I remember as a kid I'd get homemade gifts from my Granny Gheen. They were hit and miss, bless her heart. One year she made all the grandkids banks. They were mason jars with a cross stitched lid cover thingy. Between the rim of the jar and the seal, she put the cross stitched fabric and stuffed it with cotton so it would stick up over the rim of the jar. It's hard to describe. Anyway, it said "Chicken Feed" and had our name and birthday. On mine, both were wrong - Amiee 7/29 instead of Aimee 7/25. My sweet Granny struggled with my name and birthday throughout my childhood. At the time I was so offended. Until I started cross stitching. At the time, I didn't realize the time and effort she put into the gift, I just saw the error. After I knew how much time each jar topper took, I was a little less offended.
Granny Gheen was a quilter and I have several quilts she made for me. She made me two incredible t-shirt quilts of all my t-shirts from high school and college. I took out the college one to use in our college week door decorating contest at school and I've left it out in my room. It was such a labor of love.
My momma crochets. Two sections of my banquet seating in my kitchen are full of afghan she's made for Ryan, the boys and I. I have these awesome fingerless gloves she made. My momma's real medium is food. She is a master chef. This year from Christmas she made us all strawberry jelly and pumpkin cranberry bread. I know she spent an entire day on the jelly.
For the past two years at school, my Secret Santas have been very artistic. I've received paintings, wall hangings and jewelry they created. Both years it has meant so much to me that they took time out of their business schedules to make something for me.
That's really the thing - the time. It seems like everyone is so busy. We want everything to be perfect so we run ourselves ragged doing all the perfect things. When you create a gift, you are spending your time and rolling the dice on perfect. Sometimes things work out well, other times the gift gets tossed before it can be given.
But, believe me, I'm not opposed to buying gifts at all! I love shopping for the perfect gift for someone almost as much as I love making them.
Mostly, I just love giving gifts. It doesn't matter if I've spent my time making them or hunting for them. I love to surprise my friends and family. It's my love language!
Here's some gifts I've made lately.
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| I made these for my Fab Five for our Christmas Sleepover |
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| My sweet friend Mahlee graduated with her Masters. This was her gift. No one can rock the messy bun like her! |
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| My secret santa at school wrote down that he liked sneakers, so he got a sneaker cup |
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| I made these for the boys' teachers and office staff. |
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