The occasional present

I don't normally give presents (and ask that people don't give me presents--or if they insist, that the gifts be as low cost and impact as possible). However, I do make exceptions to my lack of gift giving if the occasion is especially remarkable, or if the present is certain to be needed or wanted by its recipient. I may sound like a total scrooge, but in general I find gift giving to get out of hand too easily, and I'm trying my best to live a happy but minimalist lifestyle.


Now 2010 will have a very remarkable day--my first niece or nephew will be welcomed into the family. I wanted to give the parents something handmade that also had some significance. In talking to my other sibling, I suddenly got the idea of making a baby onesie with the logo of our old summer camp. My parents ran the camp for 25 years, us three kids spent our whole childhood as campers, and worked as counselors as teenagers. So this little onesie was deemed 'my best idea ever' by my sister, and my brother really got a kick out of receiving it.

To make the stenciled design, I photographed the original from an adult-sized t-shirt. The logo was scaled down to size in photoshop and printed. I then made a freezer paper stencil of the navy areas, and ended up hand painting the while areas since the design got to be so small and detailed at baby-scale. Overall, I'm so pleased with the result and I can't wait for the summer to meet the newest MacWillies camper.