Wifely Christmas presents 2012

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the gifts my wife and I exchanged on Christmas deserved their own post.

As far as the gift my wife gave me, I knew where it had come from (a vintage fair that happens every Thursday in Oxford), I knew it was rather heavy and I knew roughly how large it was as it happened to reside in the bottom of our wardrobe for around a month and a half! Aside from these things, I had absolutely no idea what I'd be unwrapping on Christmas day, but was über über excited to unwrap a beautiful typewriter! This was an especially thoughtful present on my wife's behalf as there had been one in a Grenoble shop that I walked past every day for a couple of months, longing for. My wife had also repainted, oiled and changed the ribbon of this typewriter, making it (presumably) more gorgeous.

As my wife's birthday is at the end of October, I sometimes find it difficult to think of something to give her for Christmas. This was the case for quite a while, until I decided on making a snowglobe and some silhouette art. Both of these ideas came from my favourite inspirational site, Pinterest! Even once I'd decided on making each of these gifts, I wasn't entirely sure about how they would look, so I went for a supply buying trip one weekend, having made a rough list of the things I needed.

In the end, both of the presents were made over two evenings in December, when I had the flat to myself as my wife was back in Kent attending interviews. As such, I spent those evenings fully emersed in my crafting, and completely forgot to take any photographs! Fail.

I made the silhouette pictures first, using frames that I purchased at Wilkinson. I knew that I didn't want a back to the frames so that they could ultimately go in any room as the wall colour would simply show through the frame. I therefore used the glass from two seperate frames to sandwich the silhouette and lettering, making two pieces - one of my wife and one of myself. The silhouette and lettering themselves were made from printed images which I cut out using my craft knife and then spray-painted black. This was a simple enough process, with the trickiest part being to make each part the right size, but after a little trial and error I ended up with the design I wanted and here are the finished products:

Moving on to the second part of the gift-making, the snowglobe. To make this, I bought glycerin, a large jam jar, some decorative crystals and smallish Christmas decorations, and some silver glitter. I also knew that I wanted to put an image of my wife and I in the snowglobe, so used one of us from last winter in the snowy mountains of Grenoble. I cut out the image in a size small enough to fit in the jar, and then laminated it twice to protect it from the water. I then used my hot glue gun to glue the image onto the pre-sprayed lid of the jar, proceeding to use the crystals to stabilise the image. During this part, I tried to ensure that I attached each crystal securely as I knew that the jar would obviously be shaken and I didn't want things coming loose. Once the glue was dry and everything had settled, I put some silver glitter and some star confetti that I already had into the jar, and filled it up with water and a little glycerin. I then checked on the water level by screwing the lid on, and once I was satisfied with it, I hot glued around the edge of the jar and screwed the lid back on. Ta-da, one finished snowglobe!

So there you have it, wifely presents of Christmas, 2012 :D

Christmas presents 2012

Seeing as it's now been nearly a whole month since the big event that was Christmas, I figured I'd best get down to showing what we got (mostly made) for everyone. With a family as large as mine (one brother, three sisters, one step-brother and two step-sisters, along with parents, grandparents, uncles and cousins) and everyone coming over during the festive season we knew we had many presents to get! That's why my wife and I made a start on Christmas presents waaaayyy back in October. 

We knew we didn't have enough money to spend a whole lot on people (and that's generally not our style!) so the emphasis this year was on using crafting supplies that we already owned (as far as possible) to produce a gift that people would appreciate on a low budget. We reckon we pretty much achieved this ... or I hope we did, anyway. 

The first present we decided on and I made a start on making was for my Mother. Whilst looking on Ravelry for inspiration on things to make, we stumbled across this pattern and decided that knitting a pair of socks, seeing as I haven't made one yet, would be perfect for my mama. So right at the beginning of October, I cast on, using my circular needles for the first time, ooooo, excitement! I have to say, I was pretty impressed with both the process and the outcome, finishing them just over a month later. My mother seemed to like them too and said they were plenty warm. Equally, my grandmother was enamoured with them, although partly just to show off her granddaughter's knitting, I think!

So that was one present finished, and it was only the second week of November! Only *counts on fingers* fourteen (at least) more to do, not even including my wife's presents ... that's manageable right?

The next presents -or rather set of presents- that got completed weren't for family, they were for a number of the girls at work and my wife's best friend. These were just a token present each really, and came from ideas seen on Pinterest. After buying the supplies for these presents (Sharpies and mugs) I really hoped that they would in fact turn out ok. Thankfully they did, although we ended up having to bake them in the oven twice and then the colours faded in ways we didn't anticipate, but we figured they still looked good. 

So now we were five presents down, and a million still to go ... but we were getting there. 

Immediately after casting off my Mother's socks, I picked up my knitting needles (straight this time) and set to making this badger hat for my sister, although this actually ended up being the very last present finished as it wasn't fully completed until Christmas Eve! I think that was partly down to the lining of the hat knitting up so quickly that I got fooled into thinking it wasn't going to take very long, not taking into account that the lining was by far the simplest part, doh! This hat was therefore finished off back in Kent, in my Mother's house, and the buttons for the eyes and nose came from my great-grandmother's sewing box, making it all the more special.

