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Christmas Gift Jars and Baked Good Ideas

January 1, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

For those who have been visiting our blog long enough, you’d probably know that we usually get very crafty for Christmas gifts for loved ones.  But unfortunately, some years we were low on both time and money, to really craft as much as we would like to for gifts.  Still, we prefer to show our love to our loved ones at Christmas, with more homemade sort of gifts, if we can.  So we had the idea this year of sending some Christmas gift jars and baked goods.   It would be simple, inexpensive, yet appreciated we were sure.  Who doesn’t love food…right?

You should know, this post is not sharing the actual recipes we used. We are just sharing with you the idea of gift jars, and some presentation ideas, as inspiration, for your own gift giving.  Gift jar recipes are very easy to find though! You can just do a web search, or….check Pinterest for a wealth of jar recipe ideas!  Here though, we just want to show you what we came up with.

gift-jars

So some jars we made up with most of the ingredients to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.
All they needed to add was the butter, egg and vanilla!

gift-jars-1

Most of our gift recipients got a jar just like this, with the measured dry ingredients and directions.  But we knew my 2 bachelor brothers, and my Dad, were not going to be baking anything.  lol.   So…..we baked theirs for them, and filled up the jar with the cookies.  Cookies in a jar! So there is another idea for you!

gift-jars-2 We also gave some people the dry ingredients for this Curried Lentil Soup.  What a big project THIS turned out to be.  Because the recipe calls for red and yellow lentils.  After visiting 6 stores all over town, over the course of a week, we settled for red and green.  Maybe you know better where to get them? If not, don’t toss the idea all together, if you like the idea of soups. Again, search for recipes, and you’ll find more than you can shake a . . . . . . a . . . . . . spoon at. 🙂

gift-jars-3

Initially, we could only find tan, and made some soup ourselves to test the recipe.  Not being lentil experts, we thought only the color was different.  But ummm….not so much.   We HOPE the red & green works out alright for everyone.

We also made loaves of fresh homemade bread (not pictured) , and included those in most packages.

And homemade donuts!  : D

homemade-donuts We got calls and messages from everyone, and they all seemed to really enjoy our tasty gifts! We think they probably ‘tasted the love‘.  But one did tell us the bread and donuts were kind of hardish, or heavy, when they arrived.  Now….the bread crust is.  You can knock on the loaf, but it’s soft on the inside.  It makes excellent toast, it’s great for sandwiches, and it goes well with soup, too!

But the donuts, being fried, we really weren’t sure HOW they would fair in shipping.   So I guess they arrived….a little dense.  Now, we take these things very seriously.  So, we asked ourselves what we may have learned from that outcome, and this is what we came up with:

homemade-donuts-1
Don’t share our donuts anymore!!
No, seriously, we’ll be working on our recipe, to make them a little lighter.  😀  For the rare occasion we make them again, because they aren’t the healthiest regular food to eat. But they are a real treat, and that’s in part what make the holidays so special.

Some pretty ribbon on your jars, with an attached tag that shares the recipe or directions, is a very warm and thoughtful gift, for anyone who eats!
Your tag can be hand-written as well. It actually makes it all the more handmade-appeal.

We hope these ideas make your Christmas gift-giving season fun, delicious, and budget-friendly.

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Filed Under: Baking, Breads, Rolls and Muffins, Crafts & Creations, Holiday Crafts, Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas, Recipes, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, Soups, Treats, WINTER Crafts and Creations Tagged With: Christmas-gift-ideas, cookies in a jar, easy-cheap-Christmas-gift-ideas, gift-ideas-for-hostess-host, gift-jars, homemade-gift-ideas, homemade-gifts, homemade-gifts-from-kids, recipe-gift-jars, soups-in-a-jar

Handprint and Footprint Aprons – Homemade Gifts from Kids

February 5, 2009 By Laura 8 Comments

handprint-footprint-aprons-homemade-gifts-from-kids_00

One of the gifts the kids did for their paternal grandparents for Christmas, was this apron set.   We found the denim aprons right at our favorite place….Michael’s Arts & Crafts.   Then, we just picked up acrylic paints in the colors we wanted.  Their grandparents are both FANTASTIC cooks (they even make their own pastas), and take turns in the kitchen cooking, or cook together.  So we thought this idea of an apron set, with the kids hands and feet prints, would be cute for them. I only took photos the night we did feet, which was first.  The kids had a good time, and never stopped smiling and giggling.

how-to-make-footprint-aprons-homemade-gifts

First, we coated the bottom of a foot really well with paint.  You need to work quickly though, because it starts drying pretty fast.

how-to-make-homemade-aprons-homemade-gifts-from-kids_1

They stepped on the apron with their painted foot, putting their weight on it. Then they lifted their foot off the apron, going straight up!

afoot

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Then they went hopping off to the tub, to wash their foot.

ahop

Our kids are color coded (from the triplets birth), so their grandparents would know anyway, whose prints were whose.

how-to-make-footprint-aprons-homemade-gifts-from-kids

They all giggled from the tickles,  while their feet were having paint put on – you might notice the firm grip on this ankle, because for some…

stickle

…it was practically torture!!!

But didn’t they come out so cute??

footprint-apron-homemade-gifts-from-kids

handprint-apron-homemade-gifts-from-kids

I wanted to keep them for myself. lol

But, I knew the kids would be HAPPY to do it again sometime.

Now, on to a related topic:   I’m not sure if anyone happened to notice the yellow on our boy’s cheek in this photo we showed above? :

stickle

That’s from a couple of days before.  I was out on a job, and when I came home and walked in, they all came running in to meet me with excitement.  That’s not unusual. But they wanted to show me what their big sister spent quite awhile doing for them….

spuppy

She did face painting for them. I was impressed with her work!!   {S and O} got something on each side of their face.  {S}, above, got that puppy on one side….

sbee

…and a bumble bee on the other.

ounicorn

{O} chose a unicorn, and…..

oflower

…a flower.

jdolphin

{J} just wanted a dolphin.

rainbow-paint-arm

And then {A} did her own arm!

She always has such creative ideas to spend time with them, and they LOVE it!

They are blessed to have her as their big sister.

Well, that’s it for this edition!  Dang….that took me a long time to get together!  lol.  We sure hope you enjoyed it, and perhaps it sparked some inspiration for you, or an idea of your own!

See you soon!!

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas, Kids Arts and Crafts, Kids Arts and Crafts Tagged With: denim-apron-crafts, gifts-for-grandma-grandpa, handmade-gifts-from-kids, handprint-footprint-ideas, homemade-Christmas-gift-ideas, homemade-gifts-from-kids, kids-decorating-aprons

We are wicked happy to have you here! We hope you find much inspiration, help, humor and enjoyment here.




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