ASK AMY

I have a very sweet mother-in-law who loves to make handicrafts. Angels, teddy bears and crocheted cows seem to be her top favorites to give as gifts.

The most hideous of them all was the brightly colored cow's head made to sit on the back of the toilet and stuffed with the spare roll of toilet paper to maintain its shape.

Anonymous

Dear Amy:

A friend of our family's was way into crafts and made some beautiful things, but this one left us scratching our heads. She would wind yarn around the edges of a plastic flyswatter paddle, then weave plastic or silk flowers into the plastic meshwork.

I'm sorry to say that I used it to swat flies (after I removed the flowers, of course -- they slowed it down).

Aaron From Chicago

Dear Amy:

For my 12th birthday, my grandmother presented me with one of her projects as a gift. It was a purse made out of plastic milk jugs.

She cut the jugs up, punched holes in the plastic and then sewed them together with bright, multicolored yarn. The shoulder strap was made from the brass chain that you use to hang lamps from the ceiling.