It's Rubbing Off...

For the first time in years, I actually had a small list of things that I wanted for Christmas. I gave my hubby two things that I wanted that he could get me (one of which I ended up taking off because I didn't realize how expensive it was). The number one thing on my list this year was a nice jewelry box.

I've been given a million jewelry boxes over the years from my parents, grandparents, friends, etc. While I loved all of them, they eventually wound up in storage or garage sales. I haven't had an actual jewelry box since I entered adulthood. Most of my jewelry was in a drawer with some necklaces hanging up on a wall thanks to giant push-pins. Very college chic.

So I told the hubs that I wanted a nice jewelry box. I gave him no direction, just that I wanted a nice jewelry box. He was happy that I gave him something tangent he could get me (first time EVER!) and I was happy because I know he has great (albeit expensive!) taste in most things.

He did good :)

It was handmade by an Amish man and is "Heirloom Quality," which, according to hubby, means that it will outlive our grandchildren's grandchildren. It's absolutely gorgeous and it is kind of exciting to think that this gift is one that can be passed down through our family for generations. I always thought about my mom and grandmother's jewelry and passing it down to a daughter or granddaughter one day - but never thought about something I would have that I could pass down!

So there you have it. A history in the making gift that will keep on giving for generations to come. Love it! :)

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

Sushi please!

My husband and I are sushi junkies. We have one restaurant in our small town that serves sushi and the workers and owners of the establishment know us by name, by face, by phone number and by our dogs (who usually ride along and hang out in the back of the Pathfinder).

"I'd like to place an order to go please."
"Can I get your phone number?"
"704-..."
"Ahhh, Topper! What would you like?"

We literally go in at least once per week, sometimes twice. Needless to say, we rack up pretty quickly on the soy sauce and chopsticks.

My husband likes having his own things in life. That's why I thought I'd died to heaven when I found Everything Chopsticks. Pretty chopsticks, beginner chopsticks, personalized chopsticks and glass chopsticks. And beyond.

After browsing the enormous selection, I settled on a pair of travel chopsticks:

These weren't the cheapest chopsticks on the website (nor were they the most expensive, by a long shot!) but they are simple, appear to be sturdy and come in a nifty little travel case for easy transportation!

They screw in at the middle for easy cleaning and transporting!

Something tells me we'll be having sushi for our day after Christmas dinner :)

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!

A morning cup of coffee...

Snapfish did this very clever marketing move - the week of Mother's Day I began to get emails offering me 50% off Father's Day gifts.

Hook, line and sinker.

I started looking through their "qualified" Father's Day items and saw something I thought my dad just might like.

A photo mug!

Brad's grandmother was given one of them for her 80th birthday and I know she's really enjoyed it. My dad is a devoted morning coffee man and while they have a bazillion and one coffee mugs, I have a feeling this will be the one used daily.

You can put up to I believe 16 pictures on a mug and there's a couple of different sizes of mugs, 11oz-17oz. I went with the 15oz coffee mug (the 17oz is a Latte mug). I took pictures of my brother and I as kids, of my mom and dad, and wedding pictures from both of our weddings...and of course the two grandpuppies! I'm probably going to get a small bag of gourmet coffee to put with it. Even though I'm far away, he can have his coffee with his baby girl every morning!

Oh, and by the way. With my 50% off, even with tax and shipping my total came to $15.35. Normally they start at $16.99. Still not bad, but my 50% off was nice :)

Mother's Day, Take 2

I posted earlier about my mother's gift for Mother's Day. Today, my mother-in-law gets the stage.

A few months ago, my in-laws took me, my husband, my brother-in-law and my brother-in-law's girlfriend on a 10 day cruise in the Caribbean. Yes, I know that you all hate me right now. It was fantastic. Just what I needed in the middle of the cold, dreary winter.

After my husband and I got married, I created a photo book of some pictures from our wedding. Not an album, but an actual book. My mother-in-law asked me to just make two copies of it and give one to her (she says she's not creative enough to put one together). She loved the book and loved having something to show people when they asked for wedding pictures.

I told her after the cruise that I needed her pictures so I could put together a book of pictures from the cruise. But after she gave me her cd's, I told her I was busy with school so I would work on the book between spring and summer semesters. She hasn't asked about it yet - and my semester ends Tuesday.

Well, I went ahead and put together a book of pictures from the cruise. Between her two cd's worth and my nearly 1,000 pictures - I had a ton of great pictures to choose from.

 The front of the book says Cruising Through the Caribbean 2011 and a list of all the countries we visited. I should have taken a picture of it, but the first page shows the dates, the towns and countries that we visited. The second page is a map I created through the Apple software that highlights the countries we visited. That's my favorite part of this book. I was proud of that little attribute :) It also has the little paper cover around it - but the picture on the front of the cover is also on the actual front cover of the book. So you can choose to have the cover or not.

