Making it personal in a gifty way.

It’s hard to find the gifts that are both personal and inexpensive for young and old, gifts that don’t take up a lot of space that are useful and appealing.

These gifts are what I’ve made or bought or bought and added to for the Grandkids this year, these ideas can be for any age group.

I bought some bath towels on special and to personalise them for each child I bought some iron on initials at 40% off. These iron ons come in many different sizes and images and are much cheaper than someone to embroider (unless you yourself are handy that way). Matching face washers, soaps and whatever else takes your fancy is great to fill out the gift. My mum loves this kind of present as this saves her from updating and spending her $, she says she’s old and doesn’t really need ‘stuff’.

Pillow cases, make your own with a print you love it can either match or contrast with what you already have or to jazz up your bedroom colours. Pillow cases are an easy thing to make with a sewing machine and only requires straight and zigzag stitiching. Have a look in your cupboard to see how they are made/assembled. 150cm X 50cm should be enough fabric to get you 1 pillowcase. Make it reversible with 2 different patterns. I made a car and truck for the eldest who is into cars. Pirates on one side with whales on the other for youngest whose nickname is Pirate Bill. Unicorns for one and Skye from Paw patrol for the other. Fabrics go on sale each season.

Fabric pencil cases to stencil an initial on to fill with lip balms and hand cream. The boys fill theirs with cars when they travel. For adults they make a great little toiletry bag or great for medications to keep in their hand/travel bag.

Kid friendly dinner plates with a matching cup or cutlery. Adults a nice matching teacup and saucer set.

Music box they come for boys or girls.

Mine love dinner place mats that they can colour with whiteboard markers.

I like to keep things simple, 1 useful gift to go with 1 fun gift for the kids.

I know it’s going to get harder as they get older (oldest 2 are nearly 5) I’ll just have to put on my thinking cap

 

Kids Roll up bed

My grand kids are out of their cots and as we don’t have 4 extra beds for them to sleep overnight or nap on. I’ve made a couple (just the two for now) of these simple roll beds  that can travel from room to room, motel to motel or even camping.

I picked up a couple of double (Au) bed sized doonas/ duvet/ comforter/ continental quilt or similar to be my mattress.

Fold in half and tack stitch together so the sides and a few stitches in the middle  so it doesn’t move when being slept on. (If you’d like a slightly thicker mattress for the roll bed get a bigger size doona and fold it in thirds.)

From the fabric store I picked up some fabric that was on special. The measurements to make a slip cover was about 15 cm wider than the double folded doona and about 15cm longer. This for making sure there’s enough fabric to join the sides and to double fold each end to sew on some velcro to keep it closed. If you are uncertain give a little more and you can trim off if needed. For me it was 4 metres length of fabric by 1m wide. Folded in half 2m X 2m.

Fold fabric in half 2m X 2m and sew down each side. Turn your rather large slip inside out. Your folded and tacked together doona should slip in and out easily for washing. Fold the excess at the open end in half and half and sew around. Sew in at least 2 pieces of velcro of about  8cm length. Looped on on front and fluffy on the other making sure then the slip is closed they match. Other option for closing buttons and button holes

To give a bit of softness to the mattress on the floor I popped in a yoga mat for the base.

At home these get used as a seat for reading or watching TV, the unfolded to use as a nap bed.

If camping or a motel they have cotton rope to tie them up (1 each end) like a bedroll to carry.  A personal blanket can be rolled up inside with the mattress.

Can be as cheap or as expensive as you wish to make depending on your fabric, doona, yoga mat.

Only needs straight stitching machine experience for the slip. Just needle and thread for the tack stitching of doona, it doesn’t have to be tidy.

Any questions, just ask as I made this up as I went along and my explanation can be a bit rambling.

I baby sit on a Wednesday and this is my nap time space.

 

Condensed Milk

Condensed milk usually only gets used for rum balls at Christmas time in our house simply because  I don’t really have recipes that I like that use a whole tin, I don’t like to waste stuff.

I found out the other day that condensed milk is freezable, it doesn’t go hard or really change it’s texture because of the sugar content. I freeze coconut milk and cows milk as they are the ones I consistently use and some times have leftovers to use for a later date.

At the time I found out this wonderful piece of information I wasn’t even searching the net for anything in particular, this fact just jumped out at me. I feel I must now do more searching for recipes for partial tins.

Did you know you could freeze condensed milk?

Lemon pepper seasoning

Lemon pepper seasoning I feel is under rated. This is a seasoning I find you can mix with other herbs to give that little kick of extra flavour in cooking.

Lemon pepper on it’s own for fish.

Lemon pepper and rosemary for chicken or lamb.

Lemon pepper and sage or fennel, or both for pork.

Lemon pepper and dukkah for steak.

It can be used on it’s own and sometimes it’s a mixture of all the above on any of the meats as well roast potatoes. Just a sprinkle.

I’ve never made this seasoning from scratch but bought various lemon pepper seasonings from many brands over the years, to find the exact one I liked.

Is lemon pepper a seasoning you use?

 

Where do my days go?

I have discovered since having my wonderful Grandkids, 2 of each, that I’m not as young as I thought I was and I’m lucky enough to be a Grandma in my 50’s. I work part time and baby sit 2 kids each Wednesday, I can tell you now I sleep well on a Wednesday night.

Up until I started this baby sitting gig, one then two over time I actually thought I was fairly fit but I’m not sure now if it’s the mental or the physical that gets me in the end.

My boys are just either side of 30 now and at gatherings it’s so much fun to see the two of them chat  about their kids who are very close in age, who has what problem with what child and how they’re dealing with it.

I say this as my oldest two Grandies  turned 3 last week and this week (10 days between) and we had a party at our place for family.  Food, cake, games and a perfect almost winters sunny day with clear skies to be enjoyed outdoors …. mostly because the mess is outside. Keeping it all cheap and cheerful.

I’ve decided I don’t always need to be busy, I have the dogs to walk, the kids to play with, work and great family. Sometimes it’s good to do nothing.

Sometimes it feels life rushes by, other times you want it to slow down so you don’t miss a thing.

 

 

 

Load more