a few of my favourite things

Christmas this year was a great one -- M and I did a lot of travelling but we saw so many of our family and friends which is really the most important part for us.

This year I put a request out to family to buy handmade and you should see some of the stuff people gave. honestly - it was amazing for gifts! I wanted to share a few of my favourite things (most handmade; a few that aren't)

Pottery


Check out this pottery - these are two local designers in Eastern Ontario. The gobblets are from my mom and the mug (5 in total +a bowl!) is from my dad and stepmom. Unfortunately I don't have the gobblet designer but the mugs etc were made by Krista Cameron from Charleston Lake (I don't think she has a Web site).

Books


I was able to spend Christmas for the first time this year with M's family and it was so much fun. We picked names -- I got M's sister and she got me! Honestly I wish someone would have taken a photo of my face when I opened the gift from her because -- HELLO? - she got me Amy Butler's book In Stitches! Was she reading my mind??? Anyway it was an amazing gift to say the least. I will definitely have to make her something from the book as a thank you.

Ok so these aren't handmade but I also got some very cool books about Italy -- one from M on Sicily and one from my Mom on the Top 10 things to do in Tuscany. We will be well prepared for our wedding!

More Handmade Loveliness



My sister eS bought this tank from American Apparel and then designed this little birdie iron-on. It's so sweet and I've been wearing it pretty much every day which is why it's a tad wrinkly... :) My other sister eK made me this cute bracelette as well as a gander of geese (not shown ;)) Also not pictured is a fun CD that M made me -- it has all of my favourite cheesy Top 40 songs including Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten -- which I call ab track because it's the song that goes with my favourite ab track in my yoga/pilates class at my gym - so now I can do Abs all the time at home! (yes I'm a bit of a nerd -- it's ok!!!)



And you probably noticed this beauties above... they are a pair of handmade mitts from a woman in my hometown. There's a funny story to go with these (well I think it's funny anyway...) I have no idea who the woman is but I saw her at a local craft show spinning the wool and knitting these which I thought was the most amazing thing. So I asked my mom if she could please get them for me. Christmas day came and went and I was a bit sad that I didn't get them. Well...I'm sitting in the livingroom on boxing day and eK is packing up her gifts to leave for home and there in her hands are the mitts! I yelled out in shock (which kind of came out in a weird slow-mo devil voice...) "Those...are...my...mitts!!!" eK looked at me strangely and then my Mom had a revelation that she gave the mitts to the wrong daughter. eK was even sitting beside me I guess when she opened them and I hadn't noticed. So I traded them for a package of post-its and all was better...

So that was my fun Christmas! I think everyone enjoyed the handmade gifts I gave them! And I hope all of your had an amazing Christmas and New Year!

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UPDATE: my wonderful mom wrote me to tell me the names of the artists who created the clay goblets and the mitts:

Debbie Gilmer who operates Clayworks
in South Mountain. She can be reached at debbie@gilmerclayworks.ca

The homemade mittens were created by Jan's Mittens operated by Janice
Penney from RR 2 Brockville. She can be reached at
janicepenney@ripnet.com

Thanks Mom! xo