Is it me or are there any other parents out there who panic the day before their kids get out for holiday break? I mean for two weeks there will be no escaping those little monsters! Actually, that’s not what I meant. The reason I always panic is because I have forgotten to buy all those teacher gifts! These days each of my kids have two teachers in their classrooms and then there’s all the other awesome teachers and staff.
I really like gift-giving. I take it seriously. I want the person to feel like I really took the time to think of them. So what do you get a teacher who gets 20 gifts all on one day multiplied by how many years they have been teaching??? Yeah, there’s a little pressure to think outside the box.
Long story short, the answer is SOAP plain and simple. Who doesn’t love soap? Pig Pen? I think that’s about it. Everybody else has got to love it. At least the handmade kind. It smells soooo good. I can smell my hands an hour later and they still smell good. It’s like perfume for my hands! Not to mention clean hands. I always have paint or clay on my hands so I’m always cleaning them and now that there is a worldwide pandemic? Forgetta ’bout it. We all need more soap.
Does anyone else splurge during the holidays and buy themselves a present or two? I am so guilty of this. I really do not shop the other 11 months of the year so when I start looking at everything, there are a few things I just cannot resist. There are two treats I splurge on every December. A pine scented candle and a bar of hand made soap. They are simple pleasures and as small as they are, they bring me such joy.
So my thought was. why don’t I give the teachers something I would want myself? Hard liquor seemed a little inappropriate ;) but soap is something you can give both men and women and it’s something they can actually use.
So for years now, every December I make a bunch of soap dishes out of clay and add a bar of soap for the teacher gifts. My thought was, If I’m struggling for a small gift for quite a few people, other people have to be struggling too! Thus this year I made the decision to sell some of the soap dishes I make. Here are some of my Favs from this year:
I found an artisan that would sell me soap by the loaf. So each soap dish is ready to gift. I’m glad this was the year I decided to invest in buying soap because with the pandemic, I haven’t gotten to go to all my favorite holiday fairs. Rest assured I’ve treated myself to some soap, but of course I Cinderella’d myself. Instead of the fancy bar I buy from a fair, I am using all of the 1 inch scraps I cut off the soap loaf to fill the dishes I am selling.
Boooo….. I know I know…. don’t worry, I will put a large block of soap under the tree for myself.
Oh, and a pine-scented candle too ;)
Be Creative Mary 