Handmade or Store Bought

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Yesterday my blog was about Crafting with Kids. It actually goes along with today’s blog of Handmade or Store Bought when it comes to gift giving. This is the link if you missed it. http://themarthareview.com/crafting-with-kids/

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The other day Lia was helping me make a pillow. She loves to sit on my lap (just like her mommy did at her age) and make sure I stitch a straight lane and pull the pins out of the seam we are sewing. As we were sewing it gave me an idea for a blog! Do you like receiving handmade gifts? If you had the option when receiving or giving a gift would you choose handmade or store bought? How I cherish them because they are made with love.

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There’s something about giving a handmade gift. Usually much thought is put into what you plan to make and also who it is for. Of course since I love to sew, many of the gifts I give are sewn items. One of my favorite gifts are photo pillows. These are great because I can look through someone’s gallery and find a photo they’ve taken and turn it into a lasting pillow memory for them. It’s a total surprise to the receiver because it’s something they probably would have never guessed. This is a friend from when I was in grade school. We reconnected through Facebook about 8 years ago and she only lives about 6 hours away from us! She lives on a horse farm and this is a picture of Janis and one of her beloved horses. Lady passed away and when we went to visit Janis, I took a pillow I had made for her riding Lady. A special memory for sure.

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We have a dear FB friend that is an excellent photographer. In the winter months she can’t get to the mountains as often to photograph the animals so I took one of her awesome bear photos and turned it into a pillow for her, Lia even helped me sew this one too! She was totally surprised when it arrived but I was totally surprised when she told me about the photo I used. I knew where the photo was taken but I didn’t know the background. Seems that Faye captured the most loving picture of this mama bear and her cub. Now she also names the animals and this cub was named after her brother who had recently passed away. Was I surprised when she told me that and now she had a pillow to hug and think of her brother at the same time. So sometimes the handmade gifts I give have a loving meaning that I don’t even realize until after the gift is received.

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If a gift is for a baby or young child my favorite item to make is a Minky blanket. There are so many different options, first I secretly try to find out colors of the room and if they have a theme or favorite play toy. If someone likes dinosaurs I’ll find a cool fabric with dinosaurs to make a Minky. If they like fire trucks, I like to use a red Minky fabric with the fire trucks.

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There are so many options for making the perfect Minky blanket for a baby, child, or even an adult. I was even able to find pineapple fabric to surprise a young lady who loves pineapples!

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I love to surprise people with handmade gifts even if it’s not a special occasion. Way back in the 1980’s we created and fabricated window treatments for a gorgeous turn of the century home in Saratoga Springs, New York. I remember the beautiful navy blue fabric with flowers in shades of pink for the bedspread, lounge chair, draperies and bed hanging. The room was large and the fabric was perfect, it even matched the wallpaper! We have kept in touch with this wonderful family through the years and when the moved to Cape Cod the bedroom treatments went with them!

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Fast forward to a few years ago and Susan had a devastating stroke and was in a nursing home rehab for a long time. She had a rough time but she’s always been a fighter. I knew I had to come up with a way to cheer her up. I thought back and remembered she loved pigs and had a collection of pigs, all kinds and sizes, from all different places. So I checked on pig fabrics and found Peppa Pig in about the same colors as in her bedroom fabric! Peppa Pig is a cartoon type pig and I thought that would be perfect to make a Peppa Pig Minky blanket to go over her lap when she was in her wheelchair. When Peppa Pig arrived to Susan I received a lovely thank you note from her daughter saying how much Susan loved it but mostly was surprised I remembered she loved pigs! So once again I was happy I made our friend happy! So when I make a handmade gift, I get as much if not more joy out of giving to someone as they do receiving it.

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Lia and I had one more surprise pillow project the other day. I told her we needed to find a pretty fabric like papa’s roses. She looked through our fabric pile and found one with pink roses just like from papa’s garden! Next we pulled out a pretty shade of pink Minky and started our pillow.

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After we stitched it, Lia stuffed the pillow all by herself. She loves doing sewing projects and when the pillow was finished she inspected it just like she does the Minky Blankets since she is our quality control inspector. The pillow passed inspection!

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This was a two piece gift project. First we made the pillow then Lia designed and created a one of a kind card. I love her little “writings” she adds to her cards.

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Of course you know I can’t go without mentioning gifts of sweets! I’ve always like to bake but I think I’ve baked more in the past year with Lia than I have in the past 10 years. LOL Lia loves to grab her apron and we spend the morning or afternoon in the kitchen baking cookies, cakes and now lots of bread!

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Lia and I love to make cookie boxes for some of the neighbors and surprise them with a sweet treat. Lia even makes special cards to put in her cookie boxes.

When Ruthie lived across the street we were always exchanging cookies, cakes and we’d even make up meal prep dinners from Rich’s yummy meatballs and other meals we prepared. If she had already had dinner, all she had to do was heat it up the next day.

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Ruthie was quite a baker too, she would bring a plate full of her delicious chocolate drop cookies topped with frosting and a cherry. She would also bring goodies over for our birthdays and holidays! Always a surprise as to what was on the plate but always baked with love. She would even put a little bag of treats for our pup on the plate! Last year our grandson from Indiana was visiting and he asked if Ruthie still lived across the street. He mentioned about her always bringing cookies over and how sweet she was. Zac ran over to say hi and even though she hadn’t seen him in years she knew right away it was Zac. A bit later that afternoon, the doorbell rang, there was Ruthie was a plate of her delicious cookies for Zac! It’s gifts like this that mean so much and the memories will stay with you for a long time.

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The gifts I cherish the most are the handmade ones from the grands and great grandchildren. Nothing more precious than a picture of a child’s handprints or a picture of scribbles and fingerpaint. A macaroni or painted picture frame is always special and even paper craft where my grandson makes paper cranes of all sizes. It’s these gifts that are worth the most and will be cherished forever.

It takes time and thought when creating a handmade gift, it’s totally different than going online or running to the store to pick up a gift. When it comes to our great grandchildren’s baby showers and birthdays I usually get a store bought gift but always like to add a handmade item. But some of the parents in this generation aren’t into handmade gifts, it seems like they make shopping wish lists online and want you to pick something from that. When I give a handmade gift most are excited and I love seeing the pictures that they send to me. Some look at it, stick it in the closet and I never even see a picture of it with the baby or get a thank you. Times sure have changed from days past, I sure wish they realized the memories in years to come what a handmade gift would mean. But I guess I’ll always be different and have my grandmother’s love for handmade in me. The babies I give gifts to will all get a Minky blanket, an embroidered towel or piece of clothing because it’s filled with love.

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When I posted this question on Facebook, all the comments were they would rather receive a handmade gift, one from the heart. From Lia’s smile when she was four months old, she loves handmade gifts like this adorable crocheted crown our neighbor made for the Princess. So what is your preference, handmade or store bought when it comes to giving or receiving gifts?