Try Handmade

Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Winter Delights

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It’s winter here in the UK. The car was frozen over last week, temperatures have plummeted to zero (celsius) and I’ve broken out the scarf, hat and gloves more than once this week. Unlike most of my friends and family, I love winter. Even though in Manchester, where I live, the weather is less like on the stereotypical snowy Christmas card and more like constant rain. Even though I may not see a sunny day for weeks at a time, I love winter.

The reasons why I love winter are plentiful. For one thing, I am an avid knitter, and there’s no better excuse to cast on than freezing cold days! For me, knitting is also the perfect pastime to while away the gloomy evenings while snuggling up on the sofa with my husband. At the moment I’m knitting Christmas gifts – I won’t tell you what they are or I’ll spoil the surprise, but I hope the recipients will love them!

Not only do I love knitting woolly accessories, I adore wearing them too. That’s why I’ve been enjoying the chilly days this week – it’s given me a great excuse to layer up an array of vintage hats, crocheted scarves and toasty mittens. What better way to show off gorgeous handknits and raise the profile of the handmade movement?

I also love winter because that wonderful holiday Christmas falls smack bang in the middle of it! From the end of the summer, I look forward to Christmas because it means ten days’ holiday, spending time with my family and friends, and excellent food, courtesy of my dad. This year, I’m also trying to buy mostly handmade gifts and I’ve already got some amazing presents for my family!

When I was about 10 years old, it actually snowed on Christmas Day – really snowed, enough for sledding. My parents live right next to the beach, and we had so much fun sledding down the sand dunes! It doesn’t really snow very often here in the UK but every day during winter I wake up hoping that there will be a beautiful white blanket outside when I open the curtains (although I hate scraping ice off the car!).

So, I’m really excited that winter has arrived, even if it’s a little bit early this year. Although I expect that in February, I’ll be waiting most impatiently for spring to arrive!

Image credits, top to bottom:
HidenSeek
Dollyknits
Zukas
Ialbert
AnnasEmporium
WallEnvyArt

Sculpted Light

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I know it’s only November, and those irritating Christmas commercials have amazingly already started, but these dear little cards make me start to remember why Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. When I found them in the Gallery I knew I just had to share them with you.

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And she also has these gorgeous paper lamps as well.

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Sculpted Light: My sculptures begin life as a string of reed. Then with a bit of imagination, it’s bent and shaped to form a skeleton. Once I’m happy with the skeleton, it’s time for paper and paste.

To ensure quality and strength, tissues are purchased from The Paper Place in Toronto, and three layers of it are applied to the skeleton. Sort of like paper mâché.

Because of this process, there are no duplicates. All are different and unusual. When placed in your home, I hope they will bring to it the quirky side of life.

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[fGallery]

Easter Bunny Fever.

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Due to getting a bad case of the flu and having a slow recovery I totally missed getting this post of Cara’s up in time for Easter. Please read it and imagine yourself a week back in time :) -Erika

It’s Easter all over again. The one celebration I can sail through quite happily every year – although Christmas 2010 was a big one for me, being my son’s First Christmas outside of the womb.

I’m not exactly the Grinch who stole Christmas but it’s safe to say when your birthday is Christmas Eve, which mine is, you don’t enjoy Christmas so much. The fun and novelty of Christmas wears off when you’re about 9.

I get that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and I don’t take that lightly at all, I suppose, as a Christian I would prefer the focus to be on Baby Jesus rather than it being on heartburn, rubbish TV and stock piles of presents.

For Christmas we bought our son memorable and age appropriate toys. I knew he would be spoiled from a great height from all sides of our families – and he was – hence why I didn’t rush out and buy out my local mega toy super stores (plus that’s so not my style.) Everything seemed so overwhelming and once my husband and I made our decision not to splurge, we were no longer overwhelmed. Everything seemed easier.

For Easter it’s common in the UK to celebrate with a chocolate Easter Egg; usually filled with gummy sweets. With a 15 month old in tow to consider this can be tricky.

We took the route that we didn’t want to overload our son on sugary, processed chocolate and opted out of the Easter Egg thing. I’m still open to suggestion and comment on what, if anything, you would substitute for this.

Personally I’m happy to go down the route of getting him nothing, but I’m remaining open. I’m also thinking of hand-making something and once again I’m trawling through the Skip To My Lou blog for ideas.

Then I came across a treasure trove of Easter Printable’s on their website. And yes, admittedly, these Easter print-outs are for decorating a child’s table at the Easter dinner, but I thought it would be cute to make this for my son:

The beauty of this bag idea is that you can fill it with anything. You don’t have to stuff it full of treats – although treats are cool, too – but I think a bag full of jelly beans would make a little 15 month old’s tummy very sickly – especially a tummy that isn’t used to sugar. Add on top of that the fact it will probably take him about a year to eat the Easter chocolate he’s due to receive.

My ideas for the bag would be to fill it with little toys, or even pieces of dried fruit. No?

How about this:

An Egg Tree from Skip to My Lou.

I don’t have the time or sanity required for this beautiful creation, but it is an admirable homage to Easter. So, what handmade projects do you have in the pipeline for Easter?

Wrap it up!

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pidoodle

So, you’ve taken a pledge to give only handmade gifts this Christmas. Your ornaments and decorations are all one-of-a-kind creations gathered from the local craft fair and visitors to your home are going to be treated to local artisan cheeses and breads before being sent home with homemade fudge and gingerbread from your own kitchen. It sounds like you’ve got the bases covered…but you’re not planning to use boring old store-bought wrapping paper, are you? Of course you’re not!

I have always been a proponent of the fabric gift bag. Not only do they look so cute under the Christmas tree, they are almost infinitely reusable. Considering the cost (and waste!) of paper wrapping and plastic ribbon, fabric bags will pay for themselves within just a couple uses. These colourful, reversible gift bags by Pidoodle are doubly-good for the environment because the fabric used to create them was repurposed from thrifted garments. A dedicated thriftier and “fickle crafter”, Carissa seeks out used (and sometimes damaged) pieces at charity shops and gives them a second life by dying, silk-screening and sewing them into gift bags. She even includes a piece of tulle to replace expensive and fragile tissue paper. How clever!

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