Consumable Christmas Gifts

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On Episode 2 of Hang your Hat, Firebeard and I did a segment on consumable christmas gift ideas.  These are gifts that are meant to be used up, so they don't hang around cluttering up the house.  Since then I was asked if I might be able to do a visual version of the list perhaps with  links to some of the products we mentioned, and I am happy to oblige.  

Note:  This list contains gifts big and small.  While some would be appropiate for the year's "big" gift, there are also several that would make great stocking stuffers. 

Consumable Gift Ideas

Bath/Body/Grooming (many of these are easy to DIY):

Food (Most of these are easy to DIY):

  • Candy, Cookies, or Carmel
  • Hot Cocoa Mix (Single servings are good presents for office mates).  Add some homemade marshmallows to make it really special.
  • Flavored Sugars or Salts
  • Infused Liquors or Vinegars
  • DIY Vanilla
  • Flavored Simple Syrups (great for drinks)
  • Good Quality Olive Oil
  • Bottle of Wine
  • Meal Kit 
  • Fancy Coffee
  • Local Honey
  • Drinks Kits (ex. Cocktail kit)
  • Special Snacks (that are not normally on the menu)

Services: (Think Gift Certificates)

  • Massage
  • Facials
  •  Mani/Pedis
  • High End Barber Shops / Hair Dressers
  • Oil Change or Car servicing (especially if the person you are giving the gift to normally does these things themselves)
  • Baby Sitting
  • House Cleaning
  • Photographer

Subscriptions:

Gift Cards:

  • Any Favorite Retail Store the recipient is likely to shop at (maybe somewhere that is normally too pricy for the recipient – just make sure that the gift card could cover the cost of an item at the store)
  • Itunes
  • Grocery or Gas Cards (good for college students or recent grads)
  • Coffee Shop
  • Book Store

Entertainment/Events:

  • Burlesque Shows or Vaudeville Performances
  • Sporting Event.  Of course Football and  basketball games come to mind first- but why not a fencing or ballroom dance competition
  • Tickets to the Movies 
  • Tickets to an Amusement Park, Museum, or zoo
  • Fancy Tea Party
  • Concerts or Plays

 

Active Pursuits:

  • Pay for a Goruck Challenge
  • Gym Membership (Think outside the box and go for something like a rock climbing or cross fit gym rather than the standard gym)
  • Sporty Classes (like belly dancing class)
  • Goods that are consumed while participating in a sport (ex. Bike tubes for a cyclist, chalk for a rock climber or gymnast, and dehydrated food for campers)

Miscellaneous:  

  • Hobby or Craft Supplies (ex. Scrapbooking paper or stickers, yarn, paint)
  • Kids Craft Supplies (ex. tape, stickers, erasers, glue, pipe cleaners, pompoms, googly eyes)
  • Fireplace Supplies (ex. Wood, fire starters, matches, bundles of dried herbs, pinecones dipped in wax)
  • Personalized Photo Calendar
  • Starting a 529 College Savings Plan

Expanding the Garden

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If you read my last post, you will know that one of my New Year's resolutions was to expand my garden, what you didn't know was that it had already begun.
Last year I planted a small garden bed that continues to provide my family with bell peppers.
  This year I plan on planting a much wider variety of vegetables, and enough tomatoes that a
 few can make it to our dinner table before my kid's devour them.  The first step was creating a raised garden bed that our dogs won't be able to run right through and trample our vegetables.
Here is what we did.  Keep in mind that we learned a few lessons along the way, and I point out what those lessons taught us below.
We created a 4' by 8' box, about 1' tall.  Mr. Incredible used 1" by 4" untreated pine (cull lumber).  He attached them with common sinker nails using overlap corners.
Next time we will use nails with a spiral or ring shank or wood screws because the sinker nails pulled out of the corners far too easily.

We then situated this box in a prepared bed (the soil had been turned to break up the heavy clay that lies just below the surface, and the soil had been leveled as much as possible).
We increased the height of the bed by installing 2" by 2" corner supports, and nailing the next level of pine boards to the supports.  He also installed 2" by 4" supports in the middle of the 8' spans to keep the wood from flexing or bowing under the pressure of the dirt.  In hindsight we probably should have made the entire structure before trying to stick it in the dirt.  Preassambly would have kept the joints from shifting and requireing clean up/trimming after assembly.  We may also use all 2" by 4" supports in the future.

He then trimmed off all the pieces of the supports that were above the top of the box using a sawsall.

He also ground off the ends of protruding screws to keeps hand from comming in contact with them while digging, as they could casue injury.

Then I layed landscape cloth in the bottom of the box, putting dirt in the corners to keep the cloth from blowing away.  The landscape cloth should help keep weeds at bay, slow water runnoff and erosion, and is deep enough that it shouldn't interfer with veggie growth.
After filling the rest of the box with dirt I layered on some compost (that was not quite as ready as I would have liked), then more dirt.  

Now I need to finish filling the box with more dirt, compost, and organic fertilizer.  Then all that is left is actually growing the plants.
~Gerwerken