Could I stop at … ahem… was it twelve? I lost count of the bags I had already made…and no, as usual, I couldn’t stop. I had one more piece of silk that started out a pale blue and ended up more like this.
There were a few pieces of cream or bronze fabric left and they were pieced in.
The first has already gone to a lovely friend I was lucky enough to visit with when I went to Brisbane, and the second to a house warming. And I love the buds, especially! Well. I am ready for any number of occasions for gifts now! In the meantime I am still trying to work out how to wind back the Christmas gifting obligations in my family. How to honour the ideas of generosity and reciprocity and love that perhaps moved this tradition to come into existence, but to detach from its wasteful and consumerist present. Maybe I have to begun by asking that I not be given gifts. Or perhaps talking about how my daughter has clearly decided that from now on she will only buy me second hand gifts. She reached this decision without discussing it with me specifically–and it has really made me feel that she sees me! Well. One step at a time.
Local & Bespoke 
Beautiful bags…and smart daughter!
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Thank you! I think she is smart too 🙂
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I don’t know about your family and friends but “no gifts for Christmas” usually ends up with them giving me something anyway while I have really nothing for them because we agreed about no gifts. Which surprises the others because for them “no gifts” obviously means “no big gifts” or “not twenty gifts”. Interesting times, Christmas.
Beautiful bags!
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I have had this experience too. With my friends, I think that Christmas has ceased to be a gifting time, if it ever was. So family is the biggest tricky spot for me. I love the way you translated what ‘no gifts’ really means, it makes so much sense! On one side of the family, there are a lot of people across three generations and after some complicated years we have settled into a present giving draw where all the adults names go into a hat and each person just gives one gift–with the exception of the matriarch and patriarch who get and give a lot more gifts! At least we all know how that really works now… Thanks for your thoughts!
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Interesting thoughts. Our family has, by agreement stopped present giving amongst each other, we’ve even stopped the secret Santa. My partner and I still exchange gifts, usually books. However one family member recently was put in the situation of ‘having’ to provide 10 ‘handmade’ gifts to a group she belonged to! I hear that several members are rebelling over this, not the handmade bit per se, although that involved more time and effort at a busy time of the year, only being obliged to give.
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