What we're giving, part II

I have been the lucky recipient of lots of felt pieces from Nicola at Clasheen. I have used them to make some goodies for young ladies.

 

Bracelet/cuff (hand washable)

 

Hair decoration for a long haired girl.

 

Another bracelet - decorated with felted beads. Below is the flip side. All are packaged in origami boxes, which can be used to store this and other treasures. The Toast catalogue from last year has lovely paper for making boxes. ;-)

 

What we're giving this year

Every year we try to make sure our gifts are local, handmade and/or biodegradable. Though we are regularly tempted by Hairy Baby and ThinkGeek products. (and anyone wondering what to get us would do well to peruse those sites...). I have been sewing more lately, so this owl pattern on Burda style got me going.

 

The current owl family - some will fly off to new homes soon.

 

The littlest one.

This one has a funny eye, but someone will love him....what do you think?
 

Advent Calendar

This weekend Brian and I made an Advent calendar for the boys.

 

Here is is hanging in front of the patio doors. It's 24 envelopes, each with a number on the front, and inside there's a card with instructions (like 'clean your room for santa') and in some cases a treat.

 

Some have treasure maps, and reminders of fun events.

 

We had a lot of fun decorating them.

 

The boys are longing for December first, so they can start opening them. I'm excited too....

Granola - finally

 

 

 

Some nicely decorated jars of granola - don't you wish you knew the student at this course? Made using this recipe, from Nigella's book Feast. It's wheat free, and you can made a sugar free version if you like!

Macaroons and origami boxes

 

 

 

We made macaroons using this recipe. Adapted from The Sweet Life in Paris (Broadway) by David Lebovitz. The prune and chocolate filling won everyone over.

The boxes we made also - they are a simple origami box - great for packaging all kinds of goodies. We made black and white ones for the truffles, I'm gutted that I forgot to take a photo - they looked wonderful!

Bath Bombs

 

 

 

A selection of bath bombs - in production, and the final packaging,

Wire and Bead decorations

 

 

 

 

Simple to make, and good for your Christmas tree, and to catch the light in a window, year round.

Christmas decorations

 

 

 

 

Here's a sample of our christmas decorations - made from recycled CDs, and clothes pegs. Ingenious, eh?

Make 'n' Bake 2009

 

A lovely day spent crafting, baking and mixing at Educate together on Saturday. We started with truffle making, moved on to christmas decorations, made chocolate macaroons and granola - all before lunch!

After lunch, we made bath bombs, and got back on the crafty vibe with packaging, gift tags and cards for the goods made earlier. Sadly no photos of the truffles, and not because they ended up in our tummies! The class were amazingly restrained, though the same can't be said in relation to the macaroons. :-)

More photos to follow...

Christmas Crafting - make your own gifts

Gertrude Tlou of Umbrella Studios (gertrudetlou@eircom.net) and Anna Browne (087 2222562 or annambrowne@gmail.com) offer you the chance to enter the world of hand made gifts, and realise your dreams of a better Christmas. They will teach you to make a selection of goodies which will delight, amuse and please your nearest and dearest. Choose from a selection of Bath bombs, bath bags, Heat pillows, Neck gaiters, christmas decorations, granola, chocolate macaroons, truffles, Cookie mix in a jar, and go home with recipes and instructions for all of these, and the confidence to make them at home yourself. In addition you'll learn to make gift wraps, gift cards, and cute Origami gift boxes, using recycled materials.


Remember last Christmas? Fighting traffic, stuck in shopping center parking lots? Fighting with the other harried shopper over the last Bath set at the chemist on Christmas eve? Wracking your brains trying to remember who you forgot? Snarling at the family when it's supposed to be such a happy time of year? And then realising you forgot someone very important in the stress of it all? And knowing deep down that you have missed the spirit of Christmas....

This year can be so much different. Imagine a serene day spent learning new crafts, with interesting new people - picking up tips and tricks for creating personalised homemade gifts, and wrapping them in your own individual style?

Imagine spending the last few days leading up to Christmas, relaxed and basking in the knowledge that you have already made all your gifts. Or enjoying the last minute party you have been invited to, knowing you have a unique gift for the hosts in your stockpile. Imagine the appreciation you'll see on the recipients faces, when they see that you have taken the time to make something especially for them? And, best of all, imagine not being in fear of your January credit card bill!


'Make and Bake your Christmas Presents' will be held at Mullingar Educate Together NS on November 7th (leaving you lots of time to put your skills into practice before the holidays), running from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Cost is €75 euro, and all materials will be provided.

Tie Dyeing

Did a bit of tie dyeing in the mid term break. Raw materials - Tea towels from Ikea, vest and onesie from Dunnes, Polo shirt from Penneys. Used Jungle Green multi purpose dye from Dylon, though I think this has been discontinued - both the colour and the style of dye. Amazon Green is the nearest thing.

 

2 Iris Ikea tea towels - I really like how they came out. they were accordion folded, and then folded again in thirds.

 

Light (insipid?) blue polo shirt - from Penneys. I think it looks a lot better now.

 

Cute Baby vest - hides a multitude :-)

 

Groovy all in one. Originally pristine white from Dunnes. Sold in a three pack. The snap fasteners take up a bit of the dye.

Sara's necklace

 

 

We have been making things, but I have forgotten to blog about them. That will have to change:-)

The boys have been invited to a lot of girls parties lately - earlier this week, they made 2 necklaces, which I did not photograph - bummer- and they have already been given away. Dara made a lovely one today for his friend Sara - and they are both enjoying her birthday party at the moment.

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February painting

 

 

Haven't been up to much craft and painting wise for a while now - but my acrylics painting class restarted last week. On the gardening side, I am very busy with teaching two classes, and planning and planting my garden, and the school garden, so there's not much energy remaining for this side of things.

However, these two painting got finished today, and I have to say that I am quite pleased with both of them.