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 :)

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

I'm Not the Only One Who Does This Stuff...

I’ve been given some pretty fabulous gifts along the way. Last summer one of my bridesmaids (Brad’s cousin) threw me a personal shower “up north”.  I got a lot of quality, thoughtful gifts at that shower that I will probably post about again at some point. But today’s post goes to one of my mother in law’s friends who lives in Atlanta. She wasn’t able to attend the shower but she sent a practical yet fun gift all the same.

When you get married, one of the things most girls are excited about (or at least I was anyway) is getting a new monogram. I was getting a new name, new initials and getting to share that last name with the man of my dreams. So what’s more exciting than to start getting that new name/letter in your shower gift?

It started out with this…

 A beautiful little monogrammed purse with PLENTY of pockets. Trust me, this thing has gotten some major use out of it. You know as well as I do that purses are always welcome in a gal’s closet. Finding monogrammed purses online is pretty simple.

Inside this purse were goodies galore! I apologize for the lack of “newness” of this picture, but you can tell it’s been used! A monogrammed towel wrap!

This next item literally saved the reception for me. I had no idea that my low heeled dress shoes (clearance from Off Broadway, LOVE that store) were going to cause such misery when I tried to dance. These aren’t the exact flip flops but…

Only $8.95 from Amazon.

I got a pair for my BFF at Michael’s for just a couple of dollars so they’re around. It was a lot of fun to dance in those at the reception! Oh wait, I do have a picture of the ones I got:

 John Patrick Photography www.tinkley.com

My photographer thought they were awesome. Brad always knew how to find me on our honeymoon…just follow the Just Married marks in the sand :) 

There were also some monogrammed soaps. They are boxed up somewhere in the black hole that is our storage area downstairs (my entire life got boxed up and I’m clueless where most things are right now). These are from an Etsy dealer and just as beautiful:

 $3.00, SafiyaBeauty on Etsy

There you have it. Usable. Fun. Practical but “different.” Remember that monogrammed for a newlywed is pretty much a surefire. Or so I hope so. I got some monogrammed “C” goodies to put in my future sis-in-law’s bachelorette gift. 

Time For...

My big brother is getting married in December and my soon to be sister-in-law is being thrown a shower this month. The theme is “time” and while I don’t know most of the “times” that were assigned, I do know that I have “baking time” and my mom has “cooking time”. I’m assuming there’s also times like “sleeping time”, “bath time” and possibly even “party time”. A fun theme, for sure!


Baking time, huh?  Alright, I’m down.

Now as much as I wish that I won the lottery a few years ago and have all the money in the world…I don’t. So even if I wanted to buy every last baking-related item on the registry…I can’t. Taking into consideration how much I’m already spending on the wedding (travel costs to come to the shower, bachelorette & wedding, bridesmaid dress cost, etc) I know I need to budget this one.

The soon to be newly weds are registered at Crate & Barrel and Target. Since there isn’t a Crate & Barrel close by to me anymore, I narrowed it down to Target. Using my extensive married knowledge (ha! of 10 months that is!), I quickly narrowed it down to these mixing bowls:

$24.99 at Target

And these measuring cups

$3.39 at Target

I’m not saying hubby and I bake a lot (although I did just make some pretty fabulous brownies this week!) but we do use our mixing bowls and measuring cups a ton.  I really wanted to put some sort of spatula or whisk with it but they were registered for a whisk at Crate & Barrel…and I * do * try to stick to the registry when given one and I wasn’t willing to spend shipping & handling on a $4.95 item. Ya know?

Luckily when we were in Richmond last weekend for my BF’s wedding, there was a Crate & Barrel not far from the hotel. My fabulous mother volunteered to run down and pick it up for me (I’m sure it had nothing to do with her curiosity of Short Pump).

$4.95 at Crate & Barrel

Hooray! A nice array of baking goodies. I’m not quite done though!

Once we got back home, I headed out to our local Dollar General store (I used to work for Family Dollar’s home office, oops, don’t tell I went to DG!). I found this pretty little basket…

 $6.00 at Dollar General!

If my future sis-in-law doesn’t want it, I’ll take it!

One last obvious addition to make this the perfect gift…

A box of brownie mix to get started with! (Also purchased at DG - their bakery section is becoming impressive).

I did question my brownie mix decision though…I’m considering switching it out with…

Red Velvet Cake Mix - since that’s my mother’s favorite dessert and all. What better way to start off a marriage than baking a cake for your new mother in law, right?

