So that's why handmade stuff costs so much

Well.

So I had all these bright ideas to make a handmade gift to give to my infertility support group recipient.

I also had to prepare some gifts for people I will probably not see before Christmas.

Source: theletter4.blogspot.com via Marcia on Pinterest

For the friend gifts, I made one batch of peanut butter chocolate cookies (delish!) - I get 30 - and so each of the 3 people got 10 in a scrapbook-paper-wrapped small formula can with a ribbon, a "from the kitchen of ....." tag and a cupcake tag on the top :)

Sadly there are no pics but they looked cute enough.

And then I thought it would be quick to throw a mini scrapbook together.

All I can say is... I am either deranged or very ambitious in my thinking.

I'd had some 12 X 12 chipboard covers cut into 6 X 6 at work as well as some papers and I honestly thought the cutting would be the main time culprit.

How to make a year in review mini book:


What I used

• 2 chipboard covers
• 2 binder rings
• washi tape
• free printable quotes from internet - one for cover, some for random placement
• lined paper in 3 different colours - yellow, green and pink
• scrapbook paper
• some other bits and bobs
• stickers
• ribbon

What I did

• I arranged a 2-page spread for each month
• Put numbered stickers on each page - 1 to 12
• Arranged co-ordinating scrapbook paper - yellowish opposite yellow, etc.
• I decided once I'd started that the book felt too flimsy so I pasted each of those papers together to be sturdier. It took l-o-n-g.
• Punched all the paper and the other quote inserts
• Inserted binder rings
• Put ribbon around the binder rings
• Decorated cover with printable quote, washi tape, a handmade for you by Marcia tag on the back

Here's the thing - all of that took about 2 hours and I only finished at 12:30 am!!!

I was knackered.

Thursday I got home, started attending to emails while D played with the babies and at 6:45 I think, ever so casually, "C's coming to collect me at 7".

And then, "OH MY WORD, THAT'S IN 15 MINUTES".

Present not wrapped, card (instructions) not done, nothing.

Fortunately I'm relatively organised in here.


For me, pressure's a good thing with writing because I wrote out a very long card (quite a nice one) in about 2 minutes flat, straight from the heart.

In addition to the year in review book, I also made a bit of a creativity pack. Two notebooks, 12 strips of decorative tape (that I made myself - I'm starting to rock this thing - I really need to blog it), fabric tape, about 10 two-inch circles and some flower shapes too, and a glue stick :)

My gift went to someone I don't know but apparently (she could have been lying though, whoever knows?!) it meant something to her. Or maybe she just liked my note.

Can you tell I really liked my note? :)


So this week I had 1) one night of baking and crafting and 2) one night of catching up with friends.

It was a wolnderful evening, although verrrrry cold and slightly weird (for me, at least). We were so involved in the group for so long (especially me and C) and yet there are all these new girls who we don't know.

A lovely thing happened yesterday too - the one girl who, at the talk I did in March, said, "what good can come of ICSI'd eggs?", fell pregnant and had her baby yesterday after 9 years of infertility.

Amazing!

There is NEVER enough time to chat to everyone - my friend Nat had to say to me, "can you please sit next to me at dinner (I say "supper") so we can catch up?".

C & I only left at 11 and were home by 11:29!

I don't even have one picture of any of the crafts, Christmas function, NOTHING.

 All that means is I'll have to do another one at some point and actually take pictures





Linking up to MandyE's 52 weeks of me post :)

What did you do for you this week?


And do you say supper or dinner? :)

PS I read on Annie Blogs (the courage blog) about some Scottish phrases she picked up while living there. D and I had a lovely time reminiscing now. He says a very South African Scottish thing to say is "Hen" or "Pet" as a term of endearment. Strange because we didn't hear one person say Hen or Pet to us while there! Ha!

Can you think of any foreign words or phrases you've adopted since hearing them? Now and again, I like to pretend I'm in Dublin in a Sheila O'Flanagan novel and I say, "I'm gasping for a cup of tea" :)