I'm still laughing at this one

Today’s turning out to be a fairly big day so here’s a fun “joke” gift (or it could be serious, too! Haha).

Got this one in an email from a friend today. It was a Christmas present from one of her male friends to an engaged couple.

Great way to make sure they don’t forget you after they get married!

Palm trees and coconuts...

I always figured I'd get married one day. I also knew that my parents would generously pay for most, if not all of my special day. And when that day came, I wanted to be able to show them my appreciation.

About 5 years before I actually got married (I was dating the guy I would eventually marry, but I didn't know it at that point), I went on a cruise with his family. Somehow the cruise ship messed up our reservations and to apologize, upgraded all of us (we had a total of like 8 rooms) to balconey suites. Afterwards, I started an unofficial savings account.

You see, balconey suites were expensive. I know my dad, and knew that he's all about the deals. I thought the balconey just made the entire trip. Waking up every morning to see that crystal blue water? It was just amazing. I wanted my parents to experience that.

A few months before the wedding, I contacted a travel agent and explained to her what I wanted to do. Since I didn't know when to actually book the trip for, we decided a gift certificate would be the easiest way to go. I told the travel agent that I didn't care where they went (although I had a few suggestions of places I thought they'd like), my only stipulation was that it had to be a balconey suite.

The night before the wedding, I went into my parents' room and handed them a box. Inside were several cruise books/pamphlets and a gift certificate. I told them it was enough for a week long cruise to most places in the Caribbean.

They were a little "mad" at first but I just told them I had been saving up for this for awhile. Plus, their house had flooded about two months before the wedding so they'd been dealing from all the stress from that. They knew they needed a break anyway.

They loved the trip, it was a well-deserved break for them and it made me happy to be able to give back to my parents, who have given so much to me. They've been great parents and I love to do unexpected things for them because I want them to know how much appreciate them.

Warning: Do not try while hungry...

The economy pretty much stinks these days. Christmas should never be a burden and homemade gifts are no longer the macaroni-necklace, toilet paper roll Christmas tree crafts anymore. It’s super easy to give the illusion of spending a lot of money (although that’s definitely not the expectation) without the cash. Besides, when the recipient finds out you did it yourself, that’s even better!

Got a candy or dessert that is your specialty? Find a cute way to box it up as a gift!

I made these fudgy bon-bons for work a few weeks ago.

They look professional, right? Find some little boxes, wrap some ribbon around it and voila! Instant look of expensive fudge shops but cheap solution in your own kitchen.

Children on your list? Try these chocolate mice!

I think they are just adorable!

Got a tea lover (like myself) on your list? Pomegranate Winter Tea!

Click here for 26 fun little gift-giving-worthy recipes!

Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck

I’m kind of the self-proclaimed queen of random. You’ll never catch me giving my father a tie for Father’s Day (although I’m pretty sure I have in the past…but no more!). With giving gifts comes the potential for that element of surprise. I LOVE that look on people’s faces when they open a gift to find something they didn’t even know existed!

I found one of those gifts for my father in law this year for Christmas. My husband vetoed it, saying it was just “clutter” (*gasp* how dare he??). But I still think it’s pretty awesome.

What is it?

My husband, father in law and brother in law all love the Three Stooges. (Ohhhh the jokes I could insert here).

Life sized Three Stooges cut outs! (Amazon)

If you don’t like this scene, there’s multiple ones on there, just pick the episode you want!

I  thought about getting them Three Stooges masks too but maybe that’ll wait for another day…

Go Team!

As I mentioned a few posts back, my best friend and I exchange Christmas ornaments every year. We try to do something that’s special to that year and this year she got married in August (I talk about weddings and getting married an awful lot, don’t I?).

Concerned that she would get a bazillion “First Christmas” or “Just Married” ornaments, I decided to think how I think best – off the wall.

My bestest graduated from Virginia Tech and her husband from Wake Forest so naturally during any sport season, they have a good natured rivalry going on. I thought it might be fun to play on that a little.

