Gift Idea's

Hello, this is a page with links to my posts with gift ideas for all ages and all budgets, from online shopping to handcrafted items. I hope you enjoy them and it inspires you.

My Nan

Last weekend my Nan passed away after battling MS for over 50 years, and my goodness did she battle it. Cats have 9 lives but she survived what had been deemed unsurvivable so many times,so much so I felt she might of gotten through this if treatment hadn't been withdrawn.



She was an excellent Nan, more of a second Mum (I say this having a wonderful Mum too) who I spent so much time with.



I'm very lucky that I managed to get to the hospital to say my goodbyes, or rather 'see you laters', talk to her for an hour (she hasn't been able to talk for years) about days gone by and general chit chat.



I always thought thissong would suit when she passes away, I knew the song under the title 'Flying home' and was surprised to find the original name was 'Brenda's song'. My Nan's name? Brenda!

Wine box simply decorated

My Dad was given a posh bottle of wine for Christmas which came in this lovely wooden box and full of golden shred.

I kept the box with plans to use it next Christmas (and the year after and again and again!) but I'm meant to be decluttering and although it's lovely, will I miss it? The answer was mostly no so I decorated it and am going to hide lots of little gifts inside for a family I'm seeing next week.

I love colouring in with gel pens, especially colouring in peels offs, it's very therapeutic. I used some gold peel offs (to match the gold shred) and just coloured them in. I don't use expensive pens as I don't have any but my Asda kids ones work well and the last pack I had included a mixture of glitter and non glitter so I had 2 different golds to do the acorns and squirrel with.



For how simple it was to do, I'm pleased with the result :)

Handmade crafty Christmas presents

Whoops, I did this as a draft and forgot to hit 'publish'!

Long time no blog! My health always takes a dip at this time of year after over doing it at Christmas.

I can now share some of the things I made but couldn't sooner.


Christmas 2013 was the first one since the amazing Alice Pyne passed away. I wanted to send something to her family and searched high and low for a nice and suitable snowglobe but couldn't find anything. It's hard to find a suitable Christmas gift for parents who have recently lost a child. In the end I decided to make a Christmas decoration (which could be used at Christmas or year round if they wanted). I chose a lovely photo of Alice which I know was taken on a very special day and as a bonus she was wearing purple boots (her favourite colour). I added her name in purple text then ordered it. It arrived with red ribbon which I replaced with purple. Her family put up her purple tree and it fitted on great.



For my friend Kate I got various things including named pencils. I had her nickname (straw poker of all things!) printed on them but was disappointed when they turned up loose in a Jiffy bag. I arranged them into colour order and using tiny sticky fixers I lined them up on a piece of shiny purple card (we both love purple) and wrapped in cellophane. I liked to present gifts nicely and was pleased with how it came out. I stacked her other gifts (her birthday is close to Christmas) in matching stacking boxes and added a big ribbon around them. As it had to be shipped I used lots and lots of tape!






I wrapped Kate's other gifts in purple paper, added a beautiful purple ribbon I had saved from something and slotted in 'Juicy Lucy calling cards' about friendship





For my friend Emily I used the coloured tapes I had won earlier in the year (they were my fav crafting item of 2013) and decorated a white box with them, I then added her name in glitter letters (that I had also won). Both items were from Paper Celar range.



I also made some decorations for my very ill friends with this picture that says 'there is always hope'. I like the image anyway but it's extra apt as they all struggle with light sensitivity, bring a new meaning to light at the end of the tunnel.



I find guys hard to buy for, my friend Dan likes Whiskey and The Big Bang Theory among other things. From ebay I ordered a hip flask with 'Dan- one lab accident away from super villain' (a line from the show) and I really liked a tshirt I saw with Bazinga made up from elements on the periodic table. I didn't really want to get a tshirt though so in the end I found the image and had it printed onto a mug using Snapfish.



As a family gift I took a Christmas photo of my Dad and I pulling a cracker, added a snowy boarder using photobucket and had it printed as a jigsaw (under £5 on ebay and great quality). My Dad is blog shy though so I don't have a picture but it went down great. We did the puzzle as a family and they were guessing what picture it was for a while. I think I'm going to make it an annual gift with a different picture each year.

My sweet trees (fizzy belts and Haribo Stars) were wrapped in a small piece of cellophane and ribbon added.



The magnetic pegs I made were pegged onto purple card, wrapped in cellophane and had a nice label added.






