I have taken a few days off from the blog, not by choice. I hurt my back - I don't know how and have been having muscle spasms for the past 4 days. Boy oh, boy! That can sure make one miserable! Well, I am not the kind of person who suffers in silence -- I let everyone around me know how crappy I feel and sad to say, I can get rather mean. My husband is the one who suffers in silence -- sometimes I wonder that he doesn't garrott me (strangle me) but he just does everything I ask for and even when I complain that he didn't do it right he tries again and again to please me...
BUT ANYWAY (I know that certain people who read this will agree and call me a bully and other people who know me will be surprised and say NO, not you, SUSAN) But yes, me -- not all the time tho, mostly I am a pretty nice person. (or try to be ) I like to think I work very hard to suppress some of the tendancies that come from my maternal side of the family and enhance the patience and consideration that comes from the paternal side.
I have been thinking about SHOPPING. I have been thinking about it because many people tend to spend more and want more as we get closer to the Christmas Season. Buying PRESENTS is what so many of us do for CHRISTMAS, but all those gifts, do we really want to buy them? or are some of those gifts simply because we feel obligated to get them.
Now, I am an online shop vendor and would love to encourage you to shop in my little store! But in all practicallity (did I spell that right?) that doesn't make sense -- I just don't have the variety of goods needed to satisfy everything on everyone's list. You would have to go to that big "W" or similar type of store to accomplish that! But. Then again, do you really need to be buying things just for the sake of buying them to fulfill an obligation? (I am working on a blog post that will explain some of the things to make shopping online easier to accomplish, especially if you have not done it before -- so come back in the next few days for a bit of a shopping tutorial)
Partly because of finances in the last three years, my thoughts on what I can give and what I want to give has become a major question in my household. There are a few people who I really LOVE giving things To and there are those that I have stopped giving To because of reasons that make giving a burden and a feeling of unappreciation.
The thought of a gift being just another piece of junk is quite frustrating to me because I generally try to give handmade items. (But even purchased gifts from those big store can quickly become junk when the recipient has no appreciation)
I don't give handmade because I am cheap -- by no means can you call todays raw materials for creating CHEAP! Even relatively inexpensive acrylic yarn is about $5 a skein and most things, even a scarf takes 2 or more skeins and that cost does not include the 20 hours or more that it takes to make the item!
A handmade scarf's value probably starts around $50! What about a set of quilted placemats? Fabric, at $15 a meter, or sometimes on sale about $10 a meter-- a set of 4 placemats will take 2 to 3 metres of fabric, plus the inner layer of batting which can equal the cost of the fabric. What about the thread, the needles and even the sewing machine that is needed to put the project together? Sewn items are a very good value -- would you think that including the time, materials and years of know how, that a $100 for a set of placemats is a reasonable value? Well, maybe it comes close.
How many people give you gifts that have that kind of value? Has anyone every given you a quilt -- would you think they were giving you something that should be valued at $500 or more? No? So what makes an iPad a better gift than a quilt, speaking strictly money wise?
Above all, most of the people who make things for those they LOVE, put LOVE into what they make, a special design, a special pattern, a special size -- ONE OF A KIND with thought and caring in every single stitch. When Ma, or Grandma makes a pair of mittens for you she is thinking about YOU when ever she is working on the project. What do they say? It's the thought that counts. Well, it surely is! You are being remembered and thought about when your handcrafted item is being made for you. Someone is thinking of you right now, while your gift is being made! The idea that someone has you in mind and perhaps is remembering good times they have spent with you is woven, hammered or sewn into the cellular structure of that item!
Why is the value of handcrafted items so undervalued and even looked upon as CHEAP? Now after this many years of giving "hand crafted items" I do understand that some people would rather get a new bedspread from one of those discount stores every year or even every season for $39 so that the bedspread can change with the season and the decor -- a hand crafted quilt will last 20 years, not 20 weeks like the mass produced item. Whenever you look at the hand made gift an image of it's maker rises up in your mind. Sweet Memories. Even years later when you no longer have the item or the maker in your life, you have the memory. How many broken plastic toys stay in your thoughts?
Now when you give something that you made to someone who wanted a game for their player and you have made a knitted hat, or perhaps spent hours cutting and sanding and finishing a toy box and you see that look of disappointment -- it is hard on your heart, I know. I have seen it, and I have done it to my own gramma myself -- today I would give almost anything for a pair of her knee high hand knitted cable ribbed socks -- but those are long ago gone and only a memory.
Hand made is becoming rarer and rarer in our world. Learning the craft of creating something is falling by the wayside, simply because it is easier to buy the mass produced winter hat, or the plastic doll, or the plastic, one time use tablecloth...
My little tirade here is not against purchased gifts -- there are certain things that it does take mass production to create, and we need to buy them too. Just think tho how precious those hand made things are -- the maker has to have started to make that item, weeks or months ahead of the gift giving day -- there is very little crafting going on, on Christmas Eve, a quilt or a crochet shawl or a stain glass lamp cannot be done up in the last shopping hours! Even buying hand made items from online shops or from local craft fairs means that the maker has been creating these things through the summer months when you went to the beach!
All, I am saying, is think about what you give and who you give it to. Is it a JOY to give, or is it an exercise in frustration?
Now, I am going up to my sewing space because I have a couple of things to sew up for some lovely little girls....
