Holiday Gift Making 101

My friend who I am visiting for Christmas requested several weeks ago that we exchange homemade gifts only this holiday season. At first, this idea was very appealing to me. I fancy myself to be a creative person and I had some initial good ideas. Those ideas included - knitting a scarf,blanket or dog bed; painting a nice landscape, still life or portrait; burning a series of CDs of really good music; or making an inventive coupon book. There turned out to be issues with each of these ideas - I don't know how to knit and don't have the patience to learn; I'm not a painter, nor do I want to become one only for this one Christmas; my friend has all the same music that I do and if I bought more, I didn't think it would really count and that idea is boring; coupon books suck - worst gift ever. After you reach the age of 5, you are no longer allowed to give out coupon books. So, I was left with secondary ideas. I won't bore you with going through all the little crafty things I attempted. Just know it is impossible to find 1" clear glass gems or a 1/2" craft hole punch, so don't even bother looking. Chad came over one night last week to go over another project step-by-step with me so I would know exactly how to do it. He did the craft project while I watched Fringe. I spent more money buying supplies for these stupid ideas than I would had I just gone to the store and gotten something awesome that would have actually been useful. Or at least nice looking. Eventually, I collected some photos and sent them to a company that knows what to do with them to create a decent gift. I know that this is not exactly what my friend had in mind, but it was as close as I could get without losing my fucking mind. Her birthday is several days after Christmas and there were no rules assigned to that gift, so I am assuming I can buy whatever the hell I want. So, I'm a buyer, not a maker. This isn't something I'm proud to admit, but I will say that I am doing my part to turn this recession around. I should get some life points for that.