While browsing on Etsy (I’ve mentioned how much I LOVE this site), I found a quilted Virginia Tech ornament that looked like this:

I didn’t see any Wake Forest stuff on the site, but went ahead and emailed the crafter anyway. I explained the situation and asked if she could possibly do some sort of “split household” ornament with VT and WF. She (Donna) responded back and said she’d love to but she hadn’t been able to find any Wake Forest ribbon (which disappointed her greatly considering she was also a WF alumni). She said she’d look around some more and see if she could come across some WF ribbon and she’d let me know.

Fast forward about a month later – she found some! She messaged and asked if I was still interested (absolutely!). I received the ornament a few days later and it was perfect:

I stuck a note in there saying that I hope this ornament will be the butt of many fights (jokingly, of course) to come as to whose team gets to face outward. The reaction?

ALSO, you are the most fantastic gift giver  EVER!  We love the ornament.  It's perfect!  How do you think of these things???

Another satisfied customer!

What's on my list?

I’ve had multiple people ask for lists of what to get me. I’ve told most of them I don’t need anything (true statement, other than clothes that fit from this weight loss but that’s more fun to pick out yourself) but here are a few things that I think would be fun:

I used to do pen and ink drawings in high school and I loved it. I did one of my grandfather which ended up in the school calendar of artwork…one of my brother and I as kids…one of an old building…you get the picture. For whatever reason, doing pen and ink soothes my soul and calms me. I haven’t done it since high school but I always want to get back into it…just never seem to have the time. It’d be nice to have a hobby for “me” again.

My “out there” gift would be a metal detector. I’ve wanted one of these since the first time I saw someone on a beach using them. I just know that I’d find my long lost fortune if I only had one of these…

My favorite bottle of wine. I’m really hoping I get this one for Christmas. I dropped VERY heavy hints to the hubby when we were in Charlotte this weekend. I have never been able to find this wine ANYWHERE but this one wine shop in Charlotte beside a running store we both used to work for. I know he was at the running store visiting with friends this weekend so if he knows what’s good for him, he stopped by and picked up a few bottles for me. Otherwise, I’m buying it from a place online that only sells it by the case and it’s going to set him back a few hundred dollars. Did I mention my birthday is in January?

A Carolina Panthers t-shirt. Everyoneeeeeee up here is Redskins (like my hubby) or Ravens. I’ve always enjoyed being a little different and have decided to choose this year as my inaugural “Panthers Fan” year – partly because it’s my first full football season in the north and partly because they STINK this year so no one can accuse me of being a bandwagon fan.

So there you have it. My list. I'm expecting the bottle of wine and possibly the Panthers shirt (I mentioned both to hubby). The pens I'll probably wind up getting myself for my birthday and the metal detector is just a dream :)

The struggles of gifts

Quick update, hubby’s going to live – doc said his lungs looked much better. We get results back tomorrow, follow up on Thursday and another CT scan in 6 weeks but he was back to being annoyingly ridiculous yesterday so I deem him back to normal!

My brother got married Friday. His fiance’s birthday was last Tuesday. Then there’s Christmas. It’s a lot of gift-giving in a short amount of time but that’s okay. I’m up for the challenge.

I already said earlier I’m giving her address labels for her birthday. Now it’s time for Christmas.

My original gift was a Newlywed Cookbook (hey, my brother said she was on a cookbook kick right now)

And a cookbook stand (Amazon) $14.99

But turns out, great minds think alike and my mom already got her a cookbook stand :P (I guess we know where I got my gift giving abilities from?)

Plan B.

On to Bed Bath and Beyond!!

They had registered for white square dishes at Crate & Barrel. Problem is, there is no Crate & Barrel around here. Luckily, I found this pretty little serving set that I think will match their dishes.

Price tag is $34.99 but we know Bed Bath and Beyond always have super coupons, right? Put that with the gift card I redeemed from my credit card points and total cost to me = $0.00.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering…that Flashback Atari set? A total hit. One of my brother’s college friends was also up when we were doing Christmas and I got the high-five from him and the “How is this humanly possible?” from my brother. To put it into perspective, it beat out the bike Santa gave him when he was 5 years old. Take that, Santa J

Quick personal note.

