[Novelafemme]

Jake, I would love to see your beedwork! Can you link us to your etsy site?

I also have loving memories of my mom and grandmother making canned goods. At the time we kiddos would tease them that they would can anything that didn't move. Now I realize how much of a necessity it was for us to make it through the winter on a tighter food budget.

Originally Posted by JakeTulane

Great thread, Novela. smiles.

I make semi-precious and precious stone jewelry. Right now, I focus alot on bracelets. However, I can make necklaces and earrings as well. I actually started out doing this as a form of meditation... at the urging of a friend of Mine out West. I quickly learned I was not to bad at it.. so I started giving the creations I made away as gifts. That kind of took off.. and I now have My own Etsy shop. I have made some for the members of this very site, whether they ordered them from Me or I have sent them as gifts.

More than anything, I like the knowing that someone is wearing something I handmade just for them. By their choosing of the colors, stone type, charm, or what have you that I might use.

I love the idea of making the tassled bookmarks. I am an avid reader and would enjoy receiving one of those as a gift, indeed.

Same with the making if jams and jellies. When My late maternal Gram was alive she would make Italian (My ethnicity) cookies each year. Anise, etc. We would help her frost them all (and there seemed like a zillion on the table at the time, laughs), and then help her package them up in tins and she would gift them to all the neighbors, family, and friends both here and all the way to California.

I think there are alot of great ideas out there right now, given the economy on how to still share "the love" with friends and family and not have to empty our wallets out to do so. In that vein of thinking, is that not what we should have been doing all along anyhow? smiles.