Sneak peek on Christmas presents

Now that Amelia is starting to nap a little bit more consistently, I'm getting the chance to finish off projects I started ages ago.

Without giving too much away, this Christmas present needs buttons... but which set?

These vintage buttons from Canada look like teeny little olives.. too cute!

But I like the contrast of the green yarn and these fawn-coloured flower pattern buttons...

Or these shiny pale green beauties, which I'm a little reluctant to say goodbye to just yet...

What do you reckon?

Gift wrapping hints and tips - recycled!

Can you believe it's been a year since I was on TV showing how to decorate your parcels the upcycled way? Here's a timely reminder of my ten top tips, originally published on the Glasgow Craft Mafia blog last year, with my apologies for the dark photos:


1) Do your maths!

If you measure the longest side of your parcel, you need seven times this measurement in ribbon to create that wrapped finish – measuring before you start means you only cut off what you need each time.

2) Use your odds and ends

You can dress a plain box with that annoying last strip of paper from the roll that otherwise would go straight into the recycling. Or use your odds and ends, a couple of dabs of glue and some plain card to make a co-ordinating gift tag.

3) Think outside the box

Present too difficult/fiddly/awkward a shape to wrap? Stick it in a bag, pop a glittery bow on top, job done. Life’s too short to wrestle sticky tape.

4) Raid your tree

A teeny little bauble, felt stocking or even a handknit ornament look cute and pretty on top of your packages. And the recipient can pop them on their own tree, instead of in the bin, once the presents are all opened on Christmas morning. Or how about using mini tinsel instead of ribbon?




5) If you aren’t artistic – cheat!

There’s no shame in not being able to draw – I was kicked out of art classes at school and still managed to make a bit of a career of it! My top tip for Christmassy themed tags is to use Christmas cookie cutters as a template – just draw the outline onto a sheet of double-sided card (plain one side, patterned the other), cut out, punch a hole and you’re away.

6) You don’t need to buy fancy materials

See those cookie cutter tags I just mentioned – you don’t even need to buy the card. Use pretty packaging from toiletries or chocolates, pick up some vintage packaging from eBay, or do what we all did when we were little, use last years Christmas cards!

7) Shop from your sewing box

Great alternatives to ribbon can be found in your sewing box, or your local haberdashers. Lace trim, embroidery thread, bakers twine, even fancy yarn can make a cost-effective and visually interesting alternative to expensive glossy ribbon.

8) Use what you have

As well as re-purposing or upcycling other materials, don’t forget all those bits and pieces you have stashed away from last year. A fresh glance might inspire you to add a different type of ribbon, trim down your tags into another shape, or pop your gifts straight into the kids’ stockings, to cut down on the sheer amount of waste Christmas time can generate.

9) Do away with gift tags

You can pick up loads of letter stickers and other embellishments from shops which specialize in scrapbooking, card making or journaling. Think about adding the gift recipient name to the side of your package in stickers, or you can even cut letters out of the newspaper and stick them to the side of your gift, ransom note stylee. This is especially good for Secret Santa presents, where no-one needs to know who it’s from!

10) Have fun

Get together with friends for a gift wrapping party – a couple of glasses of something merry, a cheesy Christmas soundtrack, enough scissors and tape to go around and all your crafty ideas for making your presents stand out should make for a very festive evening. Pooling your resources will help your supplies (and your money) go a lot further!

Hop on over to my Flickr for more inspiration and lots of lovely brown parcel paper! It seems I've found a kindred spirit in a guest post over on Lupin's Bugs and Fishes blog - brown paper, check! Raid the Christmas tree, check! Use your crafting supplies, check! Good to know I'm still on trend this Christmas, too. I'll be wrapping and uploading some new photos of this year's gifts, both in their packaging, in the next few weeks, and out, once the 25th has passed.

Happy wrapping!

Butcher Boy's Christmas Fayre

Are you in Glasgow and free on Saturday 11 December? Beat the usual festive rush at the shops AND get to see one of Glasgow's finest acts at the gorgeous surroundings of the Mitchell Library.

My friend (and former DJing partner in crime, fact fans) Alison has organised this event showcasing her band at the Mitchell in a couple of weeks. I'm going to try and make it over there, snowfall permitting, and the full details are as follows, below.



