A gift from the whole family

Here is one unforgettable gift outside the box idea that will be remembered forever! Now your family has to get out of their comfort zone for this one, but this will be a gift the whole family will enjoy giving! Remember that episode on "The Cosby Show" where the kids and parents sang a song to their grandparents live for their Anniversary. Well, simply choose a song that the whole family can sing along to and come up with a fun dance or skit to present the song to. Your family will need to rehearse and work together; but make someones Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas or just because presents unforgettable this year(video tape it and maybe send out to Funniest Home Videos, you just might win a bunch of money in the process!) Think way outside the box and have fun this year!!!!

Gift baskets and more.........

Looking to make a gift basket this year? How about trying a different way of presenting it. Instead of using a wicker basket this year, try some of the ideas below!

Laundry Basket - these come in so many shapes and sizes now - ideas are limitless
Trash Can - make this one funny - fill with all new clothes and hangers
Large Cooking Pot - fill with recipe cards, utensils, certificate for cooking lessons
Shoe Box(decorate it)- personalize this basket and put some small items in it
Toy Box - your kids will love this filled with lots of fun toys
Picnic Basket - fill with glasses, candles, a coupon for a date
Water/sand Pail - fill with beach towel, sunscreen and tickets to hawaii
Helmet - fill with football tickets, scarf, gloves and a number 1 hand.
Tool Box - fill with new tools, certificate to Lowes


Think outside the basket on this gift idea!

Retro Candy from when you were a kid! The perfect hard to find gift!!!

A good deed....

The holiday seasons are approaching! A gift does not have to be in the form of a present wrapped up. This year through out the holiday season look for every opportunity to give a gift of a good deed. You see someone in need of a couple dollars for groceries in line, hand them a $5 dollar bill. You see someone walking down the street who looks cold give them your coat, scarf or gloves. You probably won't know it but your good deed will probably be passed on from one person to the next. So today, tomorrow and so on lets look around us and see who could use some help and pass on the being good to one another!

A gift that will take the load off!

Women can have to much on their plate! Everything from laundry, cooking, paying bills, picking up the kids, exercising, a second job, cleaning, pta mom and the list goes on. Consider the next time you want to give your friend, coworker, aunt, grandma, sister a gift offer to do their laundry for a day. You might think "What?", but if someone offered to do your laundry no strings attached wouldn't that be a blessing. Give them a coupon that says one free laundry day from me! You will be literally be taking a load off of them! Also cleaning their house for them is an act of kindness that will make someone smile! Give the gift that will mean more than you know!

Cookies make a great gift!

A great gift that does not say much but tastes real good is home cooking from you! The next time your unsure of what gift you can give someone try baking a dozen cookies or a 3 course meal. I have done this alot and love to cook. Whether it is a birthday, Christmas gift or just because you are guaranteed to make someone smile. Check out www.cookingonabudget for creative tips on eating healthy and living on a better grocery budget!

The"Just Because" gift!

As you can tell I love taking pictures and putting them together for gifts! This gift is really easy and fun. I first found a frame at my local hobby store. I am able to download all my photos from my camera to my computer so that I have easy access to them. I searched through my hundreds of pictures and found 9 that I really wanted to be apart of this collage. I printed them off and with a couple of fun stickers I added to them I had a finished one of a kind gift! I made this one for my in-laws on a "Just Because" occasion! The great thing about gifts is they can be for anyone and for anytime! A personalized gift is a great way to let someone know you care and that they are an important part of your life. Just the act of giving a gift can turn a person's day around! Always remember those "Just Because" occasions, they are unexpected and make your heart feel warm!

Bake fresh baked cookies! Delivered to your door!

A great gift for the whole family to enjoy!

Giving and receiving

Giving presents is a talent; to know what a person wants, to know when and how to get it, to give it lovingly and well. Unless a character possesses this talent there is no moment more annihilating to ease than that in which a present is received and given.

A gift for your chlid....the gift of learning to read!

Are you at the place where your child is ready to read
or interested in learning their letters?

I found a great website that is interactive,
full of color and a great learning
tool for your little one!
AND IT IS FREE!!!

I also found this great teaching book!

I found a great educational book for pre-k kids learning to do math. It's called "Anno's Counting Book" by Mitsumasa Anno. This book incorporates concrete, pictoral and symbolic representations as it introduces math concepts to little ones. It's a lot of fun with great illustrations. School districts all over the country are using this book as a math aid. Follow the link to check out "Anno's Counting Book".

Flowers can be that perfect gift

Sending flowers can brighten someones day more than you know!! Take a few minutes out of your day and surprise and show someone that you care and love them! You never know what a little color can do to someones day!

Jelly Belly Sale

The gift of Music!

You will have to get out of your comfort zone for this gift idea. My dad's birthday was coming and I wanted something very special and very original. I made my dad a audio tape of myself singing "My Father's Eyes." Singing is not my forte and something I don't like to do for an audience but it was a gift that was from me and I was able to in words and music tell him how proud I am to be his daughter. My notes were not always on key but it was allot of fun to put together and give him. I was able to rent a karaoke machine at a local music store and buy a tape(this was years ago before CD's were at my fingertips!) I also picked up a tape with the back round track of my song. You can usually find any song and get the music to it so you can sing over it. I had to special order "My Father's Eyes" and once it came in I was able to take the karaoke machine and the tape to my room with my door locked and practice singing several times before I was ready to push the record button. I loved making this tape for my dad and would definitely do it again. A wonderful gift to express in your words how special someone is to you! Unforgettable, memorable and a one of a kind gift!!!!

