Christmas 2013 – thoughtful gifts from lovely people

I love choosing (and often making) gifts for people, and I love opening gifts too! Working in a school means that I’ve ended up with boundless supplies of chocolate and all sorts of other goodies. But I want to show you some lovely gifts from people that know me very well indeed!

This first gift was from my lovely friend Helen. She’s a crochet addict too, so is great at choosing gifts I’d like!

The book is really cute and I’m looking forward to trying out some of the patterns. The purse is for all those odd bits and pieces that go along with crochet – scissors, darning needles, stitch markers, etc. I’ve already attached a safety pin and stitch marker to the zip (so I can easily find them) and filled it with all sorts of other things!

Another crochet related gift was made by my wonderful friend Ness. She’s a crazily busy lady with 4 young children, so the fact that she’s spent time making me such a beautiful and useful gift makes it even more special.

I’ve been meaning to make one of these ever since I took up crochet again – about 2 years ago! Somehow it’s just stayed at the back of my mind without becoming a reality. I love the little ribbon flower and button on the back.

And all the different red fabrics are great.

Here are my crochet hooks, all nestled in their little sleeping bags!

This next item was made by a girl in my class (probably with some help from her Mum!) and it’s so cute and lovely! And it certainly makes a nice change from a box of chocolates 🙂

For our Boxing Day Family Gathering we did secret Santa presents this year. I had a gift from my cousin – but as she lives in America I think her Mum, Debbi had a lot to do with choosing it for me!

Debbi is a quilter and knows I’ve done some in the past (and generally like all things crafty!) so this is a perfect gift!

I had some great gifts from my parents too. They bought me a ticket to a craft fair in February – very exciting! I’m going with a couple of friends and I’m sure we’ll have a great day! They also had some family photos printed for me.

My Granny passed away earlier this year and Mum found all sorts of old photos as she was sorting out her things. I love family history (although there are so many ancestors it all gets quite confusing!) and I’d asked for some of the photos. I love how they’re arranged. The individual portraits are my great-great-grandparents, James and Emma. The top right family photo is of them on their Diamond wedding anniversary with their 4 children. The bottom left family photo was taken on their Golden wedding anniversary and is of their 4 children + spouses and 6 grandchildren. The boy on the right of the front row is my Grandad when he was 6!

Over the years Granny wrote lots of poems. They were found in all sorts of notebooks and pieces of paper (all quite organised) which my Aunty took and typed up.

She presented each of us with a book of poems at our Family Gathering. It was a lovely surprise and one that I’m sure we’ll all treasure.