DIY Dryer Balls - more HomeMade Christmas

An amazing friend of mine is also onboard with homemade christmas gifts. This year she made dryer balls. As simple as they appear - I can only imagine the time commitment to make for multiple people!

Basically its a ball of matted wool - or rather four balls.

I have been using Nellies Dryer Balls for about a year and a half - they are recommended in the cloth diapering world. But they are starting to show some wear, some of the plastic nubs breaking off - which I have learned may be due to storing them in the dryer - which gets very cold in the winter and then when hard/cold plastic is banging around......they break. Also in comparison the felted ones are MUCH quieter than plastic.

I also got a small bottle of lavender essential oils to add to the balls - for those people who want/need their clothes to smell fresh and clean. I just added it and so far its a nice additional touch

There are lots of online tutorials if you want to make your own dryer balls or you can buy them on etsy.com.

Pros to using dryer balls
- decrease drying time
- decrease wrinkles
- reduce static
- safe for sensitive skin & cloth diapers (which recommend no fabric softeners etc which leave a coating on the materials)

Overall : Fantastic

- Lauren

Customized TeaTowels - Homemade Christmas Gifts

For the past few years our family has tried to do mostly homemade gifts. Its been awesome. This year it was a combination of homemade and 'your favourite things' (ie inexpensive things you love that you want everyone else to have)

Keeping gifts in the $10ish range made things much more creative and thoughtful. Some highlights include  bacon jam, franks red hot, minstrels and roses chocolates, norwex cloths, cookbook, natural soap, cosmetics bag, HP sauce, caramel popcorn, pens, crocheted dish cloths, painted initials for my daughters room door, and I am sure I am forgetting a few others...

I came up with a homemade idea before we decided to do the 'fav things' and so continued along with my idea following a online tutorial on spoonflower.com (a website where you can customize fabric).

Way back in september I asked my mom to handwrite a family recipe for me. She was a little confused since she knew I had a typed version but did so anyways without question. Then after scanning the recipe and creating a file to upload (took a little longer than I would have thought but in the end figured it out). Then I ordered my fabric and waited. I think it took about 6 weeks to arrive - this is the earliest I have ever started christmas projects!

Once the fabric arrived, I cut it up - 4 tea towels per yard of fabric. Folded the edges and sewed some straight seams. I also added a loop on the bag to hang from a hook.

This was super easy and everyone loved it. I think the total cost (with shipping) was around $7 each.

- Lauren