Christmas Capers, made, bought and found!

Our fake Christmas tree which we bought when we celebrated our first

New Zealand Christmas, that has stood the test of 20 years!

Made

 Sitting beside to our 20yr old Christmas tree, decorated by our daughter, I reflect on the Christmases past and what it means for us as a family.  It's a time of giving and receiving, of loving and being loved, of remembering special people in our lives, of feeling blessed, grateful and restful.  All this, surrounded by tokens of familiarity - decorations reflecting a person having given it or made it, or a time - often representing the ages of our rapidly growing children.  The presents under the tree - made or bought, with a loved one in mind. The anticipation of their reaction.  Christmas.  It's all that, and more.

The cut-off legs for denim jeans-shorts and a
re-used coffee pouch star (my favourite recycling project)

Simple, naive tags.  Gift tags for pressies, 
sewn together with scraps,
recycled bits and made with love!

Quick to make and all materials used are "throw-away" stuff, re-purposed.

I have always asked my children to make our Christmas presents.  I told them to save their pocket money, and to show us how much they appreciated us, to make us a gift instead.  This has seen us receiving the most unusual, well-thought out and unique gifts over the years.  A lot of them are still in use, or displayed with pride.  There was a gumboot rack, shaped cedar wood necklaces, neck pillows, recipe book holder, paintings on canvas and even a record, tie-dyed t-shirts, ukulele stand and more.  From their angle, our children have enjoyed sneaking off to the shed, or barricading themselves in their rooms for a week or two before Christmas, making the family tokens of love.  We have in return, bought items which were useful, items we knew they needed (never just what they wanted), along with tokens of our love - hand-made, of course.  This resulted in them being impatient for the opening of their hand-made gifts - to see our reactions, rather than their being impatient to open their own presents for themselves!  The joy of giving reinforced!

This year, I created a new kitchen gift:

GreeNZ Nut Salt Recipe

3 cups un-washed, natural sea salt (with minerals still intact)

1 cup almonds

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 tspn green leaf stevia powder

1/2 cup Brewer's Yeast (good source of B vitamins)

1/2 cup dried Basil

Roast nuts in oven for 1/2 hour on 160deg.C  (optional)  Blend first the cooled nuts, then add the rest of the ingredients in a food processor to mix.  Package in wide-mouthed jars and use a teaspoon to sprinkle liberally over food.  Why not get your protein hit, alongside your condiment shakings??

Beautiful rhubarb 

While our citrus harvest has declined in magnitude (still a few oranges left), we have found ourselves without much fruit on our trees during the last 2-3 weeks.  Luckily rhubarb has come to the rescue, with black currants ripening enough to pick a bowl-ful this morning.  Strawberries are fattening up nicely, but unfortunately, time has been against me in regards to building strawberry bed enclosures.  The minute they ripen, the birds get them - here today - gone tomorrow!  So it is with delight, that my helpxchange friends, Rodrigo and Maria, from Chile, managed to build an enclosure this morning before leaving on their next travel adventure.  I can sense some strawberry delights coming in the next 3 days or so!

To make rhubarb compote, I wash and chop my rhubarb stems up into 1 cm pieces, add them into the pot and pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar over.  Simmer with a lid on, until they soften.  Do not add any water to the pot.

A great little treat; rhubarb and yoghurt for breakfast or dessert!

 We have enjoyed a few spring artichoke treats.  Not your average culinary treat in NZ - most people don't know what to do with them or simply can't be bothered by the fiddliness of getting to the heart of the matter ('scuse the pun!).  They are a token of Spring, and should really be eaten before they open fully to reveal such breath-taking beauty that I don't mind losing a few to experience this floral beauty!

Globe Artichokes

Artichoke Lunch, with garlic butter lemon dipping sauce, and salad.

There'll be days like this, now that the sun has finally decided to Shine!!

Bought

Time at home over Christmas means I can get all those 101 little chores done that I never get time to do during term time.  Like repainting the outdoor table which we have had for ages and needs a new paint job every 2 years to extend it's life!  This facilitates spending time outdoors eating al fresco.  I have recently had a few surprise gifts - someone else's discarded unwanted goods give me a thrill when I can find use for them in my world!  Like a new little handbag that fits over my shoulder and leaves me 2 free hands when out and about.  I spied it at the local opp shop for $4, and a beautiful red scarf for $2!  What a gift!  A thrill!  I can't bear to enter a shop where everything on the racks are multiple clones of one another!  Finding an Opp Shop treasure is like being in Aladdin's cave of wonders and picking something that speaks to you!  Often, the items SCREAM to me!  Pick me, pick me!

My newly aquired pre-loved handbag and scarf.

Found

The other little treasure I found brings me much joy and is also so functional!  Driving down one of our side streets, I spied a little table on the kerbside.  Aha, I thought, that would do nicely for my student daughter when she goes flatting.  Stopped to pick it up and gasped in surprise as I saw the intricate inlaid woodwork masterpiece that was the table top!  Perhaps I won't give it away, I think I shall keep it - Love at First Sight!  Reminds me of a Dutch painting!  There is a small piece that is lifting and a missing piece but hardly noticeable.  Looks like a museum piece!  LOVE my piece of street art!!  Makes a handy little coffee table!  A Christmas gift to myself, from the Universe of Abundance!

My street-gifted Christmas pressie

My 4 week term break will see me out there in the garden, with the birds and bees, flowers and trees.... sowing seeds, planting summer veggies, harvesting yummy plums and nectarines (mid January), painting and maintaining our little paradise. 

 Oh, reading too!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Gifts from the Heart.

