Bless the Creators of Pinterest

It's that time of year again. My kids finish school on Friday - which is usually a week earlier than most schools in our area.

I had so much fun doing the gifts last year, and I wanted to have fun doing them this year too, but we've been under quite a bit of time pressures with one thing and another, so I haven't been able to spend quite as much time on them as I would have liked.

However, let me just say here, God Bless the Creators of Pinterest!

I couldn't have done it this year without you.

So, if you're under a time restraint, but you still want to do something special for those amazing people that pour so much time and energy into your kids, I thought I would share what I have done this year.
As you know, I now have 4 children at school, so the gifts rack up at the end of the year!

First up, my favourite gift to make this year.....

Spa in a Jar.

This is for Meredith's form teacher, Miss B. How lucky were we to get her this year. She is amazing! We love her, and she navigates the tweenie hormone rushes and social cliques like a pro.

Spa in a Jar - basically a mason jar filled with hand lotion, sugar scrubs, nail files/oranges/pedicure sponge/pumice and even a little bit of candy.

We also made her this bookmark. Meredith came up with the words. You can make your own on Wordle.

Teddy has also had an fantastic teacher this year. Miss E has been a God-send for him. Just a newish and young teacher she knows her job well and has been wonderful in working with the learning challenges that Teddy faces - keeping him on track and striving to catch up to his peers. And as she is moving up to the next year to teach, we just found out that he gets to have her next year also, which was the best news this week.

We found this most perfect cup for Miss E, and we filled it with chocolate.

Hugh who is in High School has so many teachers for all his different subjects, so I asked him to pick out a couple of his favourites and asked him what he'd like to get them.

Chocolate. That was his choice, so I obliged. He has two teachers who he's really enjoyed this year. Both ladies, so I hope they like the strawberry and cream Lindors.

Don't you love the labels I found online to wrap around the gift. You can find them here.

And Miss A has completed her first year at school, with Miss M. I am so looking forward to her going into Year 2 - it's one of my favourite years at school.

For Miss M we decided to do a cookie in a jar. This is always a popular gift, and looks pretty.

The recipe comes from here.

In the next two days we will say goodbye to the teachers from 2014. The children have had another wonderful year at their school, and we're looking forward to seeing what next year holds for them.

Do you do teacher gifts? And what are you giving this years?

Bed Jackets are Kind of Sexy

I've been knitting since I was just a wee girl. My first project I completed was a deep purple jersey with a big white star across the front.

I don't always feel like knitting. It's one of those hobbies that I come back to when the urge strikes, and for the last two years I haven't really felt like it - I think partly because the winters where I now live are very mild and not very winterish.

But this year, the urge to knit struck again, and I have several projects on the go all at once, which probably isn't the best of ideas, but it's how I roll, generally.

The sudden desire to get knitting again came with a shock one night when I got into bed to read before I turned out the light and realised that it was actually quite cold. I pulled the blanket up around my neck, but that is not very practical for holding a book. And then I remembered bed jackets. They've kind of gone out of vogue now, but after searching etsy and ravelry I found a whole lot of patterns still available. But many of them were old or hard to follow, or not the kind of bed jacket I was looking for, so I went down to my local knitting shop and asked the old ladies there.

"You're the second person to come in this week and ask about that," said one of them to me.

See... bed jackets are coming back in, and I think they're kind of sexy - and alluring.

But they didn't have any patterns, alas, but after some brain-storming we settled on a light summer cardigan instead, and I'm knitting it up in a pink mohair wool.

I also knitted a very pretty green hat to wear to netball on chilly mornings, but I've only been able to wear it once - it just hasn't been very cold. I got the pattern here on Ravelry.

And then we got the happy news that my husband's nephew and his wife are expecting their first baby later this year (making me a great aunt for the very first time), and baby knitting is the best kind of knitting, so I opted for a little cabled hat. I am a slow knitter, so I can't take on a big project like a shawl or blanket with only a few months to go before the dear baby arrives. My mother recommended this little hat and it is fun to make. I haven't done any cable knitting for years, and it is a favourite. I love baby wool the best, don't you?

And of course, I have knitted two fox hats for my daughters, and some of their friends have put in requests as well. They did turn out very cute. Another Ravelry pattern.

And when all of these are finished, I have another hat I want to knit. A 1920's style cloche hat inspired by Downton Abbey that looks very fetching. I have the wool for it (the red wool at the top of this blog post), I just need the time now.

Knitting is very relaxing and I often find myself pulling out my work to sit down in front of a good movie. I've been catching up on Downton Abbey lately and I also enjoyed watching this series on YouTube. Everytime I look at my green hat I think of the Edwardian Farm series. Today I am watching an old favourite, Sense and Sensibility. What do you like to do while knitting?

2 Simple, Inexpensive, Last Minute, Awesome Teacher Gifts!

This Christmas season I am being so last minute.