But anyways, I'm pretty happy with the final product. I'm probably going to add some tissue paper or something to fill it in a little but everything fit beautifully!

The Gift Card Dilemma

My friend Amber (you can see her blog here) got married a few years ago. Even though we had gone to the same small college, we didn’t become friends until after graduation. Actually, the night she became engaged was one of the first nights I hung out with her.

That being said, I was around for her engagement period. I’m not saying we were super close BFF’s, but we had fun together and became good friends. As her wedding day approached, I asked her what her and her fiancé, Steven, needed or wanted at that point from their registry. She went through the usual, “we’re happy with whatever you choose to give us” but after digging a little deeper she said that gift cards would be welcome so they could put them together to buy some of their more expensive items on their registry.

The gift card dilemma. I. Hate. Giving. Gift. Cards. Mind you, I love RECEIVING them, but for me, it’s just a little too impersonal.  But that’s what the bride said she needed! Can I put aside my personal feelings on gift cards to give the bride what she asked for?

Of course I can. In my own way.

One of my favorite accessories to any gift is a quality gift basket. I tribute this to my mom and her friend Carole – my mom used to make gift baskets and sell them in my dad’s store and Carole has the coolest shop of unique items and makes gift baskets.

To start with my gift card solution, I sought the perfect basket. I think the one I bought was from Old Time Pottery (if you don’t have one near you, I’m so sorry…you are deprived. I miss them so much!). Something like this is fine:

$9.95 at Crate & Barrel

Usable and fashionable.  And not $50!

Amber had been on a hunt to find a red wine that she can enjoy drinking. (I hear she is still on this hunt!) I put a bottle of my favorite red wine in the basket:

Don’t judge, it’s less than $10 a bottle and I love it. My mouth is watering…

She and Steven had also recently brought home two Boxer puppies, Dixie & Bauer. I grew up with pets and knew that animals have a way of becoming your family instantly. So I made sure to include a little special treat for the newest members of the new family:

These are from Sensational Sweets, 12 for $9.00 but I’m pretty sure I just went to a local shop.

Nestled inside the perfect card was the desired gift card. I spent less than $20 on the other personal gifts and was still able to give a good amount on the gift card. Maybe they would have rather gotten more money on the gift card – but when I give a gift, I want to be happy with it. This way, everyone got what they came for and I could give more than just the gift card!

Going Bridal today...just not for the Bride!

I got married October 2009 and I think I spent half the time running around trying to find that perfect gift…for everyone else! I wanted everyone to understand just how much I appreciated their support, love and occasional knock on the head to bring me back down to planet Earth.

My mother is fabulous. I’m not just saying that either. I actually asked her long ago if she would be my Matron of Honor one day but she declined, saying she’d really prefer to sit on the front row and just cry (tears of happiness, of course!).

My mother in law is also pretty exceptional. I’m fortunate to have a MIL who loves me like her own daughter (or she does a great job of pretending one! ;)). She has two boys (bless her heart!) so I tried to keep her in the loop through the whole process.

I also gained a sweetheart of a grandmother in law. Three of my four grandparents had passed away by the time I was in the fourth grade (one before I was born) and the other my freshman year in college. That being said, it meant SO much to have a grandparent attend the wedding and be so excited for it.

My lovely mother reserved the day before the wedding to throw a Bridesmaid’s Luncheon for the women in the wedding – my maid of honor/bridesmaids/flower girls/guestbook attendants (I’ll get to their gifts on another day).  I am a deeply personal person and spill out my emotions and feelings constantly. I know a lot of times gifts are given out at the rehearsal dinner but I had some pretty personal things and knew there was the potential for tears involved so I wanted to give my gifts the day before.

Speaking of tears…the gifts for the mothers and grandmother…

For my mother:

Felicia's Fancies, $27.66

You can adjust the font, colors and symbols - since I got married in the fall, I put a maple leaf as the symbol.

For my mother-in-law:

Felicia's Fancies, $25.45

It's hard to see, but it says "Name, Thank you for raising your son to be the man of my dreams"

And finally, for my new grandmother:

Felicia's Fancies, $17.95

It simply says, "Grandmother of the Groom" and the date

Whether any of them actually needed them during the ceremony, I'm not sure (I had a few other things on my mind at the time!) But I still think they are practical, affordable gifts - not just for wedding moments. The handkerchief I carried down the aisle was a bonnet I was given as a baby - it actually came with instructions on how to turn the bonnet into a handkerchief on my wedding day.

If you're crafty, this is something you could even do yourself. If not, there are plenty of options for cute and affordable handkerchiefs out there!