Christmas presents

The Keeper of the Needle

Well the gift giving has been and gone, well mostly anyway we haven't as yet caught up with a couple of groups of relatives but most have been seen and gifted as it were.

I made a bunch of felt play food for my brothers twins but forgot to photograph them. I may do the boys some to so if I do I'll take pictures of those which will invereably turn out completely differently :)

I do love that I have a family who appreciate hand made things. We gave Tom's family mostly hampers which were a mix of bought and made items, mostly of an edible nature and got thanks for taking time to make things! I know many who like to make things have far less appricative family.. and I honesly think in such cases give the handmade items to your friends who will love and appriciate them :)

I am also luck enough to have family who make me things !

You can see where it get it from as they included these items from my mum and the wonderful little person at the top is by my brother's very talented partner and mother to his wonderful little boys. Isn't it just adorable! She has started selling as few pieces on folksy as Feythcrafts and also on DaWanda .  She also has a blog.

Wool, needles and hooks at Lidl

I don't work for them or anything but I am a fan of Lidl's weekly specials.

This weeks specials at Lidl are crafted related knitting, crochet, sewing etc. I've just picked up some packs of hooks (3 for 1.29) and they also have standard knitting needles, circular needles and double pointed ones.

Also on this week is various packs of yarn ranging from double knitting to stuff like pompoms on string and a whole bunch of sock wools, 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide for 3.99 for a pack of 4 50g balls including a sock pattern.

They also have various sewing kits and a set of divided see through boxes for holding bits and bobs which looked pretty useful.

If you cook they still have a fair amount of the last set of specials at least in the two Cov stores which include a whole variety of silicon baking trays, muffin tins and so on including a variety of winnie the pooh molds.

Trainers and that sort of thing

I'm not really a trainer type person though I have always had a soft spot for Converses so when I spotted the anniversary leather jacket converse on someone else's blog I thought it looked very cool, though well out of my price bracket. They are modelled on a leather jacket with zips and stitching and are great.

This of course got me doing a few searches on related things and these days you can get converses in pretty much any design you want though some are very limited editions including most of the 100 year celebration editions.

I like the Who union jack ones, some how they feel less associated with the negative side of nationalism here than say the Doc Martin ones. I don't know why to be honest it's just a gut reaction.You can get ones that look like they are covered in paint !
or design your own on the Converse site.

Just to prove that I looked at other makes too here are some Nike in liberty prints.. just right for the fabricophiles among us :)

Pefume Bottles

As some will know I have a bit of a weakness for perfume oils and essential oils. I have a modest collection of bpal perfumes, only something over 100, mostly just imps which are the sample vials and I rcenlty started getting a few bits from Nocturne Alchemy who specialise in Egyptian inspired perfume and have a love of Amber.

For thier second birthday they brought out two special limited editions which are 10ml rather than the normal 5ml and came with decorative bottles.. I sucommed and got both and they along with a few others turned up today. The two bottles above are the ones for the birthday oils. They are triangular which is why one looks a funny shape it is symetrical really.

The silver and blue is for Amber 46, a blend of 46 Ambers. yes 46 different ambers! They did 23 for thier first birthday so the mind boggles as to what they have planned for next year!

The red and gold is for Amber Kyphi (Sweet Flag, Wine Soaked Raisins, Egyptian aged Red Wine, Camel Grass, Storax Bark, Mastic, Benzoin, Juniper Berries, Mint, Cinnamon, Aspalathos, Egyptian Frankincense, Myrrh, Honey, Calamus, Rose Wood, Orris, Galangal, White Wine, Henna, Rhizomes of Cyperus, a drop of Dragon Blood and Amber Resin).

The great thing is the pretty bottles come empty with the perfume in a separate well sealed bottle and they even send pipets to decant with. So heaverns forbid and i don't like either of them i could use one of the bottles for something different.

great wooden chickens

My friend Nikki is celebrating her daughter's birthday with a sale and some give aways on her shop and blog.

Go and visit her at Ninny Noodle Noo, she sells a wonderful array of kids toys and everything we have ever got from her has been well worth the money. We have a bunch of the wooden toys like the chickens above, we she is giving away free, and they are fantastic. They are easy for kids to hold but sturdy and made to last from natural materials, they had a solidity that plastic toys just don't have. We have a castle, a bunch of animals and some people, trees even the billy goats gruff and they are all great.

