Homemade for the Holidays

This little elf has been tinkering away in her workshop for weeks, crafting lots of holiday gifties.

With a large garlic harvest this year, I dehydrated quite a bit and put it through the spice grinder to make garlic powder.

When a friend told me he was making beef jerky for gifts, I was all like, "Whoa, that's a brilliant idea!"  So I made some too.

Pretty much everyone on my list is getting one of these little soap sacks.  It's for when your bars of soap get too small and fussy to use.  You put all those little slivers into the sack and use them up!

I had a panic attack when I realised I spelled coffee 'liquor' and not 'liqueur' and pretty much decided that Christmas was ruined because of it.  Then, while watching TV at my mom's the other night, a commercial for Kahlua come on with the tagline: "Kahlua, the original coffee liquor." Ha!  So Christmas is not ruined after all, but I'm pretty sure the commercial got it wrong too.

I loved making these herbal salves.  I lined up all my infused oils, picked some wonderful smelling combinations, melted the beeswax and spent a few hours concocting various salves and balms.

Aside from one brief and focused trip to a mall, and another to a specialty, local shop, I managed to avoid all shopping chaos, and instead, really enjoyed making these quick and easy, stress free gifts for my loved ones.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful, happy and safe holiday season!  May it be merry and bright!