Last year, when I found out that my high school band teacher was going to retire this year, I thought about getting her a special retirement gift. I came up with the idea to have a friend design a collage of her favourite things, and I’d get the design made it into a puzzle that I’d put together and get it framed. This is the end result (with a matching mousepad). I had the gift all ready since January, and while I did not want time to fly by, I still wanted May to come so I could give this to her. This gift is finally in her hands.

Holiday Fudge! (recipe)

Holiday Spiced Nuts! (recipe)

Holiday Sugar and Coffee Scrubs! (recipe)

Throughout this year, I had discovered how to make various little DIY gifts, so I decided to combine all what I knew to give them to people for the holidays this year. So the above things I made this year were gifted to various people. Despite the time crunch I found myself in, I really had fun doing this. So much easier and better than going out and buying gifts. Shopping for ingredients and supplies is far easier than shopping for like 10+ people!

All of the gifts above, the 46 holidays card I mailed off, 24 holiday goodie bags for the kids I work with, a letter book to M., and of course this gift . . . I ended up only buying gifts for two little kids and some coffee for my two male co-workers. Not bad, I say! Anyway, Happy Holidays! I hope you all have a good one!

Way back in October, I had shared a photo of my super sekrit project involving a lot of markers.

I finished it last Saturday, and it is on its way to my best friend in Guam via her mother. Aside from that Afghan I knitted for my dad last year, this is perhaps one of my most ambitious projects ever. See, I wanted to do a special present for her, a handmade present. I thought about sending her this friendship keepsake box, but I didn’t like how I couldn’t fully customise it, plus it just didn’t have the same OOMPH, I wanted. Then when I went to the PX to look around for ideas, I found a 96-picture 4×6 photo album, and then the idea hit me to chronologise our long friendship (we’ve been friends since 1991!) onto 4×6 index cards. The cover was designed with these Martha Stewart stickers I found at the PX, and the markers and pens were used to document the memories onto the index cards.

As you can see . . . I lack any kind of art skills. A preschooler can do better, I think! My illustrations are pretty . . . bad, but I TRIED. HAHAHA. Seriously, I labelled almost EVERYTHING I drew so she could see what they are instead of guessing with them. I am not proud of my art skills (and my handwriting), but I am pleased by the final product.

Even though I am pleased, I am left with this feeling of, “How the hell can I top this gift in the future?!” *sighs* I guess I better get my butt on that imaginary teleporter project.

After the success of my home-made coffee sugar scrub, I decided to try making a home-made bath tea milk soak. That meant, I finally had a use for this coffee grinder I bought . . . but lo and behold, it was not easy grinding those oatmeal! Now I know how the Ingalls family felt grinding for those wheat in The Long Winter. It took me 30 minutes to grind the oatmeal twice to get the powdery consistency I wanted. Thankfully, the tea didn’t take long to crush in the grinder.

I decided to use Earl Grey as my tea (and to get rid of the Bigelow brand I’ve had sitting in my pantry). I am not sure if the soak ended up being a success or not. Maybe I am not used to bath soaks, but I am not sure how to rate it. The soak didn’t turn me blue, nor did it leave me itchy and scaly . . . so I assumed it worked.

Bath Tea Milk Soak
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup dry milk
1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
3-4 teaspoons tea of your choice (which equates to about 3-4 tea bags)

1. In a blender or food processor mix all the ingredients until it is powdery.
2. If you own a coffee grinder, grind the oatmeal and the tea, and then mix everything in a bowl.

I am working on a new project. The actual project is in that Exchange bag, and surrounding it are the supplies I am using. I’ll reveal what it is when I am done!