*The Holly and the Ivy* and the You Know What 2013 Chatter Thread.

Ameyturtle

Morning all

Hope you all have a good day, I have figured out that today is day 3of 7 days at work back to back including a day in London training

Roll on the weekend eh!

Got to make a cake this evening to ease the van through its mot lol

Love and hugs to all xxx

Own_My_Own

I have had very little sleep. Still awake at 2.15 and got up at 6.30 as awake again.

Luckily only a short day at work, I feel like a zombie.


What is everyone views on homemade gifts. I was looking as some on Pinterest last night. And although they were great, I can imagine some of them actually costing more than a shop bought gift.
I was only going to do a Homemade Gift Christmas next year to save some money. But I'm not sure now.
I don't mean hampers etc, I mean presents made from scratch.

The main ones I have a problem with was my nieces and nephew. I usually only spend around £10- £15 on them. But beings as I bought this years presents in the sale they have gifts worth at least double that. The 2 older ones have vanity cases from Boots that were £45 before the reduction. The 2 younger ones have art sets from the Disney store, and Disney bits picked up in the pound shops.

If I'm not going to make their gifts I may as well not bother making anything. I have reduced the amount of people I will be buying for anyway to save some money. No point buying for people you have had no contact with all year.

I'm just really not sure if making presents will save me money or cost me more. I can imagine more, as I will keep adding to them.

mrsinvisible

Yaay Feisty, day 1 of your own shop! Best wishes vibes rocketing over the ether .
OMO agree with you about the cost of homemade, they are only worth doing for special people where the gift is more important than the cost.
especially when you factor in the time and the love that each requires. That's why I am [EMAIL="pi@@ed"]pi@@ed[/EMAIL] off about the advent gifts l wanted to make, they were special.
Today is special, whispers quietly, ihaveacleanerdoingmyhousework!!!!! This is such a luxury, but although l can do some things, stuff like changing beds, cleaning windows and tiles are too painful for me, cutting the grass takes me 2 days to recover from, so my lovely friend who is struggling to get her business off the ground has volunteered 2and a half hours a week, in exchange for me doing her leaflets flyers business cards etc, so we both win, then she is coming to hospital with me and l'll buy her lunch. Nanamia, you are so right, we are really blessed.
xxxxx

mrs-moneypenny

morning all
i hope everyone had a good weekend and is still on track

Own_My_Own wrote: »

:xmastree: week 12 lists :xmastree:

mrs-moneypenny
Finish 10 items for craft stall
Start the decoupaged stocking for friend
Cook the Christmas cake

cant remember if this was the most recent challenge i set myself
if so i did achieve it.

this week i need to get, my mums, brothers family and sisters family pressies wrapped (as well as nieces and sisters birthday stuff) ready to take over at half term)
and do the top blue panel of the decoupaged stocking - this has loads of work in and im seriously doubting if it will be completed this christmas.
fed the cake at the weekend now ive bought brandy.
morrys had limited the sweets to 2 tins per customer in our shop on saturday as they were running out.

OMO, re homemade presents, it depends on what you have to pay to make the item, it can work out much more expensive, this year i set myself the challenge of using up stuff from my craft cupboard. it was full of cross stitch kits ive either won or bought really cheap at carboots so they have only cost me time and in the case of pictures frames as long as i frame them myself having that done professionally is really expensive!
for example this is the stocking kit i picked up for £1 at the boot sale
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bucilla-Wizard-of-CHRISTMAS-IN-OZ-Felt-Stocking-Kit-/200960243185?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eca29f5f1
it will cost me a lot of time but i know either this christmas (or next) my friend will love it and aprechiate the work i put in. there is no way i could afford to buy it for her at eblay prices

pinknfluffy28

OMO - I know how you feel re the homemade gifts. Last year I looked into doing the homemade gifts this year, and started to combine a list, I wanted to do things like a patchwork blanket, ornaments etc but once i started pricing up materials I realised it would almost definatly work out more expensive than bargain buying!
I do love homemade gifts, and this year everyone has a little homemade fimo tree ornament as xmas eve gifts, but that alone has cost me over £35 for the 11 recipients, a lot more than the usual snowman soups would cost!
I might have a go next year, and just do homemade gifts for the adults, if they dont work out too expensive and are well received then I can branch out in following years as kids get older.
I personally would much rather receive a homemade gift, but I know not everyone "gets" the sentiment thing and I worry how well some of my ideas would be received!

Its days like today that I realise how lucky I am to work for myself, yes money is a bit tighter nowadays, but being able to run the kids to and from school, and have a hot meal ready for the family dinner, and an evening snuggled together with a dvd and a slice of homemade cake (carrot cake in the oven as I type!) on a miserable day like today - brings much more joy than a heavy pay packet any day!

KatieBee123

Hi everyone,

OMO - definately think although the thought and sentiment is there homemade gifts can be expensive to make. My friend is currently in the process of decorating a plain wine bottle gift case (the sort you can pick up in the pound shop fully decorated) the gift box cost near £4 then the paper mache to decorate it cost £3.79 for 3 sheets :O when in reality she couldve gone into poundland and bought a ready made one! Less hassle, less money! & tbh i doubt her motherinlaw will even notice its homemade!!