I tried to hold myself to 2-4 pages of pictures per country. It was hard, because there were SO many gorgeous pictures to choose from. This was the first time I used Apple and I'm very pleased with the quality of the book. I use iPhotos anyway, so it was great to be able to just drag my pictures into my book. I used Mpix for my wedding book, but since then they've changed their system and to do the more advanced features that I like to do - they simply won't let me. If I want anything beyond their simple version, I had to employ one of THEIR graphic designers to do it for me. Apple takes a little more time to figure out, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

That's my (hopefully) future sister-in-law and me with the captain of the ship. He was quite the hottie and quite young. We considered going after him butttttt settled for a picture.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with Apple's quality. The first and last pages seem to be a linen material and the pictures came out crisp and clear. It cost me $56 for this book and 18 pages (it doesn't sound like a lot, but to see it in person, it looks like a normal coffee table book.

There are tons of other sites you can do for cheaper - Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. And if you're not the creative type, you can just upload your pictures and let them arrange the pictures for you.

It's an absolutely fantastic gift for people though. I know she's going to be excited to get it. And I had a blast doing it. If I could just make photo books for people all day long for a living - I would be in heaven :)

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

Readin' on up.

Sometimes, simple gifts can be the biggest surprises. What about giving a gift that someone already knows they like?

Brad and I can spend hours in a bookstore. I linger longer in the book section than he does, but he keeps himself quite occupied over in the magazine section. It never ceases to amaze me the volume and variety of magazines available out there.

One year, for Christmas, I decided to give him the gift that keeps on giving – magazine subscriptions. I got him two – one to a surfing magazine and one to a snowboarding magazine.

On the surface, this doesn’t seem that much better than a stinking gift card. They still don’t get to open anything! But that’s easily remedied! Just run out to the closest bookstore, grab the latest issue (if you’re really ambitious, plan in advance and have a couple of months’ worth of issues!), stick them in a box and wrap it up! Something to open and enjoy before their next issue comes!

I also got a magazine subscription for a friend who was getting married a few months later. When I got the subscription, I put it in her future new last name. Just another extra special touch to make it personalized.

Sidenote: Just make sure your gift isn’t something they are already subscribed to! If they are and you really can’t find any other subscription out there that you think they’d like, see if you can renew their subscription for a year or two.

But, really? You can’t find anything interesting to give them???

 

Amazon has THOUSANDS of magazine subscriptions. Just try it. I dare you!

Eco-Friendly and "What Do I Do With This?"

As we all know, random gifts are my favorite. But I’ve been known to be *so* random, that I don’t even fully know what I’m giving someone.

In October, the small town we live in gets invaded by about 40,000 people to this arts& crafts festival they like to call Colorfest. I had some fun at Colorfest and bought quite a few unique Christmas gifts but this one takes the cake. At the time, I hadn’t seen anything like it, but as the months pass, I’ve seen them popping up more and more.

I’ve seen them described as:

-          Cigar holders

-          Spoon holders

-          Cheese & cracker platter

-          Nut holder

-          Gadget bowl

Some I’ve even seen made into recycled windchimes!

I did give one to my dad for Christmas and I think his plan is to hang it on a wall in his “mancave”.

Biker Buddies

I like to give people ornaments. I know that’s not super exciting or super original, but it can be somewhat original if you do it right. I’m talking about doing more than Hallmark’s specialty ornament of that year here.

One of my bestests, Cinnamon, lives in Florida (the beautiful state that hubby and I will *hopefully* be moving to soon!). She and her boyfriend ride bikes for fun. They each have their own bikes but they also have a super cool tandem bike! (I’m only a little jealous!)

This year I found this nifty little ornament representing one of their favorite hobbies as a couple:

How many times do you see a Christmas ornament with a guy and a girl tandem bike riding? I’d never seen one before, so I jumped right on it! (Less than $15 on Amazon, using a gift card so it was yet another free gift to give this Christmas).

Hopefully she will think of me every Christmas when she puts it on her tree J

Drink like a camel

I haven’t been slacking…I promise! Once I got the hubby nursed back to health, I got sick. It was eerily similar to his sickness but hopefully I’m on the upswing.

Onward to gift giving!

So there’s this girl who’s probably going to be my sister in law one day. She and I spent a lot of time last summer hiking in the parks close by to our houses with the dogs. Some days were 3 milers, other days were 8+. Just depended on how much we had to talk about J

Regardless of how long we spent out in the wilderness, she always carried a water bottle. I, being married to Mr. Outdoorsman, had bought this little handy dandy thing years ago:

A Camelbak. They come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and colors. If you spend any time outside at all, this thing is one of the most useful, practical gadgets you can possibly have. Fill it with water (and ice if it’s a hot day), strap it to your back and then you are off on whatever adventure you have planned – with the use of both hands! It makes everything easier – kayaking, hiking, biking – anything you can think of!

Not long before Christmas, hubs and I were in good ‘ol REI and I saw Camelbaks on sale. Lightbulb on. She had never complained about carrying a water bottle around, but you could see that it wasn’t exactly convenient. Plus, we’ve talked about trying our hand at some adventure races together (trail running, trail biking and kayaking “triathlons”) and it would obviously be beneficial to have her water strapped to her back.

Happy trails!

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!

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

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!). 

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 :)