Catching up with friends and what I made them...

A few days before Christmas the kids and I headed off to see my good friends and their kids for our annual Christmas get together.  The kids always have a great time playing together and we chat and catch up after what is usually a really busy term for all of us. 

This year I remembered to get a photo of us.

We always give each other a hand made present for Christmas and we always do a secret santa for the kids.  These are all our presents waiting for us under the tree.

We do different things for the kids each year and this year decided that their gift did not have to be handmade (due to our lack of time) but each child had to get a minimum of 3 small gifts; one to eat, one for school and one to play with.  They all had to fit into a shoe box.  All the kids were really wrapped with their presents this year.  Here is Nathan and Emma with theirs.

And the other kids too.

As my special present for my favourite friends I made them each a little wall hanging which I appliquéd and embroidered.

And I paired it with a little bird Christmas decoration for their tree which I made out of felt.

  

They were pretty cute!  It's always such a pleasure to make things when it is for people who you know will love what you create.

 

Swap goodies...

We are well and truly back into our normal routine and school life around here.  I actually can't believe we have been back at school for two weeks (only 8 more to go until the end of the school year, eek!)

A few new things have happened with Emma, she did really well in her dance exams which I posted about a while back and because she did well she now dances an extra day the dance school's performance group which she loves.  She also started at Cub Scouts and this weekend had her investment ceremony and her very first camp. 

At the end of the holidays I got together with my good friends and we had our little swap which we do every school holidays as a special treat for ourselves.  This swap had guidelines like the others we have done.  

The guidelines were:

• a minimum of 3 gifts
• one gift had to be handmade
• one gift had to be for sewing/crafting
• one gift that our partner would love

My partner was my lovely friend Suzy and she loves red so most of my gifts are based around that.  Here is what I gave her.

For her sewing present I made this cute little sewing kit along with a pincushion and a felt needle holder.

I added a little hand made clay birdie decoration.

Suzy has some big single coloured chevron cushions in her house so I thought I would make her this smaller cushion (it's 16") to go along with them.  I sewed Chenille Tape along the zig zags for that fluffy, frayed look. I have to say that I love this cushion so I think some more will be coming!

And then I added a box of chocolates and  a set of little serving dishes, in red of course.

All together my little package for my Suzy looked like this.  

It is always so nice to do these swaps with my friends, I really love putting them together, thinking about what they would love. 

I have already started writing a list of ideas for Christmas presents for these special friends, we always give something hand made and it needs to be special.  I'll share some of my Pinterest favourites soon.

Swap goodness and Nathan heads off...

During our weekend away we participated in a swap between ourselves.  We were given our partner in April and the rules for this swap were:

1. Minimum of 3 gifts
2. One gift must be hand made
3. One gift must be for the home

Pretty simple.  My swap partner was Katrina to I set to work making her special gifts.

I made her a rag quilt as my first present.  I used  blues and reds with a bit of black. 

 I bought her this cute little owl.

I also got her this bracelet.

And lastly I made her a set of placemats and coasters which you can see below.

This is what my little package looked like before I wrapped it up using tissue paper and mini pom poms (which I totally forgot to photograph).

 As an extra treat for everyone I made up these cute little packages using paper bags, doilies and some punches and alphabet stickers.

I filled them with a handmade soap that I bought at a local market and I appliquéd a very simple bird onto a washer.

I actually made a few other gifts for my other swap partner but I can't find where I put the photos, so when I find them I'll post about those ones as well as the gorgeous swap gifts I got.

On another note:

I have been feeling very strange this weekend.  On Saturday morning I farewelled Nathan off on his first ever big camp.  He headed up to Cuboree which is in Rockhampton (about 8 hours away) for 5 days.  I have never had any trouble with Nathan leaving before but it is so far away this time and he is on his own and for a long time that I find myself wondering about if he is OK. If he's warm enough, dry enough, finding friends etc all the time.  I am excited that he get to go on this awesome experience but I will be very happy when he is home again.  And I have to say that the Cub Scout Movement have been really wonderful constantly posting on Facebook and on their blog with updates and photos of what all the kids are up to.  Anyway here are a few photos of him before he left.

It will be an experience he will remember for ever so I am grateful that he was able to go. 

A weekend of craft and catching up with great friends...

Last weekend a few of my girlfriends and I headed up to the Sunshine Coast for our yearly weekend away.  We sat around chatting and catching up while we sewed and crafted.  We also managed to fit in a visit to Eumundi markets and Spotlight.  


When planning my weekends away I always have a list of projects that I want to get through.  This weekend I used Pinterest as my inspiration.  I am determined to not just pin to Pinterest but to also create what I pin.  And I am happy to say that I achieved that, so here are the pins that I made on the weekend.  





I made one of these for Nathan to take away to Cuboree which is coming this weekend, link here.

I used the tutorial for these pyjama pants to make myself some.  I will definitely use this again, especially for the kids pants.  Link here.

I used this cushion tutorial as inspiration for using my new chenille tape and I made a cushion similar to this one.  Link here.




































I made some pillow cases because of this pretty lot.  Link here.





I made myself one of these using a pot holder....super easy and quick!  Link here.





And lastly I used a pot holder again to make one of these hair straightener holders.  Link here.


I haven't taken photos of mine yet but I will today and post them later.  I have to say that I was really happy with the projects I got done on the weekend and I also finally learned how to crochet which was a major bonus for me so I will share that work in progress too.


Pinterest can really be such a valuable resource.... I am still in love with it!


** Sorry about the spacing in this post - my blog is being very uncooperative today!

My Surprises...

I had a really lovely time creating all my special surprises for Kristie and I had a lovely surprise when I got my gifts from my swap partner, Suzy.  I was very spoiled and love everything that I got.


For my Easter gifts I got this cute little chicken and chocolate bunny.

And my handmade gift was this basket full of hand made hearts.

These are beautiful because each one is embellished in a different way.

And my other gift was a card making kit.  I rarely make cards etc. these days because I just don't have the supplies anymore so these card kits are the way of the future for me.

And as an extra surprise one of my friends gave me this gorgeous little owl for my birthday.  He is so cute and his legs are springs so he bounces. Love. 

Happy Sunday!

Swap fun

We have a group of friends that get together every school holidays to catch up and in between times if we can organise a time.  We are all crafty and enjoy getting together to sew or scrap and chat (more chatting than anything else usually happens) so this get together with the holiday being Easter we thought we would try out a swap.  I read lots of blogs of people who do regular swaps and it seemed like fun so we were all given a partner and some guidelines.  They were; a minimum of 3 gifts were to be given, one had to be Easter related, one had to be handmade and one had to be something special that the person would hopefully love.  My swap partner was Kristie and this is what I put together for her.


I made a little lavender sachet for her first gift.

And then I made these cute little hand sewn birds that hang down on string.  These are from my Fa la la la Felt book.

A yummy chocolate bunny for Easter.

And from my trip this little turtle with wobbly head and feet and tail.  He is so cute.

I packaged them up in white tissue paper with coloured doilies and some twine.  Then  I put them all in that little basket you can see at the back of the picture which I bought while on holidays too.

All in all I think it is safe to say that we all loved doing the swap.  It was nice to give someone some special gifts and wonderful to receive some too.  We are planning on doing it all again in June and I can't wait to get planning and sewing for it.  I'll show you what I got in my next post.