Oh one more idea! My sister in law has a great gift every year for my mil and fil. All year long at family get togethors she takes pictures, she usually takes a lot of impromtu and however you want to put it, when we dont even know she is taking them. Then at christmas she has a calander made for their present for the next year. But the best part is she takes funny pictures and writes funny captions like what we were really thinking when she took the picture. We are all usually in tears from laughing so hard at here calander. unfortunately they got divorced this summer, so she wont be there for christmas but maybe i will takeover that project lol.
I forgot who posted them, but I love the tiles. I am thinking that I might try to make one in a few days to see if it will work for Christmas ( if i can do it ) What poem or thing did you put on them? I was thinking of doing one per kid/ per set of grandparents then just a photo and their name and age, date etc. I also like the lip balm as well. It sounds pretty easy too. I usually do some sort of hand print gift for the grandparents ( but with 6 grands, and 3 greats that is a ton of work) One year we did stepping stones, really cheap and the kids loved it. I just made 12x12 squares with plywood for the bottom, and 2x4's for the sides ( I had a long piece of plywood and did 4 at a time) I mixed concrete and filled the squares about half full, then mixed mortar ( no rocks) to top them off. The kids did hand prints, and put in pretty "gems" into it. My son 3yo had a great time he put screws, bolts, washers all the stuff that he enjoys playing with. Then I wrote their name in the mortar before it dried with a stick. It was great all of them have them out to look at but not step on. One year we made dough hand prints, that looked great and then the dog ate them. I also do chocolate covered goodies. Pretzels, cherries, oranges, peanuts, etc. But that can be almost as expensive as jsut buying stuff for other people. I was looking at our cataloge for shipping supplies (uline.com) and they have those little chinese delivery boxes 100 for $13. I don't know if that is a good price for them. But thought that it would be a neat way to package cookies or other goodies. Other wise I could get everybody a case of toilet paper. Who doesn't need 80 rolls of charmin? Or 5,000 feet of plastic wrap? One year we bought my grandma two cases of tuna fish. Because she ate it for lunch everyday. She was so excited about that. really she loved it. I also can cinnamon apples every year and give those as gifts. This year I made a bunch of odd jellies that I might give away. My kids really like them though. We made watermelon kiwi ( kool aid), root beer, prickly pear, and cinnamon apple jelly. This year is going to be pretty easy and vanilla since I am due at the end of Dec. I dont' think I will feel like doing much baking then. We will see though. I would really like to make homemade bread and freeze it in the dough stage so that the recepients can have it when they want to as fresh baked bread. I need to figure out how to do that though so they get good results. Any ideas?
As a rant. Last year I almost had a mental break down at christmas time. We skimp and live on a tight budget all year. We budget each month money for our christmas budget. But even then it isn't a ton of money, with our huge family you can only spend a few dollars on each person before you break the bank. My SIL and her kids are terrible when you give them something they turn their nose ups and tell you they don't like it, won't play with it etc. It made me so upset just thinking about all the hard work I put into getting things for them, the hard work that I do to make our budget work, the fact that my kids get less because I have to "waste" my money on those snotty brats. But I did it anyways, AHHHH it makes my heart beat fast just thinking about it. I hate it. My sil told me to just go ahead and take back the gift I had made her ( the chocolates, and some cookies) because her other SIL had made her family some and they didnt' need any more!!!!! I just opened the package and set it out on the table it was empty before we left for the evening. But still the nerve. The boys are famous for being rude, and telling you how much they dont like what you got them, or how cheap it is. So last year they got nothing. I gave the kids a few coloring books I had picked up on clearance for like 20 cents each, and package of 24 crayolas I had gotten during back to school time. So I spent like 2 dollars on them total. They all mentioned how their presents were not as neat as the other kids. When we were opening presents my SIL asked if someone had gotten her gift from me (the candies) and I said no that last year she didn't want it so I didn't bother this year. Then she got upset and said that her other SIL hadn't made anything this year. Oh well, can you tell my heart was so upset :twisted: This year I bought her two boys tractors from Tractor supply company. They are normally $45-50 each (the big john deere ones) and they were on clearance for $3. so I bought them each one. They won't like them because they are not nascar. But I bought several for my sisters kids and gave them for birthday presents, and they loved them. I also got several for my kids as well, they were upset in the store that they didn't get some so they will be suprised when they get to open them later. :lol: I spent like $70 on tractors. But I got a ton of them, I had a hard time finding places to hide them. So that is the kids taken care of just the grandparents now, and maybe the bread for others. Or toilet paper?
