Several years ago I discovered a CD in the clearance bin at Walmart, it was entitled “John Denver, The Muppets, A Christmas Together”.  I snatched the CD up for a mere $5 and was excited since I was a fan of John Denver and the Muppets.  My oldest son, who is now in his 20s, learned to sing the classics with Miss Piggy.  I am especially fond of her five golden rings in the Twelve Days of Christmas.  One of our family favorites became the lesser known Christmas classic,  “Christmas is Coming, The Goose is Getting Fat” (heavily featuring Miss Piggy).  For your holiday listening pleasure click on my link included at the end of the blog, and thank me later.  All this just to say, here on the homestead, Christmas is coming. We don’t have geese, but we do have some Cornish Cross hens and they’re getting fat !

Here on the homestead, I am busy with Christmas decorating, cooking, and crafting.  My muppet -loving boy is now in college and my budget has required me to become more creative in my gift giving. 

A couple of years ago, I had a friend come to visit me and we had a pivotal homesteading conversation.  I had bought flowers to decorate my table as we ate lunch.  She asked if I picked my flowers. I told her no. She is one of those friends who just tells you what they are thinking, which are the kind of friends I need.  She said, “Why would you do that ?  use what you have.  Look around you, you have so many beautiful flowers and things you could use”  That conversation has inspired me to be more bold in my homesteading.  As the old football saying goes, “no risk it, no biscuit !” I will be the first to admit that not everything I try “works out” on the homestead.  However, I have been pleasantly surprised at the rewards of my risk.  

So, last year, with the thoughts of my limited budget and my abundance of resources in mind,  I did a little planning and began making gifts for people from our homestead.  In previous years, I struggled to come up with thoughtful gifts to give to my sons’ teachers.  (I also work in the school so I am also gifting my co-workers.)  I usually went broke and gave everyone the same small Starbucks gift cards.  The teachers were always polite and thankful.  However, last year when I gave the teachers and my friends gifts from our homestead the response was much more personal.  I had several questions about our homestead and honestly people were telling me I should sell items or start blogging.   Here are some of the small thoughtful and affordable gifts I made:  homemade beeswax candles, homemade soap ( with homegrown flowers and herbs), and a small jar of homegrown popcorn.  My next series of blogs will focus on simple instructions that almost anyone can complete to make a few thoughtful homespun gifts.  After all, Christmas is COMING !!    

You don’t want to miss this, click and listen!

Please subscribe to my blog, simply put your email in and click on the subscribe button.

Thank you for your support

https://linktr.ee/hettieshomestead

My link tree listed above will take you to all my social media sites.

Thank you for reading and supporting my blog.

Sincerely, Hettie