Favorite Homemade Things

[couchtiger]

For the past 5 years or so, my family has done a holiday tradition that we call the "E-hat". It's been our solution to an ever-growing family full of adults who really have everything they need - buying a holiday gift for everyone (especially as new spouses or children were added) got to be stressful very quickly. So now we each draw a name from

Comments

[couchtiger]

Oh, that's a great idea!

[xchanceofrainx]

I have four brothers and a dad who are very hard to buy for, so three years ago, I made them each six bars of the coffee soap that I made one day for my kitchen to get the onion smell off my hands, because my mom was bitching that they were coming home from hunting smelling like deer pee and that earth spray. I figured they'd never use it, it would just sit around, but it ended up being a hit. Something like that, given the person, would love it. I've made margarita soap using sea salt and lime oil, soap for the babies in my family with lavender.

[couchtiger]

Oh, that's a really interesting idea. My BIL hunts. Where did you find a recipe for that coffee soap?

[xchanceofrainx]

It was just something that I was just playing with one day. I use a cup of coffee per two pounds of base. I usually just use the plain white base you can get at the craft store, because the coffee will color the soap, too. :)

[quiet000001]

I may need to try this also. How scrubby is the finished soap? (I want something that's got some grit to it so you can use it on stubborn dirt, but not so much that it feels like you're using the coarsest grade sandpaper you can find, you know?)

[celtic_catgirl]

My aunt used Shutterfly to put together books of photos and scanned documents from family history, One book was for my grandparent's 50th anniversary and one book for my grandfathers 85th birthday was pictures of him and his brothers and his mom and dad.

[quiet000001]

My brother did something similar with photos of my niece and nephew for my mom last Christmas, and she really loves it.

[birdsonthewire]

Spend some time on pinterest. You will have more ideas in five minutes than you know what to do with

[damedini]

My family most emphatically does not do homemade, but I wish they did. Here's what I would enjoy that's easy to make:
A lovely selection of cookies, jam or jelly, soap, bath goodies, anything that feels pamering.
Here is what I've made and given:
Wine, jelly, mustards, cookies, oil lamps from the dollar store, that I hand painted with glass paint and pretty, scented body butter.
With homemade, packaging is key. A ziplock of cookies is less appealing than a tin or box lined with red and gold tissue and careful layers of pretty cookies, or a jar of cookies with a pretty bow. Somehow, care in packaging a gift makes it feel more special, even if it's just cotton socks.
Martha Stewart's website tends to have excellent tips on homemade gifts and packaging.

[quiet000001]

I totally agree about taking time in packaging. It makes a huge difference to the first impression the gift makes