festiveideas.org

I decided to do my calendar digitally so that I could replicate as many of them to give as gifts (if it looked okay made up). Had that intial panic where I had all these vague ideas in my head and then being absolutely terrified that I wouldn’t be able to draw them. It doesn’t help that I’m not too good with trying to draw with a mouse and I’d completely forgotten how to use the software, maybe Santa will get me a graphics tablet for Christmas… but then I won’t have the excuse for not being able to draw. It worked okay though. I now just need to find some nice thick enough paper to print on, make the the little stand and find the right sized rings to hold it together.

Here’s January:

Nundle Woollen Mills in Nundle, NSW, Australia and not only do they have really wonderful wool but it seems there’s also a really vibrant crafters community around it. The prices are a bit of a mixed bag, some are incredibly cheap but there are some really lovely things in their online store.

Here are a few of my favourite things:

The first three bags were $25 and are now $10. The sheep wallet is a measly $5! The rabbit puppets are soooo adorable and only $19, the gorgeous green Cat is a Minx Cat and is $79. And my personal wishlist in the Wine curvy felt flower bag down at the bottom, it’s $59.

The Darfur Wall has 400,000 numbers with each number representing a person killed in Darfur. One dollar lights up one number (you can choose it if it’s not already taken) and the rest of you donation goes to lighting random dollars. You can nominate a name of your choosing and this will show up on your number’s page. I think it would make a different and meaningful gift.

They are a registered charity and all of the donation (minus the processing fees, blame PayPal) goes straight to these charities helping out in Darfur:

• Doctors Without Borders
• Save the Children
• Save Darfur
• Sudan Aid Fund / Eric Reeves

Threadless regularly have $10/t-shirt sales and it’s a great way to pick up some cheap pressies that don’t look cheap! These are my current picks:

Mochi is a popular sweet in Japan. When I was little, I lived a few years there, I don’t remember too much but I do remember them, they were so tasty! You can buy them dusted in flour and wrapped up in the prettiest boxes in Japan and they are a common gift.

Here is a picture of TarePanda eating a mochi, I think this type is called a “suama”. Here is a flash video of TarePandas falling off rainbows (warning: VERY CUTE). I can’t watch it enough.

It’s hard to find mochi in Sydney and when I have, they are usually quite stale. They can be made at home fortunately. I found a few recipe books on Amazon:

Tastes & Flavors of Mochi
Unbearably Good! Mochi Lovers’ Cookbook
Hawaii’s Best Mochi Recipes

Or you could try this “Swama Recipe” from Tarepie:

How to make Swama

This is the recipe for making Swama (Tare’s favorite food). It was contributed by a Tare lover, Sandra. Thanks!

The 4 main ingrediants for Swama are:

• Rice flour(or self raising flour or add some yeast to it)—150 grams
• Sugar(fine powdered texture)—150 grams
• Regular water—120cc
• Red food coloring—up to you

1. Sift the four if neccessary and put into a bowl
2. Add the water slowly and kneed the flour until it is dough like.
3. Put the dough into another bowl and sprinkle the sugar onto the dough. At the same time use your hands(or some other instrument) to kneed the sugar into the dough.
4. Break the dough into small pieces(the size is as you desire, but the smaller it is, the faster it cooks. About slightly smaller than your palm is recommended.)
5. Dilute the food coloring with some water and dip the dough into it or brush the coloring over the dough.(Whether you want to add the coloring is up to you.)
6. Put the round dough pieces into a steamer and cook until the dough has lost it’s stickiness and when you poke a finger at it, the dough rises up from the indent.(Of course don’t poke so hard that you make a hole!)

Here’s another suama recipe.

One of my favourite Japanese characters is TarePanda which means Lazy Panda (apparently the “tare” bit means to lie on one’s belly! I can see this being used for my puppy some time in the future… TareMiffy… her name is miffs/miffy/miffing). TarePanda doesn’t seem to have any bones whatsoever and gets around by rolling and flopping. It is both the cutest and most disturbing thing ever. Often you’ll find them lying around in piles on top of each other. Very strange. Some very cute downloads and pics can be found on the official site, it’s in Japanese but there’s not much in the way of options so just click on everything and you’ll find some nice surprises.

