A Pinterest Christmas

Happy Christmas!

I didn't get as many crafty projects started or finished as I wanted but I did manage to do a few last minute quick Pinterest ideas.

I spent a lovely couple of kid free hours making peppermint bark and lino printing some wrapping paper, I found this very therapeutic, I need to get paint on my hands more often!

I added red fingerprints to make holly berries later.

I started a cotton reel wreath for my Mum, using florists wire and empty wooden spools from eBay that I filled using stash threads and my sewing machine to wind them on. I didn't mange to get a picture of the finished item before it got wrapped up!

I also got some bristle christmas trees from the garden centre and hot glue gunned them to some vintage cotton reels.

And then I enjoyed making book trees, you need an old book with covers removed and you fold each page twice, again I used a spool as the base!

This is my Mum's table decoration for this year, one day I'll be organised enough to do my own!

I feel that Christmas was a real rush this year, even though I finished work about a week before. I didn't manage to do my usual 'make something handmade' for the kids but I did do them a Christmas Eve box instead, filled with new PJ's, slippers, a book, hot chocolate & reindeer dust, so they didn't even notice!

Thank you Pinterest! 

Christmas Crafts

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, spent with nice people, relaxing. Or if that was just some mythical nirvana you dreamt of, I hope the New Year will bring some opportunity instead!

I thought I'd show you what I managed to rustle up for a few Christmas presents this year. Not being at work and having a baby that naps has been quite good for having crafty time! Having a temperamental sewing machine has not though!

So first up is Alfie dog

This came in a kit by Dandelion Designs which I got from the Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC in Birmingham last February. For £10 it contained all the bits you needed, plus patterns for a large or small dog. Alfie the large dog is supposed to be a tree decoration with a ribbon hanger and a secret pocket in his back for a gold coin. As this was for my Mum, who only has a small Christmas tree, I decided to omit these details and instead tried to stuff his legs more and make him stand up as an ornament. This was my first time doing blanket stitch (I know! I don't know why I've never tried it before) so I think I need more practice at keeping it uniform and neat but I think it came together nicely.

Now for the last couple of years I've tried to do knitted toys for the girls (monkeys last year, mice before that). Last year thankfully my Mum did one & so again this year we chose fairly large animals to tackle, thinking we had time!

Let me start by saying that if you choose to use a novelty yarn for the first time, buy ONE ball first and have a knit with it BEFORE you commit to buying lots of balls and the patterns!

(NB. purchased from Deramores which was really speedy and better value than my LYS) 

You already know this?! Ah just me with a rookie mistake then!
The yarn in question is Sirdar Snowflake and pattern details can be found on my Ravelry page.

These were NOT fun to knit!
The way the fur looks when it's finished is lovely though and my girls love the soft feel BUT boy is it a pain to knit with! You can't see the stitches well, so keeping count is eye straining, increasing into it when a) you can't see the actual stitch properly and b) there is no ease in the yarn is tortuous! We gave up doing stocking stitch and just did all rows as knit as it was easier.
Getting the desire to knit this was very hard, if it hadn't have been Christmas I don't think I would have persevered!

Neither of our animals looks anything like pattern pictures either!
The plan had been to knit an animal for each child, sorry Rowan but being the smallest we knew you wouldn't mind (!) but neither my Mum nor I could face another one!

To rediscover my knitting mojo I did my first cabling attempt, which I really enjoyed and wasn't difficult. I made a mug hug (see Ravelry) for one of my daughters teachers, which I know is one of those 'novelty' gifts which are not in the least bit practical but it was really fun & quick to make.

I also ran up a few fabric bookmarks (it was during these that I fell out of love with my sewing machine! Not being able to sew the thinnest Liberty tana lawn is just stupid frankly!) using a 'tiny' amount of the lovely Hello Kitty Liberty fabric that my best friend bought for me as a New Baby gift! It felt wrong to cut into it but it was perfect for the job.

Now on the other side of this I tried this year to shop crafty as well.

