Although it is not my first love language, I do so enjoy gift-giving; but I enjoy it most when I've been able to come up with an idea for something hand-crafted or homemade. The love language in which I am most fluent is time spent together (and that one is pretty much tied with expressing love for others through acts of service), so it makes sense that making gifts is so much more satisfying and fun for me than buying them. Homemade gifts truly do become labors of love, and my thoughts are focused so much on the recipients as I work on them.
(That's not to say that there haven't been store-bought gifts that have given me great joy to give; I'm just saying that, in general, making them is preferable to me.)
We are going out of town in a few days to visit our youngest son and his wife and two daughters. Both his 33rd birthday and his baby's first birthday happened in January; and his older daughter will turn three in early March; so we are bringing along gifts (and a cake) and will be celebrating all three of them while we're there.
Our darling almost-three-year-old granddaughter loves to play with little animals and dinosaurs, "small stuff" as she calls these kinds of toys. (I actually blogged about this recently in post called "Not-So-Small Stuff.") She already has miniature sets of zoo animals, farm animals, and dinosaurs; so when I asked what she might like for her birthday, our son advised me that perhaps a set of miniature woodland creatures would be appreciated. Grammy had them ordered within a few minutes of receiving the Amazon link from my boy.
Manufacturing plastic animal toys is well beyond my skill set; but I decided that perhaps I could fashion some kind of play mat to use with them. At Michael's, I got a 9x12" canvas stretched on a wood frame, and with the help of acrylic paints I proceeded to create a small landscape for my granddaughter's small creatures to inhabit. Once I realized that I had to throw the idea of "perspective" to the wind and remember that this humble little canvas isn't going to be hanging in an art gallery, it was smooth sailing. And oh, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making it!
The hippo and elephant can hang out at the watering hole, while the zebra walks down the dirt path...
The monkey can climb into the trees, the lion mountain can climb onto the rocks, and the cheetah can be restrained inside a zoo fence...
And although it is not an ideal size for them, larger toy animals like this thirsty elephant can make good use of this play mat, too...
I'm also stitching up twin dresses for those two precious little birthday girls, but I've got some work to do yet. (I got sidetracked by that painting project mid-way through my sewing project!) I'm trying something new, mixing two different (and not necessarily coordinating!) floral fabrics. I hope the end result will be pretty, but we shall see...
I'm glad I have so many indoor hobbies to keep me busy, because I sure don't want to be outside. It's been SO COLD here in VA--this is the coldest, snowiest, iciest winter we've had since we moved here in 2017. When we left NH, I thought we would no longer have to deal with these frigid Northeast-style temperatures, and I feel like I've been tricked! But that's a story for another day!
Speak your love languages loudly, dear readers. And have a great week.
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