From the Heart of your Home ...

... come the loveliest of gifts, those that have been made with your very own hands ~ or perhaps the helpful little hands all around you. :)

Handmade gifts might come from the kitchen, the garden or the craft basket ... but whatever their source, they always come from the heart and they are always lovely ...

And so it is with great pleasure I announce that The Loveliness of Handmade Gifts will be right here next week on Thursday, November 8th! And I am cordially inviting everyone to join me!

Please share your thoughts and plans for making homemade gifts this year - or tell us about gifts you've made in years past. Bloggers and non-bloggers alike are welcome to participate (see below for my contact information).

Here are some ideas to jump-start your thoughts ...

~ What are your favorite homemade gifts to give and receive?

~ Do you plan to make some gifts this year?

~ Are you perhaps longing to do so but can't find the time? (A post about not making gifts is fine too!)

~ Do you have a signature gift for which you are "famous" within certain circles?

~ How about your thoughts on how handmade gifts can save a family money?

~ Or perhaps what great lessons they teach children who give and receive them - patience and creativity?

~ Do you set up a "Santa's Workshop" for yourself? What supplies do you lay in for gift making?

~ What are your favorite gift making resources - where do you get your ideas? (Some of my favorites will appear soon on the sidebar at right.)

~ How about handmade cards and gift-wrapping?

~ What about gifts of time, love and energy?

(And for more ideas, please see last year's Handmade Gifts Fair!)

Any ideas about homemade gifts are welcome and I would love to hear from you! If you are a blogger, please send me a link to your post or leave me a link in the comments box below. And if you're not a blogger, you are also more than welcome to join in the fun! Just send me an email with your ideas about handmade gifts (and a picture if you'd like) and I will plug you right into the Fair!

Please send all submissions for the Loveliness of Handmade Gifts to drhanigan AT comcast DOT net. I would like to have everything by next Wednesday night so I can get the post up bright and early Thursday morning!

And please feel free to help me spread the word! Grab the Loveliness button above, and invite your readers to join us!

So let's get our creative engines going, ladies ~ Christmas is just seven weeks away! November is here and it's the weekend! Let's get those thinking caps on ... and get out those needles and that glue and those cookie cutters and that rolling pin ... ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to hear from you soon! :)

Comments

[Meredith from Merchant Ships]

For once, I'm going to enter this fair! I never get the deadlines right, so thanks for the reminder.

[Nori Coleman]

I would like to participatehere is my link
http//noricoleman.typepad.com/anewspringtime/2007/11/id-rather-be-cr.html

[Megan]

Hi....I love making homemade gifts and shhhh don't tell anyone....gift recycling. Here's my blog for "selling" stuff www.pearlgirlproductions.com. I found your site via Amy Caroline at knitting catholic mama. Thanks.

[Amy]

Hi, Dawn. I've been a 'lurker' for quite some time, and I don't know how this thing works...

I'll just tell you what I'm planning on making. I'm making terrariums for my friends out of antique mason jars. They will have beautiful miniature red rose plants inside the jars. I will be baking up a storm, giving work/school acquaintances, neighbors, the mailman self-decorated sugar cookies and ginger snaps wrapped in cute little white paper lunchbags (purchased at Dollar Tree, of course!) I'm planning on making handmade photo books for my family w/ pictures from our annual beach trip. I've never done handmade book binding before, so this will be an experiment. Oh, and I will be knitting mittens for my friends out of this gorgeous recycled silk yarn I got from eBay for next to nothing. Not sure what to do for the DBF yet...

[Amy]

PS- I forgot that we are also making homemade moonshine for our mutual friends and giving out honey from our hives (we're backyard beekeepers!).

[Candace]

Dawn, thanks for hosting this again this year! I loved reading it last year...so this year I decided to write up an entry as well! I sent you 2 emails I believe, about this. Let me know if you didn't get them for some reason. I can't wait to read about all the wonderful ideas that are shared!

[Terry]

Hi Dawn. I have a blog link for your fair. It's a fairly new blog I started to blog about my homemade gift baskets. It's a neat candy bouquet I designed.

Thanks.

http://poshbaskets.blogspot.com/2007/11/candy-bouquet.html

[Cindy]

Mine is up as well. Thanks for hosting.

http://kellysklassroomkorner.blogspot.com/2007/11/loveliness-of-handmade-gifts.html

PS - Terry in the comment before me is my SIL!