Moms often tell their kids "I'd much rather have a gift you made instead of something you bought...". My mom said it to me and I say it to my daughter, a lot. As a child you don't quite understand this concept as why on earth would anyone prefer a handmade gift to a real gift from a store? But with motherhood comes a desire to receive and cherish every little piece of paper, clay, fabric or in fact anything made by those adorable little hands. Extra value is added to such a gift that was thought up entirely by your child and not forced by a teacher or other adult. In my family of sewers and artists we all have houses full of weird and wonderful items which are only kept because they were "made by a special person's hands and sometimes, heart". Some of them should have been tossed in the garbage long ago but the longer you have them the more reason there seems to be to keep them. Anyway, the reason I started this blog post is because of something that happened yesterday. One of my instructors sent me a photo of an adorable apron she had just made. It was a cute waist apron made from recycled jeans and leftover fabric scraps and just the kind of thing I love so I sent a comment back saying "Beautiful". My instructor texted me back saying "Did you notice the small K in the corner? It's for you." I went back to the photo, zoomed in and sure enough there was a K stitched on the corner. That's when I felt it, the warm fuzzy feeling that starts in your belly and ends up as a smile on your face, as you realize that someone just spent THEIR valuable time creating a one of a kind item for YOU. Point made, home made gifts are better than store bought gifts.