Santa’s challenge 2020 ...

Katiehound

Anglea said:

I also got another gift which I must remember to wrap as it's hidden away I can't seem to edit my other post to add this part to it.

I'm sure you know but there is a little cog wheel logo on the LH top corner of your own post. When you click on it you can either edit or delete. Maybe the cogs weren't working when you tried!!

chanie

@Happy_Kitties my children are 11 and 9.  Many of children in our family are of a similar age, so the difficulty is also gifts for them as well.  Although, I do give them cash, with a little something to open.

@Anglea I haven’t started using my fabric wrapping yet, as I’ve only had 2 birthdays so far this year and both have been children.  I have wrapped OH a bottle of his favourite tipple for Valentines Day.  The difficulty is that one piece of fabric was just too small and the other was way too bag.  Have managed with the smaller fabric. It just about works.

chanie

I’ve been rushing around today, trying to get a bag of stuff to take to my childrens school to donate to Ukraine.  

My first stop was lkea for fleece blankets.  Then I went to AIdi as I had a voucher for a free pack of nappies (dont need them, but was going to give them to the food bank).  Then to LidI as I had a £2 voucher and so bought another pack of nappies.  And finally to ££land  for some woolly hats.  I’m pretty pleased with my haul.

Other than the sweets/chocolates, I’ve pretty much finished my Iink boxes.  They are finished in so far as I could send them as they are, but there is still room in them, so I’m going to continue collecting bits for them.  

I ended up sorting out another couple of gifts for Xmas 2023, when I’m still sorting out Xmas 2022.  I bought a couple of gifts from Home Bargains, but realised I’d already sorted the gifts (I should really check my Xmas list more often).  I was tempted to add them to their Xmas 2022 gifts, but thought it better to roll them over.

I also bought a random stocking filler for my children (and one spare). A mini vacuum cleaner.  It’s supposed to be for laptops/desks but I can imagine the children having fun picking up all sorts with then.  They are £5 in lidI, but I had a £10 voucher, so two of them were free.  Anyway, I thought they were a good idea for tweens or students.

Happy_Kitties

U did really well with ur donations for Ukraine Chanie. U are really lucky with vouchers and it’s good u put them to full use. A lot of people wouldn’t bother if the item didn’t relate to them. Fair play to ur children’s school. We have no collections around here so I have donated to a couple of charities and have decided to do an extra shoebox to do my little bit. Have nearly completed a first shoebox ready for sealing and wrapping and following the hub my boxes will now go to, they are in full swing with preparations.

U said ur children’s ages 9 and 11 Chanie. I think this is when it’s starts to get difficult with presents as they’ve normally had most things previously and are going into that age where they want more expensive items that are much smaller in size.

I’ve done the extra present this year without checking my present book aswell.I said to a friend I had bought her son something, packed it away, forgot about it and then bought something else for him that I thought would be great, so have also done a carry over to 2023.

Present shopping has just about stopped. Need to send a couple of birthday presents(I’m late again but I’ve been away and did have a great time last week fully celebrating Duncles birthday with a meal, presents, balloons and a cake) and have been packing up (while I have the boxes) the items for the charity auctions so come September it is literally sticking a label on them and sending straight away. So still doing preparations, but more of a tidy up!

chanie

Hi everyone,

This thread has been rather neglected recently and I’ll put my hands up to that.  I haven’t done much prepping since my last visit to this thread, because we are in the process of getting a loft extension, so that is taking up all of my headspace at the moment.   We are also having some other works done so we have stuff everywhere at the moment.

We will have multiple rooms to redecorate, furnish and move, so I haven’t been thinking about prepping much.  

I’ve been ruthlessly decluttering and did get rid of lots of stuff I’d kept in case I needed it but never actually used (gift bags and boxes, tissue paper, bows).  The good news is that once the work is done, I’ll have decent storage space for my prepping, that I can easily access.  

My gift stash is in a rather precarious situation at the moment… I’ve had to clear my high cupboard for the building works, so  all of the gifts I’ve bought so far, are in a couple of storage boxes on my bedroom floor, well within the reach of Miss Nosey, DD9.  She hasn’t expressed any interest in them yet, but she is highly suspicious of everything 🤣.

crazy-cat-lady_2

Hi Chanie, that must be stressful. I bet you’ll be glad when it’s all done. 

Same here.. I haven’t visited the thread in so long. No excuses either, besides a new job keeping me crazy busy. And believe me, with the way bills and prices are going up, I’m not complaining about the job at all! Couldn’t have timed it better. 

I’ve got a good head start on presents. Got stocking and Christmas Eve box bits already, a few smaller and some larger presents. I hit the sales in January for anything I knew would still be loved this year. My little one is 5, so still pretty easy to buy for. 

A good few generic gift sets for an emergency stock of pressies/school raffle prizes too. 

I probably need a sort out and organise in the cupboards to see what I’ve actually got. I’ll get to it eventually! 

Hope everyone’s doing ok! 

chanie

@crazy_cat_lady with bills going up, prepping is a good way to actually save money by grabbing some bargains.
I think 5 is a lovely age to shop for and Christmas is still magical for them.  Mine will be 12 and 10 at Christmas and it’s getting more difficult to shop for them.  I have bought them practical items like water bottles and umbrellas, but they don’t need any more of those items.  They both were obsessed with travel pillows a few years ago (those ones you wrap around your neck when you go on an aeroplane), so those were in their stockings in Dec 2019.  We went into lockdown in March 2020, so we haven’t had the opportunity to use them yet.  

Anglea

Hi everyone. I've really enjoyed reading all the updates and it's great that we have continued using this thread.

