Christmas Gifts Preview: Day Eight

This gift is for a teen-aged niece. I thought of her when I saw the "Forever Sunshine" B&BW products, especially since yellow is her favorite color.

I made a Gaptastic Cowl using some Lion Brand Homespun yarn. This is what it looks like at full length:

And this is what it looks like doubled-up:

To match those, I made some Peppermint Patties fingerless mittens:

My total cost for this gift was around $7 to fill a large gift box.

Christmas Gifts Preview: Day Seven

This gift was a little hard to photograph because of the shrink wrap, but I really like how it turned out. I had this box leftover from a few years ago and decided to use it as the base for this gift.

Also included are several color-coordinated Bath & Body Works items, a spatula, recipe cards, heart-shaped measuring spoons, hand sanitizer, magnetic paper pad, and two handmade dishcloths.

To keep everything together and to keep them from falling out, I bought shrink wrap plastic from the dollar store. (It didn't work as well this time as the last time, but oh well.)

My total cost for this gift: around $8.

Christmas Gifts Preview: Day Six

I know Christmas is officially over for this year, but I'm going to continue sharing this year's Christmas gifts. I hope it will give you inspiration for birthdays and Christmases to come!

This collection gift was for my sister-in-law who was like a second mother to my husband. (They have a large family.) She's a fantastic lady, so I was thrilled to be able to fill this box with a mixture of storebought pretties and handmade-from-the-heart gifts.

There are several vintage sheet napkins, a homemade scrubbie, a hand-knit butterfly hat, and a vintage sheet apron to go with the storebought goodies.

Total cost for this gift: around $6 to fill a large gift box.

Christmas Gifts Preview: Day Five

As soon as I saw the Paris Amour fragrance at Bath & Body Works, I thought of this niece. So I was thrilled to find out that this apron and ruffle scarf match it perfectly!

I thought I had posted this apron on my blog before, but I can't seem to find it. Sorry, because the gift has already been given!

Cost for this gift: around $8 to fill a large gift box

Christmas Gifts Preview: Day Four

I had a lot of fun pairing up items from my gift stash this year! Since neither my husband nor I could remember if this niece's favorite color is blue or green, I decided to do both and make sure I got it right. :)

The apron (made from vintage sheets) is mostly blue, as is the hand sanitizer and holder. The Bath & Body Works Cucumber Melon body wash is green. The ruffle scarf pulled both of the colors together nicely. My cost for this gift was around $7, and it fills a large gift box.

Christmas Gifts Preview: Day Three

Whenever Bath & Body Works has their semi-annual sales, I like to use those $10/$40 coupons and stock up on lady and teen girl gifts for the year. Who doesn't like Bath & Body Works products? (Probably a few people, but none of them are on my gift list.)

As I was going through my gift stash, I noticed that this purple ruffle scarf perfectly matched the packaging on the "Be Enchanted" lotion. It was a perfect pairing, and I paid around $6 for the whole gift, not including my time. I consider that a fantastic price for a gift this nice.

Christmas Gift Preview: Day Two

My husband's family does a random gift exchange every year, and we're supposed to keep the cost between $3-5. Unless you've been living under a rock for the last ten years, you'll understand how challenging it can be to get something that isn't tacky or useless in that price range. Somehow we all manage to find nice things, though, because there are always nice gifts in the exchange. Last year was the year of fleece throws. :)

At any rate, this gift illustrates the principle that "presentation is everything." I picked up the spatulas, candles, soap dispenser and recipe box (the container) for around $0.10-0.25 each when dollar items went on clearance, mostly at Michaels. I crocheted the two dishcloths with brand-new yarn I picked up at Goodwill for a fantastic price. (Remember this box?)

Christmas Gifts Preview: Day One

If you need some inexpensive gift or packaging ideas for Christmas this year, I hope my next few posts will help you out! I also hope that none of my husband's family members read my blog ... :)

We picked up this little purse at a thrift store since it was bag day (everything you can fit in a bag for $2) and "A" is the first letter of our 11-year-old niece's first name. Since it was used, I didn't want it to be the gift. But it made a great gift bag for the rest of the gift - a ruffle scarf, two hand sanitizers, and a sanitizer holder.

Dollar Tree find!

While I was picking up the last few gift-wrapping supplies at Dollar Tree on Monday, I ran across these Hot Wheels customizable license plates:

I suspected $1 was a fantastic price for these, so I snatched up enough for all the boys on my list who get birthday and/or Christmas gifts. I was right, since I looked them up on Amazon and saw that they are going for $4.99 and up.

You get two license plates in each package, as well as a sheet of reusable letters and numbers. This would be perfect for kids with unique names or spellings who never seem to find their names on the pre-printed license plates they sell.

I'm giving my kids a set as a Christmas countdown gift, so I'll let you know if we have any difficulty with the letters.

I can't guarantee that your store will have them, but it's worth a look the next time you're in the store!

P.S. Now that my kids have opened them, I noticed that they're plastic. It's not a dealbreaker with me (nor is it a surprise), but I realized that some of you may be expecting metal. Also, they are stamped on the back of the plate with the Dollar Tree information, so they may end up being a regular item, at least for awhile. Who knows? My kids loved them and customized their own within ten minutes.

More Ruffle Scarves

I made a few more ruffle scarves, but I made these for personal gifts this time. (If you like these colors and want them from my Etsy shop, drop me a line and I can do a custom order for you.)

This pink one was for my daughter's birthday. She loved it!

This purple one was for the Christmas gift stash.

If you can knit basic stitches and need a pretty quick gift, these ruffle scarves are a great option for last-minute gift-giving this year!

(Or you can purchase them from my Etsy shop to help my friend's family with the costs associated with her daughter's cancer treatments and burial expenses.)

Remember November Socks Test Knit

I recently test-knit another sock pattern for a friend on Ravelry. If you're looking for a good introduction to sock-knitting, this would be a good one. There's no scary "turning the heel" to worry about - it's an after-thought heel that uses basic stitches.

 It's also highly adaptable to whatever your foot size or preferred sock size. I have a smallish foot, but I was able to adjust it very easily to fit my feet. I also prefer anklets (unless it's winter), so that's what I made. It was really quite easy and straightforward.

Another nice thing is that they're toe-up, which means you're not going to run out of yarn unexpectedly. I think that's my favorite aspect of toe-up socks!

If you're interested in trying them, the pattern is called Remember November Socks. It's a very low-priced pattern, and I'm pretty sure pattern sales go to her son's college bill.

Pink Princess Shawl

When my daughter saw a red shawl I had knitted for myself (no pictures yet - give me some time for my foot to heal), she told me that she wants a shawl, but hers has to be pink.


Since 7-year-old girls (especially mine) are prone to accidental spills and such, I made hers out of acrylic (mine was a wool/llama blend). And since I happen to have a ton of worsted-weight pink acrylic on hand, that’s what I used.

I worked from the cast on the whole way to the edging in one day. (I knit most of the day since it was a day off.) I was surprised to find that it used almost all of my pink yarn. Yay for stashbusting! I needed to buy some white yarn to finish the project, so it sat for a few days until I could get out to buy some white yarn for the edging.

I think I'll be giving her this for Christmas. If you're interested in knitting a cute child-sized shawl, this pattern is called Princess by Angela Tong, and it's a free one.