Card making fun with 'Handmade Hellos'

I have always loved the idea of making my own cards. I have even attempted it on a number of occasions.

Sadly each time I have come hard up against the sad reality that I really didn't have a lot of inspiration. Once I moved past the age at which it was acceptable to hand draw a dodgy Santa on the front of Christmas cards I got a little stuck (although some may argue that this is always acceptable they clearly have not witnessed my lack of artistic skill firsthand). I think that a lot of this had to do with not having the right equipment on hand, but that was partly because I really didn't know what the right equipment would even look like. I had no real vision for what my handmade cards would like either.

Enter Handmade Hellos. This book contains 25 projects for making cards for (almost) every occasion. It's great. In addition to providing clear instructions and a list of all of the equipment that you will need to make them, it's packed full of inspiration. Some of the projects do require fairly special equipment, such as a gocco machine or lino blocks & tools, but most of them just rely on cardboard, scissors & glue, which is great.

Here are a couple of sample pages from the publisher's site


I like this thumbprint Humpty Dumpty. Actually , fingerprint pictures are a great idea in general.


These little accordion books are cute too. They'd be a lot of work though. You'd want them to be for someone special wouldn't you?

Anyway, I hope to make lots of these cards in the next few months in preparation for Christmas. Yep, I'm still thinking about Christmas. Mad, I know.

Merry Christmas

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas (or Hanuka, or other special family time...). Ours was great, but also a little intense.



In the lead-up to Christmas I set myself too much work - sewing lots of presents (like the clutches pictured above - from Bend the Rules Sewing); printing canvas for wrapping paper (also pictured); baking and wrapping gingerbread; and cooking more food than would fit in our fridge.


On Christmas Eve, we hosted drinks for 30 people (my Mum's family). The photos above are of the calm before the storm (so to speak). It was so lovely to see everyone and Lily loved having her cousins over the play with (and to exchange gifts with). Also everyone came loaded down with food and drinks, and we had many hands to help with the clean up at the end. However, this was only the beginning...


On Christmas morning we hosted breakfast for 9. We sat outside in the sun and it was a beautiful morning - lots of fresh fruit (mangoes and cherries always make me think of Christmas); mushrooms on toast, muffins, and (of course) coffee. More gifts were exchanged, but by now Lily was getting tired and said "Goodbye everyone" and lead me off to a quiet place where she could feed to sleep.
During her nap, more cleaning and cooking was done by all... and then we hosted a lunch for 11 (some of my Dad and my Sister-in-law's families). We had enough food for 20, at least, and it was a lovely long lingering lunch. Still more gifts were exchanged, more beautiful fruit, chocolates and coffee was consumed, and still more cleaning was done by many helping hands.

At 6:30pm we finished off the last load of dishes and then quickly made a couple of roast vegetables salads & a fruit platter and drove out to P's parents place for the Mega-family dinner. There were at least 50 people at P's parents' place and yet more gifts were exchanged... We asked Lily if she wanted to open her presents. "No," was her firm reply. Instead she wanted to play outside with her cousins. (We ended up having to open about half of Lily's gifts this morning - on her behalf - It was crazy-talk.)

We got home at 10:15pm, exhausted.

It was truly lovely to catch up with all of our families and to share food & gifts with the people that we love. However, it was also pretty overwhelming to see (and host) so many people in such a short space of time. If only we could spread Christmas out over a few weeks...

21 months

Dear Lily

Last Sunday you turned 21 months old. Sorry about the lateness of this letter and for the lack of photos. I am writing it from Sydney. We made a last-minute, somewhat nutty trip up here last night so that you could audition for a breast-cancer-awareness commercial and (more importantly) see several of your grandparents. (The commercial is a long and odd story that I will tell you about later, but for now I'll just let you know that you were incredible - you charmed the socks of them).

This month I have been continually confronted with just how much you are growing up. I keep thinking about your last Christmas and how little you were. While you were still very alert and engaged in the world, you were such a different little person. You weren't quite walking. You had no idea what Christmas meant. You took no notice of the trees or decorations. Your presents held only a passing level of interest.

In contrast, this year you are all about Christmas.

"Let's make decorations," you suggest to me several times a day.

"I want a Santa."

"Look: a Christmas tree!"

"Santa has a big white beard."

"I'd like to read a Christmas book."

"I love this one. This one's my favourite."

This year you are all about Christmas and I am just loving it.

We have been trying to make decorations, but you still are more into the process than the product. We have quite a number of artistic yellow previously-star-shaped paper mush piles.

We did decorate our baby Christmas tree, but removing the decorations was a little too tempting for you. (It is now up high). You were desperate to make gingerbread (and even remembered what molasses was for three days after I first told you we needed it), but when faced with the choice between icing the biscuits and eating the icing, well... I think you can imagine the outcome.

Still, it has been so much fun getting to experience the lead-up to Christmas with you. You have made me see everything with fresh eyes and given me a wonderful excuse to indulge in all the glitz and tinsle.

I simply cannot wait for Christmas day itself. Hopefully it is not too overwhelming for you (and, hopefully, I can actually finish making your felt food...).

