My mother's recipe box
By dorannmwin
@dorannmwin (36392)
United States
November 21, 2012 9:29pm CST
Last year I borrowed my mother's recipe box from her so that I could copy down some of her recipes that I wanted to have at our home. However, me being the slow person that I am, I haven't returned it to her.
Well, I was doing a scrapbook challenge on one of my scrapbooking sites the other day at it was to make a scrapbook page of a favorite family recipe. I choose from her recipe box one of my favorite recipes and made a beautiful recipe card with the recipe on it. This inspired me to make a Christmas gift for my mother of her recipes.
What I'm planning to do is to make several different recipe card templates that I can type all of her recipes onto. I'm trying to do a different card template for each category of recipe. Then I'm going to type out the recipes on 4x6 cards from Wal-Greens and I will get a photo album to organize all of her recipes into. I only do digital scrapbooking, by the way.
Are you going to be making any Christmas gifts this year? Would you appreciate someone making you an organized recipe book from all of your recipes that you'd collected over the years?
3 people like this
8 responses
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
23 Nov 12
I would love the gift! It sounds so touching too as I am sure your mother values her recipies. I helped my little granddaughter make Christmas gifts already. I got those clear ornaments that you find at the craft store. We have done these before but I got a new idea this year. We took different colors of curling ribbon that you use on packages....you curl different lengths and stuff them into the ball..my granddaughter wasn't content doing those so I let her do them the way we did before by pouring different colors of paint in them...cover the hole and shake them up. The colors blend and marblize...well this year she added glitter glue and shook that up too....they are absolutely beautiful! We tied ribbons at the top...I had boxes that they fit into so we have them all done, packaged and ready to put under the tree. She is only seven by the way....and she did a wonderful job of making them.
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Nov 12
Wow, half priced already... I've actually never had the opportunity to go to Hobby Lobby, but I might have to make a special trip there to see if they have the ornaments at the one near here. Thank you for letting me know where I might be able to find the ornaments.
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
24 Nov 12
We've made ornaments that are similar to the paint ornaments that you are talking about in the past and I do feel like they turned out pretty good and I would love to make some more of them, but it is going to take some money to be able to buy the supplies for this.
Where do you get the clear Christmas ball ornaments anyway, we got ours from Wal-Mart the year that we did it, but I can't find any of them there this year.
1 person likes this
@elisa812 (3026)
• United States
30 Nov 12
That's a really cute idea! I have actually been wanting to do something like that with all of my favorite recipes some day, and then I will be able to pass them down to my daughter when she gets older. I've never thought about organizing someone else's recipes into a scrapbook as a gift idea. I think that will be a really nice Christmas gift for your mom! 
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
30 Nov 12
If I did traditional scrapbooking, I really don't know that the idea would have crossed my mind. However, since I do digital scrapbooking, it is something that came as a natural thought to me because it doesn't take much more work than simply typing out her recipes for her.
1 person likes this
@eshaan (6188)
• India
22 Nov 12
wow...dorannmwin...!!!
I think this will be the best gift your mother could get this Christmas....now with advanced technology you can do a lot to make ur dear ones happy...recently one of my daughter's friend gave her a collage of her photographs which she had uploaded on facebook...i was surprised that such school going kids are doing such new things these days...
u can have a look at her friend's work here...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=479049902139034&set=p.479049902139034&type=1&theater
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
23 Nov 12
Although I can't see the collage that your daughter's friend made for her, I do know exactly what you mean. For Christmas for my mother-in-law I'm going to make her a calendar with the decorations for each month being pictures of the kids. This is a way that I can use my creativity, give her something that is useful and also give her pictures of the kids that she wouldn't have had otherwise.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (224296)
• Chile
22 Nov 12
The gift you are thinking of making to your mother sounds a lovely and thoughtful idea. I`m sure she will apreciate the love and work you will put into it. I would certainly love to have one of my daughters make an awesome prsent like that for me.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
23 Nov 12
Thank you for sharing your opinion from a mother's point of view.
I originally was just going to type all of the recipes and give them to her, but I think doing it this way will be more meaningful because it is going to show love and time put into the gift. In addition to that, it is also going to be something that she will be able to add to in the future because I want to print out some blank cards as well that she can add handwritten recipes to and place in the appropriate part of the book.
1 person likes this
@much2say (56667)
• Los Angeles, California
23 Nov 12
That sounds like a really neat gift for your mom! I wish my mom had a recipe box or even book of notes - but everything is in her head! Perhaps one day I should sit with her so we can write some of these recipes down - particularly the Japanese ones! I don't have a recipe box either, but I have always intended to create my own cookbook to hand down to the kids. I have all the materials - JUST HAVEN'T GOTTEN AROUND TO IT! I have all sorts of notes and computer print outs - it's a mess - ha ha. Not sure if we will be making handmade gifts this year - doesn't seem like we have much time these days. I did however look this morning online about different ideas - it's possible we might some kind of "food gift" in addition to what we already got for everyone.
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
24 Nov 12
Actually, the only handmade gifts that I'm making this year are this recipe book for my mother and also a calendar for my mother-in-law. I made a calendar for my mother-in-law last year with pictures of the kids throughout the year and she loved it so it is definitely a gift that I'm going to be making a tradition of making for her every years until my children are grown.
1 person likes this
@911Ricki (13588)
• Canada
22 Nov 12
That is so neat, and more personal for her. I hope she really enjoys it, and will use it in the future. I am planning on doing 4 pages of scrapbooking 2 for each person. My old coworker who we have become very good friends, and her sister who we have become friends as well. I thought since I dont have much money and going to scrapbooking each week, and it would be a more cherished gift.
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
23 Nov 12
I agree with you. I don't think that there is really anything that a person cares about more than a gift that is both made with the recipient in mind and also made with love.
In addition to the cookbook for my mother, I'm also going to be making a personalized calendar for my mother-in-law with pictures of my children (her only grandchildren) that I've taken throughout the year. A gift of a year of pictures for her.
1 person likes this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
22 Nov 12
I would love an organized scrap book. I don't know of what recipes my Mother made that I could put in a scrap book. I just know how she made a few things I liked or added what seasoning to what cut of meat but it's by memory and surly not enough for a book to be made up.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
23 Nov 12
I have my mother's entire recipe box and it has at least 100 recipes in it, some that she uses all the time and others that I'm not sure if she has ever made, but I know that she has kept them all these years, so they are important to her.
I also intend to print some extra cards for her on matte paper so that if she has recipes in the future that she wants to add to the book, she can use her blank cards and write the recipes down to add them to her book.
1 person likes this
@RitterSport (2451)
• Lippstadt, Germany
22 Nov 12
hi dear dorannmwin thats such a great idea. Wonder whether your mom has not asked for her recipe box back after that long time you had it now.......
I have clipped out lots and lots of recipes over the years and hoard them but never get to making them.
Meanwhile I am diabetic and many of them are out anyways. But I still love collecting recipes. being online means I get lots of them and my electronic recipe folders are a mess too...... by now.......
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
23 Nov 12
She has asked for it back, but I've told her that I've not gotten them all copied down yet and I will take her a single card for whatever she wants to make or I will read her the recipe over the phone.
It started out that I was just going to type them all for her, but I think presenting a book in such a way that she can add to it later in an organized fashion is a much better idea.
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