Clothes Swap and Tea

Just held a spring/summer clothes swap and afterwards, served an English tea with loads of treats: a chocolate chai cake, and vanilla rose cake, meringues and of course scones with jam and Devonshire cream. Clothes swaps are great fun and a wonderful way of recycling clothes and accessories. After all, who doesn't like to have new things (to them) in their wardrobe and not spend a penny!

Gift Tags

Gift tags are one of those things you often forget to buy and only remember once faced with a wrapped gift. But they are such an easy thing to make. If you have blank tags, then it is as simple as drawing on a design with pastels, as above.

Simply gluing on a spare button makes a gift tag that is, well... cute as a button.


If you have a little more time, you can get out some markers and create something that is slightly more elaborate but still light-hearted. Best of all, you can match the tag to the giftwrap.


The key is not to stress. Almost any small scrap of paper can become a gift tag. Everyone knows about cutting up old Christmas cards to make gift tags, but any interesting paper can be used. Soaps often have beautifully designed wrappers so they are good candidates. Look around at the packaging on things you have at hand, and see what you can re-use as gift tags.

Candle Thrift

If you're the thrifty sort, as I am, then you too probably get frustrated when a candle's flame keeps going out and there is still a lot of candle left to burn. Such a waste!

This sad fact of life led me to think up this solution. With a heated knife, hollow out the top of your pillar candle until a tealight can fit inside. this is much easier to do if the pillar candle is quite wide at the top as you don't have to worry about getting too close to the candle edge as you carve. And if you sink the tealight a little deeper than I have here, you won't even notice that it is there.

Carve, pop in your tea light, light it up, and you're back in business. Once the tealight has burned out, you can simply replace it with another. In fact, I think this is such a good idea, I might just carve all my new pillar candles and fit them with tealights before I ever use them at all.


Just think, no more throwing away perfectly good large candles after only a short use.

Garnishes for Gifts

What could be prettier atop small gifts than vintage earrings or broochs? Scour vintage sales, church bazaars or thrift shops for charming possibilities. And if you've lost an earring of your own, save it to use as a gift garnish.

By choosing carefully, you can use a piece of jewellery that the recipient will want to wear, doubling your gift. If you use an earring as a garnish, consider including the other earring with the gift so the receipient can wear them later on.



Consider your giftwrap and select the perfect embellishment to coordinate or contrast beautifully.

The same set of earrings, used with different paper and ribbon creates a different style.




A little bit of sparkle never hurts, and pearls are always soft and elegant.



This informal trio has light-hearted touches. The child's gift is festooned with a tangle of paper streamers (traditionally used to ring in the New Year).




The other gifts look festive with the addition of tiny dollar-store evergreen trees, pinecones and tied with bits of jute.

Handy Hankies

No one seems to use handkerchiefs anymore so they're easy to find at vintage sales and can be picked up for $1 or less each.

Why not use them to wrap a small gift by gathering one around a gift box and tying it off with ribbon.


They can be used inside to cushion a delicate gift instead of tissue paper.


For larger gifts, use a silk scarf. Just tie opposite corners to create a big soft bow, tucking the pointy ends into the knot. Once unwrapped, the wrap becomes a gift in itself.

Or, as in the gift below, simply tie the ends and let them dangle.


A thrift shop scarf is less expensive than a sheet of wrapping paper and best of all doesn't get used only once before it is thrown out.

Alternative Gift Wrap

Have you ever been caught with a gift but no gift wrap? Or maybe you like the idea of re-using. Well, I'm posting this idea to give you time to look around and think of all the things you have that can be used to wrap a gift.

If the gift is Asian-inspired, why not use sheets from an Asian newspaper, distributed free at places such as public libraries or Asian grocery stores? Whether simply black-and white-characters or bright colourful ads, both have great design appeal, especially paired with a garnish like these Japanese chopsticks.


The newspaper is a great place to find gift wrap: brightly-coloured comics for the young or young-at-heart, the sports section for a sports fan.

If you have a movie-buff on your list, why not use the local film society's printed monthly schedule for wrap?

For the world-traveller, why not wrap a travel book or travel-themed gift in a map?


There are so many sources of paper that can be pressed into service. These wee gifts were covered in small bits of leftover wall paper. So look around at all the paper you encounter. What can be re-purposed as gift wrap? The possibilities are endless. These are just a few ideas to get you going, now it's your turn. Why not get creative?

Swag-making Afternoon

Following yesterday's post on using evergreen boughs to decorate, here's a nice idea for a pre-Christmas rush get-together. Why not invite friends over for a swag-making event?

All that's required is some greenery and a selection of ribbons, ornaments and dried plant material. This is a great way to re-cycle old Christmas trimmings.


Keep things simple, have some evergreen boughs cut and sorted by size so that your guests can choose the ones that work for their project.

Once your guests have wired their boughs together to create a swag, the next step is to select a ribbon. With that choice made, zeroing in on what to decorate the swag with becomes easier. Especially if you've already pre-arranged and laid everything out by colour or theme, (for example: home-spun, glittery, or natural).


It's such fun to see what each person creates. Every swag is as unique as its creator.







And best of all, using one's hands to create something is so relaxing, a great respite from all that hectic craziness that surrounds us at this time of year. Stopping to ponder various choices, hesitating over different ways of placing ornaments, these all have the effect of slowing everything down, if only for awhile.

So, have some tea, coffee or hot apple cider at the ready to sip with conversation. And perhaps a yummy treat or two. At the end, everyone has a beautiful swag to take home with them, carrying with it some Christmas cheer gained from a peaceful, creative interlude.

Vintage Find of the Week

It being a Saturday, and an autumn one at that, I was up and out early to visit a couple of church bazaars. You know how I like to do that!

While I didn't find too much at either one, I did make my "Vintage Find of the Week". Aren't these old bridge score cards adorable?



At first I thought they were old Valentine's cards. Well really, wouldn't you have made the same mistake?



But upon opening them up, I discovered their true purpose. I was taken aback for only a brief moment...

For I quickly decided that I will use them as gift tags instead. And what sweet little vintage gift tags they will make. And what's more, I have multiples of most of them!

Best of the Tour

I was recently on a garden tour of eight or so residential gardens. Some had been professionally landscaped, some had been developed over the years by the owners and others were works in progress. My absolute favourite, though, was a delightfully quirky garden containing all sorts of whimsy. The owner does most of the gardening herself and obviously has a great sense of humour which she allows to creep into all the nooks and crannies of her garden. These photos are just a few of the spots that caught my eye. The garden is the sort that offers its visitors many surprises, some that might be missed on a first visit, as there is so much to see. Unfortunately, some of the tongue-in-cheek touches such as the metal hen planters potted with Hens and Chickens are not pictured here. But even so, you still get the sense that is a totally charming and welcoming garden.