For some reason it's super busy this year. Having a big birthday party for Theo last weekend, and two internet writing projects on the go that I have to finish before Christmas. Miss A starting school in the new year means Kindy graduation and lots and lots of parties at school and kindy and family get-togethers and all the little things that need to be done in between, like get my boys a haircut before the school principal tells me they need a haircut!

So tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids (early I know, but that is the downside or upside - depends how you look at it, of private schooling), and I suddenly woke up this morning and realised I hadn't organised teacher's gifts. I had been thinking about it, but just hadn't got around to doing anything about it.

My three older children have all had amazing teachers this year. They had amazing teachers last year too, so we really wanted to find a way to express our appreciation for them.

So I quickly scanned pinterest and came up with two ideas for the two younger kids. Hugh is giving his teacher a gift card, which is the thing to do when you're a teenager. Mum's crafts and baking just won't do anymore!

Both these ideas cost less than $20, and if you have a colour printer, they're cheap, quick and easy to make. I had two hours this morning to make these. Seriously! With a school prize giving/concert on all afternoon I had to churn them out quickly.

I am thrilled with this gift for my 11 year old daughter's amazing teacher.
Miss M came up with these words to describe her teacher herself.

To make this word cloud, all you need to do is go to this fantastic website, Wordle. Type in the words you want to use - we also included the teacher's name, play around with the layouts, fonts and colours (it really is fun), and then just print. So simple. So quick. And I ran down to our local shopping centre and bought a fabulous, but inexpensive frame from Charles and Munro…. one of my most favourite shops, and I won't tell you about these to-die-for red serving plates I also found for the Christmas table. Ssssh!

I can't wait to hear what Mrs. H thinks of her gift. I'm so happy with it.

For Theo, I decided to do something quite different. He has had an old-school teacher this year, and while I had a few misgivings at the beginning of the year, it turns out she was just what he needed. Someone to help keep him focused and organised, and strict enough to pull him back into line when he needed it!

So I bought a plant at the local plant store for $12, and using twine and some scrapbooking paper I have kept for years and years, made a little paper-bunting saying 'thanks' to go across the front. Because the flower stalks are too delicate to tie string around, I got two HB pencils and tied the string onto those as well. Quite fitting for a teacher, don't you think!

Using picmonkey collage and Labels, I made a little cutout with a short message from Theo to his teacher and glued it to a (clean) ice-block stick and stuck it into the flower pot. Easy!

So, there are my two last-minute teacher's gifts, and I'm actually more thrilled with them than I ever have been for any of the gifts I have given in the past where I laboured for hours over tiny Christmas cakes and Cookies in a Jar.

I'd love to hear more ideas for teacher gifts, so tell me what you do! They sure do some great work with our kiddies, and certainly deserve a little praise and thanks, don't they!

A New Quilt for our New Home

We are having a frustrating time at the moment with the architects. We gave our brief - one of the important things was that we wanted two living areas and 5 bedrooms (one of which had to be downstairs). They came back with a plan showing only one living area, and the 5th bedroom downstairs was to be converted into a living room when needed. Ummmm.... that wasn't what we asked for. So we've been back and forward about 3 times now and they still can't get it right and it's getting frustrating.

But anyway, I am loving pinterest these days. I might not have had it for my wedding, but I do have it for the new house, and I'm pinning like crazy to find the right interior decorating colours and plans.
I have just about got Alice's room sorted out. This pin is my inspiration for colours and design:

Source: indulgy.com via Rachel on Pinterest

And then I found this scrumptious quilt. I found it one day by reading through some of my blogroll and this lady happened to be doing a giveaway. But I couldn't wait for that - and I seldom win anything anyway. So I just went ahead and ordered the fat quarter pack. I've already started it and am so enjoying it. I have rather a heavy-going writing project underway at the moment, and this is my relief from that.

You can view the quilt and the tutorial at: Lovely Little Handmades. She has links to her etsy shop for the fabric.

Isn't it just the sweetest thing?

I can't tell you how excited I was to get it in the mail.

  

How could you not be happy when working with such sweetness. I am really loving making this - I think it will be my most favourite quilt - just because the fabric is so lovely and it is so quick to sew together and each square is different, so plenty of variety. But I just love the prints. There's something very Milly-Molly-Mandyish about it. Perfect for my wee girl.

My Favourite Christmas Tree Ornaments This Year

I am loving pinterest.com this year. It is giving me so many ideas for Christmas and for my Christmas party coming up in two weeks time.

I saw this on pinterest and loved it.

Source: personalizationmall.com via Rachel on Pinterest

But unfortunately with the cost of postage and the exchange rate, it's not going to be possible. If I only had one child, then I could have done it, but......

So I got to thinking  how I could do it in an easier and cheaper way, when I saw these balls at Farmers Department Store at half price, and they were just crying out for a Sharpie pen to decorate them.

So this is what I made! Here is the front.....

And here is the back...

It may not be as professional-looking as the one I pinned on pinterest, but at least it records the important information. And I kind of love it. And I'm thinking that next year I can get a different coloured ball. White and red is my theme this year.

The other ornament that I am loving this year is this ...