I read a lot of blogs/Twitter feeds from some very talented people so thought I should actually support these by trying to buy handmade presents that I've seen and loved over the past year. And a new baby is a great way to buy gifts that mean something, being the third we've received/bought a lot of noisy plastic toys over the years but this time I really wanted to buy better, to have less gifts but of a better quality, gifts to treasure and keep.

Being only three months I knew I wasn't going to get Rowan many toys, as she's quite happy just 'looking', especially at her sisters (lots of big smiles for both of them!).

I did want to get her an activity arch as she spends a bit of time on the floor and thought she might like some practice at reaching/hitting things!

I found this wooden one from Ikea to be just what I wanted, beautifully made, good baby colours, lovely sounds when hit and a good price £19.99
Not an annoying light or sound in sight!

Now I've seen Sophie on lots of parenting websites, she's supposed to be good for teething as she's made from natural rubber and dyes, she also has a squeaker inside, so this time round I've finally bought one to try, I got it from a seller on Amazon.

On the teething subject I also wanted a wooden teether toy, something natural, tactile and long lasting.

Looking on Etsy (they have an app now!) I found this lovely giraffe by Little Alouette and it is beautiful, buttery soft, easy to grab this will be kept forever, I love stroking it myself!

It came speedily all the way from the US at only $19.50

From the Hands of Kitty Eden

I follow Sara's blog and twitter feed and know how hard she works at creating lots of lovely machine embroidered items all year, so when I saw her Baby's First hangers on her Facebook page I knew I had to have one! I got to choose the fabric and personalise it with a name and when it arrived I was so pleased. It was better than I hoped for, the quality is superb, this will be one of those Christmas decorations that come out every year and are treasured. I want a different one that I can hang up all year round now!

Next onto The Linen Cat

Beth has a lovely blog and also tweets and makes amongst other things the most wonderful soft toys, which are quite sophisticated, toys that beg to be played with and kept forever

.

I'd admired Beth's cashmere bears in the summer, so the bright bear went on my list too.
Another wow when it arrived, I can't describe how soft she is, I was severely tempted to keep this for me, she is adorable and perfect for babies, a good size, simple and tactile with a lovely face. I must mention how beautifully packaged she was too!

For the girls I got two art folders from Funky Diva Designs as they're really enjoying colouring at the moment, inside the folder is space for pens and paper. Anna has a great website (with lots of handmade items) where you can choose your fabric and will also add a name.

I enjoyed the Christmas shopping this year, not being at work I was able to start early and got 60% of the girls toys from eBay, even buying the handmade gifts I tried to get long lasting useful toys.

I did feel slightly guilty that they didn't get the toys they'd asked for, (mostly taken from the TV adverts) Dancing Danni/Toffee the pony etc but I hope I'm not alone in not wanting to waste money on toys that can only be played with a handful of times?

The 'plastic' toys I did get (I love Ponies/Barbie/Polly Pocket - mostly all secondhand) can join the ones we have already to make bigger playtimes.
I'm not looking forward to the teenage years when they may want expensive electronic toys, although at least they'll know then that it's not Father Christmas supplying them - 'who can get anything' apparently!

Did you get/give any handcrafted items for Christmas? If you've blogged about them do leave a link in the comments as I'd love to see what you've been up to too.

This long post was made possible by a bout of insomnia and trying to avoid the 'out-laws'!!

Christmas Crafts unveiled

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a lovely peaceful time with friends or family, the girls have had a present-tastic time and on the crafty side, I was very pleased to finish all the projects I started!

The above dolly was for my youngest, it's taken from the book 'Made by Me' by Jane Bull, which I have now bought as it's got lots of easy crafts for young girls (and their mums!) to try. It's a simple sleepy/awake dolly with knitted hat and simple dresses. I then made a simple cover, pillow and mattress from Ikea fabric and wadding to fill an old dolly bed/basket we picked up at a jumble sale.
The verdict? Was good, thankfully! I made a small drawstring bag and added in some extra dresses so she had fun dressing/undressing her. I made the neckline with elastic instead ribbon for easier changing and used pinking shears to cut as there were no hems in the pattern.

