doing several beautiful bushwalks.  The weather in Tasmania was gorgeous, and it was such a relaxing and fun holiday - a real reward after an amazingly busy year.

I wanted to share a couple of happy snaps with you - especially this funny one!

Yes, at Waratah, down in the west, we found a Stamper Mill! But it wasn't the kind of stamper I am used to!  Very interesting piece of history though, and an incredibly pretty little town, with a waterfall right in the centre of town!

We had a lovely three day Christmas party with many of our extended family, which included 17 people at Nan's for Christmas lunch, and then 16 family members on a river cruise for 5 hours on Boxing Day - lovely way to spend some time catching up.  Here's a couple of pics of some of my Nan's Christmas Decorations, they are SO gorgeous!

I love that silver tree with the tiny metallic ornaments - so simple & elegant.  And did you notice those stunning Gladioli?  Dame Edna would love them! My uncle grew them in a plot at his work and brought them home on Christmas Eve.

And how are these two gorgeous little guys?  Just a sample of the lovely things my grandmother has collected to display during the festive season.

A very enjoyable part of our journey was a three night stopover at the gorgeous east coast town of St Helen's where we stayed with my delightful stamping friend and team member, Elaine Hannam and her very genial host husband Fred.  Thank you both so much for a wonderful stay!

Dinner at Fred & Elaine's included fresh fish which Fred had caught - delicious!!

And of course, what would a visit with a stamping buddy be, without STAMPING!!  What a fantastic room Elaine has, and she is SO extraordinarily talented - I will be borrowing stealing lots of ideas! Thanks again so much Elaine & Fred for your fabulous hospitality - we loved our "little house" and will be inviting ourselves back soon!

Well the new year is in full swing already. Thank you all for such wonderful support in 2011, it was an awesome year, and I wish you all a very happy, successful and safe 2012 with lots of stamping in it! I will be back soon - I have lots of things to show you - so many projects from Christmas and some sneak peaks for Sale-a-bration - see you soon!

Kathryn.