On Making Christmas Presents for Someone Who Appears to Have It All

Before I start on with my usual witterings, I'd like to thank the lovely Lynn of http://beneaththebracken.blogspot.com/ for presenting me with a Liebster award last week


To quote Lynn;

The premise is that this award is that it is to go to five blogs you enjoy, each with fewer than 200 followers. Upon receiving one the protocol is to:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you .
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favourite bloggers.

I've promised Lynn that I will eventually follow through and pick five blogs of my own choosing to pass the award onto, but for now, full of cold and misery, I think it's probably wiser if I do that when I'm feeling a bit more like my old self....otherwise I'm bound to cock things up spectacularly!

Anyway, onto something it doesn't really matter if I mess up, namely the theme of today's blog.

What do you get someone for Christmas, who, in monetary terms, appears to have everything they could ever want or need?

Ian's sister is one such person. She and her husband have done very well for themselves over the years and can afford certain luxuries in life that we can only dream of, though I wouldn't change our lifestyle for theirs for all the tea in china. Way too corporate and frenetic for my liking for sure.

Maddy collects ornamental elephants. In fact her house has become something of a shrine to them as they seem to adorn every available shelf and wall space possible, and whilst she'll undoubtedly be receiving something elephant orientated from her ever obliging husband and friends over the festive season, I think I can safely say she won't be receiving anything like what I've been fiddling about with over the last few days. Verily she might have her ornamental elephants made from wood, bone, old coca cola cans and ostrich eggs (blown and painted by some put upon person in South Africa no less) but I'm almost certain she hasn't got a needle felted elephant, and certainly not one that I've made from scratch myself.

I confess it's almost killed my arthritic hands making it;



And from the photos you can probably determine there's still a bit more I have to do;


His trunk, for example, needs a lot more needling to make it more compact and strong, but for once in my life I'm fairly happy with how he's coming along, made, as he is, from entirely natural undyed wool;



Although I did make one stupendous mistake along the way which saw me hacking off his head with a bread knife at something stupid-o'clock a couple of evenings ago because I'd made the head disproportionately big in comparison to it's body ;




but at least his decapitated bonce gives you an idea of how densely packed the wool becomes after repeatedly being stabbed by the felting needle; something which I find quite cathartic and therapeutic once whatever it is I'm attempting to do starts to take shape.

Like I say, there's still quite a way to go. I'm toying with the idea of using some silk threads and beads I've found to make him a decorated headpiece and throw, and I also have some tiny silver bells which I might try looping around his feet, though I think he's probably somewhat too squat to carry that off with any great aplomb!