Saturday, November 28, 2009

BEARING GIFTS


I think I can explain...

One Christmas, when I was an impressionable young girl, a cousin and I gathered around the Christmas tree at my grandparents home to wrap our presents. The magic of the season was in the air or so it seemed with the carols playing, hot cocoa in festive mugs and a virtual ring of glitterati wrapping accessories encircled our smallish bodies. Our grandmother's tree was ornately decorated in a colored theme with lavishly wrapped presents adorned with carefully chosen patterned papers and ribbons underneath. Being the romantic waif that I was, I imagined there were the loveliest of gifts waiting to be handed out to us grandchildren. My brazen older cousin, who liked to ruin legends for me, did her best to break the enchanting spell by telling me that the gifts were only for decoration. It didn't work... I thought wow! I can't wait to grow up and wrap presents all fancily (I know that's not a real word) and arrange them nicely under the tree to stand in until Santa arrived. She thought I was stupid and I called her a mean jerk but my point is that my earliest memories are filled with ostentatious aspirations which I come by honestly, after all, my grandmother was every bit as silly as I am and so it's hereditary.

I know you're keen enough to follow this blog (^_~) or subscribe to the RSS for fascinating tips, recipes, and cleverness. Comments are always welcome.

With that said, I should mention that I have changed some, I buy sensible and you can believe sometimes extravagant gifts but whenever I can, I recycle pretty of flashy department store bags as gift wrap. Fold over the top, punch two holes near the center with a hole puncher and attach ribbon. Instructions to make your own puffy ribbon are here in the chance that you'll want to recycle something from paper. I still appreciate elements of the glorious wrapped presents, too, so I add tassels, origami cranes or wind mills made from scraps of wrapping pager or magazine pages or maps or stocks page of newspaper, or flowers or raffia. Or utilize beautiful pillow cases, one inside the other wrapped in a bow, sometimes filling them with the other pillow case fluffs them out and helps disguise the gift within.



I also thing that new and colorful dishtowels and oven mitts make for fun gift wrap stand-ins. As do knit hats wrapped with a lovely scrunchy or barrette. Luggage tags as ribbons, tool boxes as gift boxes...I hope I have got you thinking now.

Know what I think is fun? To have a re-gift Christmas party among friends. You must serve spirits at this event on the chance that you re-gift something someone in attendance gave you. I have just the thing, a signature drink saves you from having to stock your bar if you don't really want to and this Pomegranate martini recipe is just the thing. It's pleasing to the eyes and hopefully softens the blow of seeing your own thoughtful gift re-gifted.

Crate and Barrel will save your holiday gathering with their chalk glassware. I know that by the time I get near the bottom of a glass of spirits that wear a charm of remembrance, I will have set it down a couple of times and have completely forgotten whether I had the grape or the dolphin. Pick up some of these and wet your little chalk board and write names with chalk, the moisture will ensure names having some staying power or at the very least identifiable residue of the lush which held it. Use colored chalk, it may encourage your party goers to pay attention to their hand placement for the rest of the evening. If Jim has blue chalk and Mary had a blue hand print somewhere on her holiday dress this entire concept could prove revealing entertainment. Just saying.


Whilst searching for book gifts, because of course I think everyone should receive a good book for Christmas, I came
acrossthis Bookmark EyeGlass Case found atEyeglassHolders.com (be sure to scroll to the right) . Currently, I'm an onlooker at "mature" people with reading glasses and though my eyes are still "immature", I know my days are numbered and for that reason I'm fascinated with make and model numbers of products to counter this particular manifestation of God's sense of humor which we know as Bi-focal-itis. Omgosh, are you saying that you could make this? It's only $12 but, hehe, the thought crossed my creative mind for about 2 seconds and for that reason I found and posted these directions to a similar thing.

this thingy - it's a Cable Roller. I have no doubt that you have been inundated with technology and along with it the need to manage the tangle of it's tentacles. So too are your loved ones in a knot over this invasion. Make yourself a hero of what everyone needs, give these little stocking stuffers and take a bow. Gift challenged? There a many places on the internet that are just a search away for gift ideas, saving coupon codes, too. One place I'm fond of is Red Envelope where they have all sorts of gifts which are just a click away - great place
for personalized presents for families like engraved candles or the little personalized puppy finger blanket for children shown here.

More gift ideas later. I'm glad you stopped by. Leave a comment if you see something useful.

1 comment:

  1. Like your array of beautiful glitterait wrapping accessories ,they really contribute towards the excitement of christmas.Also the re-gift christmas party and the signature drinks , especially with the Pomegranate martini recipe would completey satisfy any party goer.Love your great ideas, and your site looks fantastic too, Take Care , Mal ,.x

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