make more handmade gifts for friends and family

While I did buy him “Resident Evil 5”, I still made him plenty of stuff. This is what I did:

1. “High five, Turtle.” soap. We love to watch “Heroes” and it was a reference to something Matt Parkman says. I made 9 turtle shaped soaps, bright green, and smelling totally like some terrific cologne. They were a big hit.

2. Origami cranes. I had never done origami before and I really underestimated just how difficult it could be, so I was just about in tears of frustration when I found an awesome tute on YouTube, and so I made a couple of them. He loved them, and asked me to make more of them.

3. A framed collage of his boy scout badges. I am so proud of that kind of stuff, and he always loved scouts. He reminisces about it a lot, so I bought a lovely shadow box, and framed them for him. He loved it.

So, with a sigh of reflief, I can say that everything I made was spot on. What a good feeling.

1. Dress with matching ribbon for my daughter.
2. Babushka for my daughter from a 1940’s vintage sewing book.
3. Soap for my mom’s birthday.
4. Working on an afghan for my oldest son.

Need to get back working on this. I need to start on Christmas presents.

...takes so long! I’m working on my first real project of a baby blanket, but the person I had intended to give it to is having her shower on Sunday. I am making her a pair of the booties like I made for my best friend who is also pregnant. These are pink and gray, since I actually know it will be a girl.

Hopefully the blanket will be finished in time to give it to my best friend before her baby comes…

Finally… here’s a picture of the Christmas ornaments I made to hand out with cookies.

Made a puppet and accessories to go with Eric Carle’s book for my nephew’s Christmas present.

I’m currently making ice skate ornaments to hand out with baked goods for general gifts. I will put up a picture when I get one completely finished.

Here’s the booties I made for my best friend’s baby shower. I didn’t know if she was having a boy or girl, so I tried to pick a neutral type color scheme. Everyone loved them, and she requested another pair in pink & baby blue.

I also made a scrapbook for her to put monthly pictures of the baby in. But, the booties are going to be a definite keeper for regular baby shower gifts.

That your gifts may come back to haunt you. I was very broke in college and make hand-painted tissue boxes for my family and friends. They all had little scenes and inside jokes painted onto them and almost all of those tissue boxes with their (now sophomoric) jokes are still hanging around!

I also painted flower pots for people one year and gave them away with Christmas cactuses planted inside and a lot of those are still around, too (including the cactuses, which are now about 7 years old!), but since I was not quite as “amusing” with those, they don’t cause me as much chagrin.