Freezer Paper Stencils Tutorial

I posted awhile back about my friend Sarah at Rum Tum Crafts gifting me with shirts she made with Freezer Paper Stencil designs. I loved the look and easy idea, so I finally took the time to try it out last night.

I bought a couple 100% cotton American Apparel shirts on Amazon.com, picked up some freezer paper at the grocery store and a few fabric paints at WalMart. Shirts & Supplies: $20.

I did a clip art search for images and decided on an elephant profile, since we like elephants in this house. I also pulled a kitty cat image from the Robeez Coloring Pages to match her shoes. I printed the images on regular paper to scale for her shirts, but I read you can run the freezer paper directly thru most printers (print on the matt side.) I just taped the design behind the freezer paper then used an Exacto knife to cut out the image.

I put the freezer paper, shiny side down on the front of the shirt. I put a second piece of freezer paper in between the shirt layers to prevent the paint bleeding through and ironed it all in place with my iron on the cotton setting.



Then I used a brush to paint in the image. I used Polymark flat fabric paints because they came in a big selection of colors and are only 95 cents a bottle.





After the paint dried, about an hour, I pulled the paper off to check it out.




I left them to finish drying overnight, then turned the shirts inside out, backed the image with a dry paper towel, and ironed the shirt to heat set the image. Done and ready to wear!



It was just as fun and easy to do as Sarah said it would be! I'm already thinking of other designs and colors to use to make more. The boys really like them, too, and asked for mom to make them shirts.

Snail Mail, Email and Blogs

As per my annual tradition, I have just completed writing my Christmas cards and they will go in the mail tomorrow. :) Yet again, this is not the year for them to arrive before Christmas. Hope you think they were worth the wait!

Also, if you are someone that I began emailing with since 2006 or you are someone that changed your email address since 2006, I need your current email address. Doug wiped out the hard drive on my computer this past weekend without backing up my email address book. The last back up I could find was from when I moved my emailing from the office computer to our home computer in 06. If you drop me a line, I'll get you added back in. I guess the plus side of this is that I got rid of a lot of random addresses that I didn't need.

Another blogger update, I hope you followed along and kept little Esther in your prayers this week. Her heart repair surgery went well and she is on the mend! Yay, Esther! Last week at church, Sean and I went into the private chapel to light a candle and pray for Esther. He repeated after me, "God, please make Esther's heart all better. Amen!" Then we sang "Happy Birthday, Esther's Heart" and blew out the candle. Who could resist such a sweet request from such a sweet boy?!

Christmas Photo Album

Not only did my mom drop the hint that I need to update, but even Doug asked why I haven't yet! Sorry! I feel like I am still in Christmas recovery mode. Rather than posting loads of details, I will post loads of pics. We had a fabulous time with both sides of our family. The kids were spoiled rotten as usual. Food was wonderful, company was fun. I even got to have a girls shopping day with my mom and sister, plus a movie date to see Marley & Me. (Miss Ella Roo came along, of course.)

Oh, and thanks to my blogging comments, I got a sewing machine for Christmas! Woo hoo! I am eager to start learning how to sew. Okay, on with the show.

All three kiddos just love their Santa gifts. Good job, old man!
Santa brought Ella a jumpy, exercising thing.


Santa left Sean a box full of wonderful Wiggles stuff: Captain Feathersword, a Wiggles V-Smile game and a Wiggles DVD.


Santa brought what Aidan asked for, a Playstation 2.


Ella gave her "Super" big brothers something special, custom capes.




Nana and Papa gave Sean a V-Smile Motion toy. He loves to try to play it, but doesn't quite have it figured out yet.


Ella needed some napping breaks.


Grandpa and Gramma decided to torture me encouraged Sean's musical passion with this keyboard/karaoke machine.


Doug's brother, Curt, gave Aidan his MOST.FAVORITE.GIFT. ever. Yes, we are bad parents, we let our 6 year old play a game for adults. I have no excuse for why we do.


Eleanor got her first doll, from Nana. Nana said she couldn't resist because it looks like E, with the blond hair and blue eyes. Nana also got her the pink Bumbo chair. Luckily, Ella's big thighs still squeeze in there.


