Homemade gifts from the past couple of months

A couple of ideas from my creative exploits in the last few weeks.  Always so much easier to be creative in daylight...bring on more light evenings, as child free time often helps too ;-)



Kester's 2nd Birthday cake, and for those who don't recognise it...he's the Ravenous Beast!  A strange creature, that eats literally everthing...or should I say everyone!  (Yes, an odd book for a 2 year old to love ;-)

P.S.  This is really simple to do.  Just print off a picture of whatever you want to put on the cake.  Cut it up into the main elements.  Roll out some icing, colour appropriately.  Put the paper templates on the icing, cut out, and position correctly on the cake.  Hey presto!

This is possibly from Feb actually, but a very simple to make 'Coriander Spice Rub', and in lovely, simple spice jars from IKEA.

And my favourite recent project, was an elephant, who I packaged up in the theme of the 'Dear Zoo' book, and gave to a little 2 year old girl.  The elephant was made from charity shop wool, the stuffing from a local craft shop.  And the box, was a covered cereal packet, decorated with my kids felt tips. (Hoping to do more like this in future, but probably once the next batch of winter nights set in.) 

The ribbon was meant to go round it's neck, but was somewhat obscured by its trunk, so ended up on it's bottom!

Women's Day in the Wimbledon Park Patch

So for anyone that couldn't make it, and also to provide some links for those that did, here are my 5 top tips from the International Women's Day Oxfam Get Together evening that we had at my place on Friday 8th March.  The 5 tips were from my year of 'Finding Richness in Less'.

1. How to make your own cards
http://findingrichnessinless.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/origins-of-motherhood.html 

2. How to make your own gift bags
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/how-to-make-gift-bags-from-newspaper.html

3. Join Streetbank
http://www.streetbank.com/  a website which shows you the skills or things your neighbours are willing to share, loan or give away. You’ll be able to see everything in your square mile that your neighbours are offering. You’ll be helping to build the community, save money and help the environment all in one.

4. Share ideas - plagerism is the highest form of flattery, and why reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done the hard work?  It's brilliant to share ideas, so get chatting, blogging, posting, whatever takes your fancy, but share your ideas, skills, mistakes and enjoy being creative

5. Don't buy herbs - create a herb network.  Find out what herbs your neighbours grow, and offer to share cuttings from yours, in exchange for cuttings from theirs, when you need them as ingredients for recipes.  And if you live close to me, keep an eye on our front yard...it's soon going to all be herbs, and you're welcome to come and help yourself.






And for anyone who took away some Herman German Friendship Cake starter, here are some ideas of recipes: http://www.hermanthegermanfriendshipcake.com/herman-recipe-ideas/

Thanks to everyone who gave money for Oxfam and donated items for me to sell on eBay (all proceeds going to Oxfam to make a difference to lives around the world.  I'll update on funds raised when the items have been sold.  And if you fancy doing something next year, check out:   (I'm wondering about doing something with our local girls next year....plenty of time to germinate ideas.)

UPDATE: We're almost up to £200...just waiting for a couple of items to sell.

Origins of Motherhood

Here's a quick and easy card idea for Mother's Day, although I'm equally wondering about doing it for mums when their eldest becomes a teenager or reaches 10, as a congratulations on getting them so far, type thing.

One of my favourites at the moment, and a way to recycle old maps, car atlases etc.

The map section used on each of these is where my Mum and mother-in-law gave birth to their firstborn (lets hope they don't read this blog post before turning up here for lunch later today ;-)

End of the Summer Update

What summer?  You might well ask! 

We ended August off well yesterday with a day out with the Smiths.  We rode our bikes to the Hayling Island Ferry, had a boat trip across and then cycled along to the beach near 'Inn on the Beach'.  Had a great time playing in the sea and on the beach and enjoyed a picnic lunch and a BBQ Sausage kids tea, before cycling back to the boat and then on home.   A great local day out!  (So much richness, so near by!)

Just 5 more loads to go!

I've made it through the mammoth pile of washing after Greenbelt (I truely appreciate the washing machine and love it lots!!), washed mud from wellies and the buggy and just about got the house back to normal.  I'm now keeping my eye out for a bigger tent to get on pre-loved websites or through anyone we might know.

I've got a bit further on my running schedule and Andy also took up running this week.  It's a great free exercise, and I'm amazed at the amount of people paying to be shouted at military-style, down on the seafront and common to get fit.  Give me a quiet run any day!

Money

Changing bank accounts is progressing (slightly slowly), and the kids accounts are all set-up.  Our new Co-Op account is complete, and I'm now just waiting for their switching team to work their magic on all our DDs etc.  I'm now also starting the task of setting up our new ISAs, now I've got a new current account to link them too.