Quick update...

I know I don't do personal things on this blog, but hubby is having some major health issues right now. They're doing a lung biopsy on him tomorrow morning so keep him in your thoughts and go easy on me if it takes me awhile to update this thing again. After his biopsy tomorrow I (and him if he gets his way) are headed to NC for my brother's wedding then final papers and projects are due next week along with hubby's test results from the bloodwork and biopsy. So...I'll be back when I can!

I spy...

Gifting for the ultimate action lover?

Do they mountain bike? Rock climb? Ski? Snowboard? Anything?

Then I think they might just love this gift.

Last year, my brother-in-law’s girlfriend and I were trying to come up with a final “big” gift for our significant others. They tend to like the same things so we figured if we could come up with something between the two of us, we’d be golden.

While walking around REI (are you seeing a trend in this family? If you haven’t been exposed to REI and buy gifts for an outdoorsy person, it will save you tons of time trying to shop!) we came across…

Helmet cams! It’s more than just a helmet cam though – you can attach it to a bike or anywhere else you can find to stick it.

The one above is $99.95 at REI and now that I look at it, has a terrible rating. Hmmm…anyway, it’s still a good idea and there are good ones out there. Just something to consider!

Mountain Climber Dude Thing?

Another post-honeymoon gift story.

In St. Lucia, we stayed at a resort where there were multiple bars and restaurants we could go to each night. The resort was going through renovations, and we got into the habit of going to one of the post-renovated bars before we’d head to dinner. This bar had been decorated very modernly but not in a cold way. In the bar, there was a wall full of these cast iron mountain climber guys. Brad thought it was one of the coolest things he’d ever seen.

Now. We got married in October so obviously this was on my mind when I started doing my Christmas shopping. I consider myself virtually an expert in Google, but this one threw me for a loop. I mean, what do you call this thing?

I tried everything. Mountain climber. Cast Iron. Man. Dude. Rope. You think of it, I was googling it, trying to figure out how on earth to find it. The bartender at the resort had said that the owner’s wife had decorated it and brought everything in from Europe.

Finally….after literally over a month of searching online every single day…I found it. Surprisingly enough, only a few hours away. I went ahead and ordered it (and sent it to my brother’s house so Brad wouldn’t suspect anything).

On Christmas morning, I brought it out (a long, skinny box that was clearly weighted on one side). Everyone thought it was a golf club. Brad opened it…and was pleasantly surprised.

And no one has doubted my Google skills since!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

I meant to jump on board and update all through Thanksgiving to show my newfound commitment to this blog…but hubby wound up with pneumonia so that kind of altered a lot of my plans. Pneumonia is not cool, by the way, not cool at all.

Moving on…

It’s always fun to give a gift that you know your recipient will enjoy. Bonus points when the gift revolves around a hobby or favorite activity of the recipient. Major extra credit points? When it’s something you and your recipient BOTH enjoy!

My best friend and I trade ornaments each year for Christmas. Nothing extravagant, just something small and meaningful. A few years ago, we had been hot and heavy into Scrabble on Facebook. Since she lived in Richmond and I lived in Charlotte, it was a fun way to keep in touch while playing one of our favorite games. So I got a great idea…

A scrabble tile ornament!

Granted, you could probably make something similar pretty easily…but I didn’t want to buy a whole game just for the tiles. Can you buy just the tiles? Something to look into…

Anyways, it’s only $7.95 and you can find it here. It’s out of stock now but just google “Scrabble ornaments” and you can get a few more choices than you could when I was looking.

Stop and Listen

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! Now the gift-giving season is REALLY in swing so I'll try to keep the blog going more frequently. Final papers are due next week and the following week so I'll definitely have more time to post after that along with a guest blog or two!