Of course, they got more than this, but I don't want to bore everyone! Let's just say we are very blessed to have so many people that love us and love to see our family happy.

Oh, and one of the greatest gifts this holiday: Sean took communion at Christmas Eve service! He ate all of the wafer that was given to him and was so pleased with himself. He rubbed his tummy and said "Yum Yum Yum!" Spectacular! Then on Saturday he stole Aunt Tanya's chair from her at dinner and nibbled on the cheese on her cheeseburger, dipped fries in ketchup & sucked it off, and ate 3 grapes (chewed them even!) Amazing amazing amazing!

Merry Christmas!

Today was a Good Day

After the stress frenzy day yesterday, that only had brief moments of all kids and mom living in harmony, today went much better. Isn't that how it works? Just when you are ready to pull your hair out and run for the hills, you get a drooly sweet kiss on the cheek from your baby, a wonderfully detailed drawing of your family from your kindergartner or a hysterically acted out scene from your preschooler and suddenly you realize why you love being a mom so much.

Sean slept in until 7:35 today, so I missed my little 6 am "alarm" and got some extra zzz's. Ella slept in while I snuggled in the big bed with the boys, then took them down for breakfast. Aidan helped me with dishes after Doug went to work. When Ella woke up, Aidan entertained her nicely while I put away laundry and cleaned up the playroom. I gave Ella and Sean baths, got Aidan to take a shower. Got a shower myself! Sorted through outgrown kids' clothing. Changed bedding on a bed for my mom to use. Did laundry. All before noon!

Ella got to model some new fluffy mail:



My mom arrived at lunch time and helped me take Sean to get his first pair of glasses. He looks absolutely adorable in them. I couldn't get him to make a nice smile for the camera, so this will have to do for today. Please excuse the messy face, he just ate and was zoning out on a movie. His skin is horribly chapped from his cold and the weather. He has done a terrific job keeping them on! I am so shocked and happy about that.


Doug took Aidan to the office with him this afternoon, so Sean took a nice long nap and so did Ella. Mom and I watched a movie and I got laundry folded & put away. I made quesadillas for dinner, then Mom and I did the grocery shopping for Christmas dinner. She treated everyone to DQ. Aidan had some difficulties settling down and behaving after that, so we had a rough patch before bed. Now everyone is sleeping but me- the little mouse at the keyboard. I'm heading to bed soon.

Thanks for the moral support on my last post. Tonight I am thinking maybe I can make it until school starts....

2 weeks of Vacation?

Oi.

So far I have decided:

1. I am a potty training failure.
2. No one will ever be allowed to give my kids nerf guns or any thing of the sort again.
3. Ella is going to kill her brothers with ear shattering screams if she does not get to nap for the next 2 weeks.
4. Doug is going to divorce me if I don't get to shower for 2 weeks.
5. Playdo is not a food group.

It's nice to know that the reality of SAHM-ing is shared with others. Check out this very true to life account at Princess Nebraska.

Esther Jeanne Needs Us

I want to call attention to one of the "new" blogs I follow. Having been in the cloth diaper community (yes, it's a lot like the Down syndrome community) for a few years, I had heard of Snap-EZ Diapers long ago. While I had spent time in their online shop, I hadn't really gotten to know the family that makes them.

Until September 20, 2008.

That's when Snap-EZ owner, Ruth, gave birth to her 11th child, Esther. At her birth, they discovered that Esther has Down syndrome.Esther's birth was pretty rough and she had some complications right away so a notice was posted in the diaper forums that Ruth and Esther needed our prayers and support. I've been a loyal reader since then and have tried to offer encouragement.

Ruth has been amazing. She has never once expressed concerns about Esther having Down syndrome and how that might influence her life. Instead, her focus has been on Esther. Caring for her, nursing her, protecting her and loving her. As far as I know (which is just through what she blogs), Ruth hasn't had connection with Down syndrome support groups or started therapy for Esther. They have had to put all of their energy in her health. Getting her out of NICU, working on her feedings, and now they are facing another challenge: open heart surgery.

