Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

12 Days of Gifts in a Jar…Begins Tuesday {Get Your Free eBook Now!}

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Woe is me.  As of late, my life has been filled with difficulty and hardship.

While I’ve been preparing for this new Christmas feature, I’ve had to do hours of work with lots of jars from my huge collection. I’ve been tirelessly digging through my stash to find jars of different shapes and sizes. I’ve had to experiment with new recipes to see what food items work well to be baked in a jar and what mixes fit nicely in my jars.

As you can imagine, utilizing jars and playing with recipes has just been so very stressful for me (she says, with the back of her weary hand held pitifully upon her pinched up forehead, as she works in vain to hold back her despondent tears). 

I just thought {sniff} that maybe {snort} some of you would appreciate seeing some new and very inexpensive gift ideas. And that maybe some fresh Gifts in a Jar ideas would help you figure out what you could give to teachers, neighbors, co-workers, friends, or that “hard to buy for” person this Christmas season.

And if you really think I’ve been weeping over my lot in life as I’ve prepared for this, you must be new around here. (Welcome to HeavenlyHomemakers.com. We are so very glad to have you here.) 

I LOVE JARS!!!!!  I love recipes! And if you put food in a jar, I get even more excited because those are two of my very favorite things. Put together. In one place. At the same time!!

I think food in a jar looks so pretty and well, when I see it, sometimes I actually do shed a tear.

So thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my happy heart for providing me with this wonderful opportunity to make food and put it into a jar with a lovely ribbon around the top (she says, with the tips of her trembling fingers pressed tenderly upon her smiling lips as she calms her quivering chin and tries to gain her composure). 

All this (nonsense) to say:

Beginning Tuesday, and continuing on for 12 consecutive days, we will be featuring 12 fun, new Gifts in a Jar ideas. There will be fun for all ages and genders. Gifts of food, gifts for the jokester, gifts for the difficult to buy for, gifts for everyone.

And all of the gifts are in jars. It does not get any better than that. (This is where you all just play along and act like you understand how much I love jars even if you really think I am a weird jar fanatic with too much glass in my house.)

I hope to see you all here as we feature all 12 of these ideas. I hope to hear more of your fun ideas as we share ours. And I hope you will all discover some new gift ideas to use this Christmas season.

Want to get started right away? Download this free Gifts in a Jar eBook that Heavenly Homemakers readers helped put together last year. It is filled with fun gift and recipe ideas – great for any time of the year, but especially helpful right now. Read more about the Gifts in a Jar eBook here.

Download Gifts in a Jar eBook HERE

Stay tuned for 12 days of additional ideas. Dust off those jars. It’s gift making time!

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Homemade Playdough Mix

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Here is one of the great ideas you’ll find in our free Gifts in a Jar eBook. If you haven’t downloaded your free copy (no catch!), you can go do that here. This idea was sent in by Kristy at Little Natural Cottage and is a wonderful, inexpensive gift idea for a child, babysitter, parent or friend!

Homemade Playdough Mix

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Place in a pint-sized jar and cover. This makes a cute gift for a child when coupled with a cookie cutter or two!

To Make Homemade Playdough:

Dump entire contents of jar into a bowl. With your hands or a wooden spoon, work in 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1/3 cup hot water. Knead dough by hand until a soft, smooth dough forms. Adjust flour and water ratio until dough reaches desired consistency.

To color the dough with natural, safe coloring – add about 1 Tablespoon of any of the following to the water before you work it into the dough:  beet juice (pink); paprika (orange); turmeric (yellow); blueberry juice (lavender); cocoa powder (brown).

Within the pages of our Gifts in a Jar eBook, you’ll find printable tags you can make so that you can attach these directions to the gift jar.

What ideas do you have for homemade gifts for kids?

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Gifts in a Jar eBook – the FREE Download is Here!

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Our Gifts in a Jar eBook is now complete and ready for download! This eBook is free for everyone and absolutely full of inexpensive and clever homemade gift ideas, inspired by you!

