Homemade Holiday Gift Ideas

 



 

If you are like me, on a tight budget, there is no need to look any further for budget friendly Holiday Ideas! Being in college, with no financial aid, has molded me into a money-saving machine. I have scoured the internet in search of holiday gift ideas you can make at home for very little or even free!

Holiday Baked Goods: Many people, around the holidays, get too busy to bother making their own Holiday treats-so why not make some for them! Anything goes here-Cookies, Candy, Bread, cakes, etc…Plus you can customize, not just the treat, but the container itself! Jars or Boxes are a great idea for containers and you can decorate to your liking. If you need inspiration might I recommend this website?

Speaking of Baked Goods….

Holiday Cookie in a jar: Don’t have time to make someone a holiday treat? Why not give them something that makes it easier for them to make their own? Does you recipient enjoy chocolate chip? How about delicious chewy brownies? The possibilities are endless!

Artistic Rendering: Creating a personal piece of art for someone is a fantastic way to be personable while not spend a lot of money. Also, since it was created by you, it is more personal and well received by the person, even if you are not artistically talented.

Bath Soaps, salts, and Candles: This website gives various recipes for creating bath salts, soaps, and candles. They are very inexpensive to make and are a great gift for anyone. They give an example of a “Candy Cane Bath Salt” but you could always replace the peppermint oil with your choice of fragrance for a custom creation.

It is really depressing that my leg is still acting up and that I can not run on it. It has been like this for about two weeks. I believe it is shin splints that I got from the half marathon and running in the wrong shoes.

Speaking of shoes I bought a new pair and I am bidding on another pair.

Running

Lately I have been reading a lot of posts/articles on runnersworld.com. It inspires me to see people that can run fast and also people that are like me. Newish to running and that want to get better. I believe that everyone would like to be the best. Myself included.

I recently ran the Queens Half Marathon 2010. Temperature was 86 with humidity in the high 70's. My time was a horrendous 2:39. I thought I would at least break 2:30. The leading female came in at 1:21. If only I could be that leading female.

I do blame myself for this time. I decided a week before the race started to actually do it. My training was horrible. The longest I have ran before is a 10k. So here I am deciding to jump from a 10k to a half marathon with no training. Oh yes, bad idea. Not to mention the fact that my leg was hurting the day of the race.

So now I am on the road to getting better, faster, thinner, more mentally and physically prepared for my next challenge. Which will either be the Staten Island half marathon or the Diva half marathon (because come on who wouldn't want champagne at the end of a race!).

Here are my stats

5k PR 25:35 December 5th 2009

10k PR 57:53 November 26th 2009

Half Marathon PR 2:39 July 2010

Oh I have gotten worse!

Half Marathon

So I realize that I am prone to anxiety attacks at my new workplace. Thankfully I am only going to be working here until March!

One of the ways I can get rid of anxiety is by running. I am almost guaranteed to be running in the Queens, NY Half Marathon 2010. This is on July 24th. I just decided this week and now I have less than a week to train. I am a runner but I only average about 10 miles a week. I am going to try to get it to 25 a week then maybe run a marathon.

I have to go but I will talk more later

Internship

I officially got my internship in NYC. It is at McEntyre Public Relations. If I like public relations I could always become a Director of Public Relations.

I have been shopping for this internship because it is a fashion PR firm and I am not the most fashionable person around. My boyfriend owns more shoes than me even! So I have officially bought a new pair of heels.

The Host

So we have been on a new TV show watching spree. We are watching The X Files. Last night we watched Season 2 Episode 2. "The Host".

The episode starts out on a Russian freighter on the coast of NJ, one of the crewmen is recruited into fixing the ships septic system, due to him being a younger crew member. He is pulled into the septic system by an unknown cause and his body is found in the sewers of NeWark several days later. Agent Mulder is assigned the case and confronts his boss, Skinner, telling him that this case must be a form of punishment. Either way he is forced into finishing the case, and Scully volunteers to do the autopsy. During the autopsy she finds a strange worm inside the mans body, which is later revealed as a Flukeworm.

In Newark another worker gets attacked. This time he is saved by his co-worker but still got bite by the thing that attacked him. He goes to the doctor where we see what his wound looks like. It is a star shaped wound that is too big to be made by the tiny flukeworm Scully found but is still the same shape as the Flukeworms bite would be. While at the doctors office Mulder recieves a phone call telling him he has a friend at the FBI. He then proceeds to let the patient go since he has no further questions.

Later that night we see the guy with the wound, Craig, in his bathroom. He is trying to get a taste out of his mouth when he starts spitting up blood. (Honestly if I was him I would have gone back to the doctors!) He gets in the shower and chokes up another Flukeworm.

