Handmade Gifts

Lately, my pseudo-poverty (i.e., I have no money, but I still carry on as if "it's all good") has resulted in my craftiness and resourcefulness being escalated to terrifying new heights. Obnoxiously so, even. Coupled with the fact that I more or less have no kitchen to work with (2 stove top burners, a microwave and a standard small toaster oven), and consider myself an avid baker and a creative cook... Yeah. Things get interesting. So! Let's do a quick trip of my things I've done lately, and things yet to do.

Mini Pumpkin Pies, used with this pumpkin pie filling.

So, my mom tasked me with making pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, as I always do. Welp, no oven! Toaster oven. I have a small pie making machine, but (a), I haven't worked out all the kinks yet, and (b), it was tucked away who knows where in my storage unit. So, instead, I followed the above tutorial (vague as it is) to make the mini pies. I had my boyfriend slicing out the rounds (used a bowl, probably 3-4" in diameter" and popped the suckers in. They turned out great! The pie filling was so-so, but otherwise it was a hit. At least with me.

Pumpkin Marmalade in baby jars as Thanksgiving hostess gifts

I made these on kind of a lark... Saw it on Pinterest, decided whoop, why not. Bought the baby food jars, used some of the canned pumpkin puree I had stocked up on (they had regular sized cans at Dollar Tree! How could I not get four?), and appropriated some company materials (i.e. a piece of card stock and eight reinforcements). I added in cinnamon from the recipe, but it came out delish. It recommended it being used with cheese and bread, but spread out on bread by itself, especially an English muffin or scone, would be perfect. Surprisingly delicious, even though it kinda looks similar to the baby food it replaced.

Lavender Mint Bath Salts (picture forthcoming)
I made a batch or two of these, since my mother had given me an ungodly amount of dried lavender that she appropriated from a large lavender bush outside her work earlier in the year. (They were going to cut it back, since it was going nuts and reaching over the sidewalk, so she "helped".) UNGODLY. So I decided to make these bath salts for my boyfriend's mom, since she takes baths with epsom salts regularly. Thought it was a good idea...until said boyfriend pointed out that she hate anything that smells nice whatsoever. Sooo, making some for his grandmother it seems. Anyway, they turned out lovely! Instead of using a canning jar, I just used some glass screw-top jars from miscellaneous sauces and such - I always keep them around because they make handy containers for buttons, beads, etc. I believe I ended up using two jars that were formerly pesto. The mint ended up being a bit strong, since I didn't have a dropper, so I just kinda went for it. I got a tiny vial of the spearmint oil on eBay for $3 with free shipping. Epsom salts...$2 or something for a big carton. I had the lavender, sea salt, and jars on hand, so everything else was free. Yay cheap gifts. I had enough for two jars' worth, and still have plenty of the supplies, so I could definitely make more.

Pepper Jelly (no picture)
I have been tasked with making pepper jelly for my extended family on my father's side, since my grandmother isn't faring well lately, and she always puts together baskets of food every year for all her children. All of the family is chipping in to put these baskets together. So, since I did the marmalade, my mother suggested I do the pepper jelly - so I'm on the mission. However, my grandmother has a recipe of who knows where, and since she's developed Alzheimer's, there's pretty much no way to find out if she has it written down, or can remember it anyway. Leave it to Laura! I'm going to use this recipe and tweak it. To start, I don't like peppers or spicy food at all, so this is all kind of working blind. She never used jalapenos, just regular bell peppers of varying colors, so I will mostly stick with that and might put one jalapeno in for a tiny kick. It should be interesting, since I have never done any legitimate canning in my life, except assisting my friend making jams by hauling out the jars out of the boiling water.

52 Things I Love About You (no picture)
I put this together for my boyfriend, only with 50 cards, since I didn't have any jokers (he had taken them out already) and there were only the standard 52 to work with off the start... Since I needed a cover and back, I used two cards. So, 50 Things I Love About You. Easy and pretty adorable. I didn't use mod podge or rubber cement, just a regular glue stick and smooshed the heck out of the cards so they would stay. I had some trouble finding the right ring size, and finding them at all - I ended up having to get them from Staples, and it was $3.79 for twelve. Rip off! Anyway, it looks lovely. And it was really hard to think of 50 things to say, in truth. But I ended up with 50, and a few more that I had to cut. He loves doing card tricks and has more than a few decks of cards (which is how I nabbed this one), so I thought this would be a really sweet and easy Christmas present. And it was!

In addition to all this, I am also embroidering Christmas stockings for the boyfriends - my own as well as my sister's boyfriend. I will try and post pictures if they come out well! <3

Christmas Time Already

Has anyone else started decorating? I typically leave it to like a week before Christmas because I am super lazy (which is also why it tends to stay up until approximately March, but whatever) but this year I got a bit of a head start. I actually feel like I accomplished somethings this weekend. I started and finished my Christmas cards! Excellent. Photos of those and possibly a tutorial will be posted after I send them all out. I also started decorating for Christmas, so here are some pictures.

Zsa-zsa is helping me make Christmas cards by keeping my paper warm. This is completely necessary to the card making process.

One of two large snowflakes I made. I also made smaller ones which I painted gold. I don't like them as much.

This is my "gingerbread" village. I made this about 3 years ago, it's held up really, really well. It's quite cute. I think I might like to get model trees instead of using the paper ones it came with, but for now they'll do.

And this is where I'm putting the mini-tree this year. I think it looks cute with that little snow man and those two signs.


And, last but not least I will leave you with a view I had a few days ago while I was getting ready for work. This was actually a little terrifying to be honest. She was so sneaky!

A real ceiling cat. This is not the first time I've had a cat in the ceiling. Kujo is the one who knocked out and broke the light panel originally, Zsa is just following in his footsteps. ☹