To celebrate St. Partricks Day there is 10% off all yarn and knitted items. Use coupon 

STPATRICK13 

at check out for the discount. Offer is valid until the 30th of March.

Happy St.Patricks Day

self striping wool

 

 

 

silk mix yarn

 

New Yarns now available.

Lace Scarf yarn

Sale On, 20% off Scarves and Snoods

Pre-Christmas sale, 20 % off Scarves and snoods at Nics Gifts.
Sale ends the 25th of November.

Last postal dates for Christmas deliveries.
Ireland - 19th of December
Great Britian -17th of December
Europe - 13th of December.
USA -5th of December.

Please place all christmas orders before these dates.

Making something new from old

In the run up to Christmas each year, Etsy run a bootcamp for its shop owners to help get them ready for the Christmas sales period. As I had learnt a lot from it last year I signed up for it again this year.

At the same time that I had signed up for bootcamp I had been working on a recycling project. I'd been given a load of cardboard and plastic cones that left over from knitting. The cones are ideal for lots of different crafty projects but the ones that I used them for were Angel's and santa's. Using other recycled bits I found at home this is what I ended up with.

Santa figurine by Nics Gifts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angel figurine by Nics Gifts

As there is a lot of waste produced around Christmas time, being able to make decorations from unwanted or used items is a pratical solution to help counter the problem and get creative at the same time. There are lots of blogs and websites that can show just how to do that.

Recycled pop tab basket by Tabsolute

As part of Etsy's bootcamp program is that you find a bootcamp buddy, someone to help keep you motivated through bootcamp and to basically help you out and vise versa. This year I went in search of a bootcamp buddy and was approached by Monique. Monique makes really funky but practical items using recycled pull tabs or pop tabs off of soda/drinks cans. The items such as bracelets, belts and baskets (shown in the picture) are all for sale in her Etsy shop Tabsolute.
If you feel like creating your own masterpiece but don't drink that many fizzy drinks, Monique also sells pop tabs in bags of 100, washed and ready to use.

Pop tab decoration

After seeing all the different things could be made with drinks tabs and keeping Christmas and the recycling theme in mind I bought some pop tabs from Tabsolute and made some heart shaped gift tags to adorn all my gifts this year. Whats great about these is that after they have made the presents look pretty they can be hung on the tree.

 

You can now find Nic's Gifts new online shop on Facebook.

Discounts available when you 'like' or 'share' the link.

                                                                                      New items will be added regularly.

Spring time snow drops

After all the snow and cold weather this winter a lot of plants didn't survive in the garden so it was lovely to see snowdrops with their delicate flowers coming into bloom.

Snowdrops

It wasn't long before more species were to follow.

crocus

daffodil

Inspired by those first flowers that appeared in the garden, this brooch needle is decorated with a hand knitted snowdrop. It has a white heart shaped glass bead to the left and a cluster of stone chips to its right. An ideal gift for anyone who loves flowers, gardening and spring. Perfect for Mothers Day.

Baby blanket

 

 

Crocheted baby blanket.