The upcoming festive party season

I'm getting back on track (finally!) and been checking out what has been happening in the jewellery world.

There have been a few star-studded events recently and I was pleased to see the gals at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards glammed it up and donned their jewels! And the First Lady's (Michelle Obama's) appearance on the cover of the US Glamour magazine has her frocked up for the party season wearing a big statement necklace.

Yes, unbelievably the festive party season is just around the corner. Eeek. This means our already overfull diaries are going to be even fuller as we work out HOW we can squeeze another Christmas drinks invite in!

I love the opportunity to get dressed up, glammed up and out and about, as out here in the country those opportunities are fairly sparse. But the festive period is different. Everyone starts to unwind from the year, the pressure of school eases, the kids are excited by the upcoming present-fest and all that extra daylight and warm weather has to be taken advantage of!

I must admit to loving the maxi-dress for these events - they hide a multitude of (body) sins, look feminine, are comfortable and are perfect for wearing something sparkly with! The earrings I've pictured above would be great with a colourful dress - not competing with it, but just adding some gleam! Made with pink and regular amethyst they are long and elegant and thankfully light (I find some long styles are just too heavy for me).

If you feel a little worried about the whole party scene, do check out the great post Unleash Your Inner Party Girl at Cherry Mag - lots of great advice!

Have you started to receive your festive occasion invites yet? In fact have you even THOUGHT about Christmas yet - its less than six weeks away now!

Look out here's 2008!

How was your Christmas? Ours was the usual routine, but the children do make it a special time! They were to bed early on Christmas Eve as they couldn't wait for Santa to come, and as expected, he came sometime through the night as their Santa bags had lots of pressies in them the next morning :)

Then there was usual ripping and tearing of paper frenzy before going to my in-laws mid morning... for more ripping and tearing before lunch! The kids played happily with their gifts all afternoon and in fact the whole time since (although I will not be surprised when the "I'm bored" statement is eventually uttered!).

My girls (the twins) are still on a high, as their birthday is just around the corner - on New Years Day. This of course means a huge bonanza for them at this time of the year, although the rest of the year is a little light in the present department!

It is really hard having children with a birthday on a public holiday so close to Christmas (I feel totally sorry for those who have their birthdays actually on Christmas Day!). You want to do something for them that is special, but in our case, everyone is tired after the festivities of New Years Eve and most of their little friends are involved with family things or away on holidays.

Last year we had a pre-party for them the week before school broke up and that seemed to work well. But you still have to do something for their actual birthday too.

We always have a cake (two actually) and have in the past had a New Years Day brunch or lunch with friends and relatives that happen to be around. This year, we are going out for New Years Eve and the children will be staying with Grandma. So we are proposing a BBQ style lunch at our house with the cake afterwards. (This gives us time to sleep in a little and get everything prepared ;) ). I've been looking at what I can cook and found this scrumptious looking recipe on the My Day Off blog. Perfect for a hot summer day when everyone is a little tired!

I've included a picture of a beautifully bright coin pearl bracelet that would be perfect for New Year's celebrations. The colours in the photo are quite true to life and set off beautifully by the silver.