Spanish phrases? Or not?
A veces pienso que no soy tan brillante (bien, en realidad la mayor parte del tiempo). I am attempting more writing in Spanish and am puzzling over two English phrases which are similar in sound and use, but have a distinct though subtle difference in meaning and application. "To take time" and "to make time". I am ashamed to put my efforts at these in Spanish here. Help!! I have tried using traer and tomar for the first (and they sound not quite right - somehow off?) and hacer for the second which comes out sounding like "doing time" (i.e., in prison). Muchas gracias mis amigos de antemano! 
6 Answers
Lector, I just found this on another post and it might be more appropriate than "hacer":
Te animo a que reserves algo de tiempo para ti mismo.
I encourage you to set aside time for yourself.
Tomarse su tiempo para hacer algo. Tómate tu tiempo para pensar sobre ello.
Estoy haciendo tiempo tomándome un café, hasta que empiece la película.
Great question! I would say 'tomar tiempo' and 'hacer tiempo'(hacer is a verb that means to make).
Lector...Martha is correct and here is the dictionary entry that shows it:
tomarse
pronomial verb
1 to have (comida, bebida) ; to take (tiempo, medicina)
2 to take (interpretar)
I also agree on the hacer.
According to my phrasebook
to make time for something hacer tiempo para algo
I am smugly pleased that I went with "tomar" for "to take" (time), thank you very much!
Now, about "to make time" ... It bothers me. You cannot turn a crank and manufacture time; the real implication is that your schedule is revised so that there will be time left over from other tasks (free time) and I am still trying to figure this one out. In Spanish, does one "liberate some time"?? Or, as in English, did the extra phrases/clauses get dropped from "to make a place in one's schedule which will be free for" ... whatever?? (I think this is where "making time" came from - but what do I know, I am not quite that old ... yet! ho-ho!) 
