There are many things I wish I was. I wish I was more sporty, I wish I was taller, I wish I was cleverer. But top of the pile of things ‘I wish I…’ is crafty. I wish I was better at arts and crafts. I have beautiful ideas in my mind, but a mixture of dyspraxia, lack of time and patience means my efforts often fall far too short of what I envisioned them to be. Alas.
That doesn’t mean I don;t have a bash though, I do make things for people and love receiving handcrafted gifts from wonderfully crafty pals.
One gift that I loved receiving for it’s wonderful simplicity (and cleverness) and have since given as a gift myself, is the dry gingerbread jar. All the dry ingredients needed to make gingerbread put in a jar actually look quite pretty on their own. Add a nice label, some ribbon and a gingerbread man cutter and you are well away. Presenting gifts that look far more professional than your crafting abilities generally allow!
There are a few other areas where I can do crafty gifts and that’s cooking and knitting. I say I can do knitting, I can do knitted gifts if the things I’m knitting are square. I did make some really nice snoods for my sister-in-law and step-mum one year and have knitted some bobble hats for Noah, which he isn’t yet old enough to spurn as being “uncool” and “a bit crap”… both things they sadly are.
Where my knitting fails me though, my skills in the kitchen make up for it. For the last few years I have created some hampers, a mix of homemade and shop-bought goodies, that seem to have gone down well. Each year the key component of these hampers has been some homemade Christmas chutney. Nothing makes me feel more Christmassy than stirring a huge pot of chutney, nursing pretty severe sugar burns, happy days!
So, whether it is giving or recieving a homemade Christmas gift, I am all for them… Just know that if my gift to you looks a bit pants, I really have tried my best, that’s just as good as it gets, sadly.
Lex xx
Lexisms 
Great ideas, my crafty mind is going crazy right now!!