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).

• Back in 2004, when PETCO Park was under construction, Bobby and I bought my dad a brick in the new ballpark. He opted to have it engraved with the score from the NO HITTER he pitched in 1962 (he was 14 years old). Isn’t that pretty cool? We “visit” it every time we go to a game now.

• …which we do sometimes for Father’s Day or Dad’s Birthday, because sometimes we can’t think of anything to get him so we just get him tickets to a Padres game:

• Last year for Father’s Day, my dad, brother and I all got spa pedicures! I’m not real sure how this honestly went over with my dad… he said “a good gift is something that the recipient wouldn’t have gotten for themselves, and I never would have gotten this for myself”… is that good?

• For Christmas one year, Bobby and I paid for family portraits with our dogs. I happen to know that these pictures mean a lot to my dad:

• My dad’s favorite gift from Bobby and me is hands-down the 15′ flag pole we got him for his birthday a few years ago. He still talks about what a great gift it was!

Any ideas what I should get him today?

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.

1.  
   1. Go to Google Maps and type in the address of the recipient
   2. Click on “Search Nearby” and type “florists”
   3. 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.

Ordering an arrangement:

• Call and say “My best friend just had a baby and I would like to send flowers, do you have a minute to take my order? Or should I call back?”
• Ask what the delivery fee to the address is
• I usually give suggestions and then leave it up to florist:  “something cheerful, with lots of pink because she had a girl” or “her favorite flowers are gerber daisies.”
• I give a price range “I’d like the flowers to be in the $45 range, including a vase” (Sometimes I ask if there are unique vases available – I’d rather pay a little extra for a square vase or something cool that the ugly vases you can sometimes get).
• Do you have a bunch of flowers that are particularly beautiful (ie: affordable) right now?
• I say that I’d rather have a simple arrangement with more flowers than a big arrangement with green fillers.
• I have asked florists to pix message me arrangements in the past and they’ve always been very open to it!

Small touches

• Ask the florist if they have a facebook page or a webpage you can leave positive feedback on.
• Once they give you a total, tell them you’d like to add gratuity for the driver
• For the card, check out www.verseit.com for ideas on what to say
• If there is time, consider overnighting a card so it’s signed by you (ask if this is okay)
• If you don’t need delivery, you could call ahead to place (and pay for) your order.

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!

This picture makes it look like the dress flares out more than it actually does (because her hands are on her hips) and, sadly, it’s teensy bit too small in the arms so she can’t wear it until that’s fixed… but she did really like it! More than anything, I think she was proud of her design. And when we were at the fabric store, she found a whole bunch of fabrics she wanted to make pajamas out of (hmmm… another last minute gift, maybe?). I’m happy she stuck to her original design and picked out a pink fabric and a corresponding pink fabric with black flowers. The orginal design included black buttons on the front, but she decided against those.

I’m so proud of her!

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):

• Remember to say “please” and “thank you” “you’re welcome” and “excuse me.” (have the girls each practice this)
• You should not reach across the table to pick things up. Instead, politely ask someone to pass the item to you. “Excuse me (birthday girl), could you please pass the sandwiches?”
• Drink your tea by holding your cup and saucer up to your chest, then take your teacup off of your saucer and bring your teacup up to your mouth and take a drink. (this one was the most fun)
• Don’t slurp or gulp you tea. Just take small sips.
• If your tea seems too hot to drink, place your cup back on the saucer and return your cup and saucer to the table to let your tea cool off. Never blow on your tea.
• Stir sugar or milk into your tea with your teaspoon. When you are finished stirring, place your teaspoon on your cup saucer.

When the tea sandwiches arrive, here are tea party etiquette for eating:

• Put your napkin in your lap. (this was fun too)
• Since most princess tea party foods are finger foods, it is perfectly okay to eat with your fingers! But, if something is a bit messy, use your fork or spoon.
• Take bites of small sandwiches. Even if the sandwich is tiny, never put the entire sandwich in your mouth.

 I didn’t get through all these (they were 5 year olds, after all!). There were two different tables, and I got further down the list with one than with another.

Original sources of information here and here.

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!

The very best part was when the dad told his son to call his mom to tell her that she didn’t need to come down to jump them… he said “you don’t have to come down because SOME LADY is here with a jumper cables”! Some… (pause to catch my breath)… lady?! When did I become a lady? I’ve always been “a girl” as in “some girl is here with jumper cables.” I told my dad (who teaches high school) that story and he said “how old was this kid? 14? To him you’re not just a lady… you’re an old lady!” Thanks dad.

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!