The results of the £20 Christmas Challenge

I have finally worked out how to get pictures from my new phone onto the computer (in a very long winded way!) so I can share with you my Christmas makes. I do have a confession to make though that I didn't manage to make them all as I had a few custom orders to complete which had to take priority but what I did make was under my £20 budget.

The custom orders I completed were wheat bags which were made to a very specific size and weight to replace a much loved (but pretty grim) one! They were scented with lemon and smelt pretty amazing!!

From a craft fair I did at the beginning of December someone also got in contact with me to make them some scrabble bags as a Christmas present. I didn't take pictures of the ones I made but they were based on the one I made my friend as a brithday present.

Now onto the Christmas presents!

I stitched my Nan a little picture of some daffodils as I thought this would look cheerful on the windowsil. The threads I already had so I just spent £1.50 on a mini mirrored frame to put it in.

 

I made my dad a wheat bag from the leftover wheat and fabric so that cost me nothing. I also stitched a Gilmore Girls quote for a friend which I forgot to take a picture of (it all ended very rushed near Christmas!!) which used threads I already had so again just had to buy a frame for about £3.

I have a friend who looooooooves pizza and so I thought I would make her a cushion in the shape of a pizza because that is what everyone needs right?!

This is a picture from before I had finished stitching it up. I am a bit disappointed with the result as I feel I had to rush it to get it finished in time so the toppings could have been more exciting but it looks ok! The materials for this came to about £5 with another £4 on the cushion pad.

I also made an edible gift for my crafternoon friend madeformollyrose! It was using cookie cutters I had from Lakeland and I only had to spend 79p on the flour!

I also made a mini knitted snowman with a pattern from mochimochiland which I thought was so cute for her daughter as a little Christmas present.

I've decided to make it a bit of a mini tradition to give her a little Christmas decoration each year so that she'll have a collection of them when she is grown up and moves out to decorate her house with. This is the one I made her last year (it's been a bit of a snowman theme!)

That is all I managed to make though- oops! I had to have a late night run to a supermarket for the rest of the family presents. But from what I made I spent £14.50ish so within my budget of £20. I am starting my Christmas presents a lot earlier this time!! The one for my mum has turned into her birthday present so you'll get to see that really soon as her birthday is in February- I had better get a move on!

Did any of you have a frugal and thrifty Christmas? What handmade gifts did you give?

New Year Stitchilations

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm trying to fill you in on my Chrsitmas gift making but can't work out how to get the pictures from my new phone onto the blog so you'll have to bear with me!

I want to make some crafty new years resolutions on here in the hope that I will then stick to them! Do you make resolutions? I quite enjoy thinking about what I want to achieve in the next year or what I want to change for the better.





1. Learn to crochet!! This was a resolution last year and I did manage to crochet one dodgy looking granny square and one actual square looking one. But it all felt very backwards and wrong so I'm going to try it left handed and see if that makes a difference otherwise I'll just have to persevere until it feels natural. I am very envious of the granny a day challenge and want to be able to take part next year!



2. Make entries for the local show. I want to continue my success of last years show. Which can be found here. I want to win the cup again basically its so shiny and I don't want to have to find something to replace its space on the shelf!! I've got a cross stitch half finished I can enter but need to get my thinking cap on for the other categories.

3. Open an Etsy shop. This is also something I wanted to do last year but ran out of time- I thought last year went ridiculously quick! I know what I want to stock it with I just need to get a wriggle on and make it all so I can list it.



4. Comment more on the blogs I read. I read a lot of blogs from people I follow on twitter and on here but rarely leave a comment. I'm not really sure why, I just think to myself what a nice post or great idea and never let the blogger know, but that will change this year!



5. Tweet more. I've been on twitter for a while now and although I read the feed most days a barely tweet myself. Mainly because I think no one is interested about what I'm doing!! But when I'm reading my feed that is what I like reading about other people, I'm nosey I want to know what people are up to and what crafts they are working on so I will try and share a bit more of my boring life with the world of twitter!!


I think 5 resolutions is enough to be getting on with for this year! I can't wait for payday tomorrow so I can buy a new diary for my filofax and start planning in when I'm going to start the resolutions. (reading this last bit back I think I need to get out more!!)

Let me know if you have any resolutions or if any of yours are the same?

Hopefully I'll have my Christmas post complete with pictures ready for you soon!

