OS Christmas Support thread & timetable

Shortie

Oh heck. Look what you've all started. OH is going into the loft tonight to get down my craft box for me so I can start making Chrimbo cards.

Not sure if I'm more excited about getting the craft bits down and nosing, or having an excuse to sit down and cross-stitch! :rotfl:

nicki_2

Well I'm saving stuff up where I can :

• 700 points on Lightspeed - trying to get 1000 for the next value voucher
• 1157 points on Pigsback - trying to see if I can get enough points to get the £50 CD-Wow voucher
• 26920 points on Test & Vote
• £63 (- fees) in my Paypal account from ebay sales

I also checked out my Christmas Inventory and I have :

• Enough wrapping paper to wrap everyones pressies until I'm 100 :rotfl: Bought reduced - 50p a roll, or left over from previous years.
• Christmas Cards - reduced from Tescos last year
• The start of 2 pressies which I can't mention here as Johanne is about
• 2 / 3 pressies for DD

Budget for EVERYTHING including petrol is £365 - Spent so far £5.49

Will be doing crafty things with DD. But I'm think that I might save those until October half-term now on account of finding things to do then Plus it will give me a chance to pick up a couple of things that I need to buy.

furrychimp

found a lovely website that does jar recipes (ie you put all the stuff for the recipe in a Kilner or clip jar tie on a nice ribbon & cooking instructions) it's an American one : https://www.thatsmyhome.com Has a million recipes, but I like the idea of these for a gift, just add a cake tin & wooden spoon tied with a pretty ribbon for nice gift!!:D

**purpleprincess**

ocemeer

Aril wrote:

No one in my immediate family likes Xmas pud but I had an idea of an alternative last night [why I should be thinking of Xmas fare in August who knows!!] I wondered if a stewed apple and mincemeat mix might work with a spiced crumble topping.
Aril

You could put cranberries into the mincemeat make it a bit more christmassy (and it is lovely). If you don't fany a crumble how about a erm 'log' using either filo or puff pastry in the middle with cranberry mincemeat/apple served with whipped cream or hm icecream

QueenB.

I am sooooooooooo pleased to find so many like minded people:D .

I LOVE christmas, always have, and i start my planning very early, or so i thought until coming on here:rotfl:

I stitch christmas stuff all year round, just because i enjoy the season and i like to be all sorted out before december so we can really settle into the season and enjoy it fully.

I have already made some christmas cards and watched several christmas movies with the kids. Have also had the kids start on their lists so i can see what exactly they are wanting and then i can search around for the best deals.

Looking forward to reading all the ideas on here for some more homemade gifts to add to my list as we really have to keep the cost RIGHT down this year:o

Got a few vouchers and points saved up to help but hopefully will have alot more by November.

So hohoho and away i go:j

sugaJen

I have finally bought the 1st pressie :j which is actually really bad considering I have to buy for my 3 kids, 10yr old brother, sister, dad, mum, stepdad, cousin and her little boy.....OMG I feel abit panicky now, just made myself worse by counting how many days til you know what.......132!!!!

Anyway I got a set of 3 rugrats videos in home bargains for £2.49 my 2 girls love them, still to decide who gets them??

Gonna sit the kids down with an argos catalogue to get some idea of what they would like.

cheekyweegit

MoneySavingSapphire wrote:

I'm going to make my nan ginger whisky, my friends berry vodka of some description, my sisters bath bombs/salts....

Thought that this site might be useful to anyone wants to make the bathbombs as it lists / sells the ingredients you need as well as the instructions for making them.

http://www.bathbomb.biz/index.htm

moggins wrote:

I bought my wool from the Works - it was 12 balls for £9.99. The wool is like a strand of thread with silky strands coming from it (rubbish description but that's the best I can manage. I remember somewhere that it was size 7 needles, cast on 20 stitches and just keep knitting till it is long enough

I got this wool too in Dundee, and there was too different kinds on sale beside us. The first as you describe, my kids describe as tickly wool and the second is what they call cuddly wool. Both are really quite luxurious when knitted as scarves or even cusion covers using cusion pads which you can pick up cheaply in places like ikea or even the pound shop. If you have friend / relative who goes to formal do's quite often you could quite easily knit a stole for around £6 i reckon using the hairy wool maybe £8 for the other depending on the length you want it could be cheaper or a bit dearer. Wrap in tissue paper and a posh box and a beautiful gift at not much cost for any of them. You can even do mother and daughter sets if the family is close.

To make a scarf with the hairy wool, i did 20 stitches on no5 bamboo needles (i just prefer these kind of needles) which gives you a long and narrowish scarf for wrapping round your neck or doubling if this is what you prefer.

Another using the same wool was 40 stitches on the same size of needles which gives you what my friend who snaffled it calls a boob warmer. Not quite long enough to wrap round your neck, but perfect for tying in a knot or draping/tucking in. She felt that this was perhaps going to be too warm for nipping out to the shops in, but perfect for nights out.

The other type of wool (cuddly), again on no5 needles i've used 25 stitches which gives you a scarf long enough to wrap round your neck but not too long.

Adults sizes use 2 balls but if your doing kids say up to age 5, i used 1 ball and 15-20 stitches depending on the wool used and added a couple of small pom poms on the ends for effect.

As for the pillow case,45-50 stiches would do depending on the size of the pillow and you can do them to match a bedroom colour. Again 2 balls should be enough here. You can always just do one side of the pillow in wool and buy cheap material for the otherside and stitch them together. Great idea for sisters if they share a room.

Finally a stole, i'd do, again based on the knitting i've been doing, 50 - 60 stitches on the cuddly wool, and 50 for the tickly/hairy wool and about 60 - 65 for the cuddly wool using 6 - 8 balls of wool depending on the type used and the length required which of course can be adjusted accordingly.

Note that the hairy wool stretches more and the scarves are a bit longer than the other wool which has a lot less give in it but comes out a bit thicker when knitted up.

Hope this helps.

PS Needle sizes are in metric (mm) but its a US size 8 and imperial size 6 if this helps anyone.

PPS and all are knitted in stocking stitch, i.e. one row knit, one row purl.

PPPS if you drop a stitch with the hairy wool its easy enough to fix, but on the cuddly wool ARGHHHHHHHHHHH need i say more?

Chipps

At my sister's house, I saw a towel which I had given her, and it reminded me of the present I had made, so I thought I'd share the idea with you. We didn't have much money for presents that Christmas, so this was quite economical, although you could make it as expensive or inexpensive as you like.

I made an Instant Summer Kit - to brighten up the winter!
I had bought beach towels in the end of summer sales, along with other "summery" stuff, like instant tanning wipes, and other odds & ends that were being sold off cheaply. I put them all in a box, with a few other things - can't remember them all as it was quite a while ago. There was also a large yellow paper sun, and instructions to enjoy a summer holiday in the living room! It was a bit of fun, and most of the stuff was useful!

EagerLearner

How to save for Christmas - even more efficiently!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=238575

Please, please leave comments on the above thread if you find it useful - I've saved £150 towards Xmas already and nearly 900 people probably have to date as well...

Hope you save some money! :T