Wow, aggie01 that is some ungrateful family you got there. I have In Laws that never thank me for gifts. Good grief.
I've come up with an idea for neighbors, family, co-workers! I'm going to make a bunch of different butters/jams. I've got strawberry jam already in my freezer. I'm also going to make apple butter, pumpkin butter, cranberry butter, and an apricot butter. In a pretty basket, I'm going to put a loaf of homemade bread or muffins. Then I'm going to put the jams/butters in baby food jars topped with some pretty fabric and a label and put those in with bread! I think it will make a nice gift and depart from the usual cookies that I do!
We just make batches of cookies for our neighbors. Aggie, I have a very ungrateful sister. No matter what I get, it isn't good enough for her. I have resorted to buying a restaurant gift cards for her, but really, that is out of my budget. Thankfully, she loves for her ds to get new books, so he isn't a problem. It stresses me out to shop for ungrateful people, especially considering what the season is about!
Hi I haven't read all of the posts yet, but wow...you ladies are talented! My hubby and I were just discussing what my children and I could make people for Christmas this year instead of buying gifts. I told him that I would check on the Homeschool Spot because I knew you all would have some ideas. You already got to it before I asked. Thanks! I'm the non crafty type of person. I have great ideas, but lack the know how and motivation to follow through. I'm not great at sewing and have no idea what crocheting and knitting are or what the difference is. Thanks again.
Do you cook? There's always jars with cookie mix, or drink mix. I've given jars of Russian Tea mix. You can make a bunch of mini fruit bread, and give those, too.
Thank you for the ideas, Jackie. I'm a great baker, but just an ok cook. I guess I say that because I love to eat bakery goodies, but I'm such a picky eater when it comes to regular food that I don't consider myself a great cook. If I'm doing it for someone else though, maybe I would be good.
I do those too! tied fleece is great, but you have to watch for Joanns sales, and THEN use your Teacher discount 25 % off on top of that! I will probably make my boys matching ones for thier bunks this year,,, if I cant find the comforters I am looking for. cheap ones!1499 in price? Okay as for making gifts.. We love doing this! dd makes jewelry now for cheap, ( she sells it on the side to peeps) But you coudl get a set of how to make it cheap for any adult or teen gals ... for dh and dss if you are knitting or crocheting make matching hat and scarves.. my boys love the ones thier gram made them last year! Teh fleece blankets are really easy to make! btw, You can als make them into sleeping bags or those cover things for blankets to make them warmer? you can make quilts if your really into the tying of knots too! But seriously that was the best gift I gave last year!
We do this toO! I have people who cant wait for my goodie tins! or bins, or whatever we have to fill! We make a variety of fudge, cookies, marshmellowed popcorn balls ( colored green!) etc.
We like to decorate outside as well as inside and this year for something different we are taking a bunch of old Cd's (my neighbor gave me a bunch of tv shows she'd burned onto cd that we won't watch) and gluing some ribbon and felt on them and then attaching a picture to the felt! Then we can hang them up outside as ornaments!
Photography by my ds,framed God's splendor: http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/DSCF0567.jpg http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/DSCF0571.jpg http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/DSCF0573.jpg http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/DSCF0577.jpg __________________
okay you pictures are cool in the site here, are the other links to other things? I love the ear rings, did you personally make them? My dd makes jewelry and sells them they er "dds name oringinals" or her designs I forget, If anyone wants a good idea for gifts ( shameless sales pitch coming , warning warning) My devotional is a great thing its 365days In His love. you can google it and find it at lulu.com. It was originally done by hand,btw, hehe, so I think it fits in here,.. More craftthings Ilike to make the garlands up myself but have reverted to plastic plain ones that I decorate up. We also like to do the decorate up a box thing, and then fill it with home made goodies. that way the box is a gift as well as whats in side. Has anyone done any of the ceramic ornaments that you pain? I am wondering what kind of paints to use, can I use the simple acrylic type I use for most crafts?
OK, *I*can do the sales pitch without apologizing!!! I've not looked at T'mom's devotional, but if it's ANYTHING like the one she's writing for Faythe based on "Hind's Feet on High Places", it will be excellent!!! We are enjoying her perspective on Hind's Feet so much, and it is really challenging Faythe in many ways!!!
I made the earrings myself along with the letter wall decos and my ds did the photography of the skylines.