Through this all, Ruth has had to shuttle back and forth to the Children's Hospital (2 hours from her home) and try to keep the rest of her family cared for. Esther has been in the hospital more than she's been out since her birth. She is in the hospital again this week and very sick. Her heart repair is scheduled for Monday if she is well enough. It sounds like once her heart is repaired a lot of her other health problems should improve or resolve.

I will be thinking of her this weekend and her family. Ruth's family will be traveling this weekend to her area, as, sadly, Ruth's uncle passed away this week and the funeral is next week. I hope for safe travel for her family, peace for them as they mourn, and strength for them as they rally together in support of Esther. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well.

No Glasses Yet! & Dinner Party Recap

So Wednesday we got the call that Sean's glasses were ready to pick up. Doug, Sean, Ella and I went over to get them fitted during Doug's lunch hour. Sean was in a fun mood, he found a Christmas stocking that fell down off the wall in the waiting room so he pulled his socks and shoes off to put it on. {{{silly boy}}} When it was finally our turn, the tech pulled out the glasses and put them on Sean. I said, "Wait a minute. Those are suppose to have cable ear pieces." She looked at the order form and noted that yes it was supposed to be changed to cables. SO she wandered off to look for a pair to put on them. Turns out she only had one brown on in stock or a pair of black ones. The frames are brown so it didn't look good with black ear pieces. Now we have to wait for them to get ordered in.

Rats. I was looking forward to seeing him in his specks!

Also, Wednesday night was the company Christmas Dinner Party. Ella was a doll at the restaurant and no problem to bring along. All of our meal was cooked table side- very fancy! We had Shrimp Scampi, Cesar Salad, Steak Diane with Asparagus and Chateau Potatoes, and Bananas Foster. Great food, good to talk with adults (in person!) and lovely wine. The boys were great for the babysitter, they were in bed in their jammies and asleep when we got home at 9:30. Ellie said that Aidan even asked to go to bed! He also told her, "Usually a grown up sleeps with us." She told him that she was going to be right downstairs and could hear him if he needed someone and that we'd be home shortly to sleep with him. Cutie.

It sure was nice to go out to dinner someplace that doesn't take your order at a window....

Oh, and Ella just cracked me up. She sneezed, coughed and farted all at once! Ha ha ha!

"Oh no! My Million Dollars!"

I've been wanting to blog this for a few days but needed some 2 hand typing time to do it. Let's see if now is that time....

Last Saturday, we took the kids shopping downtown with us. Yes, when they were sick. Sorry! We had Christmas crunch time pressuring us. We went to this kitchen shop where I found the cute green tree trays. Aidan, Sean and Doug walked over to the produce/whole foods-ish store next door to hit the Brach's bins. On the way back to see me, someone handed Aidan a million dollar bill.

Yep,Jehovah Witness tracts for kids.

Aidan was ecstatic about his new found wealth and came running in to show me. He went on and on about all the stuff he was going to buy with his million dollars. I think he entirely missed the JW point. He showed the shop owner his money and said, "You should go get one! Some one's just giving them away outside!" She laughed and said, "Wouldn't that be nice? I sure could use a million dollars."

Cut to us at home-boys playing in the jam room with Daddy-a loud scream and tears.

Aidan is extremely distraught, crying and carrying on. I asked him what happened.

"Sean ate my million dollars!"

Sean apparently found Aidan's fortune and ate most of it. Doug threw the rest away and Aidan was devastated.

"I hate Sean! He's always ruining my stuff!"

"Aidan, you don't hate your brother and I don't want to hear you say that. I'm sorry Sean at your money."

"Now I won't get to buy my own computer!"

"Aidan, honey, you couldn't use that to buy a computer anyway. It's just play money it isn't real."

More tears, runs to Daddy.

overheard "Daddy, Mommy said my money wasn't real? That wasn't really a million dollars?"

I'm stifling laughter upstairs.

"No, Aidan, it wasn't real money. Did you really think someone would give you a million dollars?"

Apparently yes.

Fabulous Blog Award!