One of the easiest ways to find a gift for someone that’s truly special…is by listening. Just in everyday conversation, all throughout the year. I keep a running list all year that when I hear someone say something like “I used to love ___” or “I wish I had ___” I write it down. Around the holidays most people aren’t so forthcoming with things they want. But the rest of the year, just take notes!

I went to lunch with my husband’s grandmother over a month ago to a local place called Cozy’s. The town we live in is the closest town to Camp David so there are a few local haunts where Presidents will go when they are in town. Cozy’s has a mini museum inside their building that goes through each of the Presidents and any ties they have to the area.

After we had lunch, she took me into the museum part. Considering she’s 80 years old and had a stroke nearly 2 years ago, she has a ton of memory. She started telling me about how Camp David came to be and how there was a movie that she used to watch with her father that was the inspiration behind Camp David. She just mentioned how she hadn’t seen that movie in forever and bet you couldn’t find it anymore.

Well, that set off an alarm in my head – a challenge! I went straight home, did some minor research and found it on Amazon for $10. 

I think we’re going to frame a picture of the family from our wedding to put with it, but it’s a gift that will mean something to her. 

Rum rum rum!

My husband and I went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon in 2009. It was beautiful, everything was wonderful. They specialize in rum down there so before we left, he bought 4 bottles of St. Lucian rum to bring back. I don’t think he ever intended to actually drink them, but he wanted keepsakes.

Well, all but one bottle made it back to the US. One shattered in my luggage (of course it would be the one in MY luggage), with no hope of salvaging. He was ticked and claimed it was his “favorite” rum that he tried while he was there. Alas, life went on.

This Christmas season, while thinking “outside the box” I remembered this little scenario. Possibly because I got some luggage out that still had the faint scent of rum…but who knows :)

Now, I couldn’t exactly remember the name of this magical rum that was lost. Obviously I couldn’t ask him since that would kind of spoil the whole thing! So I did some research on good ‘ol Google. And I found it. I did remember him saying that the label had the two Piton Mountains on it. Done. A place in New York could ship it to me. $30.

$30 for a honeymoon memory gift I know he wants but he’s forgotten? You betcha.

Cha-Ching!

I’m about to let you in on a great money saver gift giving solution.

The holidays can get crazy expensive without even realizing it. I mean, especially if you have a big family or get married, suddenly the 4 or 5 people you used to get gifts for turns into 25. I’m not willing to spend big bucks in December, only to spend January stressed out and in debt. Not for me, thanks. So….

I embraced my credit card in a good way. My credit card gives me a point for every dollar I spend. They round up, too, which definitely works in my favor. They also have an online shopping “mall.” Basically, if I go through my credit card’s website and use my credit card at their “mall,” I get “x” number of points per dollar. Usually anywhere from 2-10 but they have promotions every month and the number can skyrocket.

I use my credit card to pay for my grad school (at $3,025 per class plus books, that’s a biggie right there). I use my credit card for groceries. If I see something I’m going to get and it’s available through my credit card mall, I get it through the credit card mall, even if it’s a store close by – but only if I can find a free shipping coupon.

My points accumulate throughout the year and I don’t touch them…until around November. Then I start evaluating where I’m going to buy gifts from this year…and redeem my credit card points for gift cards. I’ve bought over $200 worth of Christmas presents this year…on gift cards. And I still have a lot more points to go! Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, restaurants, movies…anything I want. Even if they don’t have a gift card for a store I want (I love my local stores), I can get Visa gift cards (they cost a few more points but it’s not that significant).

It’s important to point out that I don’t just use my credit card for any and everything that I don’t have the money for. I pay my credit card off each and every month, without fail. I have savings for my grad school..so as soon as it goes on my credit card, the money comes out of savings and pays my credit card. As long as you’re diligent about it, it’s fine.

It’s in your favor to check your credit card’s options…if they don’t offer rewards, get one that does! My Christmas never financially straps me. And if there’s points left over, sometimes I buy myself a gift card to somewhere I want (Carrabba’s…mmmmm!).

Just something to consider since you’re spending money anyway!

Toys for Boys!

