DIY Holiday Gifts

I am beginning my blog with three easy DIY gifts that you can create now on a budget. I will present them in a 3 part series.

The first is a lingerie or fine garment bag that can be used for travel or storing fine garments in a drawer. See the picture below and gather supplies to get started.

The supplies needed are

• pillow cases, use the thrift store, or Dollar Tree (has satin pillow cases). You may get lucky and find king size pillow cases which provide larger bags
• Scissors/Shears for cutting fabric.
• Fabric glue that is permanent and will not wash out (I used Sew Magic)
• A sewing machine, matching thread
• Tape measure or yard stick ruller
• nice to have a rotary cutter but if you don’t you can use scissors.
• Pins
• Dye if you only locate white pillow cases but want them another color.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.