Gift #6 of 10

My sister went to work yesterday, and our mother had a dentist's appointment, so I was in charge of homeschooling my nephew. I wasn't given any instructions on how to do this, probably because he is pretty independent, and he was finishing up a chapter. He has a tendency to do the math in his head and not show his work, and when he figures it out on paper, he erases his work. I explained to him that not showing your work will make you lose points, but it didn't take.

While he was here, I decided to use his brain, and save some wear and tear on mine. I asked him about gift ideas for his parents. "Would your mother like a Christmas ornament?" "How about a vase?" "Is this the shade of blue your Dad likes?" "Does this purple go with this purple?" I think I did a pretty good job of teaching him how to multi-task.

I don't know why he didn't get all his homework done. Maybe because the day went really fast.

Gift #6 is the blanket I bought on Black Friday. My original plan was to do something, maybe applique a name, or add a pocket to make a quillow, (a quilt that turns into a pillow) or would that be a blallow since it isn't a quilt? Anyway, I don't really have the right shade(s) of purple I need to do this. After some deliberation, I have decided that I am going to give this to her, as is. It seems stupid to spend precious time and money simply to give the blanket a dorky handmade look. It's warm and soft, and what she asked for. She will be happy to get it. It's the other gift recipients I am worried about - whether they will wish I had taken that store bought route with them as well.



In my last post, I talked about hiring out my nephew for tasks. I bought this alphabet stamp kit when I returned the Cricut. It was only $2.50, mainly because the labor wasn't done. There weren't directions in the box either, but maybe they figured that if I thought hard enough, I would be able to figure it out. The stamp holders needed the stamps stuck to the bottom, and a sticker at the top to show what stamp it is. If you notice, the stickers and the stamps aren't on the same location on the circles. And with the fancy font, and being reversed and all, it wasn't as easy to match them up as you would expect. I had them about halfway done, and when the nephew saw what I had done, he finished the job without my asking him to do it. Free labor!