Crafty Christmas Crafting

Hello Everyone!

Today, I went to work and spent the majority of the time making various jars of preserves. We've been working on this project for quite a while, and although I can't go into much detail (without having to kill you afterward), I can tell you we made Plum-Nectarine, and Raspberry-Lime preserves today. This got me to thinking about the gifts that I give people each year, some of them homemade. This year I plan on making both preserves and homemade candles! Last year, I made soap and truffles, and the year before that I made scarves and ornaments. Without further ado, the topic of today's blog, as you have probably so far gleaned, is: homemade gifts.

Now, over the years, I have become more and more prone to giving homemade gifts for two reasons. First, I enjoy the look on someones face when they see a gift that you specially made for them; and second, because I was low on cash but still wanted to give amazing gifts.

I know, I know: homemade gifts sound like a pain; but seriously, I highly recommend them! You don't have to go all out and give gifts that take months to complete, but a simple gift is well worth the trouble. Some of these simple gifts include: truffles, preserves, or ornaments. As far as truffles go, you might want to make sure that you're kitchen-oriented before you start to throw things into a bowl; that being said, if you AREN'T kitchen-oriented, I don't want to discourage you from trying this: just don't burn your house down, that's all I ask. Anyway, truffles are super delicious balls of ganache that can be rolled in various toppings like nuts, cocoa powder or even crushed up peppermints. Truffles come in all shapes and sizes, and all in all, they're not that hard to make. My advice to future truffle makers are google recipes, and then forget all that, and find a youtube video. Written recipes, while sometimes helpful, don't hold a candle to video recipes. If you can find a credible source for video recipes, it's better to see a recipe being made as opposed to reading about it. In fact, the Food Network might have good videos AND written recipes that you can watch/print out to work with.

Moving on: PRESERVES. I just recently discovered preserves and I just have one thing to say about them: anyone can make them! Honestly, I was terrified about starting to make preserves. I was so afraid that I would mess them up and they wouldn't set up, or I would burn the mixture while cooking it, or I wouldn't have the right ingredients. Once I made one batch at work, I just kept looking forward to the next time when we made them. Preserves can be made with any fruit, vegetable, or even bag of rocks that you want to cook down and devour. Basically, you combine fruit, sometimes lemon juice, sugar, and pectin in a pan and cook it down. It's not exactly that, so don't go out and put all that stuff in a pan and expect it to turn into preserves. Let's talk about pectin for a second. Pectin is usually a powdered product which, when added to the fruit mixture combines with fruit chemicals (fruitmicals, as it were) and enables the mixture to set and gel into a jelly-ness. Pectin isn't one of those things that you can skip out on. If you want preserves, whether it be jelly or jam, you NEED pectin. I think (and don't quote me on this) that you can purchase the pectin that the Ball jar company makes at most grocery stores. While we're on the Ball subject, you'll need jars and I've found that Ball jars are the most reliable and useful jars for making good portions and delicious jams. I think you can buy in bulk if you're making BUNCHES of jars from the Ball website, BUT you can also buy one crate of twelve jars at most grocery stores (again, don't quote me on that; I'm going off of assumptions that I've made from my work). Like with truffles, do some research, but preserves and different canned products are definitely worth the work; that being said, you have to be willing to have a couple burns throughout the process (there's a LOT of hot stuff going on).

Lastly, I just want to talk about some small projects that you can do to give out. Ornaments can be made out of paper, or even made out of empty eggs (which I have done) and I guarantee that your gift recipients will LOVE them. Even soap, while a little more labor intensive, is great! Any craft store will have soap that is already made up that you can melt and scent yourself. You can also buy fun molds and even put fake flowers or holiday decorations into the melted soap. You don't even have to use a stove! Most solid soap mix can be microwaved and then poured into a mold. I made soap last year, and every person I gave it to felt very special. As well as giving out the gifts, making soap is a fun activity for friends and family to do together.

There are TONS of other gifts that you can make that I just don't have the space or attention span to type out and explain. I just have one thing to mention. Glenn, my step-dad, makes ukuleles and he made me one for Christmas a couple years ago. It wasn't finished when he brought it up Christmas morning, and...it's still not finished. Nevertheless, I will be JUST as excited to receive it when it's finished, as I would have been that Christmas.

Question(s) of the Day: Do you think you will at least consider making homemade gifts this year? If so, what will you make? Is it one of the things I suggested above or something new? Tell me about it in the comment section down below!

Until next time,
Lasagna Claus

Remember my fellow gifted gifters: 132 Days Until Christmas!