Roll on the New Year!

It's really foggy here.  We had a lot of rain yesterday that's washed away most of the snow (woo hoo!), but now the world outside my back door looks dead eerie...  Like something out of a Hammer House of Horrors movie.  I'm just waiting for Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to jump out from behind the murky shadows.  But, until they do, I hope everyone had a peaceful, Merry Christmas filled with lots of lovely presents?  This year I was spoiled rotton.  Handmade gloves, pickles and chutneys, wine, necklaces and bracelets, earrings, a gorgeous knitted jacket/cardi, True Blood and Pacific on DVD and lots of lovely Joyce Meyer books.  Plus a new mobile phone for my birthday!  Thank you everyone!

Talking of presents - I'm planning on doing a homemade Christmas next year.  I've completely made up my mind about it.  I'm going to make a chutney and pickled onions, (hopefully) Oat & Honey soap, organic honey and homemade mead hamper for everyone.  As I visit charity shops I'll keep my eye open for possible wicker baskets - or something that'll suffice as a hamper basket.  I can get bags of shredded paper from work to use instead of straw.  Ben has a friend at work, Marc, who makes us chutney and pickled onions.  His pickled onions are to-die-for and he does all different flavours - from honey right through to blazing hot, hot, hot chilli.  This year rather than give them to us in an old battered-up bottle, he went all-out and decorated the smart bottle in a plain label with 'Marc's Pickled Onions' handwritten on it.  He then put cloth over the lid and tied it off with a yellow ribbon that reminded you of straw.  Compared to his normal, printed label, the overall effect of the new bottle and handwritten label was fab.  It looked like something you'd buy from a Farmers Market.  We're going to have his cranberry, onion and apple chutney with our New Year Day's meal.  I think that is a much better idea than a tin of Quality Street chocolates and a bottle of mass produced wine, don't you? 

Old bottles of chutney made before March became 'crafty'.

Marc's simple jar of pickled onions looks a million times better than earlier attempts.

The second hand shop I visit on Queens Road in Watford sells old material, ribbons, crafting gadgets etc (it has one corner of the store just for crafting bits and bobs - including baskets filled with old wool).  Every time I visit, I'll keep my eye open for ribbon to decorate the baskets.  Plus, you can stuff other things in hampers - like homemade hanky covers.  Knitted socks.  Mince pies.  Or old framed photos.  Along with a note telling them what's in the hamper and asking them to recycle the baskets by handing them back to you when they're done with them.

I think homemade gifts show someone how much they're thought off.  I think that's why homemade Christmases and Easters are becoming so very popular.  You put a lot of time, thought and energy into knitting socks and gloves etc.  Whereas, it only takes a few minutes to throw a tin of chocolates into your shopping basket.....