Stragglers

Surely it’s not too late to document a few more of the handmade Christmas gifts…

For my parents, a pillow with their last name on it-

Handmade items are tricky in terms of cost.  I was looking at a pattern for a bag the other day, and with its 3 yards of fabric and three kinds of interfacing, plus notions, it could easily become way too expensive to produce.  But the total cost of this pillow was…zero dollars!  The fabric was selected from the fabric I already had, the white fabric was a retired white pillowcase, and the pillow was stuffed with leftover scraps of quilting batting.  It’s a little lumpy perhaps, but I’m thinking that will just encourage people to lounge on it in an effort to smooth things out.  Thankfully I have the kind of parents who don’t mind if you yell, “Guess how much that cost to make?  Nothing!” as soon as they open a Christmas present. 

For Diane, my sister’s mother-in-law and the name I drew in the handmade exchange for my side of the family, dish towels-

For the grandmothers, ornaments made from the boys’ hands.

My not-normally-pushy mother really put the pressure on me about these, pointing to the similar ornaments I made last year and saying, “I hope you’re making these again this year” and “I know you’re busy, but make sure you get the hand ornaments done.”  I’ve also been informed that I need to make these for her every year.  Without having to ask her, I’m going to assume that my mother-in-law is in the same camp as my mom on this one and I’m going to be making these for years to come.  The paws of 17 and 15 year old Rush and Tate are going to take up a chunk of real estate on the Christmas tree.

Typically my sister and I will talk a lot about “doing crafts” when we’re together, which translates to sitting on the couch for hours talking about the same things over and over, or one of us knitting or quilting and the other in charge of making coffee.  We finally cracked the code on actually doing a craft together when we made the ornaments:  the trick is for one person to have a plan and all the supplies.  In this instance, I was already planning on making them (see comments above regarding pressure from my mom) so I dumped a pile of fabric scraps, felt, and Pellon Wonder Under on the kitchen table during nap time and we started working.

For the record, people trying to boss me around is generally a sure way to make me not do something.  I guess I just have a soft spot for my mother, my kids’ small hands, and felt.

Trent made a gazillion kitchen utensils, wooden spoons and spatulas, in his gradually expanding garage woodshop, but he took all the pictures with an ipad, so we’ll probably never see those.  The process of getting up, finding the ipad in his work bag, and somehow sending them to this computer sounds way too time consuming when I’m in a hurry to get back to my book before naptime is over.  He also secretly made a set of wooden tongs for me, actively displayed over a pot of soup.

My wooden spoon and tongs are my very favorite kitchen items, very Ingalls-chic.