The expense, the murderous atmosphere in shops, the gluttony and ensuing weight gain, effing Christmas songs (nine years as a waitress with the same Christmas tape saw to that), the anticlimax, enforced fun, and family arguments are all very valid reasons for my distaste of the season. In fact for the last three years I have used Boxing Day to defrost my freezer. Sometimes this is my favourite bit of Christmas.
The parents did me good this year, even my Grinch self is pretty happy about Christmas this time. This year, in a reversal of the general trend, the parents came through because THEY MOSTLY STUCK TO THE LIST. Huzzah! Here's a picture of what can go wrong when there is no list; bear in mind that I'm 29 and even when I was a kid I didn't really like soft toys.
This was received in Christmas 2008. I don't why either.
But that didn't happen this Christmas, here's the craft based stuffs I got...
First up is 'I am Cute Dresses - 25 Simple Designs to Sew' by Sato Watanabe. I don't know much about the Japanese craft scene as yet, but what I've seen I like. The eccentric, the weird and the unusual are always fascinating to me. This book has mixed reviews on Amazon with commentators polarised between love and hate. The haters thinks the designs are oversized and unflattering, lovers think the designs are oversized and flattering. I'm undecided as my (currently) plump figure may not be well suited to these designs, but I love the ideas in this and can't wait to try making some of these up.
I also received Illustration Now! I requested this because of my long held, but not yet acted upon, desire to learn how to draw and illustrate. I can't even conceive of when I'm going to find time to practice and learn but I have now have a source of inspiration to hand.
Another from the list was 'The Fashion File' by Janie Bryant the costume designer for Mad Men an advice and tips guide book. I LOVE Mad Men, and it is the very height of vintage clothes porn. Also Jon Hamm is in it. He's not bad.
I got some lovely crotchet hooks, which is good because I only own one currently and it fell behind my beautiful, but very heavy, 1940s wardrobe.
And then there are the Nutmeg and Chantilly Colette patterns. Much loved across the blogosphere, so what else is there for me to say? Until I own them all I will continue to be covetous.
The parents went off-list for the next item, a gel candlemaking kit. I must confess, that although this isn't something I would buy for myself and I've not felt great inclination to make a candles, this isn't that bad.
Especially compared to this;
Yes that happened, this is why the list exists.
I was also bequeathed thirty english pounds from the grandparents. I immediately hit Amazon and purchased the Colette Sewing Handbook. I've wanted this for AGES! (/since November when it was released). It has six patterns included, which is just brilliant.
I also selected the soon to be released BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, I don't strictly need another sewing guide but I've recently started lurking in the BurdaStyle website and forums and I'm sufficiently intrigued to give it a punt.
After the purchase of these two books I had £7 remaining, so I went to Sewbox to buy just one Colette pattern, just one! And then something went wrong, or right depending on your perspective. I struggled to pick and ended up with Oolong, Macaron and Eclair. Je ne regrette rien, except the £30 overspend. Oh well. Today we feast, for tomorrow we begin the detox!
