Finding a little calm before the "storm"...

This year Christmas will be very low-key for us...

We moved out of our home of eighteen years in October and have decided to finish off the renovations to this place and sell it early next year...

Which means I am actually sitting in the middle of a gutted kitchen as I type this. The only piece of furniture in this room being my desk and the fridge...

The bathroom is half-finished. We have a toilet in there and a shower, getting the vanity tomorrow and a bath some time next week...we have to find one small enough to look good without crowding the tiny space that is our bathroom.

This house is SO small...

Just one of those things, we've had this house for about six years and never realised it just doesn't suit us.


Back to my point - this year we are keeping Christmas low-key...

The tree will go up tomorrow - I have to shift some furniture into the shed so it will fit LOL, and once the kitchen is installed next week I will put out some more decorations on shelves etc...

For Christmas Eve, we will go to my brother's as always. It is my sister in law's birthday and we spend this evening with them every year. Christmas lunch will be a quiet affair, just the four of us and my parents in law, in the afternoon they will go to my brother in law's place and we will get busy packing for our week away. We are going to Port Stephens - again a bit of a tradition for us - for a much needed rest.



So by no means a hectic time for us - but with the reno's etc (we have set ourselves a deadline), things are getting a bit hectic around here...

So this week I have decided to do a little much needed (and overdue!) pampering...last week I decided I wanted some acrylic nails again. I have been growing my own for the past nine or so months, but with the reno's they were starting to break and look shabby...so now I'm very pleased with my French tips, they look very polished (excuse the pun) and need less maintenance than my own nails.

I booked myself in for a facial on Monday...haven't had one since July (!) and my skin is feeling a bit dry...and I love the time I spend chatting to my beautician Robyn while she performs her magic on my face - I love how invigorated my skin looks and feels after one of her massages.

Then, on Tuesday .... I've booked into the hairdresser's for a bit of a make-over...I've been going to the same lady for a couple of years but I am less and less happy with the outcome. She works from home and I suspect her products aren't the best quality...no matter what shade of foils we try, within a couple of weeks I'm looking "brassy"...and even the style we've been doing for ages is not holding shape so well...I've noticed she talks a lot while she's working - which could be a bad thing when it comes to cutting..?

So I've booked into a local salon that I've been to before with a new hairdresser there (he's a boy!!!!) and I'm going to try something a little different...not drastic, but just something to freshen up my look...



So there it is - time for a bit of self-indulgence...and I can face the next few weeks feeling a bit fabulous...



What about you? Do you take time out for yourself before the Holidays or after the whole silly season is over?