Anyone making anything exciting this year for Christmas gifts? Carrying on with the knitted theme from our wedding, this year I've made: A pair of gloves for the now mother-in-law. Much better than the first pair I made for myself which were slightly different sizes. A knitted crocodile stuffed toy for my niece. First stuffed toy I've ever made. Remember my mum making these for us when we were kids and want to keep that tradition going. I'm also supposed to be making a cafetiere cosy. And what does the wife get this year? Why chickens of course!
Mrs JT loves making handmade Christmas pressies. I love em too but I'm not so handy at making them. We did make some homemade fire lighters from pine cones one year, most folk have bbqs so they were well received. She's also made miniature flavoured voddies and choc chip cookie mix in a jar. I think home made presents are (usually) brilliant, as much for the thought that goes into them than the gift itself
You can buy lengths of wick mate, you wrap it around the pine cone and leave a bit hanging out and then dip them in melted wax. They burn really well. Just Google pine cone fire lighters. You have to be careful how you melt your wax though, you shouldn't do it over direct heat I think.
You can do them with different coloured wax to make them look "prettier", but we just used plain white candles.
I make firelighters in work using wax paper squares squished into muffin tins then pop the pine cone in and top up with melted candle ends. Just light the paper when needed. You can add rosemary, cinnamon sticks, lemon balm etc they smell lovely.
