Unique Serving Platter

When I was a kid, my dad would make us many different wooden toys. For some reason, he didn’t really believe in plastic toys. He said that he thought they were badly made and tacky, but I think it was something else. My dad had lived in the family that, for many generations had believed in crafting their own equipment. They made their own furniture, built their own houses, and grew their own food. They were farmers, tinkers, carpenters, and other artisans, accustomed to making their own way in life. For him and his ilk, it was always painful when mass manufacturing took over.

Of course, I wasn’t aware of any of this when I was a kid. To me, the thing that mattered most was the wooden toys I would get. It was fabulous. I got wood blocks to build with , wooden dolls with intricately carved and painted faces, hand-made teddy bears shaped after my favorite cartoon characters and imaginary friends, and many other wonderful gifts. My favorite toy of all, however, was my wood doll house.

I later found out that my father started building that wood doll house at the time I was born. With most projects, he was pretty quick and to the point. With that wood doll house, he seemed to take his time. Wooden doll houses definitely require a certain amount of attention that other wooden toys don’t. Building a doll house is like building an actual home. The more attention you put into it, the better the results are. Wood doll houses need furniture, wallpaper, paints, floor designs, and all the other things that you need in a real house.

As a matter of fact, that wood doll house was somewhat of an obsession for him, as it was for me. By the time I was old enough to play with it, it was already mostly put together. Even so, there were many different decisions to be made. My dad and I would talk at length about what type of furniture to put in it, what kind of dishes it should have, what clothing the dolls should wear, and even the lighting it should have. He showed me a lot about carving and putting together miniatures, and I was very good with it. Children have small, nimble hands, and some skills are best learned when you are young. Not only was that wood doll house fantastic toy, but it also taught me patience, dedication, imagination, and quite a few craft skills.

I grew up in a family where gift giving was practiced on a regular basis. We did not have a great deal of money. My parents worked hard for everything that they had and everything that they gave to us. I think this is why anything extra that was given felt like a gift. My mother has always been very giving.

As an adult I have tried to carry on my mother’s giving spirit. I buy items when I see them on sale and store them in a closet at home. When it comes time for a gift giving occasion I have a supply of things to give. My favorite thing to do is to develop unique gift baskets for the people I am giving to. This is where the small things I pick up through the year come into play. I do not like the pre-packaged baskets because you cannot tell the quality of the items that are wrapped together. Lots of times they tend to be more filler than items.

To start my unique gift baskets I find a container that suits the person I am giving the gift too. I have used a variety of things. Sometimes the container is the main gift and other times it simply holds the other items together. The unique gift baskets that I gave my sisters for Christmas were by far my favorite. My two sisters are both master gardeners. They have beautiful backyard gardens. I started my gifts by purchasing sturdy watering cans that would be the basket for the gift. Inside I placed a pair of shears for cutting flowers, a hand pruner, a hand held spade and rake for potting plants and a mister to apply pesticides. On the handle of the water can I tied a pair of garden gloves that were folded tog ether and fanned out to look like a bow. My sisters loved their unique gift baskets. Having the gardening tools given in the winter time gave them extra hope that spring was on it’s way.

I have also given the baskets that are filled with personal care products. Instead of buying the pre-made ones I make up my own to stay in the theme of unique gift baskets. This way I can include a person’s favorite scent, or favorite candy or other treat. Two years ago for Christmas we gave our friends that we exchange gifts with a family gift basket. These unique gift baskets included a deck of cards, a card game, dice and rules for a dice game, a box of microwave popcorn, several boxes of movie theater candies, and certificates for movie rentals at the neighborhood video store and a certificate for a pizza. The container was a flat basket that had a lid so the cards and dice could be stored in it. This provided for an evening at home for the families. It is fun to use your imagination and to put together gifts that people will enjoy because they were made specifically for them.