Christmas photo frame with poem from daughters

This is a great idea if you are able to pull out an old photo and put it with a new one. My sister and I found an old photograph of us when we were younger and decided to go to a local photography store and get a new one in a similar pose. I typed up the poem in Microsoft word with a special font and added a picture to add a finishing touch. We found a frame and a matte that had 3 cutouts to place our 2 pictures and poem. Put it all together and you have a one of a kind before and after memory. An inexpensive gift from the heart!

Art in a frame

This frame I had my daughters make for their grandma. I found foam people, stickers, pop cycle sticks and a frame to put this one together. My daughters each picked their foam girl and made a face on her, added foam hair, a princess hat and decorated the pop stick, then chose one for grandma! I used a colorful pink paper for the backround and was able to find a frame with a white border so we were able to decorate that with fun stickers and words. Another project you can have your kids involved with and is lots of fun. Found all the materials at my local hobby store! Inexpensive and one of a kind!

Do it yourself photo frame

I love taking pictures! For my mom on her birthday one year my brother and I were trying to think of something she would love and she hadn't had a picture of the grandkids for a while so we came up with the idea of taking the pictures ourself(much cheaper)and putting it together in a frame. I took about 25 different shots of the kids in different poses and picked the ones we liked best. Taking the pictures yourself gives you endless time and creativity with the size of the photo and how you want to arrange them in your frame. I went to a local hobby store picked up a sturdy frame and took the pictures to a local store that did one hour photos and got different sizes of the photos as well. We got the pictures home and the frame, arranged the pictures and added at the very top, each grandchild signing a small golden piece of paper with their name on it and the year written on the bottom. Making your own photo frame is unique and lots of fun!

Christmas photo quilt

This gift idea is not as hard as it sounds. I like to sew, not love to sew. I have made a handful of quilts over my years of marriage(mostly for my husband, he loves them!) One Christmas I had decided to make a quilt for my in laws. I wanted it to be original and I was hoping for some tears from my mother in law but no luck this time. I started with picking out materials that had earth tone colors in them. From there I decided on a very simple big block quilt, nothing to hard. I cut out each block and laid them on the floor in a pattern I liked. I chose solid colors through out the quilt so I could iron on photos that I thought would mean allot to them. I choose their wedding picture, a current picture of the 2 of them, pictures of all the grandkids and old photos and new. The iron on photos were really simple. You can purchase a iron on transfer photo paper at any hobby or craft store, just follow the directions and you will have the perfect personalized quilt! Once you have the photos picked out and transfered on your paper you just iron right on to your solid blocks and sew away! I will post a picture of the quilt very soon. A gift that will stay in the family for generations!

Sarah

Baby Shower Gift Basket

I recently went to a baby shower. The mom was having her 3rd baby and had almost everything and I wanted to get something not only for baby but for mom and the rest of the family. One of my favorite gift ideas are themed baskets. On this occasion I choose to put in her basket an assortment of goodies while they were all waiting in the room and for baby to be born. I tried to think of some of the families favorite things to munch on and drink! I also put some baby food items in the basket for when she got older(remember to look at the expiration date.) I found a big sturdy basket and placed all the candies, cookies, crackers, poptarts, chips and baby items arranged so it all could be seen and picked up some tissue paper and stuffed colored tissue through out to give it some color and fun. I also got some ribbon and curled it and arranged it through out the basket and around the handle. Another gift where you can get your kids involved in picking out the items for the basket and putting it together. A fun and creative way to personalize a gift for anyone! Another gift that is memorable and unforgettable!

Sarah

A picture is worth a thousand memories

My favorite place on the web for personalizing a gift with a photo is www.snapfish.com! I have used this site numerous times for many occasions. One of my favorites was a photo book I made that I was able to personalize and add my own words to each page. This site allows you to download how ever many photos into your own account and choose a gift for any occasion and make it one of a kind. They take you step by step to make your gift and the feeling is priceless when you have finished a project. On top of being easy and fun to do the prices are not to bad. A bonus as well is everytime you purchase a gift that you made they email you with a special offer the next time you decide to make a new gift! I have used this for birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day and just because gifts! A gift that is one of a kind and priceless!

Sarah

Mother's Day Memory Box

I am always trying to think of something new and creative for Mother's Day. One year I had thought it would be nice to write my mother a note. Trying to get creative with that idea I started thinking outside the box and get the rest of my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews involved. I had everyone write a letter or poem, something original in their own words to her. You could give ideas to your family members like; write a memory when you were a child, a funny story that happened, a rhyming poem about how great she is, thoughts about how wonderful she is! Everyone individually even the grandkids wrote something! Some were handwritten on lined paper. Some were typed. Some were small scraps of paper with a few lines on it. It was important to have everyone make it their own! Once I got everyone's letters to grandma(mom), I found a small wooden treasure box and put all the letters inside. I attached a note to the outside that said "read later, we love you." A gift for Mother's Day that was one of a kind and unforgettable!

Sarah

The Edible Candy Greeting Card!

My first gift idea is a edible candy greeting card. I have made 2 of these for different people for different occasions. I made my first one for my husband when we were dating. I can't find the picture of it but it was allot of fun and something we still talk about today(almost 12 years ago). The second one I made was for my in laws on their Anniversary. I used foam cutouts to make the people and found stickers and a bow to add a fun finish to the card. Picking out the candy was probably the funnest thing to do. I hadn't decided what exactly I was going to write on the card when I picked out the candy, I just chose different candy names that seemed to best suit my in laws. You can be serious or a little silly, especially with some of the candy names out there now. Once I picked a handful of candy I took it home and started thinking of the first sentence and from then on each sentence came pretty easy. This type of gift is also a great way to get your kids involved. They helped pick out candy and thought of a few cute things to say as well! Don't forget after you give your special someone an edible candy card to take a picture of it because it is not long before the candy is eaten! This is a personalized gift that no one can duplicate! A perfect gift card for that someone that has everything!

Sarah