A gift for a girl who has everything

When my daughter was invited to a birthday party, the invitation came with a little note from her friend's mum which read, 

'No need to bring a present - it's just been Christmas and the birthday girl really doesn't need anything more.'

If you have children whose birthdays are in December or January I'm sure you've been tempted to write, or have written, similar pleas to stop the onslaught of yet more gifts into an already sated post-Holiday household. But how does one ever square that with the child concerned? Is it really possible that a child could genuinely be OK with not receiving any presents at their party? We racked our brains for a solution to this predicament. Could we really go to a party without taking a present for the birthday girl? 

On the morning of the party, my daughter and I talked it out, and she came up with the answer. I was proud of Daisy for taking into consideration both her friend's feelings, and the mum's request. She came up with the idea of making something to take as a gift, and that it should be something small - something that her friend could really use. She announced that a home-made little lavender bag would be just the thing to take to her friend's party.

So, using things from our sewing and craft stash, and the last of our dried lavender, we made the simple no-sew lavender bag pictured above. And it only took about ten minutes.

We mixed our lavender with a bit of rice to give the pillow a heavier, more tactile, feel and placed this in the centre of a square of polka dot material. We gathered up all the corners of the fabric and then made a sealed pouch, big enough to sit in the palm of a child's hand, with an elastic band. Then Daisy chose some lovely ribbon to cover the band - including one that says Nightie-Night - to show that the lavender bag could be used as a sleeping aid. She's getting pretty good at knots and bows now. Lastly, Daisy chose a couple of buttons which I attached at the top ribbon's knot with a few stitches; a final touch of prettiness.

I love that Daisy thought of the gift herself, and that we sourced all the materials from our house. She got to design and make something unique for her friend that ticked all the boxes - apart from not bringing a present at all, of course. But that was really never going to happen, was it.

Scented sock genies

We made these cute and useful little creatures today when I noticed just how many outgrown and threadbare socks were lurking in the children's not-so-fresh smelling drawers. I took the aforementioned socks and put them in a box on the kitchen table along with a mixture of dried mung beans and lavender, a selection of googly eyes, ribbon and metallic sticky tape, brightly coloured feathers, pipe cleaners and a few elastic bands.

There followed a fabulously fragrant hour as Buddy and Daisy made all the scented sock genie characters pictured above.

They half-filled each sock with the mung bean and dried lavender mix...

...then I helped tie an elastic band round the top of the sock to seal in the scented filling.

They stuck on eyes, added feathers, tape and pipe cleaners just as they wished and the whole kitchen filled with the relaxing scent of lavender. Bliss.

Daisy made a princess, a mermaid and two baby dinosaurs. Buddy made a pirate and two ninja-explorers.

The sock genies are now in residence in Buddy and Daisy's bedroom; scenting their drawers with the wonderful aroma of lavender. And they make me chuckle every time I see them; aren't they funny.