30 December 2009

28 December 2009

Totoro Two

On Christmas Eve I had enough time to build a little Totoro to go with the big one.

27 December 2009

Furoshiki

I bought bento boxes for my brother and his fiancee for Christmas. I made these matching furoshiki cloths.

25 December 2009

Sleigh scene Christmas cards

This year's Christmas cards for my family are based on one of our family traditions - the sleigh scene.

The Santa and reindeer are ornaments that my parents probably bought in the 1970s, and look like they are of Chinese or Japanese origin. The robins joined the scene when my mum made them in the early 1980s, and they sit in a sleigh made from a basket. Each pom-pom robin has its own cheeky personality. My mum used to fill the sleigh with sweets (often from the (now much missed) pic-n-mix at Woolworths). Each sweet would be wrapped up and have a ribbon attached to it, and we would have to grab a ribbon to choose our sweet. Finally, Mum made the snowman to join the gang a few years ago.

When I left home, I had to start my own collection of ornaments for my own sleigh scene. I have a ceramic Santa and penguin, a cuddly reindeer given to me by my friend Katrina, some robins (made by Mum of course) sitting on little wooden sledges, a little wooden Christmas tree, two snowmen (also made by Mum). This year I also added a toy soldier and Finnish doll which I had found in charity shops.

In order to make the cards, I needed to get some photos of the sleigh scene as I didn't have any good enough photos to work from. Luckily I was able to surreptitiously take some photos a few weeks ago, but that didn't leave me much time to make the cards. I usually start them in October!

I made the cards so that they could be displayed together as a continuous scene. Before I assembled the cards I scanned the various elements arranged against a sheet of paper - I may use this design for some of next year's printed cards (yes, I'm thinking that far ahead!).

24 December 2009

Rectangu-Robin!


Rectangu-robin - he's rectangular and he's a robin! He can also be used as a gift box. I made him from a Moo minicard box, for the Moo Minigift Box Competition. I had the box sitting beside my computer waiting to be decorated for about a month, but I wasn't feeling inspired. Then, after photographing a robin in my garden this morning, I had this idea. I only got a handful of photos taken before he took a tumble into the snow, but he seems to have survived relatively unscathed!

23 December 2009

Snowtoro!


I got home from work early, so I was able to make this snow Totoro before it got dark! This is the first snowman I've made since I was a child, and probably the first I've made without my dad's help, so it was a learning experience! It may be a bit lopsided, but I like it!

The whiskers were made from some twigs that I'd stored in my shed for no good reason, and the pebble for the nose was dug out from an area of pebbles under the snow (luckily the first one I dug out was the right shape!). I added the details using a chopstick!

I've taken inspiration from some of the other people who have made snow Totoros.

21 December 2009

Wardrobe remix

I'm trying to be a bit more creative and colourful with my clothes. Here are some of the outfits I've been wearing over the past week or so. I've been buying a few bits and pieces at charity shops (the green skirt and coat, flowery skirt, purple jumper, and the dress under the turquoise coat) to combine with what I have.
As you can see I love the hats I got recently at Marks and Spencer, and I wish that I had got the purple one as well!


20 December 2009

Great Santa Run

Last weekend I went to Edinburgh to see the Great Santa Run. My bus was late, so I had to run as fast as the santas and missed the first few minutes! But I still got some great photos. I was keeping an eye out for one of my cousins who I knew was running, but I was surprised and pleased to meet my aunt and uncle, two of my cousins, and the daughter of my other cousin. These are some of my favourite photos of the race.

Gift tags / baubles

I was feeling uninspired as far as gift tags were concerned, until I remembered these papier mache hearts I had bought to make Christmas baubles from. I just cut the recipients' initials from origami paper, then used mod podge to stick them on. After the presents are opened, the recipients can hang them on their own trees. I think this might become an ongoing theme for my Christmas gift tags - something that can be kept and hung on the tree.

03 December 2009

Charity shopping

I had one of my best ever charity shopping weeks last week. Everything in the first picture was found in one shop in Edinburgh on Saturday. I was pleased to find a straw doll, because I saw some recently in Glasgow and regretted not buying them. The rabbit is by a company called Bellini, and has space to store cotton balls inside.

The Momiji doll was one of three in the shop, but I bought this one because it's one I've liked for ages, and it came with its original tin (which has cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji and a birdie on it). Her name is Sakura and she is designed by Joanna Zhou. The Momiji had a message written on the secret little piece of paper inside it, and I wonder whether the recipient ever read it? It says "I'll miss you CLTP Vxxx"


The rest was all found in a charity shop at the end of my street, which I didn't realise still existed because it only opens when I'm at work! When someone told me about it I was down there like a shot in my lunch break, and found all this in the space of about 5 minutes!
The pictures were just 25p each, and when she added up the total she just wanted to charge me £2, which meant I was pretty much getting the fabric for nothing. I did give more than £2 though, because I thought that was way too little. It was only later I found the original sticker on the fabric - £7.95 from Ikea!
The picture on the left is by an artist called Strev, and the others are by Soulet.

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