Santa Was Listening...

Did you have a good Holiday? It was so refreshing to just sit back and do nothing with my family at home, hope you got to do some of the same. I got more than a little spoiled this year...

 

Mark's mom brought these all the way from Colorado in her suitcase for me. One of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received,(if you're reading this, thank you!). My only dilemma is where to display them! Right now they are making a lovely centerpiece on my table so they may just stay there; what do you think?

Best. Sister. Ever.

After the weekend in Orillia, my little sister gave me a birthday present! Understandably she did not want to drag these to the cottage:

 

They are a beautiful gray-washed wicker, perfect height for resting your feet but my kids have been itching to sit on them. They come from a beautiful store called Quantum downtown London which you should surely visit if you are ever here (or already live nearby!). My question is; where is a good place to put these poufs? I don't mind them here but they are not very useful in my dining room. Should they be in the living room? In front of a lounge chair? or in the front hall perhaps? Either way, I am happy just looking at them. Thanks, sis!

A Gift for a Special Little Girl

My friend Katie had her second child just over a year ago. The lovely Quinn was born with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) and she had to endure a huge operation as a tiny tiny baby. We were all terrified she wouldn't survive. If you want to read more about her story, you can here.

Katie and I met through a local babywearing group and became fast friends. Our oldest children are the same age and we also shared a love of wrapping our kids. So when Quinn's birthday approached I knew I needed to make her something special.

As with many strange sub-cultures, wrappers are a funny bunch. We sit on our computers discussing the pros and cons of long lengths of purposely woven fabrics. We weigh, measure, and argue about which blend of natural fibres is "cushier", "more supportive", "floofier". And there are limited edition runs of some wraps and if they are deemed to be good, they can sell for over $500. My main wrap has appreciated in value to well over $300 in the few years I've owned it.

The owl stuffie above is made from a piece of a Didymos wrap - a Green Colourgrown Indio, to be precise. It's organic (of course) but the really neat thing is that the darker green threads aren't dyed - it's cotton that is naturally a greeny colour! This makes for honestly the softest fabric I have ever felt. Much softer than most silks because it's thicker and floofy (yes, floofy).

I hand felted the eyes and beak from some roving and used a piece of the roving for the ear tufts. I hope Quinn loves cudding it.

A Gift from the Garden

I always like to take a small gift when I go and visit someone and I try to bring something homemade. For some of the year it's some homemade jam and often it is some baked goods. The other day I was visiting two houses and hadn't had time to bake anything. I couldn't think of anything to take!

I take our herb garden for granted. We love having fresh herbs all year. We have an ever spreading patch of Oregano, Chives, and Thyme in the back and the typical case of mint taking over in our front! We also grow some Rosemary, Sage and Thyme in a large pot and bring them inside for the winter. Last year it lasted all winter with the Sage and Thyme dying just as our outside herbs were coming back. Great timing! We also grow Basil outisde every summer and make huge batches of Pesto to freeze.

Sorry for the digression.

What I ended up taking was a small bunch of freshly picked Thyme, Oregano and Mint tied with some Baker's Twine. I felt a little sheepish bringing such a puny token and I felt sure that the recipients probably had herbal abundance, but they were very pleased to receive the little posy (and neither had a herb garden)! Or so they said.

How to tie ribbon on a gift without twisting it

 Don't you hate that stupid twist on the back of a gift? Well here is how you can tie a ribbon and avoid that!

Here's my gift, wrapped (using my kid's scribbles artwork)


Use just over 5 times the width of ribbon, cutting each end on an angle.


 Hold your ribbon about 1/5 of the way in, at the centre of the gift.

Wrap it once, being careful not to twist.

 Now twist here - on the top of the gift

 Bring the ribbon around the back, to the front (without twisting it)

 Now tuck that end around your twist

 And tie it!

 Then tie a perfect bow (unlike this one)

And here's the back - smooooooth!