Teaching Good Things, Practical Skills for Real Life

Equipping Families with Practical Skills for Real Life!

Category Archives: Make It, Give It or Sell It!

Gifts that Encourage Real Life Skills – DYI

I am all about being practical and I love gifts that encourage real life skills!  Here is a great tutorial on how to turn an old desk into a workbench.

A visit to the thrift store, some creativity and a days work you can make this!

 

I love all the kitchen sets I’ve seen on Pintrest!

I will be making something similar to these for Peach!

Do you have any other DYI-Upcycle projects that encourage creativity and skills?

Don’t forget that our instructional DVDs are also great real life skill gifts!

Giving Generously: 40 Hour Emergency Candles

Here is a practical gift. Add a ribbon and a clever note  and this would be a great gift.

Place a book of matches and add a lid on it and you’ll have about 40-50 hours of light. These can be made for less than $2.00 if you are buying new jars, but less than $1.00 if you are recycling jars.

You could sell these for $5.00 easily, especially if you market them as “emergency” or “survival”  candles.

Go here to see how to make them (super easy), be sure to read the comment section, lots of great ideas.

Here are other frugal giving ideas! 



Building a Family Economy – Selling Sweets/Food Cottage Laws

This is the best time of year to make some extra cash by selling sweets and other baked goods for the holidays.  With busy schedules and so many people not wanting to be in the kitchen, it is the perfect time to strap your apron on and profit from people willing to indulge their sweet tooth over the next few weeks! :)

There are 13 states (Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Utah)  that allow home-based baking and food processing for low-risk foods.

Here is a good article that explains the Food Cottage Law and licensing.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • What you sell must be REALLY GOOD, bread, cookies, pie, etc…
  • Master 2 or 3 things and stick with them , or even just 1 thing!
  • Pies delivered the day before Thanksgiving is a good selling point.
  • Try to target offices where there are a lot of women that work; they
    are usually more likely buy something fresh and homemade.
  • Think of family and friends that work in an office that might be able to give you a foot
    in the door.
  • Make a flier and let all of your friends, family and neighbors know!
  • Word of mouth is your best advertisement!
  • Take a bunch of samples on your first visit and get orders.
  • Make deliveries on the same day each week.
  • Fudge is a great Christmas item.
  • Presentation is everything! Be sure to package them nice, it makes a big difference.
  • Offer to ship your goods as gifts, package them well and charge a shipping fee.
  • Fall and Christmas festivals are a good place to sell, but you will have the expense of your booth.
  • Let your children make the sales pitch, perhaps dress them up with an apron or something…be creative!
  • Browse Pintrest and Martha Stewart for ideas.

Also posted over at The Legacy of the Home.

Giving Generously – Soldered Jewelry – video

I LOVE this idea, let your imagination run!   Think of keepsakes, small pictures, lock of baby’s hair, small map of a special place, special date, names, finger print, etc… Make them smaller for charms on a bracelet, to hang from a pin, or to attach to a ribbon as a bookmark. How about make them a tad bit larger as a Christmas ornament?

Change the size and shape up.

You could spend one day and make gifts for all the women  on your gift list.

These could also provide you with some extra income if you made them to sell.

 

To be a generous giver and not break the bank it usually takes a little of your time, but no more than if you were out shopping all day. Think of the time and gas that is spent shopping, and in all reality your gift will be forgotten within the year.

When you choose to be a generous giver, investing some of your own creativity and labor, it increases the value of your gift even more!

You CAN give great gifts even if you are not very creative.

Planning now will save you a lot of stress later!


 I posted a page with ideas on how to Give Generously without Breaking the Bank.  I will be adding to this regularly along with a link up party so you too can add your ideas for giving generously!

So come on…share your inexpensive gift ideas! When you link up I will add your link/idea to the Generous Giving page.

Selling Handiwork and Baked Goods?

A question from one of our readers:

My daughter and I want to start a website that we would use to sell
handmade items.  But I was also thinking about selling baked good locally.

Can you offer any tips?

Thanks so much!

My reply:

To be real honest, it is HARD to sell handmade items online. If you are
wanting to make more than a few dollars here and there it probably won’t
be with handmade items. You would have to find an item or items that are
unique; and then the whole marketing thing is HARD! I’m not trying to rain
your parade, but I’m just being honest. :o )

On the flip side, if you are wanting to teach your daughter some good
business skills, internet marketing would be good. Just learning how to
set up and run a website is a GREAT skill! Marketing is TOUGH, TOUGH,
TOUGH! But again, it is a great skill.

Here are my favorite sites about internet marketing:

Copyblogger

Savvy Blogging

For learning the basic of setting up a blog:

Home Paid Blogger

Finding ways to make money from home is something everyone should work on,
especially girls who want to one day be home with their children and still be able to generate some income.

If you are going to sell baked goods locally the right season is coming up. Here are a few suggestions:

Try to target offices where there are a lot of women that work; they
are usually more likely buy something fresh and homemade. Think of family
and friends that work in an office that might be able to give you a foot
in the door.

Make a flier and let all of your friends, family and neighbors know!

Take a bunch of samples on your first visit and get orders.

Make deliveries on the same day each week.

What you sell must be REALLY GOOD, bread, cookies, pie, etc…

Fudge is a great Christmas item.

Be sure to package them nice, it makes a big difference.

Master 2 or 3 things and stick with them. Maybe offer something special for the holidays. Pies delivered the day before Thanksgiving is a good selling point.

Fall and Christmas Festivals are a good place to sell.

Letting your children, especially if they are CUTE  make the sales pitch is always a bonus! ;o)

 

Anyone else have any ideas to share?

 

Crocheting with Plastic Bags

Several years ago I saw a tote bag that was crocheted with plastic bags, it was SO COOL!  My first thought was that it would be perfect for a beach bag because it could withstand getting wet and just shake it out if it got sand in it. It’s one of those projects that I keep saying I’m going to do, and now after looking at THIS website, I’ve just got to do to it!!! I’ll bet they work up fast because of the size of the hook (and bags) and that any pattern usable with yarn would work for plastic.

Here is a clip on how to cut the bags:

Learn How to Crochet with Our DVD

Start Making Your List

 

Now that the gardening is over for the most part, and cool weather is settling in, it is time to be working on some indoor projects; perhaps some sewing projects.


How about making a list of people you can make gifts for rather than buying gifts?

 


Napkins made earlier this year.

 

This year I plan on making sets of cloth napkins as Christmas gifts. I will bundle these with some flavored coffee, spiced tea, or  hot cocoa mix and some homemade biscotti. Theses are things I can make way ahead of time so I can leave the month of December open for festivities!

 

Get your kids in on the action, even boys can sew, or mix up cocoa mixes and fill jars.

 

 Look over our Make It, Give It, Sell It series from last year for ideas and tutorials.

 

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