Forty five years or so ago, I had a pattern for a very large stuffed alligator for a child to play with and lay on. I made one for my son back in the mid 60's. I then loaned my pattern to someone and I never got it back. Recently I told my daughter Terri I wish I still had that pattern and I would make it for Alyssa. While looking on eBay she found a copy of the pattern and I had her to buy it for me. I now have the pattern and hope to make one for Alyssa for Christmas. The back of the alligator is patch work. I am getting my fabrics bought for it. Her's will be pinks and green. Terri hopes to make one for her little coming grandson in prints suitable for a little boy.

Sue

no...with one dd moving out to an apt, with the grands, and one dil, who won't have her contract renewed, it will be items they need...and for sure practical stuff for the grands....not going to be the best Christmas....

I do a lot of scrapbooking and card making and usually give an assortment of the cards I have made to my sister and friends.

A friend of mine sent me this just today, a pattern for microwave bowl pot holders. They would be easy to make and seem like they would make nice gifts. My friend says they are great as she lives alone and eats most of her meals sitting in her easy chair in front of the tv and these make it easy to carry hot bowls. She is also going to make some for plates.

Here is a link that might be useful: Microwave Bowl pot holder

My 6 year old grandson loves anything I knit or crochet, so I try to make a little toy for his stocking every year. I don't know what I will find to make this year. Of course, his little brother gets one too, but it often gets adopted by older brother who just loves yarn-y things.

dbfirewife, I'm not sure I understand how this is used. Do you put the bowl on/in it before you put it into the microwave? Doesn't it impact the cooking time? Thanks in advance for any help.

Fun2BHere... from what I understand you do put the bowl in it ahead of time. I really don't know if it impacts the heating time or not, if it does I can't imagine it would be by much time. I think these are meant to use when reheating foods, not actually cooking.

To me, that just looks like more laundry (along with longer cooking time).
Won't it get filthy as things 'explode' or boil over?

dbfirewife, thanks for the answers. I think this might be a good gift for my parents. I'm always looking for things that they actually would use.

Love the microwave bowl potholder. Thanks for that. I may not use it to heat it (but maybe I will. I see DH using it a lot. He likes to heat a snack to eat while watching TV and he always holds a kitchen towel under the bowl. This is a perfect stocking stuffer for him.

I think the idea is more along the lines of a tea cozy.

You'd use a regular potholder/mitt/dish towel to get the bowl out of the micro & then put it into the 'cozy' bowl.

& I wanna see a picture of that alligator!

I have seen the microwave bowls and yes it is to put in the microwave under the bowl so you have something to take the hot bowl out without burning your fingers
on a hot bowl

I was hoping to get some good ideas for some gifts besides this microwave bowl.

Some of you might remember seeing pictures I took last year of slipcases I made to cover used books I gave as gifts. They were a big hit!

There are so many ways and reasons to do this. I started by giving my old cookbooks to my daughter, with notes on the slipcase giving her suggestions of what recipes to try.

I made a couple of examples this afternoon to bring to a class I'm teaching at the library next month. The first would be a gift for someone who has been talking about writing a novel for a long time. Slipcases don't have to cover the entire book. Here I wanted the title to show. I wrote the message by hand because this is the way we'll do it in class.

You could give a book in memory of a beloved pet. Like this one:

Here I've slipped the case down to show the book underneath.

I love the idea of recycling books and giving a unique, very personal gift.

I've made the microwavable heating pads in various sizes and shapes that you fill with rice. They can also be coldpacks if put in the freezer. They definitely are a useful gift.

Another useful gift I have made is the CrissCross Potholder or Hotpad. I hope I am attaching the link correctly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Criss Cross Potholder or Hotpad

enjoyingspring.... Are you on Pinterest? Perhaps you would find something you liked there. There are pretty much hundreds of ideas for crafting, sewing, crocheting, cooking etc.

check out the craft page I have, maybe you will find something there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Let's get crafty

I plan to make one for dh as well.He has to have soup every day and always uses a dish towel or potholder to hold it.I got the pattern off the net a couple weeks ago.My bff. gave me some cotton batting for it as I didn't have any
Kathi

Last Christmas I was given a beautiful piece of crochet that the giver said was a dishrag.