She also has a whole range of other toys and some clothes and such like so if you have kids pop over and see if you can get a few things toput away for christmas.

All sorts of shiny Black

Our washing machine upped and died at the weekend. The motor is no more, the brushes are worn down and the door lock has been iffy for a while. As it is out of the 5 year warranty and changing motors etc ends up being expensive we decided to look for a new one.

Now while we like technology we are less gadget girls and boys than some of our friends and last time we looked at washing machines, about 6 years ago, I resisted the Dyson much as it was cool technology and pretty colours :) However this time we have gone for the cool new technology and tomorrow a shiny black steam washing machine will be turning up.

Does this mean we have a steam punk mashing machine ??

We are getting the LG F1402FDS6 which has a 9kg capacity and thier new direct drive where the motor is connected to the middle of the drum so it doens't use a belt like a standard machine.

It does wash normally but it also has a steam function which can do things like refresh mostly clean shirts as well as doing deep cleans the way a steam cleaner round the house can. It's A++ rated for energy and A for wash quality and spin though the second just seems to mean spins very fast if you want it too. It isn't the cheapest thing out there but it does have very good reviews including from one of Small's friends mums in the playground, it's always nice to get first hand experience on these things after all and I happened to mention we were looking at one and she couldn't praise the one she got recently enough.

At the other end of things price wise. Matalan is known for it's low prices and actually I've been surprised by it's quality particularly as it isn't totally slammed but the ethical consumer lot like most cheap priced places are for how they source things not that they couldn't do better but so could most main stream shops..

I have found they do a great line in shoes and boots. I have very wide feet and high insteps and I can still wear most of their shoes even the court shoes and heeled boots.. I tend to go up a size but that is more to get an extra degree of comfort where as in most shops I can't even get them on my feet as they are too narrow, in Matalan my size will fit me it's just a bit tight and with heels that makes my foot cramp which is very unpleasant.. Also the styles are fun and I'd even go as far as to say verging on fetish in style so I am now the proud owner of a new pair of black shoes which a friend described last night as my burlesque shoes ! Though I do need to practice walking in them as it's a long time since I've heels like that.

IKEA outdoor furniture

We popped to IKEA today for a few bits and they were having a range of things on 50% off for the bank holiday which included folding outdoor furniture. We got a bench and a couple of chairs to go with a table we already have. They will be useful for events but we may also keep them up at the allotment once we have a tent as it would be nice to have somewhere to sit.

They also had so great led lanterns on half price and a plant stand I am very tempted by so there may be a revisit tomorrow.

Copper Inchies

These are for another swap on ATCs for all. Inchies are one inch square bits of art, in this case embossed stamping on inked card.

Took a bag of random bits and a big bag of clothes to the charity shop. The clothes were mainly tailored jackets and ladies suits that belonged to a friend of my partners parents. Lovely clothes but too small for me. I think she was quite a small lady by the look of things but I was lucky enough to inherit her stash, fabric, some haberdashery and some clothes. I am gradually getting rid of that which I can't use. I also washed a bunch more as they smelt rather musty before I take them up too.

CLOTHKITS IS BACK.

I am sillyly excited about this ! I grew up with clothkits, we didn't actually get that much from them because we couldn't afford it but I devoured every catalogue and cherished the bits I did get. I never did get a doll though however much I wanted one we could never afford it. They probably weren't that expensive but for much of my childhood we lived on a very limited income and I was very capable of making things truly from scratch so I expect mum didn't really see the need. (edit Mum says she never knew I wanted one which was probably true, I probably tried to save for one myself)

However when I heard they had stop trading a few years back I was very sad and when I found the new website I found myself strangely emotional about it.

In case you didn't grow up with them, Clothkits sold pre-printed fabric you made up into clothes, they were very distinctively printed in a style that I suppose was quite hippy and wearing them probably labled you middle class but they were so fun and colourful. They have a gallery with pictures of some of the original outfits on the website so go and have a look.

The new range is printed and designed in this country though obviously the cotton isn't grown here. Hum maybe they should considered changing to hemp that grows here.

I think one of the reasons I like Gudrun Sjoden , which is where I get most things I don't make myself, apart from her clothes fitting me is they are colourful and have two colour stripy tops that remind me of Clothkits. Gudrun Sjoden also have a pretty good ecological policy, one I think is practical without being to preachy and OTT.