The Homemade Gift

Decaf instant Folger's,

Muslin,

a little bit of thread,

Crayola crayon's,

hot glue,

a saw,

some do-dad's,

and a touch of watered down white paint.

And Viola!

***

Most of our Christmas decoration's are home made.

Not all made at our home,

but homemade none the less.

A few years back,

I was on an embroidery kick again

and made a bunch o stuff

starting with this Nativity I fell in like with...

I don't remember when it was that I gained my appreciation for homemade things. Must have been from the time I was a little one.

Momma made most everything, and what she didn't Daddy and Grampa did. The Aunt's all did the same. 

A few store bought things would show up now and then, but it wasn't a regular thing, and it really wasn't the big treat that you might think.

The homemade gift holds a lot more than you at first may see when you look at it.

Sure it's purty, an might be useful, might be decorative, an frilly.

But do you see the time that was put into it? Do you see the laughter and fun that might have gone along with the makin? Do you see the love that's oozing from it?

Do you know how much you were thought about while it was being made?

So here's how a homemade gift goes;

First you think of the person you are going to give 'the gift' to. What it's for. Is it Birthday, Christmas, Thank you...or what-have-you.

Next, is one of the hardest parts; What to make.

Once you have that figured out, the battle is half won.

Then you set to work gathering the things you will need to make it. Thinking of the person's favorite color, how the person might use it, where the person might use it, and for how long...and ton's of other stuff.

Now comes the time part. Some things are made that take a lot of time, some times it's hours, or day's, could be month's...and in some cases year's, to finish. And the beauty of that is the fact that you are thinking of the person all the time you are making it!

Once you get your gift finished, you think of the person while you are wrapping it up, boxing it, putting it in a fancy gift bag and filling the top with three sheet's to much of tissue paper just for good measure...you got it...you are thinking about the person.

Then you give the gift, and hope that all the time and love you focused on the person while making the gift, is somehow able to wrap around the person and that every time they look at it they will think of you, and that you loved them enough to make something for them.

But it goes a little farther than that.

How? You might ask.

Well I'll tell you.

You also spend time thinking about the person who made the pattern that you are using. If it wasn't a pattern that you made. And the time they put into making it so that you could understand the how-to's of it all.

Homemade gifts are a circle of love...

Be it from a garden, a sewing room, a 'shop' in the back. From knitting needles to crochet hook's, or tin and some wood. Might be from leather, or 'something whipped up'. Maybe it's quilted or tied, pom-pomed, stitched, painted, or even starts with a key...With no one in  mind more than you!

May God Bless