All Natural Handmade Heating Pads and Hand-Warmers

For Christmas gifts for co-workers, family and friends I made hand-warmers and heating pads. They were so simple - just a cotton cloth bag filled with rice and sewn shut.

For hand-warmers cut two 4 1/2" squares of 100% cotton. Fold them in half with the pretty sides touching each other and sew the long edge and one of the short edges. Then turn the pouch inside out so that the pretty sides show and fill half full with rice. To close the pouch tuck in the edges of the open end and sew along the edge. Then microwave until warm (about 45 seconds in a new microwave) and put inside your pockets or gloves.

To make a heating pad start with one 14" x 14" piece of cotton and follow the directions above. Microwave for about two minutes then put on any aching body part or use to keep a covered dish warm.

Readers: Please share what gifts you made in the comment section.

Purple Polyester Find

I love this dress. The sheer sleaves, the pleated ruffle - could I be any luckier? I found it last week when I ran into Goodwill on my lunch break (in the same trip I found a vintage pop-up book that I will post about later). I wore it to my work Christmas party and had so much fun.

Visions of Sugar

Last night I woke up at 2 a.m. with the vision of this candy cane in my head. Then I couldn't get back to sleep, so I whipped it up. It'll be a cute decorative stocking stuffer.

Creative Baby Gift

I love the idea of making up a little story and illustrating it. With these blank board books, homemade can still be sturdy enough for a baby.

I'm picturing a book of collage pictures. Or maybe a simple contrast of stamped or doodled images in one primary color.

The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow

Harriette Arnow’s The Dollmaker tells the story of a woman’s struggle to take care of her family in unfamiliar surroundings. Her story is sad, but honest. I feel like I am better for having read it.

Set in Detroit during World War II against a background of union picket lines and the threat of closing factories, it’s a novel that speaks out against the industrial revolution and voices the complaints of someone who never spoke very loudly.

Though readers meet protagonist Gertie Nevels as a strong heroine, they soon find out that a strong woman today and a strong woman in rural Appalachia in the 1940s have a different level of obstacles.

Gertie packs up her children and the life she loved to trudge alongside husband Clovis in his chase of the American Dream. Gertie only finds peace in her cramped housing project when whittling. She makes dolls and toys for children whenever her hands have nothing else to busy themselves with. When people begin admiring her woodcraft, she starts earning money for her family with a little whittling business. That makes me hope that in difficult economic times, more people will find the drive and the time to make things.

Gertie’s life is filled with struggle, yet she is a character that I missed after I finished it the book. At 599 pages, I had enjoyed spending time with her.

Avon Books published The Dollmaker in 1954. It got good reviews, became a bestseller and was even first runner up to one of William Faulkner’s books for the National Book Award. The current economic climate could inspire another wave of interest in the book.

Tutorials Galore

I've just made an amazing internet find. Kymy, who writes the Everything Your Mama Made blog, has compiled an amazing list of tutorials. It's basically having access to the fruits of an internet-savvy, organized and experienced crafter's search for good how-to articles.

She calls it a bookmark clean-up. The number of tutorials is nearing 500, and they are organized into categories.

You could make a gift for everyone on your list from this list. There are links to quality tutorials on everything from a fabric dollhouse to a plastic bag dispenser to quilting techniques.

Gifts

I always feel like gift-giving is so telling of the giver and reciever's relationship. Giving someone something that they don't like means that 1) The giver doesn't know the reciever well enough to get them something that suits them or 2) The giver didn't care enough to search out something that would. Giver just wanted the task to be done.

With that in mind, holiday shopping is so hard.

Applique circles

Who knew aluminum foil is the secret ingredient to a better circle? I like this trick I found on Anna Maria Horner's blog.

Buy Handmade

Going to the mall makes me disapointed in humanity. I will enjoy the holidays so much more if I just don't do it. I'm buying and making handmade gifts instead. The things I find on etsy.com and at craft fairs are unique and interesting. It's satisfying to buy something from the person who made it.

Buying something handmade is benefitting society so much more than buying something mass produced.
If you aren't convinced, read more here http://www.buyhandmade.org/why-buy-handmade.

Handmade Thread Earrings

I bought these earrings for my sister for her cosmetology school graduation. They were made by SincearJewlery out of Atlanta. They are made of thread handwoven around what looks like a spring from a pen. This pair was designed to look like a sunset, but there are a lot of different color combinations available in SincearJewlery's etsy shop.