Morning!
Hopefully Wednesday’s round up of recipes delivered some good things to make this weekend. Now here are some ideas for making them look as cute as possible.
A jar of jam or jar of biccies will always be well received. Of course. But it is Christmas. And at Christmas you merch your presents. So let’s go…
Wrapping with fabric
The video above is a super simple example of how easy it is to wrap boxes of biscuits (anything) in fabric. It’s my attempt at the beautiful Japanese tradition of furoshiki (wrapping gifts in patterned fabric). You’ll find loads more ideas in this tutorial.
Collect cute tea towels and fabrics (op shops are rich pickings), ribbons and bargain rolls from your local fabric shop. Find a basket to keep them in and keep that handy. This one above lives under a bench in the kitchen.
So next time you’ve made something as a present, it’s just a matter of finding the right piece of fabric and having a play around with wrapping it up. And if using a tea towel, it can also double up as an extra present.
Labels, stamps and tags
Also good to have is a collection of luggage tags, twine and stickers (OfficeWorks is good for these), ribbons (Etsy is a treasure trove of beautiful embroidered ones - I mean….how goregous are these ribbons!) and stamps (all my favourites come from Flywheel in New Norfolk, Tasmania. They have a great online shop).
On labels…a couple of years ago, my artist Mum Annie Herron and I wrote a book called Around the Kitchen Table.
It’s all for the love of creativity in all its forms; cooking, drawing, painting, making, and for each produce chapter Mum created some gorgeous labels which you can download and trace or print (on something like this) and paint or colour in yourself.
Tell us what to do with this good thing you’ve made us…
When giving edible (or drinkable) gifts, it can be a good idea to write some ‘serving suggestions’ on the card/tag. Especially if what you’ve made is a condiment or mixer.
For example if you were giving someone a jar of the peach vermouth from Wednesday’s post, perhaps write up a little note suggesting that your lucky recipient could pour a good splash over ice and take this out to the garden on a hot night and enjoy a tipple while watering the garden…Sigh.
What good ideas have I missed? Please share via the comments below.
How do you like to wrap and label your homemade presents?
Next Wednesday, being Christmas Day, you won’t be hearing from me (happy Christmas!) but I’ll be back the one after that (New Years Day!), and thereafter with loads of new ideas for what to cook that coming weekend.
Please get in touch with any menu/recipe requests and in the meantime, I’ll sign off with a few more gift-y ideas and a big huge thank you for supporting this new newsletter so far
Wishing you and yours the happiest, safest, most delicious and calmest Christmas possible, Sophie x
What about some homemade cultured butter? With a loaf of bread and maybe some pickles?
Or little bags of trail mix?
Or rocky road? Or homemade nougat (this is the recipe I always use).
Or these ginger snaps (the ones you can see pictured in the box of treats at the top of this post).
Remember nuts and bolts? Old school but always a crowd pleaser.
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