Henry’s Christmas present to Holly, 2012 edition

21 Dec 2012 2 Comments

by jrayein Chocolat, Hank the Tank Tags: ,

For the last two Christmases, Henry and I have collaborated on a homemade gift for Holly.  Two years ago we dyed silk scarves using Kool-aid, and last year Henry painted a wooden ring and tied ribbons to it like streamers.

Earlier this year I spotted this color matching playset  and then promptly forgot about it.  Fast forward to December when I was brainstorming what Henry and I could make for Holly, I remembered it, and thus a plan was born.

Each day that Holly skipped her nap and went to bed at 7, Henry and I would get to work.  We first decided which colors we wanted to use, then gathered various items in each of those colors.  I had some wooden stars that I had purchased with a different project in mind which we painted; we fished around in my button jar for buttons in each color; I snagged some paint chips from Lowe’s; we dug through my fabric stash (this was my favorite part).  We sewed, cut, and painted our little hearts out.  At the last minute Henry decided he wanted one more thing Holly could use to match up, and after much digging around in the craft drawer, he decided he wanted to paint clothespins so she could clip each one onto its corresponding color.

After assembling everything, we got to work on making a bag to contain it all:

I had just purchased a lot of muslin for a bucket I wanted to make to hold Holly’s My Little Pony stuff, and I thought considering how colorful all of the objects were going to be inside the bag, it would be nice to make the outside neutral.  I started to wing it with the pattern, but then quickly realized I had no visualization for the drawstring part.  This drawstring bag tutorial saved me.  Henry said he wanted to use a red ribbon as the drawstring so that’s what we did.

Here’s Henry doing a final check to make sure we weren’t missing any pieces:

And the final(ish) product.  (The clothespins were still drying.)

What impressed me most was Henry’s dedication to finishing it.  Some nights I was more interested in crashing on the couch and zoning out, but Henry made me tow the line.  I’m also happy to report that this project cost us almost nothing.  The only things we didn’t already have were buttons in two of the colors.  Not too shabby.

I think she’s going to love it!

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2 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. K, J, E
    Dec 23, 2012 @ 17:10:18

    Henry is the *best* big brother ever!!!! What an awesome gift for Hols.

    (P.S. Since I can’t comment on your pictures, I have to say that what the stomach flu looks like is frakkin awful.)

  2. Mel
    Dec 24, 2012 @ 15:51:33

    Nice! Love your tabletop tree too!