Before I realised that I was kind-of-not-awful at making things, I used to be the most awful gift giver. Truly, I sucked. Big time.

I never knew what to buy people. I wanted each and every gift to be the perfect mix of thoughtful and useful and I failed.

Every. Damn. Time.

They were too extravagant, or too understated, or too generic, or too…  you get where I’m going with this.

To this day I still don’t know why I was so horrible at buying gifts. However, since I’ve started making my gifts, that feeling of hopelessness at what to give someone on their special occasion has vanished and each and every gift is a delight to give and hopefully the same to receive.

My beautiful Mother was the recipient of my latest gift and every year countless nights are spent agonising over what to give her. I know (and she says repeatedly) that she will love anything we get her but anything is not enough. I want to show her through my gifts that I appreciate everything she has done for me and everything that she still does. When we were shopping earlier in the year, she mentioned that she was looking for something to hang her jewellery off and instantly I knew what I was going to make her.

This was my inspiration

This was the tutorial that I vaguely followed. As I had knobs that screwed on both through the front and back I had to do a lot more sawing that originally anticipated.

The finished product

It was so much fun to make that I decided to make one for my brother and sister-in-law as they have recently brought their first home (the fact that I may have gone overboard buying knobs factored into the equation). I went with a lighter undercoat this time as the colour scheme in their house is blues and greens.

I also made them a grocery bag holder, following this tutorial from Wolves in London. It was super easy to follow and I whipped in up in under 30 mins. It looks great too. Might have to make one for myself!

All Wrapped up and ready to go