I'm officially done- Week 7 and 8

I'm posting a day early because I just found out I have family coming to stay mid week and since my house looks like a pigsty and I dont want my mother to nag and I have to work tomorrow , after work tomorrow night will be taken up with cleaning the pig sty.

I had a high old time last Friday , finishing up my Christmas shopping .  Not only did I hit the regular shops but I wandered off to the op shops as well.  Crazy Bargains Galore!

I thought I was finished with shopping for Little P but when I saw this in an op shop looking like it had never been played with I couldn’t resist.  I love educational toys.

And this little fella was just begging for a new home. He looked so sad to be sitting in a thrift store and I got the feeling he was just waiting for me to wander on by so Teddy came home with me, had  a bath and is waiting for a little boy to be best friends with him.

I got 66% off RRP on this perfume by buying online and then they gave me a voucher for a further 5 bucks off  for registering an account which means the postage was free.    I went halves with Miss P which made the savings even better.

I spied this chintzy looking teapot in an op shop and pretty much shoved 3 little old ladies to the ground in my attempt to grab it before anyone else could lay claim to it. The gold accents are really bright and this photo doesn't do it justice. It's much prettier in real life.

I found a minky cushion in soft pink at an op shop.  I could pretty much touch this forever. I love minky. It was zippered so a quick wash and it was as gorgeous as new.

eBay helped me out with these finds and the price was within budget. Purchased for someone notoriously difficult to buy for but I think they'll be thrilled.

And someone is about to be dragged, kicking and screaming,  into this century, technologically speaking.

While these two items don't meet the thrifted or handmade criteria they came in under my individual allocations for gifts. Surely that counts for something?  

My local Goodwill was having a sale on this beauty and since I paid a small fortune for the last one I bought (although that one was green) this was a bargain marked down from $25.00. It's getting rarer and rarer to see these with lids and in decent condition. 

 I was oddly drawn back inside an op shop after I thought I'd found all the bargains in that shop to find this on a low shelf covered by an oven plate.

Which was especially fortuitous since someone in my family recently expressed a desire to own one.

I lashed out for Mr. P. It's been a tough year in lots of ways so I wanted him to have some laughs.

19 discs worth of episodes should just about do it and now you know how juvenile the humour in this house really is. Sometimes we even think farts are funny. Sue me.

And Mr. P must  have music to soothe his soul. Yes my husband has eclectic musical tastes.

The table runner for my Mum got finished this weekend. So did the matching coasters. Made from stash except for the binding which I had to go and buy after I stuffed it up at least three times. It's still not perfect. I'm sure the recipient will feel the love.

All the fur babies in our family are taken care of.

And this is done and I love it.  I hope the recipient likes it after all the angst this fabric has created. This was completely made from stash aside from the binding fabric.

And I completely copped out on three of the guys. They can treat themselves in the after Christmas sales.

And I bought them HUGE candy canes to go with the vouchers because I don't pay their dental bills.

Assorted glasses (can you believe some people don't drink coffee!)  and mugs with mug rugs for my work girlies. I need to make peppermint bark or cookies to go in cellophane bags to be given with these. The mug rugs were made from stash and the glasses and mugs were op shopped.

And most of it is under the tree, wrapped, waiting for the big day which will be bags of fun when Little P comes for tea on Wednesday night don't you think?

Next week I'll do a round up and a final tally and we'll see if I managed to stay within my original budget. I think I did! How is your Christmas present procuring going? Are you done yet ?

Thrifty Christmas Challenge -Week 2

Welcome to Thrifty  Christmas Tuesday.

Since we last met I had been somewhat productive in the Christmas gift procurement and making stakes. It's 52 days until Christmas so I'm not panicking yet, although I did have some trouble with a table runner this week. I'm pretty sure my binding fabric is possessed.

Books are mega expensive in Australia (I don’t know why – maybe it’s the taxes or maybe the retailers are just greedy - ) The internet has opened up a whole new world for me and I use http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/  a lot. This book retails for around 55.00 AUD  and I got it for 65% off and that included postage. I think my Mum will love it.

The table runner for my Mum gave me headaches this week. This is the project that had the binding done three times and still isn't done.   I sewed the binding on and mitred the corners all wrong. I unpicked it. I sewed it on again and still couldn’t get the corners to mitre properly.  I started to unpick it for the third time and decided cutting was faster. Maybe the 4th time will be a charm...

