She's Making a List...

I know it is not even November yet, but now is the time of year I begin to think about making presents for people. Mama, Grace, Anna, Daniel, Benjamin, two aunts, and several good friends have their birthdays before Christmas, and then there are Christmas presents to get too. Needless to say, I could start much earlier and not be amiss! Naturally, I haven't the funds to buy presents for everybody, and I detest cheaply made things. Homemade can be amazing, or ridiculous. I vote for the amazing side of things. It's pretty easily done, actually! Some of the ideas I've had (and executed) are:

• A Christmas-themed novelette: "A Tale of Fairfax and Cloves"
• Aprons

not mine. :)

• Flower bobby-pins

Looks easy enough but no, I didn't make these. :)

• water-color painting

This belongs to an unfinished children's book about a toad named Mr. Otis Puddleby. :)

• homemade cordial cherries and cookie-dough truffles
• a bird-cage made out of Popsicle-sticks with a tiny fake bird for a younger sister--she *adored* it!
• hand-made dolls
• crocheted hats or scarves. Please, nothing lumpy. The idea is fashion. ;) 
• straw-hat work-basket. (instructions from the 1800's! :)
• Elaborately decorated and decoupaged book of quotes
• tea-stained stationary

My hand-decorated Pride and Prejudice stationary: "It is a truth universally acknowledged..."

• Egg-dolls

This is Miss Eglantine Benedict. She was recently shipped off to Washington a girl who won her. :)

•  Decoupaged paste-board boxes

I made this for a recent contest on my writing blog

There are so many many things you can make to give as gifts that cost little or no money. Handmade doesn't have to mean a sorry excuse for a present. Some of the best gifts I've been given were made with bits and pieces from around the giver's house. Don't be afraid to go wild. You'll come up with something, I know. But if you have the funds to buy gifts, I am not belittling you. It would be a whole lot easier to be able to buy something you really know the person will love. It just seems my budget entitles me to the Dollar Tree or my own resources...I prefer my own hands to those of some factory-workers in China. ;)