I typed a long response and then my electricity went down for about two minutes. grrrr Barb, your cutting board is gorgeous! HUGE pic. But gorgeous. A furniture making course -- wow, good for you! I hope you do it. Amity, getting your clay pots at Goodwill was a great idea. You can paint them with house paint, decorate them with craft paint, and seal them inside and out with spar varnish. If you saw my thread about curb appeal projects, that's how I did mine. You can use stencils, and make polka dots with a q-tip, and checks with a flat brush. I'll put a link in for you. Nan, loved the Furoshiki bags video. I'll bet your DS was so proud of himself! Hats off to those of you crocheting and embroidering. We want pictures, please. Mari, thanks for that link! $200 for the basket? You've got a great 'Plan B' there. Tell us more about how you filled the baskets, please. I was wondering if there is a way to make slippers with rice-filled or whatever soles that can be stuck in the micro for cold tired winter feet. A super gift for a baby or toddler is buy a Raggedy (Ann or Andy) and enhance all the features and the heart by embroidering over them with red and black floss. This makes the features just pop. Then embroider the baby's name and b-date on the tummy. Very appreciated. I think some of them have music boxes in them. The Best Present Ever for grandparents is a calendar you make yourself. Use 8.5x11 card stock and get it comb bound by your local cheapie print shop. Put a 5x8 glossy photo of your kid(s) for each month. Dec on Santa's lap, Jan playing in the snow, Aug at the beach and so on. Leave a blank page between each month so if grandma writes appointments on her calendar it won't go through and damage the photo. At the end of the year she'll have a record of the kids growth. Make one for you too! You gals making the jam, are you doing the parafin seal on it? Or is this freezer jam? Please be super careful when pouring a big heavy pot of that hot, hot stuff! Here is a link that might be useful: painting pots

I do Yule rather than Christmas, and tend to start pondering it fairly early so that if I am going to make something or quest for an oddity (such as on eBay) I have the time to do so. I hate shopping to begin with and really try hard not to enter a store except for grocery stores and pharmacies from mid-November to mid-January because it all just about drives me postal. I have a pretty short list primarily comprised of "chosen family" - my blood family is not a close one at all due to multiple divorces and strange custody arrangements when we sibs were growing up, so among my blood family I only do gifts to my mother and one toddler niece. (The adult siblings agreed about ten years ago to stop exchanging gifts with each other and nieces/nephews over 21. It was all just getting out of hand.) Most of the people in my chosen family are around the poverty line income-wise so we put a very strict limit on the cost of gifts (and that includes materials to make homemade gifts) and we're talking like $5. Last year virtually all my Yule gifts came from the Edward R. Hamilton bookstore which specializes in remaindered books at extremely deep discounts; because they have such a peculiar selection, I was able to get a "couldn't be more perfect" book for each person on my list and stay under budget (okay, I admit it, I did average it out so one person's $3 book let me get a $7 book for someone else, but it was agreed by all that that was fair). Luckily everyone who's likely to get a present from me is as much of a book maniac as I am. One of my favorite sites for odd and funny gifts for women is Femail Creations. Lots of cool stuff with a feminist bent but they don't smash it upside your head with a sledgehammer; I think they try to have as many of their products made by women or women-owned companies as possible. For my hippie and "alternative" friends, Northern Sun is my go-to place. Conservatives' heads are likely to explode, so just don't go there. You have been warned. One of my physio buddies gave me a huge beading needle today so Fire Mountain Gems may get an order for gemstone beads to make some jewelry. I've been wanting to do some Pagan prayer beads for a few years now and never seem to get to it, maybe this will be the year. Rolled beeswax candles are so easy to make a child can do it, and the markup on these in the stores is just INSANE. (In fact, it's for this reason that they're nifty gifts for a kid to make to give to teachers, Scout leaders, etc. because they are so cheap to make but look like they're not, and they're both consumable and easily regiftable.) I buy my wax and wicks from General Wax. They have plenty of premade candles too, of course, but regular candles are getting to be such a boring gift IMO, especially the stinky ones (most of which I can't even keep in the house until I can regift them, they're so strong). I hate wrapping presents - gift bags all the way. I bought a box of 100 plain brown and white recycled-paper ones in mixed sizes a few years ago for something like $20, and pick up tissue paper when it's on sale for 25 cents a pack after the holidays. Works for any occasion and no fuss. I also save any gift bags, nifty boxes, etc. that I receive and reuse them. Maybe I'll see if DH can get the hang of making those little origami gift boxes if I do jewelry - I've never been able to get them to come out right.

I'm a beekeeper and a soap maker. If you plan on keeping bees you won't be able to take honey and beeswax from them until the 2nd year. If someone is giving you the honey and beeswax you can use it after filtering and processing. Note: Too much honey will cause your soap to overheat and sometimes it oozes out of the soap, ruining the batch so it is best to use very little. Beeswax lip balms, creams and candles are great! There is a book on the market called "The Backyard Beekeeper" that has a few basic recipes for cream, lip balm, skin toner, and soap. Cost will depend on the cost of materials and your time. If you determine how much to charge based on someone elses calculations you may be losing money.

Forgive my ignorance for not reading this thread (not my read) and seeing previous comments if anyone stated this before, but if you do enjoy candles try soy candles. Regular wax burning candles (Yankee being one of them) leek potential hazardous fumes and chemicals that can be carcinogenic (no sourced article here but there are several sourced medical journals with this study). I would stay from candles all together and use artificial ones for that glow, or mood lights, aromatherapy oils are fine too.  Soy candles if you really want candles. Keep the wick short no matter the brand, dont let it burn for more than a couple hours at most, immediately cover the candle with the topper or a plate after done using it. It exhausts the fire, preventing any stains on walls. And keep it in the middle of the room you're using it in.