Time Saturday, December 11 · 11:00am - 4:00pm

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Location The Mitchell Library
North Street
Glasgow, United Kingdom

Join us in the beautiful Jeffrey Hall (top floor) for arts and crafts, home baking, face painting, raffles, and music from Butcher Boy and the Power Cut Choir.

The Fayre runs from 11am til 3pm.

Butcher Boy will play from 3pm til 4pm.

Entry is £1 for the Fayre only or £5 for the Fayre including the gig. Under-10s get in free!

All proceeds will go to the Beatson Institute and the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.

A long weekend at Craiglush

Every year around Thanksgiving time, I get away into the Scottish countryside for a long weekend together with my closest group of friends. This year we stayed in a lovely house with floor to ceiling windows over both floors, right on the banks of Craiglush Loch, near Dunkeld. For those of you who know your Shakespeare, we were right near Birnam Wood.

It was lovely to involve Amelia in our little annual tradition, and we managed to go the whole weekend without keeping everyone awake at night!

This is the view from our bedroom terrace every evening at sundown...

If anyone is interested in spending a weekend or a week at this lovely private location, drop me an email and I'll put you in touch with the friendly owner.

With all the extra hands available, I'm also delighted to report that I managed a little bit of knitting - it's a secret Christmas present project that I'll share with you all soon.

Just like Christmas

Oh I love receiving parcels from Haunt! Haunt is my favourite supplier of bathtime goodies - even more vital now that bathtime is my only me-time! Due to the immense popularity of Erin's wonderful shop, it now opens at limited times during the year, and I like to stock up while I can.

Haunt goodies are such a treat, you can smell the rich autumnal fragrances before even opening the package. To add to the Old Cidermill Glossing Oil, Golden Pumpkin and Coffee Scrubs, and Pumpkin Lavender soap I currently have lined up next to my bath, I picked up some of Erin's newer products.

Each product was individually wrapped with such attention to detail - even down to a wax seal on a sample of fragrance that Erin so kindly included as a gift. And of course the packaging is all on my favourite Autumnal colour spectrum, lots of lovely brown!

The soaps look good enough to eat, don't they?

And of course the joy of buying handmade is that everyone is just so lovely - as a repeat customer I love to be remembered, and as a mum, I love it when the littl'un is remembered too. Thank you so much, Erin!



I'll be back with some in-depth reviews of these products as I break into them - they are too good not to share. Bookmark Haunt's shop on Etsy now, so you don't miss out next time the doors creak open...

Glasgow Craft Mafia at Inver Cottage this weekend!

Read all about it over on the Glasgow Craft Mafia blog. It's a great place to visit - Inver Cottage is in a beautiful location and makes the best food ever - and getting a chance to do some early handmade Christmas shopping is a fantastic bonus!

Supermercado

I was so excited to go to the launch of Supermercado yesterday, bundling Amelia into the car in the hopes of catching up with some familiar faces and getting a head start on the Christmas shopping, too. Sadly it wasn't to be, and turned into a bit of a catalogue of disasters.

We set off on our girly shopping trip and headed for Glasgow's East End - I wanted to nip into our flat, and also had to visit a shopping centre to pick up a specific thing I'd meant to get on Tuesday and totally forgot. We checked the weather forecast and the football schedule before setting off at noon - kick off was 3pm and and it was supposed to be dry. The plan was - flat, shopping centre, park up at Glasgow Green and hit the Barras.

Halfway towards Glasgow, the rain started to descend by the bucket load, and I decided it was going to be too much of a pain to nip and in out of the flat - a five minute job had turned into a twenty minute pushchair/car seat rigmarole. So we headed straight for the shopping centre, did what we needed to and hit the road again. We eventually got parked up at the partially flooded Glasgow Green and right on cue, the rain started to let up a bit and I grabbed the baby backpack to save putting up the pushchair again. And then Amelia did a major technicolour yawn all over her clothes. There was no way we could continue shopping, and I learned a valuable lesson about keeping a spare change of clothes in the car for in future.

I briefly toyed with the idea of heading back to the shopping centre to pick up a spare outfit for Amelia, but it was five to three at this point, so instead of having a lovely walk and shop while the traffic cleared away, we ended up heading in the opposite direction, back onto the motorway and decided to make the trip to Supermercado another day. Possibly with back up in the form of Daddy, as our former local, West, is only across the way.

For more information on Supermercado, check out the Made in the Shade website, or visit the Barras!