Homemade Christmas gifts - good or bad?

One of my best Christmas gifts ever was handmade, from my very thoughtful niece. It’s a triangle shaped mini beanbag which you use to prop up your tablet, and I use it all the time, in bed, sitting on the sofa, and working at the desk. It proves that simple but well thought out can be excellent, I didn’t know I needed it, but I did.

Please don’t judge a book by its cover. My kitchen tends to have the lived in feel most of the time though I do have a bit of a fetish about shiny pans I do garden too
We used to extract honey make jams etc and my speciality is chocolate orange for which I candy my own orange peel I can assure you when doing such things the kitchen becomes unrecognisable clean and tidy. I have a husband with a reluctance to put things away so things get back to normal afterwards

Norah

I make jams, chutney, spice blends and I also paint.

My sign is below blue tape.

What do you mean, about your sign pleaae Norah?

I crocheted a beautiful white baby shawl for my nephew's new baby as a present took me hours and hours to make and they loved it but when I saw them a few months later although they were still using it ( as a blanket) on baby's pushchair it looked like a rag 🙁 they had just put it in the washing machine on a hot wash with everything else.

I love homemade presents not that I've had many given to me but I love my granddaughters pictures and cards made with love. How nice that someone has taken time to make something special for you instead of just buying Chinese crap 😊

I love getting hand made gifts. If anyone bothers about you enough to spend time ( and money, as kits, wool are not cheap these days ) then I think such gifts should be appreciated.
If you dont like them then please tell the maker and they can spend their time , and money on someone else.

NotSpaghetti

Norah

I make jams, chutney, spice blends and I also paint.

My sign is below blue tape.

What do you mean, about your sign pleaae Norah?

I thought to cover my name (sign), the year and my daughter's name with painter tape - for privacy of me and my family.

Depends whaat it is, who it is for and how well made it is.

Norah - sometimes I'm very stupid.🙄
I googled "below blue tape" in case you had a website or Instagram or similar called "below blue tape". Lots of artists have studios with funny names too!
My husband would say "only you!"🤣

Norah

NotSpaghetti

Norah

I make jams, chutney, spice blends and I also paint.

My sign is below blue tape.

What do you mean, about your sign pleaae Norah?

I thought to cover my name (sign), the year and my daughter's name with painter tape - for privacy of me and my family.

Do you watch Bob Ross, *Norah?
His style is quite fascinating, and I wondered if you followed him..
I ought to try it, but haven't painted for years and did prefer watercolours in the end, not oils or acrylics.
A friend of mine used to paint in oils, some of her work was exhibited.

NotSpaghetti

Norah - sometimes I'm very stupid.🙄
I googled "below blue tape" in case you had a website or Instagram or similar called "below blue tape". Lots of artists have studios with funny names too!
My husband would say "only you!"🤣

It's not just you though Notspaghetti I'm another who spent rather a lot of time on Google this morning looking up Under blue tape. .

Callistemon21

Norah

NotSpaghetti

Norah

I make jams, chutney, spice blends and I also paint.

My sign is below blue tape.

What do you mean, about your sign pleaae Norah?

I thought to cover my name (sign), the year and my daughter's name with painter tape - for privacy of me and my family.

Do you watch Bob Ross, *Norah?
His style is quite fascinating, and I wondered if you followed him..
I ought to try it, but haven't painted for years and did prefer watercolours in the end, not oils or acrylics.
A friend of mine used to paint in oils, some of her work was exhibited.

No, I follow my pictures taken on holiday.

I prefer acrylic, watercolour, oil, and colouring old etchings.

Aldom

It's a very sparkling and moody piece Norah - thank you for sharing!

As an aside, I work from photos too for some pieces. I think it can be helpful - if you can't stay in one spot to draw for example. I take ideas from my images too.

You have made me feel slightly nervous about the fact that I knit hats, gloves, scarves for all and sundry. And my younger relatives live in jumpers I've made, but not teenage boys except one, who feels the cold.
I know they wear them all the time - unless they put them on specially for WhatsApp video calls.

