Handmade Christmas

This Christmas was especially exciting because not only were we celebrating in Hawai'i, but also we exchanged a ton of handmade gifts! I was so stoked to be able to make a fair amount of gifts this year and even more grateful to receive handmade presents. Here's a sampling:

This awesome, awesome box made by my best friend's mom:


And another ceramic piece by her, this time a fish that is also a functioning whistle:


And I got yet another handmade gift from her, these earrings:


I tried to take an action shot of me wearing the earrings, but that didn't turn out. I am seriously blown away to have received all these handmade gifts. I should've taken pictures of some of her other ceramic pieces, they were seriously breathtaking.

My best friend is currently working on a shirt and maybe a hat for me, but in the meantime I stole this t-shirt from her. She had stenciled it as a practice run and was going to toss it, but I thought it was too cute and rescued it from the bin.


Here I am wearing it, while modelling a trucker hat that I embroidered for her (I can't claim the idea - she asked me to do one for her after she had seen some tea towels I embroidered):


A close-up on the embroidery:



She liked the hat so much that she has requested a second one for her birthday next month. The pattern is once again from Polka and Bloom. They have a flickr group, by the way, if you're interested in seeing other people's embroidery.

Chels made the most fabulous hats and shirts for Christmas gifts. Some she stenciled and some she painted free-hand - beautiful stuff. I should've taken photos of those too (I was slacking on the photo-taking). I can't wait for mine to come in the mail!

Last but not least, we got a surprise gift from her dad, who is a painter. I may have to change apartments to make my space worthy of all this artwork.


Every single one of these pieces took hours to create. And knowing the creative energy and goodness that was poured into these works of art just makes them all the more special. This only reinforces my intention to make more gifts - I just need to work on things year round in order to have them ready on time!

Comments

  1. What lovely gifts and what talented people!!
    I too have come to the conclusion that I have got to think about gifts for Christmas,or indeed birthdays ,far earlier than just a week or so beforehand.2012 is going to be the year for being more organised!!
    Hope you had a good holiday and that it wasn't too hard to come back!

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  2. A trucker hat with embroidery? That´s awesome! I love getting handmade gifts as well, my sister knitted traditional Selbu- mittens for me and my man for Christmas, so now we have matching mittens. Sooo nice! :-)

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  3. You have some amazingly talented friends, what a wonderful array of beautiful items! These are the best kinds of gifts, without a doubt...

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