I’ve mentioned before, but my husband is one of the most difficult people to buy gifts for on earth. If he sees something he wants or needs, he tends to just buy it himself. I’m a person who likes to buy gifts in advance, so I have to start talking him out of purchases in September if I want to make sure he’s not buying something I already bought.

Or, as I told him this weekend, I just buy him things he doesn’t know he needs yet.

My husband is outdoorsy. I think he’d live in a tent all year round if I let him. My only stipulation for our honeymoon was that I did not spend it in a tent. I’d say one of his top five favorite stores on earth is R.E.I. I think pretty much anything I get from there, he’s okay with (especially since we are R.E.I. members so we get a percentage of anything we spend back to us at the end of the year AND they will take ANYTHING they sell us back at any point...even if we've worn running shoes for 50 miles!).

This year’s Christmas R.E.I. purchases?

Night vision goggles. He’s joked about wanting them before but they’re incredibly expensive. Luckily, a quick search of R.E.I. found a decent pair for $50. When we were in the R.E.I. store Saturday, I saw actually saw the same ones I had ordered and they were in the kids’ toy section (haha). But anyway, they’re supposed to see in the dark for up to about 50 feet I think. Plenty of room to have a little fun in the dark!

Next up? A pocket blow torch. $19.95.

Just insert a regular lighter and bam! Instant extreme fire!

What will he use these things, you ask?

What boy doesn’t like toys to make him feel like a kid again? And when Brad feels like a kid, I’m usually laughing nonstop for a solid few hours. Which makes me feel like a kid again.

Laughter = Love

Oh Christmas!

I loveeeeeee that Christmas is coming up because it's my chance to really go crazy with gifts. I'm going to have to be careful which gifts I put up here before Christmas, but I'll update with all of them after Christmas. I'll be able to remember, too, because as my co-workers learned on Friday, I have color-coded Excel spreadsheet with each and every person I'm buying for (along with two birthdays during the holidays), what I'm giving them, where I'm getting it from, if I've bought it yet, if I've received it yet and if I've wrapped it yet. I'm telling you, this gifting thing is an obsession.


I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the men in my life won't read this so I'll start on them first. Plus, guys are the hardest to buy for, right?


So I don't know about you, but when my brother and I were growing up, we had an Atari. We weren't a family who did nothing but play in front of the t.v., but the Atari was quite the novelty to us. I remember watching my big brother play a lot, admiring how he could actually make Donkey Kong get up the ladders while I could barely pick up Big Bird's eggs out of a basket. 


We still have that old Atari, somewhere. It doesn't work anymore, but it's around. The funny thing is, I had already bought my brother's Christmas presents this year. I was only online, looking for more gifts because a co-worker had asked for opinions on a gift for her family. Then...I came across a Christmas show-stopper...

The Atari Flashback 2!

It has about 40 classic games, pre-loaded onto it. Hooks up to any modern TV (how freaky will it be to be playing Atari on a 60 inch flat screen??). It's only $34.99 and, thanks to my fantastic credit card points, yet another free-to-me Christmas gift (bringing my "free gift Christmas" total to about $176-that'll be another blog post). 

It's supposed to arrive this week so I'll update if it doesn't meet my expectations. But I'm anticipating this to be a "holy crap" kind of Christmas gift. The other Christmas presents I bought him are just going to have to wait until his birthday. It's in February, they'll last :)

Yours Truly,

First off, sincere apologies for the lack of blogging. I’m currently a full time grad student, full time wife, full time mommy (of the two most precious pups ever!) and now holding down a full time job. Needless to say, it’s taken a little time to try to juggle all this! I still probably won’t update every single day but I’ll do what I can, when I can!

I hope this isn’t too similar to one I’ve already done, but I ordered a gift last night and remembered how this is one of the simplest, budget-friendly and usable gifts I’ve found.

Address labels!

I’ve mentioned that my brother gets married next month. His fiance’s birthday is the Monday the week of the wedding. Now, I’m not trying to go cheapskate here, but her birthday is Monday, the 29^th, their wedding is Friday, the 3^rd (hubby and I both are taking 2 days off from work and driving 7 hours both ways) and then the Christmas season is here. I can’t spend a million dollars so I needed to figure out something that would be appreciated, usable…and cheap!