Wow, I got awarded the same bloggy award by two people in one day! Cool! Thanks to Renee and Cheryl for honoring my blog.

I'd like to pass on this award to a few of my favorite daily pit stops:
Cara at Me? A Mom?
Kati at josh + kati + marion
Sarah at RumTum Crafts
Jennifer at Elliot's Nest
Gillian ar Pocket Lint

I know everyone is probably swamped with Christmas plans, but I just wanted to say "You are Fabulous, mamas!"

Here are 5 things that I find fabulous:

1. Iced BK MOcha Joes
2. Babies grinning up at me while nursing.
3. Watching my boys (all three of them) dance to rock music.
4. Staying snug inside while it is snowy outside.
5. Blogland.

Okay so to the 5 of you, the rules of this award are:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions:
On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget.
Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

Winter Wonderland Brings Chocolate Ambitions

We woke up Tuesday morning to our first real snowfall of the season. School wasn't canceled, but I kept Sean home since he is still running at the nose quite a bit.



With a little help from Miss E and my trusty sling, I got to work on some Christmas baking and candy making.



Thanks to a recipe from Carey at Dream Big, I had a new treat to send to the boys' teachers, Chocolate Zucchini Bread! Yumm-o! I also made Haystack Cookies (hey, this is Kansas, ya know) and the ever-popular Peppermint Patties. I found these cute Christmas Tree shaped plates (only $7!) to give to the teachers, too. I included our Christmas card and photo and they are ready to go tomorrow.

Haystack Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butterscotch chips or chocolate or peanut butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup peanuts
2 cups chow mein noodles

Directions:
Into 2 quart dish microwave at 50% power. Melt the chips and peanut butter (3-5 minutes). Stir in peanuts and chow mein noodles. Drop on wax paper. Put in refrigerator for faster set or let sit overnight on counter.

Makes 12 cookies

Peppermint Patties

1 pound confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons butter (softened)
2-3 teaspoons peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

In a bowl, combine first four ingredients. Add milk & mix well. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Chill for 20 mins. Flatten with a glass to 1/4 inch thickness, then chill 30 more mins. In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate and shortening together. Dip patties (use 2 forks) in chocolate, then lay on clean wax paper to harden. I keep them on cookie sheets in the fridge to set up until ready to eat or give. A single batch yields about 30 patties.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3/4 cup margarine
2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup chocolate chips

Beat margarine at medium speed until creamy, add sugar, beat well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Combine zucchini, milk, and vanilla. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients and add to margarine mixture alternately with zucchini mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

350 degrees, 50 minutes for a full size loaf, 45 for mini-loafs (shorter time if you make muffins.)

What a Wonderful Christmas Gift!

Today I read on Just RK about donating to Reece's Rainbow for Christmas, then I followed her links to RR to look at the angels in waiting. I was checking to see how Pavel was doing. I am so happy to see that he has found his forever family! Amy & Jake are not only adopting Oleg, but are also adopting another little boy in the Ukraine with Down syndrome! These two boys will join the couples three daughters, the youngest one has Down syndrome, too. I will be praying for a speedy journey for them and reading their adoption blog, Bringing Home Boys.

Merry Christmas to them!

*I had to edit this because I realized I had his name wrong! Pavel is the one I blogged about before. Doh! Both cutie pies, though!

Experimenting with Bottlefeeding

Wednesday evening is Doug's company Christmas Dinner. We had hoped that it would of been scheduled for a weekend night so my mom could babysit the kids for us, but that wasn't possible. Instead, we are lucky to have my friend Ellie able to come over. We decided to see if Ella will take a bottle of breastmilk, so that she can stay home too.

We have a big stash of Playtex Nurser bottles from when Sean used them at daycare. It's the only bottle we ever tried with him, but he started taking them at 3 wks old due to his poor feeding. I bought new nipples for Ella and gave it a go Saturday evening. No dice. She latched on it a couple of times for me, but would push it away after a couple of sucks. I had Doug try to feed her with it and she refused it from him also. I thought, "Maybe she doesn't like it because it's the slow flow nipple and I have a fast let down?" So I decided to try a fast flow nipple in it next.