Merry Christmas beautiful girl.

love
mama
xox

A smock for Maddie

I just love smocks. I think that they are one of the cutest, and most practical, items of clothing out there. So I thought that I would make a few this year as Christmas present for some of the small people in my life.

This one is for Maddie. I hope that she likes it and gets it REALLY dirty!



The pattern is from the fabulous Bend the Rules Sewing book. Oh how I love this book.

Merry Christmas

I hope that you had a lovely day. Lily certainly did. She got far too many presents and loved every minute of it.

Gift inspiration

If you are still struggling with your Christmas gift purchases (despite my valiant attempts at creating an ethical gift guide), or you would just like to win something, then you might want to check out Crunchy Domestic Goddess' two holiday gift guides - one for munchkins and another for adults.
The munchkin guide gives you the chance to win a gift pack from Hazelnut Kids who stock toys from a range of organic cotton people including Under The Nile. I love their stuff. A friend gave Lily one of their little grape babies yesterday and it is just so cute.

An ethical Christmas (part two)

[continued from part one]

3. Fair trade goodness
Another option for an ethical Christmas gift is to give people something fair trade. Things like coffee, tea and chocolate are a nice option here, because they are semi-luxury foods that lots people like (or may be slightly addicted to). Another benefit is that these are some of the products that are difficult to grow in Australia and generally involve incredible bad labour conditions (essentially slavery) when purchased from large corporations. A lovely spin off may be that some of your gift recipients may choose to make the switch to fair trade on a more permanent basis.

Other fair trade items might include clothing or home wears from shops like Cambodia House or Taylor & Khoo - who produce their products through fair trade practices in Cambodia and then send all of their profits back to Cambodia to run projects like an orphanage and other project work with people with disabilities, urban poor, female land mine victims and rural youth.


4. Eco-friendly gifts
Eco-friendly gifts are also a nice option for an ethical Christmas. This opens a whole range of possibilities and there a plenty of places stocking great gift ideas in this category.One of our favourite sites is Biome where you can buy a range of eco-friendly products, like these adorable wooden animals by Anamalz (available internationally), or environmentally responsible stationary (like the "I used to be a car tyre" mousepad) or the beautiful skin (and baby) care range from Tasmania's Beauty & the Bees.

5. Homemade & Handmade
Another option is to make something yourself. So, for example, if you enjoy baking, you could make gingerbread for people or other tasty treats (using organic & fair trade ingredients, of course).

If you are skilled in the arts & crafts area then you also have a whole range of other options - you could make a patchwork quilt for someone, using recycled & vintage fabrics, or you could make them some jewelry using recycled objects.

If you lack these kinds of skills (as I do, alas), then you might want to check out all the glorious items available on etsy. Everything on etsy is handmade and the money goes straight to the producer. Continuing with our ethical theme you could focus particularly on items that are made with recycled or eco-friendly materials or you could use the geolocator tool to locate sellers that are close to you (or to your intended recipient) so that you items do not have to travel too far and use up unnecessary fossil fuels.
6. Experiences
Finally, you could give someone an experience rather than an object. For kids this might include a gift of dance or gymnastic lessons, or a trail ride. For adults it might be something that they have always wanted to do - like the Bridge Climb (Sydney Harbour Bridge) or hang gliding.

P's sent me hang gliding for my birthday a few years ago and it was the best birthday that I have ever had.

An Ethical Christmas

It is coming around to that time of year when I start stressing about Christmas - what to buy people and what to answer in response to all those people who ask me what I would like them to buy me. This got me thinking about some of the options of making all this present buying a little more ethical (or 'ecotarian' if you will). So here are some of my ideas:

1. Buy a toilet
Odd, yes, but this is an idea that has recently really taken off - you purchase something that is needed for someone in the global south through an NGO like Oxfam or Baptist World Aid and 'give' it to someone for Christmas. This is the perfect way of entering into the spirit of Christmas without adding to the problem of overconsumption in the West.

If that doesn't make a lot of sense, here is Oxfam's description:

Oxfam Unwrapped is a collection of life-changing gifts - giving you the chance to give someone who has everything something special and something special to people who haven't got much at all.

P and I did this last year and it worked really well. It is even possible to tailor this kind of giving to the recipient. So, for example, we bought educational supplies for children in Thailand for my Grandfather and his wife who work in educational policy for UNESCO. We bought a 'start a business' pack for P's father who was a banker and for my father who worked in this area for the World Bank. For my brother I bought 'sex education' because, well because it was funny really. And the toilet? Well that I bought for my Mum because she has always said that she wanted to join the World Toilet Organisation and because, well you would just have to know her to truly understand...

2. Ethical Toys

Obviously young children are not likely to be quite as impressed with a gift that they personally do not receive, but it is still possible to buy gifts for children that are ethical.

There are lots of places that now stock fair trade children's toys and games, and most are made from sustainable wood or textile products that are gentle on the earth and on children.






Some examples include the Oxfam Shop (online and in capital cities around Australia - and other countries), Lark (online and stocked in many retailers around Australia), Generation Wonder (online), and Under the Nile (online and in retailers around Australia).

To be continued...