Christmas Hamper Ideas

[fundj&e]

i remember years ago using the vegemite glass the one with the lid  and wrapping the lid only or was it a sticker 

[fundj&e]

i also fine these bottle size, good for hampers

[andiesenji]

Bonsai, this one is for the baby boomers so not sure if you fit into that category.

When I was a kid we used to be able to buy cheap "Swaps" - small colourful cut out shapes of paper that we used to glue into our swap books.  We would also swap amongst ourselves - if you had too many angels, or birds, or butterflys, or whatever, you would swap with your friends.  So, if "swaps" are still around, you could buy some and perhaps use them to decorate your jars.  In fact, I am pretty sure there is something similar still around, not as flimsy as the swaps of my childhood, but I often see small smiley faces, butterflies, dots, etc. decorating children's cases and books so perhaps a visit to a children's store may be an idea.  Oh, I just thought, I am sure I have seen something similar in our small stationer's store - probably find something in a craft store as well.

If the scrapbooking fad has reached OZ, you can find thousands of sticker things for every season imaginable at scrapbooking shops.
We have four in Lancaster and even the tiny town of Rosamond north of here has one. 
I stay far away from those stores.  I have enough going on as it is and do not need another hobby.

[Cuilidh]

I never thought of scrapbooking, and admittedly don't know much about it, but it sounds perfect.  Good thinking, Andie.

[cookie1]

Thanks for the help everyone. DH buys his olive preserving jars from Plasdene.

[natmum]

  Try the 2 dollar shops ..reject and crazy clarkes. They are now carrying alot of scrapbooking supplies! Great 3d stickers would be great onthe jars..plus the paper string in bows would look great!!

[Very Happy Jan]

Plasdene in Canning Vale

Is this a new name? I've bought jars and bottles from a place in Canningvale but I'm sure that wasn't the name.

[Vivaroo]

I put my recipe for candied ginger up on my blog today:

ginger

j

Hi Andie, your recipe for crystallised ginger was so interesting to read.  I'm from the 'ginger capital of Australia'.  My Mum adores ginger, me too, i'd love to try your recipe. I put a small piece in my green smoothie every morning, adds a little va va voom.   Also spruces up an otherwise ordinary green salad.   Dip it in chocolate, well I wouldn't know from my almost puritan upbringing!!

I've put the call out at work for jars, so lucky/unlucky friends may get my homemade stuff at Xmas.  I'm a hoarder, and I married a chucker.  Where have all my containers gone?   I remember grandmas's house with a huge amount of jars under the house, it's genetic this hoarding tendency.

[CreamPuff63]

I have enough going on as it is and do not need another hobby.

if I can be completely honest andie, I would have put you in the " compulsive hoarder" category. I really do not know where or how you file everything away. You seem to have every appliance and technical device known to woman, and you have the tech know how back up. Then I saw your wonderful kitchen and its just so streamlined, and I am like...where is everything filed away? what am I missing? Perhaps I have missed chunks of your story somewhere, and I know you have taught people less fortunate than yourself but I am wiling to pick up where I have left off and learn again. I do love your knowledge and you have made a difference to my life 

[andiesenji]

I have enough going on as it is and do not need another hobby.

if I can be completely honest andie, I would have put you in the " compulsive hoarder" category. I really do not know where or how you file everything away. You seem to have every appliance and technical device known to woman, and you have the tech know how back up. Then I saw your wonderful kitchen and its just so streamlined, and I am like...where is everything filed away? what am I missing? Perhaps I have missed chunks of your story somewhere, and I know you have taught people less fortunate than yourself but I am wiling to pick up where I have left off and learn again. I do love your knowledge and you have made a difference to my life  

There is a fine line between "collecting" and "hoarding" and there is often great difficulty in deciding where that lies.   
Hoarders, and I have known a few, seem to save everything indiscriminately and live in the midst of chaos.   Years ago I had a neighbor who could not get into some of the rooms in her home because of piles of trash, bags of clothes, purchased but never worn, boxes of junk picked out of dumpsters and too many cats to count.  I, along with other neighbors, helped her daughter clear it out when her mother was hospitalized and it was horrendous.  The animal control people had to make three trips to get all the cats and the stink was so bad that we needed heavy duty masks with goggles.

