A Few Gifts Given and Recieved

I thought I'd show some of the handmade things I made and gave as gifts. Well, I'll only be showing two things, because I thought I had taken pictures of other stuff I made, but apparently I was mistaken.

These are re-usable shopping bags I made using this wonderful free pattern here http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/show/261. (If you are into sewing you have to check out this site. It's fabulous.)

I also made matching travel sized tissue covers using this tutorial here. But, alas, apparently did not take pictures...except in my deluded imagination. They're kinda boring to look at anyway, but were simple to make and therefore a nice addition to the shopping bags.

In a previous post I showed a pic of a dreidel plushie I made. I made up a half dozen of those and sent them off to Brooklyn, N.Y. Where apparently they were well received. I got a cute picture in return of some adorable children with some wooden dreidels beside them...and one of my soft plushie ones as well.

Some other things I sewed were also all of the "practice runs" of everything I made as well. Which I am keeping for my own use. Including a couple things I practiced, but never made anymore beyond the just one. I had hoped to get a lot more sewing done and make even more things for people. But a flare up of my chronic fatigue syndrome slowed me down. But I am so grateful that before that flare up my health and energy was far better than it had been in ages. So I really did get a lot more done than I probably would ever have done. And it was nice to feel great for a couple weeks in a row.

Something else I wish I had taken a photo of and gave as a gift (but did not make) was an antique Kodak Brownie camera from 1916. It was not in working condition, as the aperture was broken, but it looks really cool. Great for home decor that will look great with the receiver's vintage suitcase collection I think.


Here are the gifts I received. There's some sewing stuff, including a pattern for a laptop cover from sewswanky.com which is a cool little shop here in Cedar City. With my new rotary cutters and mat I'll be able to whip out more bags like I showed above in faster time.

The little markers are a stocking stuffer (even though we didn't have stockings this year) from Santa (aka, *me*...for the last couple years I've been doing little stocking stuffers that are not candy for our family...but this year it consisted solely of these cute markers).

And on the far left is a gift from my dad. You have to understand that my dad doesn't give gifts usually. My mom picks out gifts and says they're from both her and dad. But this year my dad bought me a gift. They're these aerosol spray cans that can be used with any paint. You just pour the paint in the jar and start spray painting. My dad knows I have a lot of little craft things I've been planning on painting. So this is a pretty nifty and thoughtful gift. And I can't wait to try it out. And it's extra nice that my dad thought of me when he saw these and decided to give them to me.

And now a close up the last thing. I am now venturing into joining the rest of modern society by having my first mp3 player. And best of all...it's Pink! Sweet.

I plan on using it a lot while I am doing my crafts and sewing...and ironing that the sewing requires. It was while I was ironing that I decided I really needed an mp3 player.

I also can now buy music with "IMVU credits" that I've earned from virtual products I've made for the 3D chat world of IMVU. So I don't have to pull out a credit card if I want to buy music online for my mp3. I've bought four songs from there already.

But I'll probably also may be listening to a lot of audio books on there as well. And maybe venture into the world of podcasts too. Who knows.