Mulder, who is now at the Sewage processing plant, finds a fluke like humanoid



And the rest I will leave up to you!! Man what a freaky episode.

Dependence

So I think my significant other is tired of me talking about how I do not have a job or don't like living in Staten Island. So this will be another use for my blog. Since he does not seem to want to hear it maybe he will read it. I doubt it but at least I can pretend someone cares to read about it, maybe not him but maybe someone else?

I moved here hoping that it would not be this hard to find a job. I guess one of the main things is that I want a job that I like doing. I care about the money but I want to like the job too. So I am applying to a bunch of different places in hopes that someone will view my feeble attempt at a resume and cover letter and actually think that it is full of brilliance.

Also I have another dilemma. I have five options when going for my Bachelors In Business. These five include: Accounting, International Business, Marketing, Management, or Finance. I do not think I would be good at marketing and I do not know a language well enough to do international. So I have narrowed it down to the other three.

I like accounting. I really do surprisingly. The only thing is I take it online so it is a lot easier (as long as you keep up with the work of course because there is a lot). Of course doing something over and over like is necessary in online courses helps me personally a lot.
Finance, well I know nothing much about it. I would like to get into it because I have no idea what to do with my finances. (not that I have any since I have no source of income). Plus I can tell people what to do and get paid for it.
I love being management. I liked it at McDonald's. Maybe it is different in a different job. I like being ahead of others and knowing things before anyone else and telling them what to do. I might not have been much of a good manager to other people but I thought I was damned good at getting things done.

Either way any of these can make me money. The thing is will I like any of them? I really do not know. I do not have much experience with different jobs.

I hate feeling so insecure about everything. The big thing right now is money. I have no source of income and my boyfriend seems to think it does not matter. He says he will take care of me but what if he decides he does not want to anymore. Or what if something happens that costs us a lot of money. We aren't even married, not even engaged and I feel like I depend too much on him now. It frustrates me that he does not sit down and talk to me seriously about it. He takes it so nonchalantly and it drives me crazy. I do not want to have to depend on someone for financial support. That may be a part of relationships to other people but at this point in our relationship I am not up or ready for it. I do not know when I will be. I do not know when or if I will be comfortable with it.

I guess, I have to be. For now.

Dependence

So I think my significant other is tired of me talking about how I do not have a job or don't like living in Staten Island. So this will be another use for my blog. Since he does not seem to want to hear it maybe he will read it. I doubt it but at least I can pretend someone cares to read about it, maybe not him but maybe someone else?

I moved here hoping that it would not be this hard to find a job. I guess one of the main things is that I want a job that I like doing. I care about the money but I want to like the job too. So I am applying to a bunch of different places in hopes that someone will view my feeble attempt at a resume and cover letter and actually think that it is full of brilliance.

Also I have another dilemma. I have five options when going for my Bachelors In Business. These five include: Accounting, International Business, Marketing, Management, or Finance. I do not think I would be good at marketing and I do not know a language well enough to do international. So I have narrowed it down to the other three.

I like accounting. I really do surprisingly. The only thing is I take it online so it is a lot easier (as long as you keep up with the work of course because there is a lot). Of course doing something over and over like is necessary in online courses helps me personally a lot.
Finance, well I know nothing much about it. I would like to get into it because I have no idea what to do with my finances. (not that I have any since I have no source of income). Plus I can tell people what to do and get paid for it.
I love being management. I liked it at McDonald's. Maybe it is different in a different job. I like being ahead of others and knowing things before anyone else and telling them what to do. I might not have been much of a good manager to other people but I thought I was damned good at getting things done.

Either way any of these can make me money. The thing is will I like any of them? I really do not know. I do not have much experience with different jobs.

I hate feeling so insecure about everything. The big thing right now is money. I have no source of income and my boyfriend seems to think it does not matter. He says he will take care of me but what if he decides he does not want to anymore. Or what if something happens that costs us a lot of money. We aren't even married, not even engaged and I feel like I depend too much on him now. It frustrates me that he does not sit down and talk to me seriously about it. He takes it so nonchalantly and it drives me crazy. I do not want to have to depend on someone for financial support. That may be a part of relationships to other people but at this point in our relationship I am not up or ready for it. I do not know when I will be. I do not know when or if I will be comfortable with it.

I guess, I have to be. For now.

Final Cake for 2

This is my final cake for Class number 2! For this class we only had to make one cake. The rest of the time was spent making the royal frosting decorations. Of course I am a procrastinator and did not actually make any of the decorations until the day that this was due.

I will in my defense say that it was because it is damned hard to frost cakes with one hand.