I also know a lot of collectors, some of who collect things I wouldn't have in my home, but that is their choice.  As long as it is organized and not just piles of junk, it counts as collecting and not hoarding.   One friend collects really creepy antique medical instruments - some give me goose bumps and make me shudder.  

I know of book "collectors" (bibliomaniacs) who suffer from OCD and gather all the books they can find (or steal) but never read them and have dangerous stacks to the ceiling in some rooms - and people have died in such surroundings, buried by their books.

I have a lot of books but have read every one and don't collect ones just to have them.  I consider myself a bibliophile.
Right now I have a bunch of cookbooks stacked in my office because I am putting them up for sale and have to scan the covers and type descriptions for each one.  I am thinning out the ranks!  
I'm also getting ready to sell a bunch of SciFi books that have been in storage since I moved up here.  My helper asked me what was in all those metal footlockers (purchased at an auction when an Army base was closed thirty-some years ago ($1.00 each) and when I told him SciFi books, he asked if he could borrow some.  He moved the lockers to the front of the storage area and I have been sorting and choosing which to sell.  

As for the kitchen things.  I began collecting odd old gadgets about 40 years ago when I noticed that some of the old things were interesting and were being thrown away without regard to how they had contributed to history.  Rotary egg beaters, for instance.

I also began collecting Art Deco about that time and extended it into the kitchen appliance category because those things were made to be beautiful as well as functional.   I started with toasters and I don't have any of the very early ones because esthetically they weren't attractive to me.  I did have one of the early ones but traded it to another collector for something that fit better in my collection.  

I've been collecting teapots since I was in my teens.  I inherited several and then family and friends noted that I had them and began gifting me with them.   My parents, grandparents and other family members lived through the Great Depression and were not conditioned to dispose of things readily.  None were hoarders but they didn't throw things away that were in good condition.
A few  years ago, one of my aunts sold an extensive collection of colored bakelite jewellery for enough to buy a new Cadillac.  In her case, holding on to that "old junk" from the '20s and '30s really paid off.  

I don't gamble, I don't drink or take drugs and I'm never bored, so my "collecting" is a fairly innocuous pastime.   

[Bedlam]

Andie, I definetly wouldn't consider you a hoarder and only wished I lived closer to come and see your wonderful kitchen things, you have such a broad collection. I have seen some of those tv shows with hoarders and it appears to be a real illness very sad, they keep everything and anything, and it takes over their lives. Keep collecting it is a wonderful interest and a door to the past.

[cookie1]

Andie you are definitely a collector.
Your description of your neighbours house you helped to clean was exactly like Ma in laws place. She was a hoarder. She collected junk from the streets, bins and goodness knows where. The stench was unbearable and the junk was waist deep in all the rooms, including the bathroom and toilet. I even got used to rats running by me when we cleaned it out. Over 1000 cubic metres of junk went from one small suburban home. She threw absolutely nothing out, even saved all the things she checked her blood sugar with every day   .
The illness is called Diogenes Syndrome. It is very hard for family to deal with. She is still the same in the nursing home, goes through bins, in the kitchen ones as well. Her room is ghastly. She had a fall the other day and they managed to clear out some of the rubbish. DH has gone down there this morning to try and take some junk but I don't like his chances.

VHJ, I'll check what the name of the place in Canning Vale is, I just assumed it was Plasdene.

[judydawn]

Gosh Cookie, I hope they don't tell your DH they don't want her anymore and that he has to take her home with him  It must be such a problem for the nursing home.

[cookie1]

I think it is Judy. Unfortunately with her dementia she has had a personality change and now used lots of naughty words. I guess they get used to it though. I hope so.

[fundj&e]

I could kick myself, my sister offered me 2 shopping bags full of herb last week and i said no thanks.

This morning while storing my rosemary that i had dried, it hit me like a ton of bricks...... xmas hampers

I only have about 200 of these jars. what the hell was i thinking