My list:

My Husband: I will be screen printing various nerdy t-shirts like this. He is also getting new essentials, socks and underwear and such. I'm still trying to figure a few more things out.

Mom: Ice chest stocked with homemade frozen meals. I will be getting this ice chest along with this Pyrex set. I may look for older, vintage Pyrex if I can get the lids separately on eBay, because I have heard claims of the newer Pyrex shattering. I will make OAMC meals along with frozen cookie dough balls and frozen jar pies. The OAMC meals will be made in the Pyrex and then popped out once frozen, so that the frozen casserole can be cooked in the Pyrex but all the dishes are not stuck in the freezer. I will be working on a list of food to include.

I am also making her a shadow box of my great-grandmother's sewing items, including a thread holder. The thread holder takes the old wooden spools so I am wrapping the spools with a single layer of thread in various colors. I've been working on this for the past year- I meant to give it to her last year!

Step-Dad: Home made Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese, home made salami, and homemade mustard. I will also include a nice wooden cutting board (like this) along with this santoku knife.

MIL: a decorative plate with a picture of my husband and his two siblings when they were children (tutorial)
A glass teapot along with some flowering teas

FIL: The salami, cheese and mustard kit from before, but without the cutting board or knife
A gift certificate for a truck detailing

My Aunt: Frozen meals, same as my mom.

My Brother: Not sure yet.

My Cousin: He is leaving for boot camp in January so I will be putting together a stationary kit with stamps and a nice zippered binder.

His Sister: A car detailing gift cert and her favorite See's candy

His BIL: The food kit from earlier (salami, mustard, cheese)

His Brother: Booze of some sort. DH is leaning towards ginger alcohol.

My Grandma: Home made bows and matching leashes for her new Shiatsu puppy.

His Grandma: Not sure yet, probably a blanket or scarf and mitten set

His Niece (14): Her last name is Watkins, so we are getting old glass Watkins bottles and refilling them with good lotions and such. We are also getting her cold cream and making lip balm and such, all in variations on the Watkins theme.

His nephews (9): They will each be getting their own pirate style chests. We changed this to the Klutz Encyclopedia of Immaturity books, vol. 1 and vol. 2.

Yay! More people! I can't wait for this swap to fill up so we can get our partners. I've been coming up with so many ideas but I really should wait until I have a partner.

This swap is not filling up fast enough! I can't wait to start crafting, I've started practicing a new technique that I hope to use here!

This is great!! I've been wanting to do another swap, and I love hp! I'm in!

California is awfully big... did you have an idea of where you'd like to be at? You might look at the Padre hotel in Bakersfield, CA. They have a rooftop bar that is opening next week or so and you might be able to get your 10-10-10 date. worth looking into, anyway.
www.thepadrehotel.c om

Sure, I'll be there, with the bf if he's off work.

I'm still down. We could go grab some jamba or something

Thanks everyone! It was really easy, the wire I used was about $7 for 200 ft at lowes, it was the smallest they had, not sure the guage but it's probably about 1/8 in thick. To twist it was easy but a bit time consuming, because you have to wait and let your hand rest. I did the whole tree with one helper this past weekend, back to back it might have taken 2 hours.

The way I did it was I cut 12 lengths of about 3 ft, folded each in half and twisted with the help of plyers. Then I twisted two strands together to all of them, and then twisted those together to make the trunk. At the top of the trunk I untwisted half of them to make the branches thicker.

One thing I used that made it a lot easier was my thick potholder glove. That took away the pain in my figures when twisting. Oh, and watch out for your eyes. I stabbed mine. wear glasses! And don't have the top branches spread out when you're messing with the roots.

All in all it cost just a few dollars and with a few more adjustments and a touch of paint, I think it will look just as good if not better than anything you could get in the store.

I've needed a stand for my jewelry, but I don't have anywhere to set one. So I made one to go on the wall.


I'll hang belts and scarves and hats on the bottom, and my necklaces on the top branches, and earrings in the loops at the end of the branches.






 I'm not sure if I'm done with it yet, I think I want the trunk to be a bit thicker, so I might wrap some more wire around it. I also need to figure out how to hang it on the wall. 

What do you think?

I'm doing art for my family this year- Taking good pictures and printing them onto a iron on transfer, and ironing that to a 8x10 canvas, and sticking it into a frame. You can do whatever size you'd like, really, if you get good at hiding seams. This does seem to warp the canvas slightly, but it's not noticeable and I'm gonna try it on different heat levels to see how much heat is really needed to transfer the image.
This is really cheap as well, I got my canvases at Dollar Tree and my frames from various thrift stores around, you don't need the glass.
Include a coupon to hang it, and then you wont be upset when you see it sitting against the wall next Easter.