Sunday afternoon, she woke from a nap and was happy but ready to feed. Perfect time to try the bottles again. I pumped 4 ozs of milk, and tried the Playtex bottle with the fast flow nipple. Rejected. (No pictures of this one, I was washing/sterilizing the others.) We bought a couple of other bottles to try, it was hard choosing them! I know very little about bottles, but had friends that used the Dr Brown's bottles so I got one of those. Ella had a Soothie pacifier that she liked a little when she was about a month old, so I got one of those bottles to try. $18 and 2 bottles later we were ready to experiment again.


Doug tried to give her the Dr Brown's bottle and had no luck. She cried and pushed it out of her mouth.



I poured the milk into the Soothie bottle and gave that a try. Nope, she didn't want that either.


Now she was mad. Mad and hungry and tired of people sticking weird things in her mouth.


So she opted for the original packaging...


Sean didn't want to see good milk go to waste, so he downed the milk in the Soothie!


Doug wants to try a few more times, but it is looking to me like Ella's going out for some fine dinning Wednesday night.

Ugh. Sick Momma and Babies

Sean, Ella and I have a cold. No fun. Mommies are not supposed to get sick!

A "Gift"ed Connection

Yesterday Doug called me from work, after the mega dentist appointment, to say that I had a message at the office. Some one had called there looking for me, because she had read the book and wanted to talk to me. If you Google my name, Doug's company website comes up listing me as an employee (yeah, I haven't worked there in 2 yrs and it hasn't been updated!) It was a local phone number, so I called her back to see who it was.

She said, "I just had a son with Down syndrome on December 3rd and was given a copy of Gifts. I flipped through it, looking at all the photos, then I turned back to read your story because of the photo. When I saw that your bio says you live in Hutchinson, I couldn't believe the odds that your story was the one I stopped to read first."

We spent the next 20 minutes talking about her son, his birth, health and pregnancy. We discovered that our kids go to the same elementary school (different grades.) She is breastfeeding her son and he is nursing well. I offered to meet with them when they are up to visitors and she is eager to meet. It was so nice to hear that my essay had an impact!

Prayers Answered!!!

Reid is going HOME! His heart repair worked and is looking good! Yay! I'm so happy for him and his family that I had to make sure anyone that reads here heard about this little angel's miracle!

Seeing It in Black and White

Today's post on Finnian's Journey talks about her struggle to come to terms with accepting the mental retardation aspect of her son's Down syndrome diagnosis. I submitted the following comment to her blog and thought I'd repeat the story here. I think that so often I think about who reads my blog and it makes me censor myself in some ways so that I do not open up about everything I have experienced or thought about. I'm a thinker. I do a lot of thinking about a lot of things almost non-stop. In fact I remember asking Doug once when we were dating "what are thinking about?" and when he said "nothing" I couldn't believe that he actually meant it. His mom is a thinker too and she has coined a phrase that I adopted and both of our husbands cringe when they hear it: "I've been thinking..." Here's what I was thinking when I read Finnian's Journey today:

It is a tough pill to swallow, at any age it seems. Just yesterday I was filling out a new patient form for Sean's dentist. You know the page with all the "check any of these health issues you have..." Well it had one for "congenital defects" I had to circle cuz there wasn't one that said Ds. Then there was that one staring at me, "mental retardation." Oh how I loathed to circle it! I hesitated and thought, "maybe I will just write Ds on the side and not circle MR since it will be presumed."

I decided to face up and just circle MR. Then I sat there staring at it wanting to erase it....

I wonder if I will ever just accept it as part of him and feel comfortable stating, "This is my son, Sean. He has blond hair, blue eyes, Down syndrome, a heart defect and he is mentally retarded."

Superheros and a Sweetie

We had two days of doctor appointments. Tuesday we took Sean and Ella to the pediatric opthomologist. After an excruciating 2 hr wait, Sean fell asleep during his exam. The doctor was able to determine that his vision has gotten bad enough to require glasses, so we managed to wake him up enough to try on a few pairs and picked one. The good news is that the Dr does not think Ella's hemangioma is causing vision problems and said it looks very superficial. He did see that she is already showing signs of being near sighted, so he thinks she will need glasses by Preschool age. She goes back to see him in 6 months and Sean goes back in 3 months to see how the glasses are working out.

