Flavored Butter of the Month Club

I just might be more proud of this gift than any other.  It's not that the gift itself is so wonderful, but the difficulty in determining a gift for its recipients (let alone a homemade one) renders it ingenious.


My dad and my husband's dad: two great, happy, impossible-to-shop-for guys.  They truly don't want anything.  So one day I was torturing myself, trying to think of something - anything - to make for my father-in-law.  In frustration, I said aloud, "I can't make him anything!  All he likes is biking and butter!"  Ah, butter.  The first love of both these fine, frequently carb-cutting men.  Inspiration struck and I started a club.  They will receive twelve fresh batches of different compound butters, one each month.


I started with rosemary butter and it turned out a bit salty, but tasty nonetheless.  Orange butter is next up, but I don't have firm plans after that, so please feel free to share ideas and/or recipes.


I didn't take a picture, but rest assured, the butter was pretty.


Cost: about $24 for butter (I hate paying more than $2/lb) and a negligible amount for rosemary.  I'm not sure how much I'll end up spending on other flavorings, so we'll guess maybe $35 total?

Felted Sweater Bag

When I spotted this wool sweater at Savers, I thought of my awesome mother-in-law.  So I bought it, washed and dried it on hot, cut off the sleeves, and sewed up the bottom.  Voila!

I wish the bag were a bit deeper, but with the size of the shrunken sweater, there was nothing to be done.  I don't think they would have had the same pattern in men's extra large.


Cost: $5 for sweater