For my eldest I made the Lily doll and Pickle the panda from the Emma Thomson series of books, the were a bit fiddly, the patterns are available in two of the story books and worked up quite quickly.
The monkeys are from the Patons Colour Works Aran pattern book, I made one and my Mum made the other and it's really interesting to see the differences between our styles!  The sizes are different and the features make them really unique!
The last bunnies were not homemade, but came from the lovely stall at Vintage & Handmade by Donna Flower and have been loved and taken to bed already.

I also completed gifts for my family, but stupidly forgot to photograph them!  I'll see if I can a photo at the weekend.

So I was very happy to be able to stick to my pledge of homemade gifts and second-hand presents for the girls, as the majority were, eBay supplied a lot of the presents, marble run and more lego were a hit.
The new items were making kits like Hama beads...

Both the girls like these and they're a nice quiet activity!  This one is a mobile making kit, the youngest needs a bit of a hand but it should look good when it's finished.

Well, it takes ages to get ready for but quick as a flash Christmas is over!

Better start thinking about New Year resolutions now, the first will be more regular blogging I hope, I think I'll try to set a day of the week for a regular posting, perhaps I should take part in a challenge to keep me motivated?!

Post Christmas

After the rush to get things ready it always seems to flash past doesn't it the big day!!

With last minute crafting and doing a proper roast since we've had kids, it seems to have been a lot of effort for a short period!!

So I tried really hard this year to make the girls something which inevitably led to a last minute panic!! But I really enjoyed it and was very proud to see their faces when the saw....

the finished knitted mouses and the fleecy floor cushions. It made the 2am Christmas Eve morning finish all worthwhile!!

Mary Christmouse was from Knit Today, issue 39, Nov 2009, pattern by Val Pierce, which as a novice knitter I found very easy, there's a lot of sewing together though and I still haven't got the hang of charming faces! The info is also on my Ravelry page, (HoldMyHand).

The floor cushions were a late brain-wave, I had an old king size duvet which I was going to Freecycle but then as a couldn't afford bean-bags for the girls I wondered if I could cut it into squares as large floor cushions! So I measured out a generous size and doing some calculations made the 60cm squares which made 16 squares, eight per cushion.

I then sewed a square inner cover for them out of an old sheet and the used the three metres of very bright fleece that's been waiting for a project to make simple pillow-case type opening covers. I added some flaps of fleece and different ribbon to identify them at the top corners. The best thing is they cost nothing!! And more importantly the girls love them and have been lounging on the all Christmas!! I hope they'll end up in the room under the cabin bed where I hope to finish creating a reading/listening chill-out area for them!! The curtain to go around the opening of the bed is the next project, when I can find a large piece of appropriate fabric (I'm thinking of Ikea)!!

Me and the kids didn't really do a huge amount of Christmas crafting this year, I've really noticed the difference from last year when I was only working two days a week (what bliss!!), it's been a bit sad having to rush to fit everything in, we didn't even visit santa, although both the girls have seen him via school/nursery.

We did get to decorate pine cones for our card display

I found a pack of ribbon with small pegs at Clinton Cards for only £1.99 which although it wasn't as nice as the Cath kidston washing line version I fancied, the cheaper then £5 price tag won me over!!

I can also now reveal the present my Mum got for me from the Vintage & Handmade Fairback in November....

Meet Bea, from the lovely Vintage Magpie, isn't she lovely, a much loved addition to our family.

I was also lucky enough to receive...

a lovely Lindt Matroyshka dolly, hyacinths planted by the girls and a tea set with a lovely Cath mug!

I'm still waiting for my knitting counter I was promised by the other half!!

I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from knitting now too, I'm itching to get started on a sleeveless cardie which is my next project, again details on Ravelry.

I'm also looking at the benefits of changing to a different provider for blogging as the lack of features on Blogger is slowing me down, especially the add image function which as a fairly important one, is infuriatingly rubbish! Any comments/info would be very welcome.

I hope all blog readers had a lovely crafty Christmas and here's to making 2010 New Year's crafting resolutions/to do lists!