I re-christened it 'Candle Mat'!

You can also make crocheted Christmas ornaments (my aunt always made crochet stars & stiffened them with starch & put glitter on them), or paper ones (she made beautiful angels with brown paper grocery bags, glitter, pipe cleaner halos, & crayoned faces), or stuffed or quilted ones like bells or candy canes, or felt or cotton ones, like pictures, with sequins, stuffed with quilt batting.

Last summer I went to a quilt show & loved the Christmas ornaments that were made out of white felt with embroidered snow scenes or bells or French horns & colored with crayons.

You just color the 'picture' & set it with a warm iron, with a piece of paper towel between the iron & the item.

I tried it on something that was supposed to become a potholder (unfortunately, my rollerball pen leaked all over it.).

I did like it very much, & I plan to make more of them for sure.

The motif was fruits & vegetables, from a package of Aunt Martha's iron-on transfers (they're popular now; I've seen them at Hobby Lobby & at Walmart).

I ironed the transfer onto a potholder-sized square of off-white cotton & colored the peas & then colored the surrounding sunburst in orange, set the colors with a hot iron, embroidered in black around the sunburst...
& stuck it in my purse to get matching embroidery thread to outline the peas, which is where that dang $1 pen ruined the ornament as well as the inside of the purse.

I think vests are always nice, too, for a more personalized gift.

A plain black one or a blue denim one will go with so many things, & you can personalize them with applique or embroidery or photographs,

Years ago, I saw one at a craft show for maybe $40 or so, & it was just a purchased 'blue jean' vest with small crocheted doilies appliqued (with fusable webbing) onto it, with some sparkly beads in patterns of, say, flowers or spirals or stars;
the original buttons had been replaced with fancy ones, & the vests had different pieces of vintage jewelry attached at random places.

If you want to use photos, you can photocopy them onto unbleached muslin (instructions are all over the internet) & applique them onto the vest.

You can buy a new vest or,if you're giving it to someone who likes a more antique or shabby chic look, you can often find them at thrift stores, or you can make one very easily.

Since cozies seem popular my favourite one is for the handle of a cast iron pan. I don't like the idea of knit ones but the quilted ones that snugly fit over the handle.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.craftstorming.com/2012/09/sew-yummy-saucepan-handle-cozy-tutorial

Mug rugs are easy to knit. Even a beginner could do it. I always have my coffee sitting near the computer on the mug rug I made. A gift could be a mug rug, coordinating mug, pound of coffee.

To make a mug rug you just knit a rectangle and add fringe on each end. Cotton works best.

Went to a craft show this week-end and they had the microwave bowl holders! She was selling them for $8.00! I won a door prize that included it and went to her to compliment her on her work and to try to convince her to raise her prices! She sold all she had brought! Shuch nice work!

I designed and faceted a few gem stones for family members to make a special personal gift. One of the better pieces with good light return was made in topaz.

I made a 18 millimeter diameter 9 sided cut and mounted it in a necklace for my wife. It was made from an exceptionally clear piece of Arkansas quartz that we had collected together one summer. Now that I have a program to measure light return by multiple ray traces, I can re-design this stone for better light return.

I'm going to do a batch of these home made deodorizing disks. I thought I could add just a drop of food color, as well as the essential oil, and have them in pastel colors, which will be very pretty mixed together in the jar. If I get ambitious, maybe even a jar of colored ones and a jar of white ones for each of my kids.

Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade Deodorizing Disks

Here's another one I want to do this year. I got interested in doing the homemade lotions, etc, last year before Christmas and actually did (and gave away) a lot of lotion bars. They are very pretty, elegant, and everyone seemed to like them. I found this recipe recently and like it because it's done in a crockpot using the crockpot liner (as described in another thread :-) and should make cleanup even easier.

Amazon.com has pretty well all the ingredients that I've went looking for. And even managed to pick up some at Walmart and the local Co-Op store. The only bad thing is.... this stuff is addictive! Making it is addictive, that is! I've bought a ton of ingredients so that can get spendy if you're not careful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Crockpot lotion bars