Today the whole family went to the dentist. It was Sean's first time going to the dentist and he did terrific! He sat well in the chair and opened up without resistance. They polished his teeth and checked them. No cavities! The dentist confirmed that Sean is missing one of his teeth, but said it wasn't a problem. He thinks that Sean's teeth color (kinda splotchy gray in places) is probably due to a medication he was on. I mentioned that Sean had reflux and took Prevacid for 2 yrs and he said that might of been the cause. Hopefully his adult teeth will not be affected. Sean goes back to see the dentist in a year.

Aidan did wonderfully too. He even sat thru several sets of xrays. His teeth were polished and had fluoride applied. The found 2 cavities that we need to bring him back in to get fixed on Dec 31. I am so glad that the boys behaved nicely for the exams! I was really stressing over it.

Doug also had his teeth checked because he thought he had a cavity. They found some work that he needs done, so he'll be back next month. I didn't get looked at, I just came along to help manage the kiddos. Pregnancy is always rough on my teeth, so I venture to guess that I probably need some work done too. I'll let the boys get taken care of first then we can work me in there!

Merry Christmas, Baby!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

That's my big girl!

Friday was Ella's official 4 month birthday and we celebrated by going to the DR for a well-child appt. Yeah, I'm a fun mom. Anyway, Miss Muffin is growing so fast and here are the stats to prove it!

Weight 15 lbs 3 oz (75th percential)
Height 25" (90th percential)
Head Circumfrance 16" (50th percential)

When I had to get her ready to be weighed, the nurse said "strip her down to her diaper and we'll get her weighed." So I did. The nurse patted Ella on her cloth booty and said, "Go ahead and strip her all the way down to her diaper." I said, "That is her diaper, if I take it off she'll be in her birthday suit." LOL The nurse hadn't seen modern cloth diapers before so she thought they were pretty neat.

The rest of the appt was pretty standard, our DR said E is looking good. Per the Sears schedule, she had her DTap and Rotavirus vaccines. I hate that Rotavirus vaccine, it's oral (which babies just spit out) and it causes some messy poos for a couple of days. Ella made lots of nice juicy toots while G'pa held her this weekend. Of course, I really hated it when Aidan had Rotavirus at age 2 while on a trip to Denver. Puking and having the runs on a 4 hr drive is so disgusting! If this vaccine does it's job I guess it will save us from that misery.

Speaking a yucky tummy bugs, I see from my sidebar here that a lot of our T21 families are fighting the nasties. :( We are doing good so far this winter and I know it won't last with the boys in school. Stay away bugs!

Please Pray for Reid!

Our little fighter friend, Reid, is trying to recover from his second open heart surgery right now. Unfortunately, the doctors have found a big problem that might cause him to go back in the operating room. His mom is asking us to pull together for Reid and pray!

A specific prayer request would be that by morning the excess fluid would be completely gone so they could see what we were dealing with. Actually as his mom I am praying even beyond this and praying for a miracle...praying that when they perform the echo they tell the Foreman family that they no longer see any leakage, I'd love if you joined us

Heal quickly, little man!

Blueberry Models

My favorite pocket diaper company, Blueberry Diapers, is having a contest! The prize is a $25 gift certificate to their store, so of course I had to enter. Luckily, they let you enter as many photos as you want and each one that the choose gets a gift certificate. It would be so fun if one of my photos won! Here's what I sent:








They look pretty darn cute to me and how cool would it be to see a cutie with Down syndrome selling dipes!

Music to my Ears

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ASL Bean Bags = DROOL!

Oh.my.God. I covet these sooo bad. What a brilliant idea and so well executed!

Sigh. Christmas shopping on Etsy is so dangerous for me. I am finding too much that I like. I am trying to buy more handmade/consumable products this year and stay away from the big box beasts. They say you tend to give what you'd like to receive. I do try to take in account what others would like, though!