Monday 11 January 2010

Handmade Gifts and a Happy New Year

A belated Happy New Year to all! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.
We had a great Christmas spending time with family and friends, being really lazy and eating far too much.  Despite travelling up and down the country by train, we pretty much avoided the travel disruption caused by the recent snow.

We spent New Year with my boyfriend's parents.  This year's fancy dress theme was Old Time Musical; he and his family enterntained their guests with renditions of old music-hall songs and wore fantastic costumes.  Here is a picture of me in my outfit, which was kindly supplied by his Mum at the last moment (who has an enviable wardrobe to say the least!). 

I've decided to stroll into 2010 and slowly contemplate my priorities for the year ahead.  I can't see the point of setting unrealistic goals and starting brutal health and fitness regimes in the first week of January...anyway, we still have a lot of chocolate left which I would hate to see go out of date.

As always, I did my best to give as many handmade and vintage gifts as possible. Here is a selection of this year's items.

I made these pen and crayon rolls for my four-year-old niece:




 

I also made my neice and her younger sister each a matching set of three appliqued t-shirts (brown as below, one pink and one white). My four-year-old niece loved the pink and white ones but we heard her say, quietly, "Mummy, I'm not wearing the brown t-shirt....ever"!  Fortunately her little sister is too young to object, see below:




I also gave various pieces of vintage china as Christmas giflts (I wanted to keep these for myself, but I just don't have the space).  Hopefully my friends won't hate me for cluttering up their homes.

I also made an 'upcycled' cake stand and transformed a battered picture frame into a beautiful mirror. Photographs and tutorial posts to follow...

13 comments:

  1. you look lovely! the fancy dress party sounds fun. the vintage china is just beautiful! i'm sure your friends/family loved them. :)

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  2. Good for you on the "not rushing into the new year" thing. I'm also resolving to follow a more leasurely path. And so far, it's getting things off to a nice start:D

    Lovely gifts, BTW.

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  3. I did handmade gifts for my niece and nephews too. Unfortunately, my gifts were too small! *sigh* :)

    Great blog!

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  4. You must be very prolific to have done so much for Christmas and the holidays. I especially love the pencil wraps.

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  5. OH your lucky friends to get the china!!! I would be thrilled!



    http://christiecottage.blogspot.com

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  6. I love the pen and crayon rolls. Very cute!

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  7. Thank you all for your kind comments.

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  8. Happy New Year to you too! Wow.. how fun to go to a costume party for the new year.

    ps. Love the teacups.. so cute!

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  9. You look so lovely in that dress!

    I love those pen and crayon rolls x

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  10. What beautiful gifts! And I'm so jealous of the fancy dress party! I'd love to go to one someday!

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  11. Darling china! I'm following you now!

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  13. u look great! what a fun way to celebrate the holidays:D

    TheOwlsCloset.blogspot.com

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