'Tis the season to make your own gifts (with a little help from Martha)

<p>I suppose its practically, officially the holiday season. It sure feels like the holiday season, especially when I&#39;m at work and customers are acting like holiday shoppers. I keep setting up holiday displays, in between bouts of smiling through the holiday (lack of) spirit of others. At home, I&#39;m thinking about my holiday budget (or lack there&nbsp;of) and how to make it work, while my feet throb from helping other people stimulate the economy. <br><br>Last year I cleaned out our closets selling what we didn&#39;t need, but still in good condition, on Ebay. I made a killing, which allowed me to purchase gifts for our&nbsp;immediate family.&nbsp;I also baked&nbsp;hundreds of cookies, packaged them up in decorative boxes and gave them out&nbsp;as neat little gifts. With our extended family, my husband&#39;s clients and co-workers, neighbors and friends, it kept us debt free during the holidays.&nbsp;<br><br>This year, I have decided to delve more intensely into the world of home-made gifts, finding inspiration in the least expected place: Martha Stewart. Why is it unexpected? Because for many years, my mantra has&nbsp;been&nbsp;<strong>&quot;I am no Martha Stewart (but I secretly want to be!).&quot;&nbsp;</strong><br><br>I&nbsp;have always loved crafts, but I am an absolute mess. A mess.&nbsp;Whatever I attempt never&nbsp;turns out as&nbsp;intended.&nbsp;The only reason last years cookies were successful was because I had many trial runs and family willing to taste test. Not to mention, I had over-bought supplies, a&nbsp;blessing in disguise.&nbsp;<br><br>So, I&#39;m going&nbsp;into the holiday crafting with some wisdom: <strong>I don&#39;t have to&nbsp;be Martha Stewart.</strong> I also have the&nbsp;self-awareness to&nbsp;manage my&nbsp;artistic flaws. I am overly ambitious and&nbsp;disorganized. I&#39;m also&nbsp;a creative problem solver and&nbsp;have learned from past failures.&nbsp;And,&nbsp;in the modern age of craftiness, I have access to something I didn&#39;t&nbsp;when I first started crafting-&nbsp;MarthaStewart.com.&nbsp;<br><br>Not having to be Martha, but&nbsp;still having confidence that pull off the holiday crafting is liberating. Having a the resources any crafter needs just a click away is reassuring. Being able to bring my creativity to the season without breaking the bank is spirit lifting. Giving unique, thoughtful presents as gifts is priceless. <br><br><em>(Did I mention the part about not breaking the bank?)</em><br><br>I&#39;ve&nbsp;scanned the&nbsp;holiday section of her site and feel that I&nbsp;now have a direction for my holiday gift crafting. From cookies to candles, bath salts and ornaments, I&#39;m&nbsp;ready to start making my shopping list, mantra be damned.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br><br>&nbsp;</p>