 A little Bohemian/ Moroccan/ Indian home made by Shayni

I love my home.  It is an eclectic mix of India/Morocco/ Mediterranean style.  Just like the little house Shayni made a few years back at school. The perfect handmade gift.  Much of our house is kitch.  Gaudy.  Like Gaudi's architectural fusion of art and kitch.  Our home is a reflection of ourselves.  And in fact, just recently, it was not the first time that someone has called me a hippy.  A parent just recently told me she was talking to another parent -and he mentioned he had spoken to a teacher but couldn't recall her name.  She asked what the teacher looked like - "like a hippy" he replied.  She said she knew exactly which teacher he was talking about - me!  This has amused me somewhat in the past - my knowledge of hippies paints a picture of someone who wearing long hair, leather sandals, tie-dyed clothes and into drugs and free love.  This is not me.  But I do like to wear ethnic or bright coloured clothing (usually pre-loved) and grow food.  Is that really hippy??

Coffee-bag lined bread bag

I have always fancied a bread bin to keep my home-baked bread in.  I make it in a bread maker, but the loaf is so fat, it is hard to find a plastic bag to wrap it in to keep it fresh.  The type I fancied was a wooden one with a little door that disappears into itself like a garage door, but I realised I never had the bench-top space to own one in reality.  So eventually, I have created my very own version of a soft bread bin.  It has recycled coffee bags to line it and to keep it fresh, and a fabric outer, with velcro at the top for easy fastening.  So far, all test runs have proven to be successful.  Mmmmmn, wonder if there is a market out there for bread bags??  Could make great Christmas gifts!

My bread bag prototype

We have a lovely German HelpXchange couple staying with us at the moment and so I thought I would make them a farewell gift - what fits into a backpack and is useful on the road - aha!  A travel document pouch to keep it all together!  So I set about making a lined, recycled coffee bag pouch with internal pocket for storing a memory stick and other little travel treasure.  I hope they find it useful!!

So maybe it's the hippy in me, I love to make and create things!  So that's why I love Christmas.  Not for me, the busy, noisey, hustling, bustling malls with it's piped Christmas tunes.  I prefer to take my time and make gifts from the heart.  If it can include some recycling, the better the challenge.   I found an old woolen blanket at an opp shop and gave it a little TLC revamp.  There was a hole in it which was nicely disguised with a great big contrasting heart, and the frayed edges got a checked edging.   It was gifted to my son's girlfriend as a hipster TV blanket.  She loved it.  Yay!  My son asked me if I liked her a couple of weekends ago when they were over.  I replied that I didn't like here quite as much as he did, but I certainly liked her plenty!  And that I hoped she'd be around for a very, very long time.  They're moving in together after a year of long-distance alternate weekends each commuting the 9 hours by bus between Hamilton and Wellington.  

Up-cycled Hipster TV blanket

I have been finding time to tutu in the little garden shed and made this wooden sculpture.  It was supposed to swing freely but only does a 180 degree clockwise and then back to it's original starting point - so it's more like a pendulum.  Sorta.  Anyway, that one I gifted to my garden.

View from top

I have included some images from previous year's gifts, all hand-crafted in the garden shed with cedar shutter off-cuts.

Planter box for seedlings makes a great gift for gardeners

A variety of wooden boxes for storing bay leaves.

My most recent project: a little set of shelves

Bay leaf boxes and a jute string dispenser for avid gardeneners

A jewellery box with compartments, a ring stack and a hinged lid with opening arm to
secure it when open.  The hinges were old shoe leather.

Even Shanti has had a cat toy made for her.  I noticed she loved to sniff at the catnip plant, so I dried some leaves and then made a little bag with tassles on.  I threw it at her and she immediately started to shred it with her hind paws and sniff at it in a druggy-like haze.  Had to try to rescue it as it is her Christmas present to go under the tree!  She is after all, a member of the family, albeit a very naughty one!  She loves all the paper fall-out on the day.  

Raw, unbleached cotton dish towels and cat toys

There are still many projects I would like to get stuck into - alas, not much time left in a work day!  The other recent little project is herb-flavoured salt.  It is sooo delicious.  And easy-as to make.  I make it for ourselves and then some to give away at Christmas. Seeing the Rosemary bush look set to turning into a tree, I took to it with a secateurs and pruned all the out-of-control branches.  Popped the leaves and a big bunch of parsley into the dehydrator for a few hours and then ground it all in our old second-hand coffee grinder.  It works out perfect when you have a cup of dried, ground herbs to 2 and a half cups of unwashed natural sea salt.  I have also experimented with chilli salt - dehydrate and grind your chillies up and add to the salt.  In this case, a tablespoon of chilli to 2 and a half cups salt is sufficient, unless you want  to blow your Christmas recipients' socks off.

Mediterranean Salt

I received a lovely surprise early Christmas gift from the Heart from my daughter 2 days ago, when she presented me with a Christmas angel picture she had painted for me on a piece of cardboard.  Will be framing it.  Can't wait for our annual Christmas break which starts in 2 weeks time - my project list is as long as my arm!  Bliss!

  

Christmas angel painted for me by Shayni

Cool little corn angel gifted to me by a friend
sits atop our Chrissie Tree

Aquilegia or granny bonnets in the shady parts of the garden - gifts for the heart!!

And for the love of making and recycling.... check this amazing website out - the owners made a stunning home for very little money, out of 2 old shipping containers.  Wow!  Awesome!

http://inhabitat.com/containers-of-hope-cool-costa-rican-shipping-container-house-only-costs-40000/containers-of-hope-benjamin-garcia-saxe-2/?extend=1