Brighten up your fingers.

The bad news - I've sorely neglected this blog.

The good news - I have over a year's worth of AWESOME gifts to talk about! I'm planning on recapping all of the biggest hits from this Christmas and so much more!

I'll start with Christmas. This year I was kind of at a loss for my brother in law's girlfriend. I had lots of ideas for her, but they were all pretty small things - I wanted to spend more than $5-10 on her. So instead, I wrapped up a ton of the small gifts individually and then wrapped all of them together in one big box. Her loot?

• A bag of crab chips
• A bag of mint m&m's
• A $15 iTunes gift card
• A bottle of wine
• A packet of drink mix

• And finally, the inspiration for my "grab bag" gift...glow in the dark nail polish!

This girl is obsessive with always having the brightest nails around. I knew she had all of the brightest colors at the shops around town so I turned to Amazon. Finally found something beyond the regular neon colors. Neon Glow in the Dark nail polish!
Here's the specific ones I bought for her:

If you're interested in this crazy idea (perfect for teenagers or young-at-hearts!), follow the link above.

Post contains affiliate links.

Theme time!

End of the semester is almost here, I promise! Then hopefully I'll be blogging along more regularly!

Next gift is one I put together for my sister-in-law. She and my brother do quite a bit of entertaining. They have a great group of friends who are always throwing theme parties and massive dinner parties. I honestly don't know how I even came across this particular item, but I did and thought it was one of the coolest things I'd seen in a long time:

$7.87 at Amazon

This nifty little contraption makes any food instant decoration. Simply use this fun little carver, place a tea light inside, and voila! Adorable ambiance and seasonal themes! Halloween? Perfect for mini pumpkins! Summertime? How about some oranges?

Now, we don't spend massive amounts of money on each other, but I mean...less than $8? I decided this was going to be a combination gift of some sort. I figured she had plenty of actual tea lights, so I got some battery operated ones:

$8.26 at Amazon

And then finally, a nice little thought-provoking book for some daily thoughts.

 $9.99 at Amazon

Cutest things ever.

It's no secret that I love my dogs. We treat them as if they were our actual children (often making us wonder if we will ever treat our future children as well as we treat our dogs!). Last year I really wanted to get ornaments for them - since it was their first Christmas with us.

Well, I never found any that worked. Since they're mutts, it's much harder. There is absolutely no breed that looks even remotely similar to either of our dogs. I didn't want to do a photo ornament and I didn't want to get just a generic one with their names painted on them. I found one place on Etsy that would create custom ornaments but they were $40 each. I love my dogs, but $80 for two ornaments? Sorry, girls. At least you made the Christmas card that year.

So after Christmas I just kept searching. I figured at some point I'd find someone who makes ornaments cheaper. Finally, I found someone on Etsy who would make them for about $16 each. Still a little expensive, but much more reasonable than $40. Plus, her stuff looked so adorable and she seemed so confident that she could capture our two pups. I sent her some pictures, told her I wanted to make sure the ornaments showed Chloe's gigantic ears and Roxy's brindle.

A reference picture:

And the actual ornaments:

I love them! You can find them at Sally's Bits of Clay. You can choose ornament colors and whether or not you want the hats. Total customization.

Warm and Cozy

I know this looks like a totally ridiculous gift, but it's not a prank gift. It's 100% genuine and I am fully confident that it's recipient will use it often.

Amazon/PajamaCity, $45

My brother-in-law's girlfriend is truly still a kid at heart. I got her a pair of rain boots for her birthday in March and let me just tell you - those things get USED!

These pajamas are footed, fleece and even have the drop seat in the back so bathroom use is easily accessible! I also saw some that had hoods with them. There's solid colors, cartoon characters, "sexy" (as sexy as a fully covered set of pajamas could be haha).

But I guarantee that she'll have them on, showcasing them for everyone by the end of the day. No doubt!

Apologies.