We have a fake tree in our living room all year and at Christmas we put bird decorations on but they tend to blend in and aren't noticeable. Mum wanted some white ones and I found these beautiful Gisela Graham ones. Although they are lovely as they are I glued a single diamanté where all the ribbons join, it worked brilliantly and they looked even better.



I will finish with the gift I'm most proud of. I managed to compete my Mums stocking. I had never sewn before and the Bucilla kit seemed very daunting but I finished. Miss Moneypenny on MSE and Debbie's YouTube videos were a huge help. Instead of a picture I made a very short video so you could see the details. You can see it here. I've now brought 4 more Bucilla kits.

That rounds up my crafty Christmas, I hope you like the items I made or maybe inspire you to get crafty.

Pancake day, inspiration vs reality

It's that time of the year, bring out the lemon and sprinkle sugar all over the kitchen as it's PANCAKE DAY. I know I'm a day early but the early bird catches the worm...

This year it started with my browsing hundreds of inspirational and yummy looking pancakes. Many which look simple yet delicious so I selected a few and had one design in mind. Simple folded, layered on each other a bit and bursting with delicious fillings, some chocolate artistically drizzled for effect.

What can I say? After an hour Mum and I created this;




I think I nailed it!

Dear Wise Blogger

Dear Wise Bloggers,

The Internet is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people who use technology and networking to make a difference. I will always remember a boy called Seth, he was American and having a bone marrow transplant, during which he became extremely ill. Seth's doctors tried everything but nothing worked, they said there was one drug left which hadn't been tried but they were unable to source it. Seth's Mum mentioned this on her blog and strangers decided they would do all they could to find this drug and get it to Seth. Someone managed to locate it but it was on the other side of the USA, like clogs turning together these strangers transported it themselves, a pilot flew it as far as he could and then a chain of people drove it as far as they could before handing it over to the next person and so on until the drug made it to Seth. Truly amazing.

The Internet can also be a very dark place, full of scumbag people who use technology for their personal gain. Tots100 are asking bloggers what their biggest Internet fear is. My fear is being conned, either personally or my loved ones. It's so easy to click on a convincing link and as I do all shopping online I frequently type my card details into sites. Not only is there the risk of losing money to these scams, the impact often leaves people embarrassed and ashamed. The site Think Jessica breaks my heart, it shows how these people don't just get into your bank account but into your mind too and the devastating effect it can have on both the person scammed and their loved ones.

The Internet is a wonderful place but stay safe,

With best wishes,

Fellow blogger




This post is my entry into the
Check and Secure challenge. For more advice on family safety online, see Mums on Security.

Dear Body

Last week I was listening to Nikki Grahame's book 'dying to be thin', it was very good and gave a good insight of what people, especially children go through when battling eating disorders. After I finished listening I went onto her site and click on a link to Body Gossip. Body Gossip encourages people to write about their body, most were about insecurities so I got writing. It only took 5 minutes to write this letter and much to my surprise Body Gossip are going to have it performed by an actor!


Dear Body, I look in the mirror and feel let down by you. Surely people in their 20's shouldn't have bingo wings or so many wobbly bits? I'm too young for boobs to head south and too old to have a zit of such epic proportions but you seem to disagree and bless me with these qualities.

Despite this I think my body looks ok and after all beauty is only skin deep. The wobbly bits aren't my issue with you, why did you have to let me down so much by turning against me? I'm sorry I spent time with someone with Glandular Fever when I was 11 but I think it's more than time you got over this, let me be me, not someone with severe M.E.

Being confined to bed for 12 years is no fun, nor is the level of pain you successfully manage to spread everywhere, although I must compliment you on your wide range of Neurological symptoms, it's an impressive array and could fill a text book on what can go wrong but please, do me a favour and go be in a text book and leave me the hell alone.

I appreciate that you, my body, does cooperate with me more than you used to, thank you for letting me sit up after 5 years of stuck laying flat, will you consider walking again soon?

I'm looking in the mirror and aside pale skin and the dark eyes looking back at me, I really can't see you at all although I can't see the bubbly happy person I am either. You do a great job of hiding beneath the skin, it's no wonder so many people don't believe how ill you make both me and my friends with your presence, you even took my good friends life.

Dear Body, please release me from the prison that is you, let me get on with achieving my hopes and dreams, let me walk and dance, oh and if that's not too much to ask, please take away the epic zit.

Yours faithfully,

Vikki