Wednesday 28 January 2009

Christmas gifting

Gosh, I was such a busy bunny before Christmas, I was too busy making stuff to blog about it. Also, there's always the possibility that someone for whom a gift was intended might read. A slim possibility, it must be said, but one nevertheless.


So having decided not to make Christmas cards, I saw some old sheet music in a charity shop, and was inspired. I also used it to wrap presents, which looked lovely.


I had a good rummage through the pile at the shop, selecting the oldest, largest folios and those that were stapled rather than glued
in the centre. The lady, obviously differently discerning to me, looked over them, and said 'what an interesting selection of music'. I was flattered that she thought I'd chosen it to play, but she was delighted when I told her why I'd bought it.


I also covered a couple of boxes with music to give as gift boxes.





And here is the jacket I made earlier, all finished with button and pockets.









And here is two batches of aprons I made for all my kids' friends. Inevitably, I got the idea online, but can't remember where. All you do is cut the corners off a tea towel, and sew bias tape round, leaving good long tails to tie behind the bag and making a loop to go over the child's head. I also used bondaweb to iron on monograms and little motifs (stars and flowers mostly). They met all the prerequisites I have for bulk gifting: low unit cost, lost time cost, highly personalisable, appropriate for girls and boys of different ages. And they were sweet! I used really cheapy tea towels, but you could really get carried away with some of the beautiful ones you get in craft type shops. Or kitsch ones from a charity / souvenir shop.

I used this excellent tutorial for making bias tape, and now I'm obsessed with it. Expect more bias tape related creations soon!

It seems wierd blogging about Christmas decs too, but I was proud of my angels, one a cut out from the Guardian, the other Heston Blumenthal from the Observer. There's a possibility that he's actually a god, not an angel, but he was good on the tree. The funny cone things were pseudo Christmas trees for on top of the piano. Actually, they're still there.



And finally...

hot water bottle covers for the boys. It's snowing today, and they both sat huddled on the sofa with their hotties, under an ancient blanket. They were so snug! They're just felted jumpers cut up and stitched together. The sleeves make the neck, and I used the waist band for the opening on one side. Dead easy. Just don't tell them that.








Sunday 25 January 2009

Is there anybody out there?

Hello world. Before Christmas, I was so busy organising Christmas and making things that I had no time to blog. Then I had a row with my supervisor, and was in a pit of soul destroying existential despair (is there any other kind?)

Since Christmas, I've had my second year report to write, which I'm not going to describe because this isn't a 'doing a Phd blog', but which has been rather time consuming. However, I just (nearly) got it done. First draft anyhow.

I've also taken up running again (big time!) which I'm also not going to talk about, because this isn't a running blog either.

And now Mr Kinkatink's away, leaving me and the boys to ourselves, with not much time for running. So, over the next few days, I'm going to try to reacquaint myself with my blog.

Just so you're warned - there's a lot of backdating to get through!