Xxx

Christmas decorations

I have dreams of having a house that completely changes at Christmas. Everything you use during the rest of the year goes up in the loft and is replaced with a Christmas version. I want chrsitmas throws, cushions, pictures, tea towel, crockery, glasses, mugs, doormats...EVERYTHING!!

With this in mind I thought I should get cracking! I stitched some pictures from CrossStitcher one from last year and one from this year. I'm really liking the Scandinavian style christmas colours at the moment, I like the simplicity.They were really easy to stitch as they only have one colour and only took a few evenings for each one.

I then framed them in 2 matching frames my grandma was chucking out. I feel more Christmassy just looking at them!

This is the red and white one from lat years CrossStitcher that I've been wanting to stitch for the whole year!!

This one was in the magazine a couple of months ago but on blue evenweave with white thread. But as I have only £20 for Christmas this year I used what I already had and still love it!

 

 

I have also knitted up this little guy! I downloaded the pattern earlier in the year after the success of the bunny rabbit pattern from Mochimochiland and once you get the hang of firstly knitting on 4 needles and secondly having very few stitches it is very easy to follow and took an episode of Downton to make!

I'm already knitting up more of them so I can have a rainbow of different coloured scarves in the house by Christmas!

This is my Christmas crafting so far and I still have my whole £20 budget remaining as these were all made using materials I already had. I have started creating some Christmas presents so will share them with you soon.

The £20 Christmas Challenge

I have set myself a challenge to do Christmas this year for £20! I know crazy right?! I work in retail and Christmas starts early decorations come out at the end of September and it is a long old slog to Christmas. After working in a shop all day the last thing I can be bothered to do is trudge round the shops buying Christmas presents for my family and friends, spending £100 or so on things they may not even like.

The last few years I have made presents for family members but this still didn't prove to be very cheap (although much more enjoyable than shopping). So this year I am taking the challenge further my £20 Christmas includes:

• Presents
• Decorations
• Wrapping paper
• Cards
• Postage

I will be making my Christmas presents as much as I can from bits I already have only buying materials where absolutely necessary. Decorations wise I have quite a lot of bits already so I will make a few bits here and there with stuff from my stash (I have a cushion very nearly finished) and mainly be resisting the urge to buy more stuff!!

I'm going to keep boxes to put presents in and keep the wrapping paper simple- maybe just brown paper with old ribbons I have stashed from last Christmas. I have last years Chrsitmas cards I can use to make tags or to make into new cards.

Is anyone else setting themselves a Christmas challenge this year?

I won I won I won!!!

As I was working I had to wait until I got home at 8pm to see if I had won anything in the local Flower and Veg show and I did!!!

As I said in my previous post I entered 6 items and I am pleased to announce that they all came either 1st, 2nd or 3rd- yay!

Here are my entries in no particular order! (I couldn't wait until it was light to take the pictures- I was too excited!)

The little beach hut doorstop I made for my auntie came 3rd in '1 Article of counted cross stitch' BUT that was not my only cross stitch entry!

This won 1st prize!!!!! The pattern (like the beach hut) was from CrossStitcher magazine and this particlular one was in the first magazine I ever purchased and was the reason I wanted the magazine. The pattern said it took 30 hours to stitch but I imagine I'm probably slower than that speed! I got fed up with it at times and moved onto other things but I eventually finished it and am ridiculously proud of it! (I put it on my craft stall but was really glad that it didn't sell as now I can keep it!!)

The tapestry I made for a friend's birthday also won first prize in the '1 Article of tapestry' category! I haven't seen it for a while and forgot how much I love it! It has made me want to do tapestry again after swearing off it forever when I completed this! It was the first thing I ever stitched on a canvas and I didn't know that I needed a frame so it wouldn't go wonky hence the slant of the flag! I also made up the pattern as I stitched it so some of the diagonals are a little suspect! But I still love it and so does my friend!

This is the blanket made from old jumpers from a pattern in a Mollie Makes last October. It was entered in the 'Something new from something old' class.

I entered this one just because I had him made up already I didn't think it would win anything but it actually came second in the 'Handmade toy' class. I personally think the other entries were better than mine but I'm not the judge!

And finally my '1 Article of hand knitting for a child' where I was up against my grandma!!

Yep I won second!!! But who got first?!!?!?! Did I beat my grandma?!?!?

