Last Saturday, a voice wafted across the landing from DD1's bedroom to mine.
DD1: "Mummy?"
Me: "Yes?"
DD1: "We've decided that we will exchange presents this year after all".
Me: "Who's 'we'?"
It turned out that 'we' is five of DD1's friends. Oh, and she needed a present for her class Secret Santa.
Monday I was busy, so Tuesday, I went first thing to the hair appointment I'd got booked and then drove the 12 miles up to Colchester.
First stop was to Williams & Griffin, the department store in the town. There, I quickly purchased six bars of some very nice Italian soap by a company called Nesti Dante. These are heavily perfumed soaps and I've been using them myself for a year or so now and I keep them in my clothing drawers before they get put into use, where they keep everything smelling nice.
Second stop was to Franklins haberdashery store to buy some cotton yarn.
Can you see where this is heading?
I spent the next two days crocheting as fast as I could. Yesterday, the Secret Santa present was taken in to school so they could do the unwrapping today (the last day or term). I've been told that the recipient was very happy with her gift.
This is what I came up with:
A bar of soap and a wash-cloth in a colour to match the packaging.
Very simple cloths which I've done many times before. Just rows of trebles, going between the stitches rather than through the V-chain along the top, or half-trebles, or a mixture of the two. It makes a more open fabric and aids drying the cloths. The light pink one is King Cole Cotton Soft DK. The blue one and the lemon yellow ones are Sirdar Calico (a 60/40 cotton/acrylic blend). The dark pink is some cotton that I bought in Lidl and the orange/cream one is Sirdar Baby Speckle, which is, again, a 60/40 cotton/acrylic blend. After a quick wash, dry and iron yesterday, they were wrapped up and tied with some gauzy ribbon.
Except I should have bought more ribbon as I ran out, so I had a rummage through my sewing box and found some wide-ish white satin ribbon, so cut a narrow strip from that and tied it around the pink cloth.
The soaps cost £4.50 each and the cloths were probably no more than £1 - £1.50 each to make (I can get three cloths from a 100g ball of the Cotton Soft).
I hope the young ladies who've been given them like them. We tried to match up each fragrance to the intended recipient as two of the girls are more sporty than girlie!
That's it - I'm not making anything else this year. I'm going to be concentrating on DD2's pink Bulle sweater now. I'm nearing the cuff on the first sleeve (I've had to order more yarn but could only get a different dye lot so I'm hoping that if I alternate balls the difference won't be too noticeable).
Before I go, I must show you the card that DD2 made for me at school. It's to Mummy -- no mention of Daddy and she refused to add his name to it - oops!
Isn't it cute? The reindeer heads are finger- or thumb-prints and then the antlers are drawn on and googly eyes and noses are added (the noses are little foam circles which have been coloured in). I know that some of you have young children in your lives, so this might be an idea for next year :)
I'm hoping to get one more blog post in before Christmas, but in case things don't work to plan (do they ever at this time of year?), I hope you all have a wonderful festive time.
You are a wonderful mother. You came up with lovely gifts for her friends with so little notice. The fingerprint-reindeer are so cute! I remember doing something like that at school when I was little. I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family!
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