Handmade Gifts

Every year at Christmas time, the days leading up, I hear the saws and sanders begin to buzz from the garage.

And it is the greatest sound ever – I will admit, I get excited for the thoughtful handmade gift my hubby makes me each year.

And this year, he made two.

This beautiful wooden box cut completely (including the bottom) from a piece of firewood.

And the sweetest wooden toolbox ornament made from the crate wood from my Grandfather's Connecticut house.

I really think he loves me and he sure does know me.

How sweet are those rounded edges?

And the idea caught on in our family this year.

The schools my children have gone to have always had some sort of Holiday workshops where they could shop so they could pick up small gifts from them for their families.

Now that my older daughter is in middle school, she had to come up with something for people that she could make since she no longer had a Holiday workshop to attend.

This year, she made her Grandmother a mason jar snow globe.

And I thought I would share last year’s project that she and I worked on together.

The bowl is from a glass set she uses each Christmas and I found at an auction.

We place fake snow in the bottom layer, filled with a piece of Styrofoam (glued in) and built a village inside.

The houses were plain paper mache and we painted them, decoupaged sheet music and added a whole lot of snow and glitter.

We also added several trees, some carolers and a snowman.

It is one of my favorite projects and we had a blast working on it together.

She also made a gift for her Grampy – a snowflake made from old maple syrup taps on a slice of wood.

And I got in on the handmade business this year as well.

I made a Christmas tree for my Dad and my sister out of the crates used to build my Grandfather’s house in Connecticut.

And for my sister, I also made a jewelry organizer made from a frame, chicken wire and burlap.

I also added some vintage knobs to the bottom to hand the heavier jewelry.

And I kept going with my vintage sleds and my Mom got one as well.

This one amazingly already had her name hand painted on it when I found it – even spelled the same way (MaryAnn)

So even though, the Christmas season has ended, I learned a lot about gifts this year.

One – I like handmade gifts so much more. As much as store bought gifts can be fabulous, handmade gifts show that we are willing to take the time to really think through what someone would love and then make it for them.

And two, I really need to start these type of presents earlier!

Thanks so much for reading!