More on my crap gifts . . . and a win!!

The knob on my camera broke on Monday night while putting up the Christmas tree, so please forgive the dodgy photos, I seem to be stuck in 'sports' mode :O

Firstly one more Chritmas vent . . . I specifically hadn't taken Em to go see Santa until nn could come with us because I know that he likes to be there for those sort of things . . . we leave Em with my MIL for a couple of hours while we go to do some Christmas shopping and she has taken it upon herself to take Em down to the shops and get a photo with Santa :( It was the good Santa too, the one we had planned on taking her to . . . Emily didn't smile but MIL bought the photo anyway and we've put it in a frame next to Em's bed and every time Em looks at it she calls it her 'no smile' LOL Oh well, not like I can do anything about that now . . .

Okay, back to my 'crap' homemade presents . . .

Very Hungry Caterpillar - this is for one of my one year old twin nieces birthday which is a week before christmas. I did make a felt board for it too, but I'm not happy with it, so I'm trying to find one now.

A wall hanging for Z. The butterflies were made by my Grampa :) I haven't glued them down yet, so they might be a little off centre.

Felt food for my nearly 2 yo twin nieces :) You can pull all the toppings off the pizza and I will have a sandwich still on the way . . .

Hair clips and ties - a tonne of these still on the way . . . in a family with 8 girls under 8 and then friends too, these will never go astray!


Pencil rolls for some friends kids . . . I have made one for an older child that I no longer need, so I might put it up on buy4baby to try and cover some costs . . .


An upcycled purse for my 15yo SIL I love this pattern!! It was made with this online tutorial. I have a purse made with the same tute in a cherry print :D

And finally some knitted face washers. The rainbow one is bamboo and the purple one is corn fibre!!

I have also made body butter and lip balm for the female in laws with organic coconut oil, fairtrade organic cocoa butter, local beeswax and sweet almond oil, but haven't made a final decision on how to pretty up the jars/tubes yet lol

Now, to my win :D On the Aussies Living Simply site they held a raffle, where everyone who wanted to be included offered up a prize and then the prizes were split up between x people. And I won one of the prizes :D There is still some on the way, but so far I have received handmade goats milk soaps and handcream, books on herbs, bread making and a recipe index, a beautiful handmade bag, giftcards and wrap, a cd full of info on self sufficient living*, radish seeds*, a decorative butterfly* (*these not in the pic because they arrived today!) and another one which was a little . . . odd. A pair of candy panties/g-string . . . with a used by date of Dec 2006 . . . that was interesting to explain to Em who wanted to eat the lollies :O Gave me a giggle though.

Feeling defeated . . .

Probably sounds melodramatic, but plans just aren't falling into place at the moment and it is making me a little depressed. I had visions of having a simple Christmas, with minimal fuss , homemade or simple presesnt for the kids, no presents for the adults (who need nothing anyway) but instead it is fast becoming a consumerist nightmare again - the only difference being that it is even more expensive this year because I have bough materials to make things (or have even completed some things) but my gifts aren't seen as good enough and nn doesn't want to give his family my "shit presents" :(

I have also 'bought' gifts from 3 charity organisations this year, TEAR Australia, World Vision Smiles and Oxfam Unwrapped but apparently they are 'crap gifts' too (well one of them is literally . . . hehe) We are at the stage that we get to every year when nn is sick of going to the shops and so our $20 per person budget gets stretched to $30+ per person because he *knows* that such and such would like something and so lets just get it . . . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

My family does a Secret Santa that all of us girls had decided that it was unneccessary to buy for adults anymore - but then some of the boys got huffy and so now it is back on. At least that means we buy for 2 people and not the full 7 (not including ourselves).

The girls are another story again. Their budget is between $100 - 150 each (including Santa Pressies) They have each had about $50-60 spent on them from us and the Santa Pressie is meant to be a trampoline. We can get an 8' round tramp for $200 including the nets and padding but nn has decided that 8' isn't big enough for our 2.5y and 8mo . . . they need at least a 10' and it can't be the one available online so it is going to cost a MINIMUM of $360 . . . and hey if we are spending that much why not pay the extra $60 and get a 12' . . . ARGH!!! A 12' would take over most people's backyards . . . Yes we have a big yard now but if/when we move early/mid next year we may not have the same room. Everything has to be bigger and better than everyone else and it is driving me nuts!!!

Why can't Christmas be about enjoying each others' company rather than who can spend the most???