Have a good day everyone

pixtotts

I've been playing catch up this morning so this may be a long one...
Ruth_honey - think I can only use credit notes instore which is a bit of a pain. Finding a new look an be exciting though I have a new rule that I will try on absolutely anything I like then decide if it will work or not.
Princesskitty29 - Dunelm also have Christmas pudding door stops... slightly more shabby chic than the one you posted, and not sure on the price but their door stops all seem to be around £5 or £6 so imagine they would match price wise, so about a 3rd of the homebase one...
Own My Own - Thanks for the coffee syrup link I've been looking for some for a while to have in hot chocolate, Sainsburys only sell Caramel . - RE Homemade gifts - I think it really depends what you plan on making... and... the enjoyment factor I love arty stuff, (love shopping too but have the whole what to get issue), so I get a lot of satisfaction in the process. Ooh and also I'd probably be spending the money anyway only just on pointless stuff to fill my time, might as well give it a perpose
Fluffysox - Personally I don't think ipods are worth it any more especially if he is in need of a new phone. I broke my Ipod it was still coved by insurance so got my money back then realised actually I have the same amount of space for music on my phone ot my ipod...so I spent it on a very pretty camera instead lol. Only time Ipod is neccessary is if you have way too much music, one of my friends has 2 ipods and then only keep favourites on their phone, but that is insane and no normal person has or needs what must equal to 3 weeks of music! lol. Ipod your probably looking about £100 for £150 you can get an excellent phone, well known make (we got a sony ericsson (uh sp?) for this much contract free) can do all that an ipod can + more. Smartphone or ipones are both excellent for music now. Also means not having to carry around 2 gadgets. I think ipods are redundent sorry ipods lol.


Thankyou everyone whose been helping with the green dress search have ordered a couple to try and going into town try and hunt down the newlook and primark ones later in the week figured if I start now I might find one I like by Christmas, I'm a wee bit picky... lol
x

Cherry24

OMO: I haven’t done any handmade gifts myself but my friend does quite a few and this seems to save her some money. She gave me a canvas bag with a cross-stitched deer on last year and it was my favourite present.

Ruth_honey

pixtotts wrote: »

I've been playing catch up this morning so this may be a long one...
Ruth_honey - think I can only use credit notes instore which is a bit of a pain. Finding a new look an be exciting though I have a new rule that I will try on absolutely anything I like then decide if it will work or not.
Princesskitty29 - Dunelm also have Christmas pudding door stops... slightly more shabby chic than the one you posted, and not sure on the price but their door stops all seem to be around £5 or £6 so imagine they would match price wise, so about a 3rd of the homebase one...
Own My Own - Thanks for the coffee syrup link I've been looking for some for a while to have in hot chocolate, Sainsburys only sell Caramel . - RE Homemade gifts - I think it really depends what you plan on making... and... the enjoyment factor I love arty stuff, (love shopping too but have the whole what to get issue), so I get a lot of satisfaction in the process. Ooh and also I'd probably be spending the money anyway only just on pointless stuff to fill my time, might as well give it a perpose
Fluffysox - Personally I don't think ipods are worth it any more especially if he is in need of a new phone. I broke my Ipod it was still coved by insurance so got my money back then realised actually I have the same amount of space for music on my phone ot my ipod...so I spent it on a very pretty camera instead lol. Only time Ipod is neccessary is if you have way too much music, one of my friends has 2 ipods and then only keep favourites on their phone, but that is insane and no normal person has or needs what must equal to 3 weeks of music! lol. Ipod your probably looking about £100 for £150 you can get an excellent phone, well known make (we got a sony ericsson (uh sp?) for this much contract free) can do all that an ipod can + more. Smartphone or ipones are both excellent for music now. Also means not having to carry around 2 gadgets. I think ipods are redundent sorry ipods lol.


Thankyou everyone whose been helping with the green dress search have ordered a couple to try and going into town try and hunt down the newlook and primark ones later in the week figured if I start now I might find one I like by Christmas, I'm a wee bit picky... lol
x

I'm definitely not normal then! I've got weeks and weeks worth of music on my iPod. It's the biggest iPod touch they do and every time I buy anything new, I have to delete things I don't like so much to fit the new stuff on. I also have a classic which is bigger and has EVERYTHING on it (that stays in the living room on a dock). I used to work for MVC so my music collection increased a lot then. I love listening to music and make playlists for Halloween and Christmas. I'm not big on phones though, so my phone is a cheapy basic PAYG that I only use for texting and the occasional call if desperate. I guess it all depends on what you use most often and what you'd rather spend the money on. If using an iPhone as a music player too, the battery would get used much quicker.

I knew I'd seen another Xmas pudding doorstop somewhere! I couldn't remember which website it was on, though. Must've been Dunelm.

I've been trying to be a bit more adventurous with what I try on in store. Hope you find the perfect green dress! Post a pic when you choose one.

I think I'll get the present list out today and see what else I still need to buy. Hoping a visit to Home Bargains will get a lot of bits ticked off the list. There's one opening nearby soon, but they've out the opening date back from Sep to Oct and now it's December!

quidsy

Studio order came in & the father christmas pillows look really sweet, they are a red fluffy material with black buttons, can't wait to get back from hols & start to put it all together in the living room.