The Christchurch city cathedral, now lying in ruins thanks to the earthquake. I ordered this almost exactly a year ago from The Christmas Hut at Northlands Mall, and it didn't arrive until after we had moved here to Tauranga. I've had it sitting on my kitchen windowsill all year, and now it is on the tree.

And here is my tree. This is for our Christmas Party, as we are going up to the beach house for Christmas Day, and taking a smaller white Christmas tree for decorating up there for our beach Christmas.

Vintage Sale Loveliness

One of the best things about moving to the Bay of Plenty are the friends I have made in such a short time.
I met this small group of ladies by chance when one of them lived down the road from us in our first rental house. She invited me to coffee get-togethers with her friends and sewing mornings that are not sewing mornings, and this group of 3-4 women have just embraced me into their own circle and made me feel so welcome. They're beautiful women; smart and funny and warm and caring.

So this week, we saw in the local paper that there was a charity sale of retro and vintage fabrics/clothing and other goods at the Historic Village Hall here in Tauranga, and we all agreed to get up early and be in first - as long queues were almost a given. We had a list of what we wanted and we'd grab stuff for each other, and text so we could queue jump, if necessary. We were after some bargains!

When yesterday morning dawned cold and rainy and windy, I wasn't surprised when two of them pulled out and left two of us to brave the weather and the crowds.

We were one of the first, but when we arrived, there were already a carpark full of cars and people swarming into the hall. By the time we left, the queues were snaking through the building and the room was hot and sweaty and noisy and crowded. But I grabbed me some good stuff. I have been revelling in my 'finds'.

I love these little embroidered linen squares. I'm going to turn them into serviettes.

I found several things with the daintiest lace. I love old-fashioned lace. I know it's a dying art and one that I'd love to learn how to do myself. Who can forget Queenie out of Lark Rise to Candleford making her lace for the market?

Look at this beautiful laundry bag. I love it! It's the sort of thing my grandmother would have had hanging in her 'wash house'.

 

Here is a sweet little doily.

And a dainty tea-cosy - more for looks I think, than to keep a teapot warm.

One of my favourite things is this beautiful linen cloth - bought for 50c! I think its purpose is a teatowel, but it is so crisp and unsullied that I think it has probably sat in a cupboard for most of its life. I love the colours.

These French cloths remind me of my Nana.

So many pretty things. It's almost heartbreaking to think some woman's hours of hard work and love ends up on an indifferent, crammed sale table.

I bought about 5 linen tablecloths, with a price tag averaging around $6 each. I know for a fact that antique shops sell these for around the $40 mark, so I was rather thrilled to get them.

I found a lovely baby's jacket in pure wool, still with the tag 'Made in Great Britain' on it. I had thoughts of cutting it up for my woolen baby hats, but now..... I don't know. And a sweet little doll's apron from Harrods. Look!

And I really wanted to get a crochet blanket - they had several there, but this one cuaght my eye. Alice has claimed it as her own already!

We finished off with a civilised morning tea of cake and coffee before we shared an umbrella to make the dash back to our cars. It was a lot of fun. I'm planning on doing a giveaway with something soon - if I can decide on what I can bear to part with!

The Quilting Olympics

I have heard that the 1863 quilt by Jane A. Stickle is the Quilt to beat all quilts. Apparently, if you can complete this handmade, intricate, mathematical quilt, than you have achieved the ultimate height of quilt-making. A Queen of Quilts. Or as I like to call it: the Quilting Olympics!

So I have become a Dear Jane girl at our local quilting store Village Fabrics. I was excited when I saw that a group was starting up as this is one quilt that has intrigued me for awhile, and I have always throught that I would like to give it a try. I know that it is a long term project - and if I want it to be authentic it all has to be hand-pieced, though as one of the ladies in my class said, there is no patchwork police hanging over our shoulders to check!

There are 7 of us in the ongoing class, and we meet every Sunday afternoon for a few hours to stitch our block of the week. We have had Ann Higgs teaching us the various applique methods for the first few weeks which has been educational! And then we get to choose the method we like best. I think I prefer the freezer paper and needleturn method of applique.

It has been fun to meet new people. Quilting ladies are always lovely, I find - and generous. When I told the class I wanted to do mine exclusively in French General fabrics, I was immediately plied with offcuts and scraps that the ladies had stashed in their cupboards that they swear they don't want anymore! How kind!

Look at this lovely bundle!

And so I begin the cataloguing of my tiny little 4 inch squares, and there is something rather compelling about them. I look forward to my class each week, and I'm enjoying the challenge. Because this quilt is very mathematical, it truly is a challenge for my non-mathematical brain. I expect it will take me years to complete this, and when it's all sewn together, there's the handquilting to do to finish it. But I like the challenge!

This Pinwheel Gone Awry is actually the first square in the book, but was our homework for last week, and there were lots of complaints when we turned up at the class this week! Nobody like doing this one - and if I can forget about how much I hated it, I might redo it at a later stage. But so far it is an exception - I've enjoyed all the other squares! Also, check out the lovely names of the squares. I love their romance!