I've registered for a water meter, which should be installed in the next 3 months.  I doubt we'll get any savings from it, but I want to have more connection with this precious resource, and have more responsibility over how we use it.  

Giving

I got a letter from World Vision this week, saying that our sponsored child had moved away (not uncommon as families move for work or to be nearer other family members), so now we have to get a new child to sponsor.  I found it really sad news, and it brought back quite a few miscarriage emotions.  Irrelevant of the money that we send, M & I have sent letters and pictures to Grace, we've prayed for her, and we have her picture up in our bedroom and kitchen, and have spent lots of time talking about where she lives and how our lives are different.  It feels like a real loss, and I can't bring myself to take her picture down.  Even if the money can't get it her, our prayers can still.  But it does feel rather like losing a child again, and yet again I realise that I'd be useless as a foster parent and adoption is definitely more for me.

September

I have one more week off with the kids, which will include a visit to Grandma's.  And then it's back to work and nursery routine.  I'm also feeling the need to start planning Christmas gifts as when you make them all, you really do need a big lead time, so that might be quite a focus this autumn.  And I need to spend some time thinking about some changes for 2013 (watch this space), not to mention deciding on a school of M for Sept 2013.  How time flies! 

Is homemade OK?

As I'm progressing through this year and trying to come up with more homemade ideas for gifts, I'm facing the question of whether giving people homemade things is OK.  Some things that I make, I'm quite happy to give people, especially when it comes to cards...I guess I expect them to end up in the bin after they've sat on shelves and mantlepieces anyway, and they'll be up there with lots of other cards and even hidden behind others, if people don't like them that much (or is it just me that orders cards in such a way ;-)

Here's one I made earlier...my brother-in-laws' first anniversary is today, and I was more than happy to give them this one, and even think it's quite good ;-)

Recycle old maps by cutting out shapes from relevant areas

But when it comes to the actual gift element, I'm finding it more of a challenge.  For some reason, giving a child something homemade and creative, rather than an expensive bit of wood carving, or, more likely, a piece of molded mass-created plastic, makes me feel more nervous.  Will the parents look at it and shudder, will it automatically end up in the bin?

And gifts for adults are quite a challenge too...I've reverted to making edible things, but even the Piccalilli I made the other day has left me wondering whether it's OK to give as a gift.  Having never eaten any before, or made it, it looks colourful, but what if it's disgusting!

I wonder if it's because we're now so used to shop bought stuff, and that ironically there is now a whole (pretty expensive) market for 'homemade' items, that have been made in someone elses home, but have an impressive quality about them.  And it's unrealistic to believe that my random attempts will match the quality of the cottage industry's supply of 'homemade' creations.

I've always invested lots of time in every gift I've ever bought...it's important to me that it shows that I value and love the person.  That I'm glad they're around and that the gift, hopefully conveys some of that.  But if the person doesn't like it, I'm not worried if they pass it on or recycle it in someway.  I'd much prefer that to it being in their house when they really don't like it, just for my benefit.  So I hope the same applies to my homemade gestures, and I need to stop being worried about gifts being labelled 'another Clare creation' in a negative way...and live in the 'it's the thought that counts' moment, and not feel that I'm being judged on it.  (There's definitely richness in this less stuff, but the cost is just different.)

Great fun making!

Gifts are definitely taking longer to make currently, but they're great fun to do.  

I was challenged on postable items, and this week came across a pattern for a mug cosy, which I've adapted slightly.  It took all of about 2 hours to make, and is heading out in the post tomorrow.  Don't think that's the last one of these that I'll be making.

I've also had fun melting LPs and adding some papier mache.  (I started the melting here: Melting LPs & Boiling Oranges ) They've been turned into gifts, and have definitely generated some conversation ;-)

One became a plant pot with an Aloe Vera cutting from our kitchen window ledge, and the other held a selection of homemade delights (marmalade, muesli & fudge).

Melting LPs and Boiling Oranges

Wow....I've discovered a very addictive new craft today...and I don't think it's just caused by the fumes.

So I have some old LPs from my Grandmother's house, that have no value, so I thought I'd try and be creative with some of them, and attempt to make some different gifts.  It's as simple as a 200 degree oven, an LP and an oven-proof bowl.

I think the outcome was  surprisingly good.

(Need to do a bit more work on the attempts at book-ends though.)

I've also had my first attempt at making marmalade the other week...have had to reboil it to get it to set better, but amazing again that it's so simple and tastes so much better than the shop bought stuff!  (Also cheaper, only if you discount the time taken to make it!)

A couple of friends gave me a new craft book for my birthday yesterday, so I'll take a look at that next and see what other exciting crafts I can discover (think I'll be skipping the homemade sanitary towels though!!).