handmade.

I love handmade gifts. I, however, do not know how to hand-make many things. There is such an extra amount of beauty in something, I think, when you can look at the finished product and almost imagine its maker putting all that work and care into making it. I have always loved visiting art museums for this reason. I can't get enough of them. For some it is painstaking, just staring at... things. I can't get close enough to the art, looking at every dried brushstroke of oil-paint or seeing fingerprints forever plastered in a clay sculpture. It's wonderful, to me. And music, I love to be at a concert and watch as an artist, right then and there, creates their art. I worked at a coffee shop for a while and remember my friend saying that making an espresso drink felt like creating. She would make each drink for that particular person, creating a cup of drinkable art.

I, on the other hand, don't know too much about making things. I have tried to learn a few trades. My aunt, bless her, tried to teach me to crochet recently. She laughed, out of love, at my finished product. Mostly, I have created things only with close guidance from others. One of my favorite memories is of canning this past fall. Now, when I eat the applesauce or salsa that we made as a group, it tastes a little more delicious than any applesauce or salsa I've ever had. Because from picking the apples off of the tree or peppers out of the garden- to storing them into mason jars, it was handmade (and I had a small part in it). I love that.

Lately, I have received a lot of really wonderful handmade gifts. From people, who must full well know, that they aren't going to receive something as wonderfully handmade from me (someone who is much less crafty). And I am humbled by their kindness (and talent!).

My aunt made me scarves, friends made me pottery and ornaments and a quote (which I love as a reminder to, just "simplify") and headbands... and a man I hardly know, who shares only a love of camp and Jesus with me, took the time to carve my name out of wood. I love these handmade things...