I realised today that my TarePanda calendar is about to run out and this is cause for much sorrow. You may be able to see that it says “12″ for December and end of TarePanda calendaring:

Here is October and TareHalloween:

and this is probably my favourite with the little rice cakes (mochi) decorated to look like a little rabbit and a siamese cat (?):

I love these little standup calendars but they are surprisingly hard to find. I’d previously got them from friends in Japan (but they’ve moved back home since) and then I found Kinokuniya was a good source but at the beginning of November, or even at the end of October they said that they had all sold out (except for a Disney Pooh one, if it had been the old fashioned Pooh I would have snapped it up). I went to every cute Japanese/Korean store in the city and none had these little calendars. I found one not very inspiring A6 one but it’s not really the same thing, the size of these little calendars is just perfect, most of the time you don’t even notice it’s on your desk until you need it and then there’s that lovely and pleasant surprise of the beautiful artwork.

They make the sweetest gifts too. So I am determined to make my own because I just cannot live without these sweet little calendars.

Craftlog has a post on the beautiful calendars that she’s ordered/wants, including a link to this exquisite downloadable one from lovexevol (it’s only $2 but you have to put a min. of US$10 + $1gst if you’re in Australia in your account through PayPal). I downloaded one and will hopefully make one up. Unfortunately, it’s a little too big to satisfy my little calendar addiction so I’m still going to have to make something.

Lost in Translation made the cutest little felt tree that would be perfect for Christmas, this is pic from the Flickr link:

It’s from a free pattern from Little Birds but LIT has handsewn the base on the outside so it flairs out more which is a brilliant idea! The material is from A Child’s Dream Come True which has some of the most beautiful felts. One thing I need to do when I have some time (very soon, my work projects sooooo close to being finished!) is find some good reliable sources for materials. I’m from Sydney and many of the ones I used to go to have all shut down, so often I have an idea in my head and just not the material to follow through. I went to look for felts the other day and I was so disappointed at the quality and the tiny range of colours. I just need to get back into the loop of things.

I’ve always been a knitter and my mother, a crocheter but we’d lost it with everything else going on in life. I recently picked up my knitting needles and just last week, she booked into a beginner’s crochet class (she’s crocheted for longer than I’ve been alive but it’s always been stuff she’s made up, she actually had no idea how to read a pattern, though I’m sure she would have worked it out). But seeing all the cute little dolls you can make has really piqued my interest in crocheting too, I really want to learn!

Unfortunately, I just missed this ebay auction for a book of Christmas ornaments to crochet. Here’s a pic of the cover, the green elf is so cute (if I ever learn how to crochet, I’m so going to try to make one):

Last year, one of my favourite craft blogs, craftlog.org, posted this cutie pic of a snowman ornament. Love it and love the background fabric (was thinking that it would make a great background pattern for a webpage):

It’s a little too late to start an advent calendar, but fortunately there are quite a few online ones to enjoy:

• Soul Food Cafe has an amazing Adventure Calendar (which takes you on a creative and spiritual journey).
• The Cat Who Laughed has advent story, JT Agapanthus and the Black Cat Blues, with an illustrated chapter unveiled each day (it also comes in French, Italian and Russian).
• The illustrations for this Finnish online advent calendar are lovely.
• Leslie Harpold has a beautifully designed site that gives you a Christmas memory, a link and something special each day.
• This school in the UK has a fun advent calendar filled with lots of international facts. Very sweet.

Next year I am definitely making at least one! I really like the idea of this one that’s linked at the Wikipedia entry (see piccy), it’s a little wrapped present for each day!

Some other ideas for next year (or the next):LoobyLu has a Quick n’ Nasty Advent Calendar and some ideas for an activity advent calendar and she has some nice links:Little Birds has made sweet little stockings out of felt and Rosa has a beautiful one made from Christmas themed fabrics.

It’s the first of December and I bought a couple of little Christmas toys at the service station today. You can see them up on the banner. The penguin sings “We wish you a Merry Christmas” and the Reindeer sings “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” when you squeeze their tummies. They were just sitting next to the counter when I went to pay for my petrol and I couldn’t resist.

They also motivated me to start off this blog. I’ve been really disorganised with special holidays in the past few years, mainly because work deadlines coincided. I used to ALWAYS make my own pudding (and extras for friends) but the last few years have all been store bought. I haven’t had a properly decorated tree in so long!

I’m hoping that work will ease off this week and I will FINALLY be able to spend some time organising and making stuff for the holidays.
Anyway, one of the main reasons why I started this blog was to collect my thoughts, ideas, stuff I’ve found on the web, in magazines, etc so that I can use them later, if not this year, in future years or just to be able to look over them again.

Hopefully, it won’t be just for Christmas but for all the other holidays and special events.