New Year, new gifts to make!

After Christmas my gift cupboard is very depleted! But that is the idea, to have made gifts all year and to have enough! Many years I made some but never most of my gifts. Last year a resolution was to start in January and work on different things all year. It worked! I had such a supply and choice at each birthday and then at Christmas.

So it is January again! What ever it is you like to make start now! Each month you will have more and more lovely things ready. I have started with crochet edges around face washers and matching hand towels. And I started with pink, then white and now I'm on to a lovely blue grey which is rather french!

My bath soaks would go well with this. But as the year goes on I will add soaps, hand creams, bath bombs etc that would make it a spa gift and all look nice together. Then tie it up with ribbon. Then it's a lovely gift.

On my recent gift shop visits I notice $20 doesn't go far. Any gift I would want to give is more like $50 up. Somethings I truly loved were hundreds. Who can pay that? Especially when you have lots of people you give gifts to!?

Solution. Make most of your own. Men are harder I think but I have worked out most men like food. Especially home cooking. Last year I baked my brother a large fruit cake. I know he loves them. And I have a recipe to use for a gift for Andy. His favourite wine is Malbec. He loves the stuff. I found a recipe for Malbec truffles that look so luxurious. I'm thinking a lovely box lined with beautiful paper and full of these truffles would be a great gift. Maybe Valentines Day?

In the back of my planner I keep a page purely for gift ideas. Sometimes you get an idea or hear someone say something about a wish or a need and I write it down before I forget. It means you usually have a good list of ideas and it is thoughtful to have remembered something from a conversation and given this perfect gift! It all beats last minute desperate "what will I get?" shopping that usually costs a bomb because you have run out of time.

So this is my start.... 

I have the pink ikea t towels also tied up with pink ribbon. I'm thinking of inserting wooden spoons into the bows. The trip to the farm resulted in two more of those finished as the car trip is long. I learned I can go right round a t towel each way!

Even if you only sit down for a short time each day it is amazing what you can do. I never just sit and crochet. It will be when we are watching something on tv or in the car mostly. It all adds up. And handiwork is good for you! Yep. It is known now that knitting calms you, lowers your blood pressure and is quite meditative. Being absorbed in making something lovely adds hugely to your own happiness. Having creative outlets is really important.

If you have talents use them. If you have lost something you once had as a skill resurrect it. If you feel you have no skills (I don't believe it) choose something your heart really loves and start at step one. With something like crochet you can be a learner and in a week doing very well. Almost any skill can be learned for free on you tube. It is so exciting to learn a new skill. Even Dr. Oz, my favourite doctor, says having hobbies and passions is so good for you it will increase your life span and happiness over all! Don't argue with the Doctor! 

Seriously if I was idle I would bite my nails. Worry more. Be more stress and frustrated. All bad. Instead I know I can't live long enough to do all the projects I want to and try everything I'm dreaming of!