A huge thank you goes out to all of you who took the time to provide wonderful pictures and instructions to include in this eBook. This eBook includes wonderful gift ideas such as pudding mix, bath salts, diaper rash ointment, cookie mix, seasoning mixes, chai mix, soup mixes, facials, hot fudge and much more. Your creativity never ceases to amaze me, and I am very grateful for the help you all gave to make this eBook fun and helpful!

Click the link below to download this free eBook.

Download Gifts in a Jar eBook HERE

 

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Announcing: Gifts in a Jar! {A Group Effort}

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I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this here or not, but I really, really love  jars. Oh, I’m sorry, it seems that I have spoken of my jar obsession one or forty-eight times.

Doesn’t it just make sense then that we put together some posts and even an eBook featuring Gifts in a Jar? Yes, it really does make perfect sense. We’ve decided, since you are all full of so many wonderful ideas, to make this a group project. Come closer my friends – let me share the details.

During the next two weeks, I’ll be compiling any and all (okay, not necessarily all – see the rules below) of your Gifts in a Jar ideas. (I will give you full credit in the eBook for your idea.)  While gifts of food and baking mixes are perfect for this project, I’d also love to see your ideas go beyond food. Do you have ideas for natural bath and body or household products? Know any fun ways to decorate jars or use jars for home decor? Oooh, and does anybody have a great tutorial on making liquid soap dispensers out of jars? I’ve seen those before and they are SO cool!!!

The possiblilites are endless for gifts we can put together in jars. With Christmas coming up, the timing couldn’t be better. (Although, I’d love for this eBook to be full of ideas that can be used any time of the year – not just Christmas.)

You may recall a post in which I shared Teresa’s Gift Certificate in a Jar idea. This, of course, will be featured in the eBook.

Here are the rules and guidelines for Gifts in a Jar submissions:

  • You may email me up to three ideas. One idea is fine though, or yes, even two.
  • Email your ideas to laura @ heavenlyhomemakers dot com no earlier than yesterday and no later than midnight on Thursday, November 10, 2011. I’ll probably be asleep by that time though, so as long as your idea is in my inbox by the morning of the 11th, you’re good to go.
  • So that I can keep your idea email separate from other emails I receive, please type the words Gifts in a Jar in the subject line of your email. You could also type Wow Laura, Your Ponytail is Stunning as the subject line, but be aware that your idea may get lost among all of my other hair related fan mail.
  • Each idea submitted must be accompanied by at least one nice picture. Not a picture of your kids, although I’m sure I’d enjoy that too. I am referring to a picture of your finished gift in a jar. An entire picture tutorial is fine too, but only if necessary.
  • Some of the ideas sent to me will be posted here on my blog, with credit (and blog link if applicable) given to the sender. I won’t be able to post all of the ideas though because knowing how clever you all are, your Gifts in a Jar ideas would probably take over this website, leaving no room for Gratituesday, Crock Pot Recipes or other important posts in which I share about the times birds fly into my face while I’m putting decorations away in the attic.
  • I’d prefer the food gifts and baking mixes to include whole food ingredients – as much as possible. Since these are gifts, I’ll compromise a little on this. But I really shy away from ingredients such as margarine, Crisco and I can’t think of the name of it right now, but it’s that stuff I can’t pronounce. You know what I’m talking about? Yeah, let’s avoid that one.
  • Please include thorough instructions with your idea. For example, if you send me a brownie baking mix in a jar idea, please let me know what exactly is to be included in the jar, the size of the jar needed, as well as clear instructions for the recipient so they know how to actually make the brownies after they take your gift home.
  • Since we all enjoy saving money, I’d appreciate it if the gift ideas you send cost just a few dollars or less. If that’s not an ambiguous amount, I don’t know what is.

Just as soon as I begin to receive your emails, I will begin to compile your wonderful ideas into a Gifts in a Jar eBook, which will be offered FREE to everyone.  This eBook will be ready for release just as soon as I have it finished. If that’s not an ambiguous time frame, I don’t know what is.

Let the creative Gifts in a Jar ideas begin to flow – I’ll be watching for your emails!

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