 I've read back my last post and it was just before my son's birthday. He could only visit in the garage and carport where I put out chairs because his group home rules are different to the rest of us. I'm so glad we saw him because the very next day there was an outbreak at his house and he had to stay indoors/garden for the next few months.  He's just got out of another one this week (again for a few months) and will be seeing his dad tomorrow hopefully and mum and I when I set up the next visit.

Valentines went ok but my friend was very distracted by her family problems, we had a nice meal in a pub and a very strange thing happened on the walk home. We were passing a cottage and a van pulled up and a man came out and headed towards the cottage and shouted out to my friend 'why have you stolen my washing out of the garden?' I had trouble hearing properly so could have sworn he said her name and I thought she must know him and it was a joke. Turns out he didn't say her name and it was a stranger.

As DS2 wasn't allowed out at Easter my other friend drove me down to hand over Easter eggs etc to the staff. His brother and wife stayed with me at Easter and did all the food shopping and cooking so that was really nice. They've bought a house and said he'll be down when it all goes through with a van to collect all his belongings so that means that eventually I'll get more space as currently I have no room for my own things.

I had bad trouble buying birthday cards this week for BIL and exH's cousin who I still send to. My male friend that was with me on all my numerous attempts says that I am too concerned about getting the right card and should buy anything or else make them. I used to make cards years ago but don't have the mindset now.

It's the Green Man procession in Bristol this weekend but I'm not going, I used to in the past before lockdown. There's been a lot of changes for me since the lockdowns began and things have not gone well with my other friend and me (Valentine's one) so I'm not in the mood.

I've found a suitable project to make as a gift for the friend I sent to. I've found driftwood on the beach and I'm going to use natural colour crochet cotton and make some kind of square or circle and attach it to the wood than add fringes or charms or beads etc to the bottom. Her birthday is in June so either I'll do it by then or else for Christmas. I bought an emergency gift just in case something goes wrong by June. 

Happy_Kitties

I’ve been rubbish with the thread recently so thought I would check in.
Nothing much happening at the minute, well lots work related that has left me with little time and two poorly cats. I did by chance pick up a Christmas present for DD, facial cloth wipes that are eco friendly, that u can wash and re use when picking up a cat food order!
Frustratingly I still haven’t completed a shoebox. I’ve had the leaflets thru and the North Wales Hub have started to put together boxes so feel I need to get up to speed. Determined to do one over bank holiday
Have been the same with birthdays……behind again. Did manage to get one present in the post yesterday.

Chanie- i do not envy u. I’m always very happy with the end results but the feeling of being topsy turvey when work is being done, I hate it. Has DD been investigating with the presents u have? Funny enough I’ve got a travel pillow in the form of Marcel the monkey from Friends for my cousins daughter for Christmas. 

CCL2-  u can’t beat a good start on presents, it really does pay off, aswell if u can hit the sales even better.I’ve also had a sort out as my cat sitter was like have u seen the amount of stuff u have just piled up which was taking over the room she stays in. So had a sort out. Items I’ve not used and popped away for spares or charity, I sent a box to a charity that was asking for donations as they were doing an auction. It looks better but could still be even better so have sorted another box of items ready to send to the charity as they are looking at doing another auction later in the year.

Anglea- I hope things are more settled for u with ur friend. The driftwood craft project sounds lovely.
I hope you are getting to see more of DS2 now that life is returning to normal. Easter sounded lovely with DS1 for u. 

Katiehound

I haven't been on here in a while: actually I don't know when!

Got back from Ireland in late March with an 'experience' of a journey. A cancelled sailing so had to leave 7 hours early, then a flat tyre, a major diversion off motorway & 2 hours of dense fog, not a journey I would like to repeat. Home at 6am. Finally got 'reward' from ferry company: 50% reduction in a future crossing, already booked.

Last month had my first cruise since lockdown. It seemed a very strange lifestyle after all this time. I was content to stay aboard as it was very hot outside for excursions (Spain) eating lovely food, doing the odd quiz & dancing most evenings. I had forgotten a lot of the more complicated sequence dances! Because my old hound is too frail to go to kennels a friend looked after them and they had a good time. The boy often went for 8 mile runs!
 I managed to get 2 &1/2 pairs of mittens knitted for my shoeboxes, only 5 &1/2 to go!!

I have been busy busy sewing doggy duvets for the village PO which closes for good  next month.
I delivered some more to be sold whilst I am away but was amazed to find £130 in the collecting box. I know they have had about 30 duvets in the last few months. Anyhow it brings the grand total that they have raised to £1,122.65. Amazing. A whole lot of duvets too!! {320}
I have raised over £2.5k now.

I shall take the sewing machine away with me as I have a stack of furry/ fluffy dog coats cut out (for charity) hopefully I might more mittens knitted as well as a knee blanket or two. I used up pretty much all of the material that I 'inherited' but haven't made a dent on the wool / yarn yet.

If my old hound continues in to winter I will not be able to go away at Christmas so I am not planning too much as we don't spend money on postage. The friend I will see has the £5 challenge and already her items are purchased, and some for birthday too! I buy a Good Housekeeping subscription for another friend and that runs out with Sept issue- they are campaigning for me to renew subs now. I wanted to pay slightly more and get the GH cookbook for extra fiver but they can only send it to me- and I will be away. The offer will probably have gone by mid July.
My big expenditure will be on the shoeboxes. I need to find wind-up torches, everything else sorted more or less. Found some good little bits in a 10 pence box in charity shop last week- it included a cardboard tube with 20 coloured pencils- looked new and some packs of cards.

Off for a drink (non alcoholic I mean!) & a sit in the sun.

Hope everyone is keeping well. take care