I made Little P a pencil roll to go with the crayon roll I made last week.  It’s good  to go -with pencils and everything. What good is an empty pencil roll?  These are so cheap to make and look pretty cute.  I'm all over giving kids opportunities to get creative.

Yes, I'm aware the fish are swimming upside down. I'm teaching Little P about up and down. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

In the Night Garden figurines . Picked up on sale during the year and stashed for Christmas.  For Little P.   Iggle Piggle is his favourite. Personally I find them a little creepy. Just like the tele tubbies.

I made my sister a journal to match mine . These are so quick and speedy to make. If I can do it anyone can.  Head on over to Bloom and Blossom for the free tutorial. It’s fabulous.

This one is an Op shop find. My sister was admiring my vintage butter dish collection recently. She’s getting this one as part of her Christmas gift. Hopefully, she'll love it.

I started making this. It's still in the concept stage and needs some tweaking. 

Does anyone else think taking photos of your stuff and then looking at them is the BEST way to see what isn't working. I do it with quilts all the time. Looking at this picture the blue isn't working for me at all.

Linking up with Larri at Seams Inspired for her Thrifty Christmas Challenge.

Thrifty Christmas Challenge

Larri at Seams Inspired wrote this post last week, which was in a  similar vein to my handmade Christmas vow.  If you want to be part of a thrifty Christmas you can join in too because Larri is going to have a page on her blog where you can showcase your fabulous finds/ creations. You might just do one or two handmade gifts, and want to show them off. I'm so excited by this idea and can't wait to participate.

Since I'm planning to work on some handmade/thrifted  presents this year , I was wondering how I'd show you all my glorious progress without family finding out my plans because Miss Pyjamas, Sister of Pyjamas and Patty (Mother of Pyjamas ) read my blog. Problem solved. I've created a second blog just for Christmas. Patty and SOP you can't go over there. SAJ you have to stay away too. Ditto Miss P- and  anyone I work with. Little P if you're reading this post - I'm inclined to tell you that it's not for your eyes either, but frankly if you're able to read this post you're a child prodigy at 15 months of age  and you can do what you like.

I'll post here when I have a post there which at this stage will be on Thrifty Christmas Tuesday.  You'll be able to find me here. I hope you'll stop by.  Unless you're family ..or a friend...or someone I work with. You can stay away.

Thrifty Christmas Tuesday

Larri at Seams Inspired has come up with a brilliant idea for Christmas 2010. The Thrifty Christmas Challenge . You can read all about it here ...

And she has a page where you can link to your blog posts and show off your finds/ creations here . Feel free to play along!

The deal was I opened my big mouth and said I wanted to do some handmade gifts for Christmas. In public. On my blog. I am an idiot.  It snowballed when Larri said she was doing Thrifty Christmas. I said "What a great idea" In public . On her blog.   I am an idiot. Just kidding. I'm really excited about this idea.

By that time I was committed to the concept, so   I created this  blog because I don't want family and friends snooping round looking  at what I'm up to. My family are sneaky that way. My friends are even sneakier.

So here are my rules:

• I'll try to make , thrift and use whatever I have wherever I can.
• I want the gifts to be meaningful for the recipients so I can't  buy/make any old trash. Bugger. This is going to be hard. Kidding!  
• I have a budget and I have to stick to it. I can buy supplies to make my creations or I can buy presents outright.
• Augmenting or embellishing gifts  with additonal purchases is OK as long as the budget isn't exceeded.
• I can re-gift , recycle or use things I already have stashed and it doesn't count towards the budget limit.
• I will not make my Dad a tie for Christmas. Or an apron for my sister.

This week I'm showcasing Little P's presents  ...most of which you will have already seen.

Love U Quilt - Handmade from Stash (by Quilting in My Pyjamas)

Marvin the Monster- Handmade (by Kris of Life at Rosemary Hill )

Car Playmat - a garage sale find a year ago. Meets the thrifty criteria.

Crayon Roll  (handmade by moi)

I'm planning to make another one of these and fill it with pencils. And I bought some art paper so Little P can scribble to his hearts content . At his place. Not on my white floors. Yeah I'm the world's worst Bella. I'm waiting till he moves out then I'm going to buy him litres of poster paint. That stuff never washes out despite what they say on the container.

Anyway , I'm still under budget , and appear to be batting 100% so far!

Happy Thrifty Christmas Tuesday for this week.