Handmade Gifts

This week I am finishing up a number of small handmade gifts. Since we are unemployed and our families have basically insisted that they don't want us buying them ANY gifts this year, I didn't want to be without gifts this Christmas season and have made a few things.

This year I am doing cookies and ornaments. I just finished sewing my second ornament for my parents.

It is kind of fun and reminds me of previous years where I used to learn a new craft every year in order to make a good gift.

I have learned how to mosaic tile, make glass paperweights, make "shrinky-dink" ornaments, paint custom welcome mats, paint glass candle holders, illustrated cookbooks, and crochet. I've been considering stained glass work, someday. This year it is felt animals for the tree.

I had given up doing crafts a few years ago because the time pressure of my dissertation combined with running out of crafts to try made it seem too hard.

This year I am photoshopping some photos, baking cookies, sewing some ornaments, and transfering some family cassette tapes to cd (audio letters from the 70s, recently rediscovered in a cupboard).

It is always hard to figure out what to do for gifts, especially with spending little to no money (I have maybe $6 in felt invested so far). It also take a lot of time. But it does show you were thinking about the person, and I guess that is what counts.