My very best friend Laura got me this for my birthday one year and I LOVE it! It’s one of my favorite gifts of all time and it has saved my butt on more than one occasion. And it’s so simple too! She got a cute little bag and filled it with a bunch of items that would come in handy for a girl “emergency” – things like a surprise lunch date or dribbling my latte on a shirt before a meeting.
Some of the items include (not all are pictured):
- tampons
- nail file
- nail clippers
- safety pins
- hair ties
- bobby pins
- sewing kit
- stain remover
- breath mints
- stomach medicine
- aspirin
- hair brush
- lint roller
- tissue
- toothbrush, toothpaste, floss
It’s such a simple idea, but it’s also fantastic! Many of the items are available in the “travel” section at the drugstore. I keep mine under the seat of my car. It keeps my car organized and, between this kit and the one my dad gave me, I’m ready for just about any emergency on the road!
Image source: drugstore.com
Today is my dad’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! And, in an attempt to put him in a good mood before dinner tonight, I’ve compiled a list of some off-the-beaten-path gifts my brother, Bobby, and I have gotten him over the years (that seemed to go over pretty well).
(more…)
I ordered flowers today for a friend of mine. *update: the photo above is of the actual arrangement she received* I’ve had nothing but good experiences ordering flowers for friends and family. And I order flowers at least a few times a year. All the times I’ve heard of others having problems, the flowers were ordered through a fancy webpage. I’m sure they have great flowers, but I’ve always gone local and never had a problem.
Here are my tips for ordering flowers:
Finding a Florist:
- Find a florist near the recipient. I’ve always had much better experiences when dealing with the florist directly. Plus, you save on delivery fees.
-
- Go to Google Maps and type in the address of the recipient
- Click on “Search Nearby” and type “florists”
- Check out your favorite review sites (Yelp, Kudzu, Facebook, etc.) for reviews
Before you Order:
- Have information handy: delivery address/phone number (hospital room number if applicable), hours of operation (if it’s a business), and your credit card number.
- Know you’re “out the door” budget. This includes: arrangement, vase, delivery fee, tax and gratuity.
- Figure out what you want the card to say.
- If you’re not familiar with flower types, it’s nice to be near a computer so you can google images suggestions.
(more…)
Remember the last minute gift I got for my nieces? Well, my 6 year old niece designed her dress already! Actually, she designed TEN different dresses (including a “rainbow” dress, a “halloween” dress, and an “apple” dress), so we picked out her favorite design. A couple weeks ago we went to pick out the fabrics and last week I was able to present her with her dress!
Here’s the dress she designed (pink with black flowers on the bottom, and pink on the top – please notice that she CROSSED OUT the ruffle on the bottom. No ruffle, Auntie Jeannie) with the fabrics she picked out:
And HERE is the finished product! (more…)
Want to know a secret? For over a year now, I’ve been a princess on the weekends. I dress up for children’s birthday parties (between 1-3 parties most weekends) for a local company to earn some extra cash. Of course, I’m not always a princess. Sometimes I’m a pop star or a clown (my least favorite). Sometimes I assist the “head” characters (your purple dinosaurs, blue monsters and explorer girls) and just do face painting and games. One day, I’ll share all the tips I have for children’s birthday parties. Today, I’m going to share a mini-lesson I gave at the last party I did. The mom was having a princess tea party and wanted me to give a tea party etiquette lesson.
Here’s the lesson I gave:
First, ask the girls if they knew what “Tea Party Etiquette” is. Listen to their answers and explain that “Tea Party Etiquette” is how princesses act during a princess tea party.
Here is some tea party etiquette (from easiest to hardest): (more…)
This is such a “dad” gift! My dad put together a kit when I got my car. I think he purchased the case with some items (jumper cables, tow kit, poncho/first aid kit, gloves, cones) in it, and then added some things (flashlight, tools, camera, fix-a-flat). I’ve used it many, many times.
In fact, I used it yesterday when I went to Target to pick up some things. When I walked out to my car to leave, there was a man and his son standing near the car that was nose-to-nose with my car. The dad was putting the hood up and I asked him if he needed a jump. He was really nice and really appreciative and used the opportunity to teach his son how to jump a car.
Keep reading to find out what shocking thing the son said about me! (more…)
I happen to think that magazine subscriptions make great gifts – even if they sometimes pile up, I always get to them eventually. An especially nice touch is something my mom has done for years. In the “name” field, she puts something cute like “I LOVE JEANNIE” and that small detail makes me so happy! Every time my magazine comes, I glance at the label (to make sure it still has the message from my mom there, I guess!) and it makes me smile.
She’s done this for retiring colleagues – but in the name field puts something funny like “OLD FART” or “RETIRE E” and gets hobby magazines like fishing or golf. The first Christmas that Chris and I were together, I got his roommates each a magazine subscription and sent them to “SEXY GRAHAM” and “BIGDADDY BRET” – it was pretty popular!
An added bonus… when subscription lists are sold, even more mail starts coming to “I LOVE JEANNIE”!
My 6 year old niece picked these notecards out just for me – aren’t they adorable? Definitely my favorite gift of 2009 (and I can say that because Chris’ gift hasn’t arrived yet)
My nephew will be 3 years old in February and I had a hard time figuring out what to get him for Christmas this year. Fortunately, he loves everything Thomas the Tank Engine. The best part about his present though was that I wrapped his present 6 times with 3 different papers… it was pretty funny watching him unwrap it…
My nieces are 5 and 6 years old – and can be very difficult to shop for! I always want to give them something they’ll be excited about, but I don’t want to contribute to the mass of toys in their playrooms (and I know the girls won’t remember who gave them what anyway). This year, I decided a new dress would be fun… and then decided if I could somehow give them a dress they each designed, that would be even more fun!
What I ended up giving them was a package with these dress outlines and some colored pencils. I told them to use the colored pencils to design their own dresses, and we’ll pick out the best one to turn into a real dress they can wear. I used the dress options for two Butterick dress patterns (B4906 and B4842), cleaned the drawings up in Illustrator and placed the images into a “Design Your Dress” frame.
I figure I’ll defintely have to take the girls fabric shopping and eventually I’ll have the seamstress who turned my vintage dress into a sweater jacket make the dresses for me (my sewing skills just aren’t that cool yet!). I’ll keep you posted!