Address labels come in virtually any design, color, shape, etc. that you could possibly imagine. I ordered these:

They have their future shared last name initial, both of their names and their address together. I contemplated just putting her name on them but thought since they were getting married that week (meaning lots of thank-you notes to write!) it might come in handy to have both. And who doesn’t love seeing you and your new husband’s name on things?

So there you have it. $8.96 at Current (a catalogue I remember my mom buying quite a few nifty things from!). It’s not a last-minute gift idea since it takes up to 10 days to get them (personalized stuff takes longer, remember that!). But if you’re like me and try to plan ahead (key word: try), it’s a great possibility. If you want to add some stuff to it, add some notecards or something. I would have done that in this case but I gave her some personalized notecards with another gift recently – that might be a bit overkill!

Timeless

One of the best and easiest ways to make a personalized gift is with a shadow box. It really goes with any occasion.

For example, for our wedding, one of Brad’s aunt made us a shadow box. It has some pretty little decorations, a picture from our save the date cards, and our invitation. She told us she does that for every wedding they go to. It’s also special to us because she and her husband were the ones who drove us from the reception to our hotel (and then off to our after-party!). I didn’t really know this particular aunt and uncle very well before the wedding but they were one of the best parts of the wedding. They shared their words of wisdom and well wishes the whole way to the hotel. We have it hanging in the kitchen now and I think of them and that ride often.

 We got married in the fall, hence the leaves and fallish colors!

Brad’s cousin Tara turns 16 today. When I was in North Carolina last weekend I stopped at  HomeGood’s and found a beautiful shadow box for less than $15. I came home, printed some pictures from the family beach trip we took this summer and bam! Instant personalized gift! I’ve been tossing around putting some little pieces of memorabilia around inside but I’ve been holding off – I want this shadowbox to be something that she can change out the pictures in. Obviously I would never change the pictures in my wedding shadowbox. But for a 16 year old – I don’t want her to feel like I spent SOOO much time on it that she can never change the pictures. This shadowbox is incredibly easy – it came with a few pushpins and the front cover literally just lifts open. I want this shadowbox to be a base but something she can personalize however she wants down the road.

Whether it’s a timeless shadowbox or just a “right now” shadowbox, it’s a great way to personalize a gift if you’re on a limited budget. Mine cost less than $20 (and would have cost closer to $15 if I could have found my flash drive – then I could have printed the pictures at CVS!). 

Tasty Gift

In my family, there’s a tradition. For every bride in the family (doesn’t matter if you are born into the family or marrying into the family), you are given a family cookbook. All of the families are asked to contribute and a lot of recipes are ones that were handed down from grandparents, etc.


This past weekend was my future sister-in-law’s wedding shower. My mother and aunt both attended with me and we had a great time talking about the “good ‘ol days” – (okay, so maybe they talked about the good ‘ole days and I just provided some comic relief). They were talking about how much the cookbook has evolved over the years – the first one started with just some recipe cards put into a box. At some point it went to 3 ring binders.

I was the first bride in my family in….well over a decade. And it was worth the wait!

Thanks to my best friend Kristi, my mom was able to put together the absolute best wedding gift ever – a Tastebook Cookbook.

This book is fantastic. Not only can you totally personalize it the way you want, its extremely durable and looks absolutely professional.

Here are some pictures:

Another great feature is you can add recipes. When I got married, my mom solicited some recipes from my brother to put in the cookbook. She went ahead and bought two cookbooks when I got married, assuming that my brother would get married at some point. His cookbook didn’t have any recipes from me in it though. So once he got engaged, my mom had me go online and order some “replacement” cards with my recipes and pictures on them! So with every bride comes a few more recipes!