School has been absolutely overwhelming lately, but rest assured. My Christmas shopping is nearly complete and I have really out-done myself with some of these gifts this year. I'll be adding new updates as soon as possible. Gifts to look forward to:

- Sushi lovers
- Moped lovers
- 80's lovers
- Garden lovers
- Kids at heart

And gifts that keep on giving...for the recipient AND the donor!

Just a note...

Great gifts come from personalization. I’m not talking about finger painting someone’s name on a jewelry box (although, paint from the right tiny fingers could be quite the treasure!). I like to make things for people. I’m not necessarily crafty, but I am resourceful (and budget-minded!).

Yes, emails from a hundred online companies are annoying. But I have a special email set up just for companies that I want to know what’s going on with. Snapfish, Mpix, Shutterfly and Inkubook are all a few of the printing companies I have used – and I often pit them against each other. Not long ago, I saw that Snapfish was having a pretty awesome sale – 50% off plus free shipping during a limited time frame. Now, I didn’t necessarily need anything at that point…but I thought towards the future. Mother’s Day was coming up on May 8 (there’s still time!) and my best friend’s birthday was coming up on the 14^th. Hmmmm.

I got back from a 10 day Caribbean cruise in March (go ahead, throw something at me, I can take it!). My in-laws bought me an incredibly nice camera for Christmas so I took some amazing pictures while we were in the Caribbean. I decided to turn some of those pictures into notecards for both my mom and my bff (since yes, they DO still write notecards!).

I finished my mom’s gift up yesterday. I got a small plastic bin at Dollar General ($1), a few packs of her favorite spearmint gum and a small bag of Tootsie Rolls (wrapped in a plastic bag JUST in case it gets crazy hot in the mail – don’t want chocolate smudging my notecards!). I’m really happy how it all came out!

I haven't filled my bff's box yet, but I still have some time to find some fun candies or accessory. This is also a really good idea for showers - you know the recipient is going to be writing thank-you notes so take pictures of the happy couple or have a baby-themed photo shoot. You don't have to be a professional photographer to take pretty pictures!

Oh, and a week after I received the notecards, my mom called and asked if I would turn some of my pictures into notecards for her. Talk about knowing someone J

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!

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!

Christmas in...September?

I love Christmas. I love Christmas themes, I love the Christmas season, I love all things Christmas. I demand to put the Christmas tree up on December 1 and would leave it up until July if Brad would go along with it.

I’m the only granddaughter on one side of my family.  I had another great aunt who had no children. Long story short, I have 4 sets of fine china that I inherited when I got married. It goes without saying that the last thing I wanted to register for…was fine china.

But I was getting MARRIED! I wanted to register for something fun!!

Do you remember me saying how much I loved Christmas?

The solution – Christmas dishes!

Growing up, my mom always had Christmas dishes that she would bring out after Thanksgiving and we’d eat on those dishes until the end of December. It was just that little extra thing that put us all in the Christmas mood.

These are some of the mix-and-match Christmas dishes we registered for last year.  Brad thought I was out of my mind when I told him I wanted to register but I think now he “gets” it and he might even look forward to it. Maybe. Possibly. We’ll see.

I have a few different ones, since it's mix-and-match, but you get the idea. These are at Belk's

There is a point to all this by the way. Last year for Christmas I bought one of my closest friends a set of Christmas wine glasses. She moved back to her hometown in Florida a few years ago and then I moved to Maryland so we’re approximately 1,049 miles away now. Wine always brings us back together though. I bought the wine glasses from JCPenney’s but I found these suitable replacements.

For a little lighter and fun wine glass:

Amazon, $19.99

And for the more formal wine glass:

 Macy's, $37.10 for 4

Why are Christmas themed glasses or dishes a great gift? Because once a year, they’ll bring those out of the Christmas boxes and think of you and how thoughtful and usable your gift is! It’ll be a novelty, but a novelty that might just help them in the Christmas spirit each year. It could be an icebreaking topic…”My friend so and so had the funniest story to tell about these glasses…” Or they could just simply be something they never thought they wanted or needed…but realized how fun they really could be! Just make sure to get something dishwasher safe. You don't want them to spend the whole month of December scrubbing in the kitchen, right?

Merry Christmas!