Tag Archives: gifts

Gifts & Toadstools

Please excuse the blog’n’run. I just wanted to show you Jane’s gift to me, from mixtogether while I have a ‘spare’ moment (not that it really is. Is it ever?) Anyhoo:
Mixtogether-06
Jane sewed this lovely ‘portfolio’ for me – on the inside, there are journals left and right, and a spot for things to write with:
Mixtogether-07
On the left side is this journal, a compendium of different bits and pieces (music stave, graph paper, vellum, recycled photocopy paper) bound together by Jane. I love this idea, it makes a wonderful eclectic little book. Great for doodling bits and ideas in:
Mixtogether-08
And on the right (not actually pictured, because the camera battery ran flat just at that moment!) is a larger size Moleskine journal – my very first ever of the ‘legendary’ Moleskines. A nice big unlined Moleskine definitely demands something more classy than doodles or todo lists as long as one’s arm (which is what I have today)… I shall have to take up watercolour painting or something!

Also. While I am showing off gifties, I must apologise to Barbara, who sent me this wee little floss tag a little while ago as a Thank You for sending her a chart. Aren’t these just the cross-stitch ‘thing-of-the-moment’? I love it, and I am definitely going to have to make some more of these. Niamh snaffled it the moment it arrived, as you can see:
FlossTag
(This was an ‘experimental-bed-in-the-loungeroom’ day. Did I mention already I was not coping with the demise of the Afternoon Nap?)
FlossTagGift

Also, just very quickly (because this has turned into less of a drive-by blogging, and more of an essay!), a little snap of my toadstool pincushion from Brown Owls on Monday night. You might have seen them doing the blog rounds already, but here’s mine. Complete with ‘ten-minutes-left-to-go-what-shall-I-do-now’ ladybird addition (which is also out of focus, I am just now noticing. Pfft).
BrownOwlsToadstool
One of the things I love about Brown Owls is the spontaneity of the projects. Normally at home I will agonize over materials and details for way too long. But once a month or so on a Monday, there’s a whole lot less ‘how should it look’, and a whole lot more ‘let’s just have some fun’ (and some tea and some biscuits and some gossip chatter). Cool.

Pre-Christmas Crafting

I didn’t pledge handmade this (past) Christmas, but as it turned out, many of our gifts were handmade anyway. First there were these, next up were a couple of bags for some more small friends of ours. This one:
Library bag for Mr G

using that ubiquitous mushroom fabric, was for a five year old boy, and was given as a Library bag, complete with new book inside. The other:

Bag and Bunny for Miss A

I made for his sister, who is three months younger than Niamh. The bunny pattern came from here; the bags I made up as I went along. I was quite pleased with these, and I think the recipients were happy too 🙂

Next came a wild burst of kitchen activity (mostly by Dermot, I do admit), and some playing with my new toy for labelling and packaging, to create the fabulous boxes of goodies for our families:

Christmas Goodies

All boxed up

Gocco Printed Xmas Cards

(Inside: Orange cordial, Spiced nuts, Mexican drinking chocolate, Dried Mango, Cranberry & Pistachio biscotti, Orange spiced tea blend – all handmade; and a teatowel – which we did not make ourselves!)

Finally, at the eleventh hour (the night before Christmas Eve), I managed to squeeze in some homemade goodness for my own kiddos. I finished up the stitching of ElfGirl and ElfBoy, and made them up into a couple of simple drawstring bags. In hopes of starting off a new Christmas tradition (which I kept hearing about on various blogs), these held brand new PJs for Christmas Eve. Here they are under the tree:

Xmas PJ Bags

Oh, and lest I forget, somewhere in there, I also managed to whip up Finn’s party cake:
Bowling Party cake

I made up a packet teacake for this, as everyone knows kids only eat the (hideously sugary buttercream) icing and leave the rest. For his actual birthday, I made a more grown up cake – a rich, moist, dark chocolate cake covered in ganache and silver cachous… but forgot to take a photo, d’oh!

Next up, post-Christmas crafting 🙂

Birthday Bling

Heh. I typed the title quickly and it came out Birthday Blong. That sounds kind of less appealing :giggle:

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Yes, it’s true. I am now ‘in my thirties‘. Do you know, I think that sounds much older than just ‘30‘! I still feel like a babe in the woods (though I must say I think the last four months have aged me a bit).

What I wanted for my birthday: a night’s sleep and a day off. Hahahahaha. Niamh decided to wish me Happy Birthday at 11.45pm, 2.15am, 4.15am and 6.15am. Such a darling.

Here’s what I did score instead:
Birthday Bling
I must confess, I picked this out. That’s the only way to get exactly what you want, after all! Note it feeds my dragonfly habit :smile:. This has amethyst and fluorite stones on it, and as the woman who sold it to us waxed lyrical about the properties of the stones, and how I should ‘cleanse’ the stones by ‘bathing them in healing light’, I couldn’t help but think ‘yes, but I just picked it out because I think it’s pretty‘! It has a nice bit of weight to it, which I like, too.

OtherHalf, Niamh and Finn also gave me seasons 3 and 4 of Will and Grace on DVD (to go with seasons 1 and 2 from last birthday). And… what could possibly be inside here?
Lookie...

Only the most beautiful hand-made chocolates I have ever seen 🙂 Too stunning to eat, I think (yeah, as if!)
Yummy

Also, my Dad arrived home from Canada today. He came bearing a boxload of Canadian treats – maple syrup (of course), tea, coffee, maple butter, hard and soft maple-leaf lollies(/sweets/candies – the hard ones are wonderful – think barley sugar, made with maple syrup. Yum!), chocolate, apple-saskatoon jelly (whatever a saskatoon is – sounds like some kind of bird :giggle: ), and smoked salmon ‘candy’. I don’t know about that one – fish marinated in syrup sounds a bit suspicious to me!

No special plans for tonight – I am not quite ready to leave my baby to a sitter yet. Perhaps Niamh will grant me that night’s sleep tonight instead. (I won’t hold my breath though).

Clarification: I read this again and realised it kind of sounded like I turned 30 today, but actually, I’m 31. Hence, ‘in my 30s’!