YES I DID!!!! She didn't get any place. She knew that she hadn't knitted this jumper well enough (even though it looks perfect to me!) So I am taking this victory to mean that I am officially better than my grandma at knitting! (her excuse is that the pupil should be better than the teacher!) The pattern is a Debbie Bliss one and it is knitted in blue as that is what I had in my stash and I didn't want to go out a buy new wool!

All my lovely certificates!! And because I got the most points in the Handicrafts category I won a cup!!!!!

 

 

It is so shiny!! My name will be engraved on it too! I feel I need to defend my title now so will have to get thinking for next year!! But for now I will have to display this in pride of place in the house for all to see!!

This is war!

Every year in my town there is a local show you know the giant vegetable kind of one?



Well they also have cooking, flower arranging and HANDICRAFTS!! I am going to enter into the show this year. There are various sections with knitting, tapestry, cross stitch, patchwork, quilting etc etc. I am going to try and enter as many categories as I can because there is a cup up for grabs!

I mentioned entering to my grandma and she has now also decided to enter some knitting so I am in direct competition with my her! It is going to be tense to see if either of us manage to win the 50p up for grabs!!! And more importantly who beats who! (I am ignoring the fact that she helped me pick up some stitches for the collar!). She is an amazing knitter (so fast) so I am nervous to see the results. I suppose after over 80 years of knitting I may reach her standards!

I won't show you what I am entering yet (you never know my competition may stumble upon it!) but I have 6 items in the show. Only 2 of them are completed though.....the others all need finishing off and the show is this saturday- uh oh!! I am also having a craft stall with a colleague on the Sunday and have yet to make enough stock for that but who needs sleep anyway?!

I unfortunately am working on Saturday (booo!!) so won't get to see if I win or not. But panic not for I have my trusty spies going in to see where I come and will fill you in over the weekend! I never knew I was so competitive but clearly when it comes to crafts it is war!!

One Lovely Blog Award

I've had a busy few weeks but am finally getting to post about the One Lovely Blog Award.

Thank you to madeformollyrose for nominating me. Have a look at her blog, she posts about her crafts and family life and needs a reminder to finish her cowboy cross stitch and log cabin quilt before the end of the year!!

The Rules are:-
The Rules for accepting this Award is as follows:
1. Add the award to your blog.
2. Thank the blogger(s) who gave it to you.
3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.
4. List the rules.
5. Award up to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 random things about me:

1. I am left handed. Although I am a rubbish leftie! I use cutlery and scissors right handed, I knit right handed, I pretty much only write left handed. It does mean I can sew with either hand and I never have to use back hand in badminton or tennis as I just swap the hand my racket is in- useful!!

2. I am terrified of wasps! I think it is because I have never been stung so don't know how much it is going to hurt. I have been trying to remain calm recently as this is probably more efficient way getting rid of them but it is so hard not to run in the other direction!

3. I play the flute. I used to play the flute much better (grade 8 to be precise!!) but since finishing school and n1ot having lessons I am pretty rubbish! I play in a local concert band just to make sure I can still play!

4. I am a member of St John Ambulance. I have dreams of becoming a nurse but don't want to jump into another degree without making sure it is definitely what I want to do.

5. I can't swim. Well I can keep myself afloat but I've never had swimming lessons so I have my own style when I swim, it is a mix between doggy paddle and breast stroke whilst kicking my legs! Sometimes I get bored and do a few length with just arms or just legs! Although if I am made to laugh whilst awimming it becomes very difficult to remain above water!!

6. I have a law degree. I never really wanted to do anything with law but when I had a connexions meeting at school (how useless were they?!) I said I was interested in law and she told me I should look at something else as I wasn't clever enough to get into a law course. So I proved her wrong!! Law is a really interesting subject, I nearly did my masters in it as well!

7. I LOVE Gilmore Girls!!! I first watched it when I was jobless after finishing my degree. At first I thought it was weird and couldn't understand what they were saying but I was soon hooked and had to watch it everyday. When I got a job and could no longer watch it I brought the first 3 series on dvd and have been watching them ever since! I wish I was a gilmore girl!

And now for my nominations!!

Drum roll please.....

SoStacySews 

The 39 Stitches

Tales From Homemade House

Shabbily Ever After

I really enjoy reading all of them!

Vikki
Xxx