Yep. It's the planter nobody ever knew they needed to have in their life!
For me, a major part of the fun of sinterklaas ( or Christmas for that matter) is trying to slip in some idiotic gifts. I mean: while most of us are probably perfectly happy with a new set of bedroom slippers, that's not really the kind of stuff that accounts for a legendary evening (or... does it.......? hmmm...)
And this year one of our victims was my oldest sis in law. She works at the faculty of veterinary medicine, so Joost and I -maybe after some wine- decided that she really needed to have an office planter in the shape of a cow in her life. I mean: who doesn't?
So, one good evening after work, I cycled to a dollar store and bought a plastic toy cow. If you want to make one for yourself: try to buy one that is hollow and made of softer plastic( like the squeaky toys).
So, let's meet the cow in question!
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| the victim of today's DIY! |
At home the surgery began.
I grabbed some scissors ("nurse, could you pass me the scissors?") and stabbed the cow brutally in the back.
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| to my surprise it was filled with wool.. |
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| and cut an oval shape big enough for my plant and some extra room for oxygen supply for the roots |
Then removed its intestines...
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| "wait! my guts!" |
and voila!
Now there was only one thing left to do: placing a plant in my new cow-planter,
and Tadaa!!
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| It still makes me giggle |
you could of course spray paint it, or paint it with chalk paint and write something on it.. many possibilities here! But for the sake of and funnily enough, from a distance it kind of looks like it's made from old copper ( from up close it just looks like an ugly plastic cow though)
And my sis-in-law thought it was hilarious :)
Oh, and for those of you who'd like to know:
costs:
- toy cow: 3,-
- plant: 0,90
so, that brings this gift to a whopping 3,90. not too bad, eh?
Hope you enjoyed, and love to hear about your christmas gift DIY's!
What a fantastic idea! I'm so glad your sister-in-law loved her gift. I read a little about Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas). If I understand correctly, Christmas is separate from sinterklaas and it very low key. Church, dinner with the family and y'all also have Christmas trees.
ReplyDeleteMy DIY has been limited to making little bits here and there for my planner and a notebook for National Novel Writing Month, which is held for the month of November. I am planning to make a purse from old blue jeans or change a few things on one I made years ago. But, my writing projects come first.
I always look forward to your blog posts!
Hugs,
Tambra
Hi Tambra! :)
Deletesorry for being so late with replying :(
you're right! christmas is pretty low-key in the Netherlands compared to the rest of the world. As I think we are with most things, I guess. It's our calvinist background, I think.
I had a high-tea with my grand-mother a few days ago and asked her about what christmas was like when she was young, and she told me they weren't even allowed to have christmas trees when whe was young, because it was considered to be pagan. In her story, there was only one family in the village with a christmas tree, and my grandmother wasn't allowed to go over there during christmas time.. But times are changing, and now basically everyone has a tree, we do have the big family dinners ( although usually a bit more down to earth than elsewhere) and more and more family's start with christmas presents.
How was your novel writing month, and the writing in general? And did you find time for the purse yet?
hugs, Marije
This is epic, I love it!
ReplyDeleteMy sister in law is having a baby in January so most of my DYIing has been sewing baby clothes. I did make some birdseed cakes (vogeltaart, which oddly doesn't seem to be a thing on any English blogs, just Dutch ones) that turned out pretty well.