Friday 5 December 2008

Christmas ornaments

Wrapped Ornaments

I think everyone in my group has received their ornaments, so it's safe to post a picture of what I made for the handmade ornament swap.

Pohutukawa ornaments

I decided to go with Pohutukawa flowers since they symbolise Christmas to me in New Zealand. For anyone reading this from overseas, the pohutukawa is a native New Zealand tree that grows by the sea and flowers in December. It is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree. I noticed last weekend that a few trees are already flowering on Petone beach, and the one in our backyard is about to start flowering. I love how the crimson red stamens (or are they petals?) end up strewn about our lawn.

The ornaments are hand-stitched from felt and some ribbon I picked up in London in June. I had to re-teach myself blanket stitch to make these, so some of the stitching is a bit wonky, but it adds to the charm I think. I made the bags the ornaments were wrapped in with paper that I'd potato stamped. I don't think I've done potato stamping since I was a child! It was a lot of fun and in addition to the brown paper, I also stamped some plain calico that I'm planning to use for another project.

Once I've received all my ornaments, I'll post a picture of them together. I've received three so far and they are fantastic!

Unrelated, does anyone have a recommendation for a file recovery specialist in Wellington? Our not-quite-two-year-old external hard-drive chose yesterday as its day to die and we have some photos on there that are not stored anywhere else. We do have quite a few stored on DVDs and printouts of some, but there are still a lot that I had yet to back-up. Any recommendations for experts who can help would be appreciated! And if any of you have photos that are not backed up, my advice would be to burn them to DVDs right now. I felt sick when I realised we might have lost our photos.

9 comments:

Amy said...

Those decorations are beautiful, and how appropriate to photograph them in the tree. I am impressed.

Anonymous said...

Louise they are gorgeous. Sorry, I don't know any file recovery specialists!

Anonymous said...

My bf is a computer tech and he managed to recover a lot of friends files recently. If your PC still turns on at all then he would be willing to give it a go. Otherwise he knows a forensic recovery place he deals with through work. They'll cost you a fortune (thats why I'm suggesting him as a *much* cheaper option first just in case he can get them back) but they will have more luck if its beyond his level. Email me if you're interested - firechick1405(at)yahoo(dot)com. He can pick it up this weekend and run a test of the HD.

He says to tell you it's VERY important that if you press the on button and it won't turn on or it makes a clicking noise to NOT keep trying, just turn it off or you'll damage it further than it is.

Anonymous said...

I love your ornaments. The first time I ever came to New Zealand (only two years ago - it seems a lifetime ago now), all the pohutakawa were in bloom, and I thought they were the most beautiful trees I'd ever seen. I've now lived here in NZ for just over a year, and all the pohutakawa are starting to bloom again, and I still think they are the most beautiful trees. Next year I will make some ornaments like this to send back to my niece and nephew in the UK. (I've decided I will make them each an ornament a year from now on.) Thanks so much for the inspiration, and sorry for blathering on so much - I've had a glass of wine (or two...!!) and am feeling garrulous!

Miss Smith said...

Lucky me! I love my pohutukawa decoration! Thanks Miss Mixture!

skatey katie said...

oh i LOVE the flowers!!
how gorgeous are the little bags too!
you are one talented lady!!!
happy decorating your tree with all the ones you receive too.
mwah X

Josie said...

Beautiful decorations Louise! Lucky swappers :) Hope you get your puter problem sorted.

Anonymous said...

Louise
"This Way Up" on Radio NZ National had a programme on recovering data from external hard drives. It's not on the RNZ site anymore as it ran in June 08. But here's a link to the audio
http://www.trumix.com/podshows/3227011
Good luck! The same thing happened to my son's external drive and we lost everything!
Love your blog by the way

Mary Nanna said...

They are truly lovely ornaments. It's been so very lovely to see everyone talking about their ornaments on their blogs and to see the wonderful creativity that has gone in to their making. It was such a wonderful idea of yours to initiate the ornament swap!