There’s nothing sweeter than receiving a handmade gift. The thought of someone taking the effort to choose materials, and invest their time and energy to personally share their talent is touching. In our busy modern world, it’s become rare, which makes this gift all the more special.

I’ve been trying to remember the last time I gave a handmade craft as a gift. When I was in High School, our family invited a foreign exchange student from Finland to live with us for the school year. Matti’s passion was ice hockey, and he was good, leading a local team to victory. From the beginning he and I were competitive with each other. I suppose we were jockeying for position in the family hierarchy. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye about the world either and had several lengthy “debates”. But, like any ”sibling rivalry”, underneath it all there was respect and love. When Christmas time approached, Continue reading →