Possibly the best part about this gift was my sister not realising when she opened it that it was handmade!

Rather a few of the presents we gave out at Christmas were made during a church craft evening on December 1st. This turned out to be an excellent event that both my wife and I attended along with the girls from school, and at just £6 each and coming away with eight Christmas presents, we figure rather good value for money! Unfortunately I forgot completely to take any photos of the gifts we made, darn it. But ... we made two sets of microwaveable hand warmers, two decorated door stops, two pillowcases and two rustic decorations. All, bar one of these gifts were given out on Christmas day: the hand warmers to each of my two step-sisters, the door stops to my step-brother and Grandad, the pillowcases to my brother and my middle sister, and one of the rustic decorations to my Nannie. As a token photo, I have to include the only remaining gift we still own - the other rustic decoration which was hung in our flat.

For my littlest sister it's always easy to think of things to give; the problem comes down to choosing just the best idea. This year, we decided to make her her own dog as she is always asking for a puppy. The idea for this came from the Christmas present my friend asked me to make for her mother: a knitted pug. For my sister I knitted a dachshund, with a pattern from 'Best in Show: Knit Your Own Dog'. This was also not finished until a couple of days before Christmas, in my Mother's house, and unfortunately my sister managed to catch a peep of it before the big day, disaster! Thankfully she still seemed pleased with her gift and I just had to think of a more creative way of wrapping it to try to keep her guessing!

Finally, there were several presents that we decided to buy. For my wife's Nan and my stepfather we bought photo frames and got photos printed to go in them, and we also bought presents for my young cousins. These presents were not big or expensive by any means, and were a draw your own puzzle for my three-year-old cousin and a paint your own bag for my eight-year-old cousin. They seemed pleased enough to get these presents, although being young they were rather overwhelmed by the number of presents they were unwrapping, especially as they came to see us a couple of days after Christmas Day and so were mostly the only ones unwrapping anything. 

So, there you have it. A quick rundown of the presents we gave out at Christmas. Obviously, this post hasn't included the gifts I gave my wife, but I figure this is definitely long enough and they probably deserve their own post!

A New Chapter

It feels like an awfully long time since I posted on here, but I've been more than a little busy. Since returning from Barcelona on August 26th, my wife and I have been in the process of moving ourselves 100 miles from our hometown. We picked up the keys for our new rented flat on the 28th and proceeded to move all the stuff we'd been saving in a storage facility those 100 miles ... all in our Fiat 500! It's taken us five journeys (and around 900 miles) so far and we still don't have everything here. 

That first week where we went back and forth three days in a row was very tiring, and then just a week after getting into the flat, I started work! A new flat and a new job, especially when you've spent the last year getting to stay at home and be crafty all the time, seems rather crazy, but there you go. Why wouldn't you want to do everything at once?

You might be wondering why we've moved 100 miles away from the rest of our family, but the answer is simple: my wife still has a year of university to complete and Oxford is where that is. I wasn't about to let her go off on her own now, was I?

In just under three weeks, we've mostly set up our flat the way we'd like it (thankfully it was furnished) and a lot of it has just been waiting for services to be switched over and on. We managed to get a Sky subscription installed last Friday and the phone line and internet have only been active since yesterday (thank goodness for iPhones!) so we're really getting there now. 

So here you, a quick look at the place we're calling home:

Bedroom

Lounge

Dining end of the lounge and door to the kitchen

We're especially enjoying having a separate kitchen with an oven and actual space to prepare food. That and being able to put up the frames we had stored has been really nice, along with having much more space to be in than we had in our teeny tiny French flat!

Well, what do you think of our new abode? Any ideas of where we can get a cheap chest of drawers to supplement our clothes storage? Any of you moved home recently too? 

Buying art in Barcelona

For the past week and a half, my wife and I have been in Barcelona as the Spanish part of her year abroad. For the first week we also had my 17 year old sister with me, to give her a holiday! All in all, we'll be in this city for 4 weeks (!), so have got plenty of time for sight-seeing, beaching and also some breathing space for just being. 

So far, we've managed to see quite a lot, although we also have plenty planned for the coming two and a half weeks. 

Last Friday, whilst at the Park Güell, we walked past a man selling art, and happened to like one of the paintings he had placed on the top of his pile. For 10€, we thought it a bargain, and picked it up. Yay! :)

So, here's the painting we bought, which is currently resting up against a window in our rented apartment:

Of course this now means we'll have to add yet another frame to our 'to buy' list, bringing the total up to five now, I think!

A Ribba too small ...

So, that unfilled photo frame that we bought at Ikea on Saturday? 

For the cross-stitch I've nearly finished, I said. 

Unfortunately, that didn't fit! (Not that it's finished yet, either, but shhh)

Instead, change of plans: we decided to get some wedding photos printed and put them into the frame, simples, and, we think, gorgeous :D

Now if only we were able to hang things in our little apartment.