Frugal Christmas Gifts: Paper Covered Wooden Letters

With a month yesterday until Christmas, exams finished for the year, and my determination to give Christmas gifts that are secondhand or handmade, I have some serious crafting to do! A while ago a friend of mine gave another friend's little girl some gorgeous paper covered letters to make up her name that will look stunning on her bedroom wall. It reminded me that I had, somewhere in the depths of my sewing room, some large wooden letters of the girls' names and decided to make something similar for their Christmas gifts.

I went shopping and chose a pad of fairy-ish, butterfly-ish coordinating scrapbook papers and some embellishments to match. All up it cost me less than $30 for enough supplies to make both girls' gifts (but I already had the letters). I started by choosing the papers I wanted to use for each letter and tracing the upside down letter onto the back of the paper. I then very carefully cut the letters out.

 I applied an even layer of PVA glue to each wooden letter and smoothly pressed each paper cutout on, taking care not to leave bubbles in the surface. When the glue had dried, I trimmed any overhanging paper with a craft knife.

I used some fine sandpaper to sand the edges of the letters, giving them a more 'finished' appearance and preventing the edges from peeling back. Nath (who has had far more experience with spray paint than I) sprayed two coats of a silver glitter laquer to each letter.

I then arranged and superglued the embellishments, including some tiny little rhinestones for some extra shine.

The girls' fairy name letters look just as good as any that you could buy at the shop, and were a fraction of the price. I think the girls will love them.

One gift down, many more to make!

Muffins, Meringues, Mess and Magical Moments

 Sometimes, you have just got to let it all go.

Let the washing pile up.

Let the beds remain unmade.

Let the baby cart the recycling rubbish all through the house.

Let the kitchen mess build up.

 

Let faces remain unwiped.

 

Let the kids drag their stools up to the bench...

 

...and pick all the blueberries off the bush....

...and create.

Sometimes....

....things don't turn out how we expect them to.

And that's okay.

Sometimes, nothing says "I love you" more than....

...."Come and cook with me."

A Girls' Day.

Just a quick one tonight.... to show off Eden's new haircut and my new pearls!!

Eden has been wanting to get her hair cut for a while now - in fact the topic comes up everytime we have to brush her hair! She has a little friend called Mia and she has been saying she wants her hair 'short like Mia's.'

So, today we went along to a hairdresser in Broome's Chinatown and got her hair done. Miya, who was adamant she would not be getting a haircut, suddenly changed her mind once we got there, and got a bit of a trim too.

I thought Eden would freak out when she saw her hair getting chopped off, but she was so happy with it, and she looks like a little lady. Miya was devastated that all of Eden's hair was gone, and I ended up having to comfort her in the middle of the hairdressers. I was feeling a bit emotional. It was actually Eden's first haircut, and was only occurring because it was her choice. I love her hair (I love it now, cut, too) and had to hide a bit of sentiment as they cut it off.

Eden having her pony cut off.

Her pony. Weird, I know. Creepy, in fact.

In progress.

Final product.

Miya's haircut, fraught with emotion.

Another view of Eden's hair.

I picked up my pearls today. I am so happy with them. Rather than the traditional pearl pendants, I chose a Broome jeweller who uses Broome South Sea pearls and makes her own glass beads. It's very 'me' and I love that its all local and handmade. Thanks, Nath!

Tomorrow we head up to Cape Leveque to stay for a few days at the Kooljaman Eco Resort. I'm not sure if we will have internet, and I won't be taking the laptop anyway, so I will blog some pics when we return.

Many congrats to Nath's bro and newest sis-in-law who celebrated their marriage in London today. With you in spirit!!

Dates With My Daughters

Life is crazy here at the moment. We leave on our four week road trip to Broome in a week, and move the weekend we get back, so we have been busily preparing, not only for the holiday, but also for the move. Decluttering, donating to charity, selling unwanted goods, cleaning out each room, sorting.... it has been keeping us very busy.

Next week is the girls' last week at their current school. Eden is completely nonplussed, saying she didn't even want to go anyway because there are naughty boys at school and they bother her. Miya is, true to form, a little more complicated. She hasn't been enjoying school, to the point where we cut her school days back from three days a week to two days a week (and even then she had quite a few 'sick' days). We couldn't ever get to the bottom of why she disliked school so much. We floated the idea of homeschooling with her, but she wasn't overly impressed by that, either. But when she realised that she would be going to a new school once we move, she became quite unsettled by that, too. I think it has been playing on her mind a bit, as some of her classic 'stress' behaviours are coming to the fore.

On the weekend, Nath and I decided that I needed to take a couple of breaks from the busy-ness, so that I could take each of the girls on a 'date', one at a time. Miya decided she wanted to go to the riverside cafe here in town for a pink milkshake, then a walk around the river bridges. Eden wanted to go to a cafe on the river in Perth for lunch. Shaking aside the niggling, annoying voice inside my head complaining about the cost, I thoroughly enjoyed two afternoons' worth of fun with my lovely girls.

Miya is still worried about school - both her last week at her current school, and the change to her new one (which, incidentally, Nath and I are very hopeful about). But I do hope that we can create a soft place for her to fall when her burdens become too much.

Miya and I on the Northam footbridge.

The beautiful Swan River near Woodbridge.

Ok, maybe the cost WAS worth it!