Obviously, this cookbook was a hit at the shower. The bride’s mother even commented on how she’d like to put one together for HER family – and it’s a great way to store family recipes. You can put pictures with the recipes and even write notes on the recipe. There are a lot of recipes from my grandmother in my cookbook, which means a lot to me since she was such a great cook but died before I had a chance to really appreciate it.

It says they start around $19.99 but the cheapest I saw started at $29.99. They’re worth it, though. Great quality and really make it into something special.

Cornwho?

I’ve talked before about my hubby – the man who has everything and if he sees something he wants, he gets it before anyone else can. So slowly, I’m learning – sometimes I have to think ahead for him. What’s something he doesn’t know he wants yet?

For his birthday this past July, I started researching a few months earlier. What is something he likes to do that he could do at home? What’s something he’s never mentioned wanting but might want?

So…I took a risk.

I went all out.

I got…

Cornhole boards.

Not just any cornhole boards.

Jack Daniels cornhole boards.

Not just any Jack Daniels cornhole boards.

Matching black and white bags.

And, the big surprise…

Lights that go inside the holes so the game doesn’t stop just because the sun goes down!

Another good gift is the drink holders, but I figured he could always build those on his own if he really wanted them...

Just Because

It’s fun to give gifts “just because.” I think a lot of times they mean more to people because they’re not expected. Sending a “just because” gift shows the person that “hey, I’m thinking about you and wanted to make your day a little brighter.”

I’m pretty notorious for sending flowers. Who says a significant other has to be the one to always send flowers? Are my single friends supposed to just never get flowers until they find a boyfriend? Preposterous. No, it’s not a practical gift. But it does put a smile on someone’s face and remind them they are loved – whether it be family, friend or lover. I don’t tend to use 1-800 Flowers though – I prefer to search local stores wherever my recipient lives and find an arrangement through them. Nothing against the big corporations (Undercover Boss actually gave me some relief that the world might be okay), but it’s always nice to support local businesses when you can.

Think flowers are too cliché? Okay then, how about cookies?

Cookies by Design lets you choose from cookie cakes, cookie baskets, cookie trays…the possibilities go on. Still hooked on the flower idea? You can even send a cookie bouquet.

Starting around $14. Just be prepared – if you send these to a friend’s office, they might not get many of them!!

Cookies too simple? A former employer turned me on to this little jewel:  Shari’s Berries. Chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate dipped cookies, brownie pops, cupcakes and more. I especially love all the different chocolate designs they use when dipping. If you’re wanting to spend a little to make a wedding shower go a little elegant, they even have wedding berries! Just be prepared because 24 of these beauties go for close to $50. Worth it? Quite possibly!

Everyone you know on a diet? And allergies? No problemo – Edible Arrangements! Beautiful, healthy and even semi-practical! Although I’ve sent Kristi just about all of the above, I chose to send this particular arrangement to her office. She’s a dentist – I thought that was the most appropriate gift to send!

Starting at $24!

The Wheel Keeps a-Spinnin'

Sometimes it's more about the practicality than the novelty.


I had three guestbook attendants at my wedding. One was a cousin - the only cousin I have who is remotely near my age. One was my now brother-in-law's girlfriend and the other was my brother's now-fiance. I wanted to give them something nice, usable, and kind of fall related.


You'll find that I am a rather big Etsy junkie. You can find nearly anything on Etsy and my experiences have always been great. The sellers on Etsy are much easier to negotiate with if you're ordering multiple items and it's easier to change details that don't exactly work. Not really something you can do at major department stores.


Since I got married in October, I wanted something to represent that crisp, "getting colder" season that I love so much. So I found a friend from high school on Etsy who...

Makes beautiful pottery! She had made a mug or two and posted them on her Etsy page and I really loved them.

At first, I was only going to get one mug per attendant because the price was a little steeper than I wanted to pay.

But we started talking and she gave me a deal if I gave them each two (which is what I wanted to do anyway)

So they each got two mugs stuffed with yummy hot chocolate! 


Go to Lovin Designs on Etsy for pottery, jewelry and crotchet goodies.