Norah

Callistemon21

Norah

NotSpaghetti

Norah

I make jams, chutney, spice blends and I also paint.

My sign is below blue tape.

What do you mean, about your sign pleaae Norah?

I thought to cover my name (sign), the year and my daughter's name with painter tape - for privacy of me and my family.

Do you watch Bob Ross, *Norah?
His style is quite fascinating, and I wondered if you followed him..
I ought to try it, but haven't painted for years and did prefer watercolours in the end, not oils or acrylics.
A friend of mine used to paint in oils, some of her work was exhibited.

No, I follow my pictures taken on holiday.

I prefer acrylic, watercolour, oil, and colouring old etchings.

Yes, I've done that, take photos then paint them
I really should start again.

Romola

You have made me feel slightly nervous about the fact that I knit hats, gloves, scarves for all and sundry. And my younger relatives live in jumpers I've made, but not teenage boys except one, who feels the cold.
I know they wear them all the time - unless they put them on specially for WhatsApp video calls.

They'll be glad of them - it's going to get very cold!

Three of my grandsons put in "orders" for specific jumpers and other knitted items with their other grandmother! The others are less interested.

Norah

We made cheese straws, by the 1000s, for Christmas gifts.

Seem to go down well, people love receiving our cheese straws.

I’ve given these, too - my very very cheesy ones - and I’ve had requests for them for various family get-togethers apart from Christmas. No matter how many I make, they always go.

Romola

You have made me feel slightly nervous about the fact that I knit hats, gloves, scarves for all and sundry. And my younger relatives live in jumpers I've made, but not teenage boys except one, who feels the cold.
I know they wear them all the time - unless they put them on specially for WhatsApp video calls.

I’m sure yours are lovely and very much appreciated!

Can’t say the same for a jumper dh’s old aunt once knitted for him. She had plenty of money but was as tight as they come, and had evidently found one of those bargain huge balls of yarn somewhere, in a sort of very pale blue-ish green, that TBH I’d have hesitated to use even for a baby.
And dh has very conventional tastes!
It was in some weird pattern, too.

She was an avid knitter but for herself it was nothing but the best, Jaeger mohair, etc! I was once present when she quibbled with the wool shop assistant over the odd 12p on a £12.12p bill - and this was decades ago.

I forget what we did with it - probably a charity shop - he certainly never wore it.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

This came today. With 'Mum, please paint this, for me for Christmas, for over the our fire.'

So, I'll attempt...

grandmalynn

I just knitted some for my 9 y/0 grandson. do I bin them? or shall I burn them.

Lovely gift, of course you shouldn't bin them.

I used to make gifts for my children, when they were small, they were very happy with them and also with the wooden toys that my husband made. We stopped pre-teen age

I used to make my husband eg a flannel shirt, he wore it so much that I had to turn the collar to give it a new lease of life. He only got hand made from time to time and particularly in the early years, it also made christmas cheaper and more meaningful

My AC still love hand knitted socks

Romola

You have made me feel slightly nervous about the fact that I knit hats, gloves, scarves for all and sundry. And my younger relatives live in jumpers I've made, but not teenage boys except one, who feels the cold.
I know they wear them all the time - unless they put them on specially for WhatsApp video calls.

There's a huge difference between knitting with a specific person in mind, using colours, patterns and sizings that are suitable for them, and knitting loads of stuff and offloading it onto any one that comes to mind. I'm sure your garments are very much appreciated.

MiL was a very clever knitter. She knitted lots of jumpers for MrA and myself. Sadly although they were beautifully knitted and she had taken a lot of care over them they were usually more suited to a 60 year old in the 1950s than a 20/30 year old the 1980/90s. They were still safely stored away until about 2 years ago, worn once.

I once threw a jar of hm crabapple jelly out, I was given it by a neighbour but being a jam maker myself, I knew that it had not been properly preserved, the lid was loose. Properly preserved, the lids would have gone pop and there would be a dent, showing that a vacuum had formed

I am very fussy about hygiene, bad hygiene in a kitchen can lead to very serious food posoning