Birthday Gifts

Last week was my Mum's birthday and her present involved two creative projects. The first was to make her a new apron. She had dropped a very heavy hint that she really didn't like her existing apron and rather liked the double-sided one I had made, firstly for myself, and then for a friend. With a lime green kitchen to compliment, I had been on the look out for some suitable fabric for some time and eventually found a lovely geometric bird print by Rose and Hubble in the Flo-Jo Boutique on Bristol's Gloucester Road.

Mind you, it took me three attempts to find a fabric to use to compliment it. Firstly I bought a lime green and white polka dot but the lime green only matched under very specific lighting conditions. I then bought a plain lime green fabric but had the same issues with that. In the end I went for black with white polka dots which made the bird print really sing.

The second part of the present didn't start out being a creative project. When we were out and about towards the end of the summer, my Mum spotted a cake knife set in the window of a local antique shop. It consisted of a bone handled cake knife and six bone handled tea knives. She was very taken with them and said how she no longer had a good cake knife and how her small knives were too heavy and kept falling of the plates whenever she was handing around slices of cake. Being a dutiful daughter I therefore raced back to the shop the very next day and snapped up the set.

It turned out that they were in the original box and that the knives had stood the test of time far more elegantly than the box had. It was broken, dusty and had signs of having been damp at some point in its history.

This is where this part of the present turned into a creative project. I began by reattaching the lid to the box and replacing the missing bit on the left hand side. I did this with masking tape.

I then raided the wrapping paper drawer but decided that brown paper was probably the best in terms of size and strength to cover the whole box, inside and out.

To add colour and hide a few joins, my next step was to add some coloured tape as a trim.  I also added a flap of ribbon to aid opening the box, since covering it all in brown paper had made the lid fit slightly more snugly than before.

The final step was to sort out the card inserts which held the knives in place.  I found some patterned craft paper which I thought added a feminine touch and perhaps also hinted at the original age of the knives.

I was proud of my efforts and my Mum was thrilled with both gifts, although did admit to having absolutely no recollection of ever coveting the cake knife set. However, they did come in very handy when serving her birthday cake. May there be many more birthday cakes to come!

Preparation, preparation, preparation

I was ashamed to realise that I've not posted a blog for a month but then swiftly decided to cut myself some slack when I looked back over that time.  I've worked two weekends, had a cold, almost lost my voice and generally felt pretty exhausted. I have also completed a few creative projects but, in the interests of present secrecy, can't possibly share them with you just yet.

As for the rest of the Christmas preparations, I am feeling a strong kinship for Santa's elves right now, who must also be frantically busy planning and making.  My elvish story so far goes a bit like this...

I have completed the construction of the majority of this year's Christmas card substitutes - at least the non-edible ones - but do need to either think about labels or some other sort of device that informs the recipient that the non-Christmas card is from me. Without this essential bit it's hardly a Christmas card substitute is it?!

As for the edible ones, they are planned and I'm awaiting delivery of a critical piece of kit but have have yet to turn the list of ingredients into a shopping list. [Note to self - write shopping list!]

I've ordered some yarn to make something for a friend. Hopefully that will arrive very soon since I think I may be being a little ambitious and under-estimating how long it's going to take me to complete. It's a crochet project and the first line says "chain 670 stitches". I rather feel I'm going to be locked in a room with no distractions for quite some time if I'm to keep count, let alone produce an even pattern on all subsequent rows, of which there are many. Perhaps this may make a better present for 2017?

I've been getting creative with jam jars, sticky back plastic and glass frosting spray. Whatever the directions for use say on the side of the spray can about using at room temperature and covering all surrounding areas, the simplest thing is to take it all outside. No matter how much newspaper you spread everywhere you can't get away from the hideous fumes. I'm also not keen on having a frosted cat and, if I'm outside, she prefers to watch from behind the safety glass of the back door! However, this does rely on the weather being dry and not too cold so, thanks to storm Angus currently battering the UK, that job has also been put on hold.

Mind you, this means I can put my feet up with a cuppa and start perusing the recipe books to work out what to cook for Christmas Eve - my responsibility this year.

I guess I'd better go and put the kettle on!