I was spoiled rotten last year at Christmas, in fact so much so I was moved to tears. I wanted one thing, an iPad, and I got it (and lots of other things)!!! I love it and I use my iPad everyday! Plus, with my laptop on the fritz since August, I don't know how I would have survived without it, so it is not only desirable, but practical. I bank online, communicate with friends, family and colleagues by email, even get my jobs by internet.
At Christmas I love to surprise people (I would spoil everyone if I could!). I especially love to get things for the kids. Despite my joy with my own gifts and feeling good about doing everything I could to stretch a small budget, somehow managing to get the kids pretty much exactly what they wanted, I felt a little let down. The gifts seemed unappreciated (e.g. left aside, unopened i.e. still shrink wrapped for weeks, even months...)
It has come to my attention that in my attempt to be diplomatic and therefore fair to both children, I have inadvertently been unfair!! While trying not to point a finger, I may have generalized too much.
Darcy (6) is a sweet, appreciative, kind little girl and she finds something wonderful in the most mundane of gifts. She'll put on that hat she just got or place a second hand item gingerly on the table so as not to break it. (Perhaps she actually prefers these one-of-a-kind gifts to the big box plastic toys and there is where I go wrong.) Christmas can be overwhelming and she sometimes appears to not care about those oh-so-hard-to-obtain gifts. However, in her day-to-day life she seems very disorganized, but she actually knows where everything is. With my "everything in its place" way of thinking, I think I overlook her system and see what I described, things appearing left aside, when in fact it is where she wants it to be.
Update: Darcy LOVES her hand made clothes, her sock bear and her purse and I couldn't be happier.
Cameron (10) is a thoughtful and sensitive boy, despite his often blank expression. Still waters run deep. When he is particularly thrilled about something you know it and it's wonderful to see him smile, be happy and rejoice. By the same token I think he shows his disappointment or disinterest in something by simply saying nothing. Perhaps it is an attempt to be polite. (If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing...) Yes, he does tend to put things aside and not give them a second glance for weeks, even months sometimes, and that is what frustrates me, but I must remind myself that a month to me is really only 2 weeks to him, as he is only here 50% of the time.)
Update: Cameron was thrilled with his handmade Minecraft quilt!!!
I think in my vagueness, I made an undeserved blanket statement. I just wanted to set that straight..
I know they are young children and I don't expect them to understand our choices and our financial struggles, nor do I think it should be their concern, but I do think they should have some appreciation for their gifts. Even if the gift is not what you wanted, or turns out not to be what you thought it would be, thank you's should be said and they should at least be put away, not left lying on living room floor for x amount of time.
So I vowed that the next Christmas would be about the true spirit of Christmas, not about cold, hard, expensive pieces of plastic.
This year I had an even smaller budget than last year,
so that combined with my thoughts from Christmas past, I decided to spend a lot of TIME on my gifts this year, not a lot of MONEY.
I made
quilts,
rugs,
purses,
pouches,
teddy bears, a
wreath, votive candle holders, cookies,
dresses, toques, Christmas decorations, an elf,
a book, and framed artwork and photos. I also provided some services, like fixing a phone. Yes, I bought some things, I can't make everything!
I barely slept from Halloween to Christmas, but I enjoyed designing, researching, learning and making the items. I was how they would be received, but I have had great feedback. Personally I LOVE handmade things and love receiving them as gifts, but not everyone is like me. I was worried they would be seen as cheap, not cool, old fashioned...instead of thoughtful and unique.
My helper
I realized I had my own perceptions of DIY / homemade things despite often making things. Let me dispel some notions:
DIY is not easy.
First you have to come up with the idea or identify a want or need you are trying to fill and figure out how to do that. Once you have the idea, you have to figure out how to make it. I spent hours online and reading books and magazines researching techniques, looking for patterns and troubleshooting. As an added difficulty, since I don't have a computer anymore I can't print anything, so I had to trace patterns off the ipad, which made them quite inaccurate. The zipper pouches, although small and a simple design, proved to be very difficult.
DIY is not cheap.
For some items I was able to re-use, or upcycle, old items and sometimes that was the point, like the sweater purses. I was also able to re-use 2nd-hand items for most of the quilts, but I still had to go out and buy the 2nd-hand t-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and sweaters to use for material, the thread (don't sew with old thread!) the needles (I broke some), the pins (I bent a lot) and the batting. I also had to wash all the 2nd-hand material. Some projects, like the pom-pom rugs took way more materials than I expected and at a higher cost than I expected! Even glue sticks for the hot glue gun add up fast!
DIY takes a lot more time than you think
Quilts take about the equivalent of the average work week to create. (25-35 hours)
Pom-pom rugs...I lost count of the hours. I spent days and days and days making pom-poms, attached them all to the base, realized I didn't have enough and spent another couple of days making pom-poms!
Sock teddy bears take about 2 hours each.
Elf: 4.5 hours.
Sweater purses: a few hours for the felting process, including wait times, only about 30 minutes to actually make the purse, then about 2-3 hours cutting, sewing and attaching decorative flowers.
Tuques: After felting process, fast! :-)
Dresses: about 6 hours
Hand-made doesn't have to be old-fashioned!
Cam's quilt has characters from his favorite video game on it!
Somethings, like a teddy bear, are just timeless :-)
I've gone through just a few spools of thread...
DIY is messy!!!
Everything made a mess...LOL!!!