Also - hot chocolate, tea, coffee, candy...it's so easy to cater to the recipient with something like these mugs. And I don't know about you, but I drink out of a mug at least once a day :)

Diapers and Towels, oh my!

This gift is more of a do-it-youself-er but the good news is, you can use it for baby showers or wedding showers!

Let's start with the baby shower. Someone, somewhere, came up with this idea to turn diapers into a cake. An experienced cake looks something like...

Shown here...

Mine, on the other hand, looked more like this:

You can google tutorials all day long on YouTube. Just find one with the amount of instruction that you feel you need and go to town. In a nutshell, you're just rolling up diapers and sticking rubber bands around them to keep them rolled up. Although the mother-to-be I made this for had registered for diapers, Target happened to be out of them. I wound up with some of the baby powder smelling ones which made the  experience kind of pleasant actually :) We found some fun ribbon that my mom had saved from somewhere and hot glued them around the diapers. There is also a big stick (think wooden skewers) that goes in the middle and you form the diapers in a circle around that (using a large rubber band to keep the diapers together too). Yeah, I'm not the best instruction giver. I would definitely google on YouTube because the tutorial I watched was fantastic. You can't really see it in my picture, but there's also the cutest pair of baby shoes tied at the top with the big ribbon. I thought it was a fun way to tie in something besides diapers!

Then you can do essentially the same thing with towels. I haven't actually done this myself, but I saw one at my friend Amber's wedding. Hers had those little fake wedding bands clipped to parts of it, which I thought was a nice addition. Here's an example of a Towel wedding cake...

Of course, depending on their color scheme, it could get interesting, but just simple, solid towels make this a unique and fun gift. If you're giving a shower, this makes a great centerpiece, too!

The Guy Who Has Everything

It was my first Christmas with my now-husband. Well, technically our second but our first Christmas we were too “new” to really celebrate Christmas. We were both still in college in North Carolina, about to go home to our respective states – me to Virginia, him to Maryland.  

I was freaking out.

Here was this guy that I really, really liked. I REALLY wanted to impress him with an awesome first Christmas gift. The problem was…this guy had everything.

If he saw something he really wanted or needed, he got it. He might wait a day or week or two, but if it was something he really wanted, he didn’t wait for anyone to get it for him. He just got it himself.

Great. This guy I might be spending the next 50 Christmases with is one of “those” – one of those guys who has EVERYTHING.

I figured out quickly that I was going to have to think outside the box with this kid. My thought process turned into, “What’s something he would love to have but hasn’t thought of yet?”

My first ideas are usually sports related. Who are his favorite teams? Does he have 50 t-shirts but no sweatshirts? Would he go crazy for a Maryland Terrapin trash can (for the record, he bought that one on his own)? I googled around for awhile until I found the gift that would kill three birds with one stone.

BASKETBALL TICKETS!!!!!!

Brad loved Maryland.

My brother and Dad loved Duke. Anyone following me yet?

 But…..Duke basketball tickets are hard to find, especially AT Duke. And Maryland is a little too far to go from North Carolina, just for a game. What’s a girl to do with a great idea that she can’t execute?

You forget, I was in ACC Basketball country.

I’m going to go ahead and put it out there that I am, by all accounts, a Virginia Tech fan. If you live in North Carolina you are a diehard fan of Duke, North Carolina or NC State. Anyone else and you just don’t count which usually keeps you out of plenty of heated arguments. That being said…NC State was the least…desired…tickets of the colleges in NC. They had this nifty little packaged deal where I could get 2 tickets for 4 games: NC State vs. Duke, vs. Maryland, vs. Wake Forest…and to be perfectly honest I don’t even remember who the 4^th game was for.

Anyways, basketball tickets, baseball tickets…whatever kind of sports team the man in your life loves…make great gifts. Even if they love top tiered teams – those teams always play lower tier teams. If you can find tickets at one of those games, not only will you save a few bucks, but you’ll be the handful of fans in your color and most likely watch your team pull out the win! (Ours unfortunately didn’t win that time, but at least both teams were red so we didn’t stand out too much haha).