by Tammra
August and September are months when smany tudents head to college for the first time or return for a new start. If you haven’t given the future first year student a gift yet, or you just want to surprise a returning student, give him or her a gift basket filled with useful items.
1. Munchies Basket: With all the late night studying students do, they appreciate a stead supply of snacks and beverages. Fill a basket with microwavable popcorn, small bags of chips, drink bags, bottled water, a can of peanuts, crackers, cookies, hard candy, and several rolls of quarters for vending machines.
2. Laundry Basket: Students can’t get around dirty laundry although they will try. Buy a laundry bag or basket and fill it with laundry detergent, fabric softener, fabric sheets, stain remover, bleach, and Lysol. Don’t forget to add several rolls of quarters to this basket, too.
3. Miss You Basket: Even though many students have cell phones and computers, occasionally they may need to communicate in writing or on a landline. Fill a small square basket with calling cards, stationary, envelopes, blank cards, all-occasion-cards, pens and stamps.
Any college student will love receiving one of these baskets. The items are thoughtful and necessary. You may find by midyear the basket will need to be refilled.
August 6th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Gift ideas, Tips | Comments (0)
by Neeta Lind
Easter baskets filled with eggs, chocolate, toys and jelly beans line the shelves of many stores doing the Easter holiday season. As children shop with their parents, they point out the basket they hope to receive on Easter morning. While buying a pre-made basket for Easter can be exciting, I’ve always been fond of Easter baskets made at home.
When I was a child, my parents didn’t buy pre-made baskets for my sister and me. In fact, we had one large multi-colored wicker basket we used every Easter. It was stored in our attic with all the other holiday staple items: Christmas lights, Christmas tree, Christmas stockings, and Halloween costumes. When my mother pulled it out of the attic, we knew we would be decorating eggs soon.
Using the copper colored utensil that came with the egg dying kit, we dipped hard boiled eggs into the colorful dye in the clear plastic cups. Earlier we had plopped red, blue, and yellow dye tablets into the vinegar and water mixture that filled the cups. Sometimes, we even wrote mystery words or designs on the eggs using the white wax crayon. As soon as the eggs were dropped into the dye and lifted up, the words appeared like magic.
While the Easter eggs dried, we placed the chocolate shaped eggs, jelly beans, Peeps, bubble gum eggs, and any other edible treat my parents had purchased on top of the green or pink grass pushed down in the basket. There weren’t any basketballs or baby dolls in our basket, just candy and Easter eggs, which we devoured after Easter morning church service.
Now that I am a mother, I don’t buy the pre-made baskets for my daughters, either. I carry on the tradition that my mother started with me and my sister of creating our own Easter baskets.
July 28th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Gift ideas, Holiday Celebrations, Holiday Stories | Comments (0)
by soapylovedeb
When a first baby is on its way, a baby shower is thrown to celebrate and prepare for its arrival. The family may be showered with baby booties, bibs, cribs, diaper bags, play yards, and more. However, when the second baby is on its way, a shower may not be necessary. Instead, the family may be sprinkled with gifts at a Baby Sprinkle.
A Baby Sprinkle allows friends and family members to celebrate a second or third baby, for instance, who may not be in need of a crib or a tub because the family still has major items from their first child’s birth. At a Baby Sprinkle, the family can be sprinkled with specific items like diapers and wipes. Grocery store gift certificates or cards make great sprinkle gifts, too. Once the baby arrives and the family learns of the child’s dietary needs, formula and water can be purchased using the gift cards, or the gift cards can be saved and used to purchase baby food when the child is older.
At a Baby Sprinkle, you can still play games, eat cake, and enjoy family and friends. Also, if a guestbook is used, your baby will have a memento of all the people who came out to celebrate his or her impending arrival.
July 28th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Baby Showers, Gift ideas | Comments (0)
by The Felt Mouse
Throwing a baby shower for someone is a tremendous gift in its own right. Doing this provides an opportunity for other friends and family members to assist the parents in providing essential items for the future newborn baby or babies. Designing a gift basket filled with useful items will be appreciated by the growing family.
- Bath Gift Basket: Using a baby tub as the basket, create a gift basket filled with baby soap, lotion, shampoo, bathrobe, washcloths, and towels. Also, include a rubber duck with the words hot on its bottom. The letters change color if the water is too hot for the baby.
- Diapers Gift Basket: Use a wicker storage basket, diaper genie, or plastic garbage can as the container. Fill the container with a pack of diapers of any size, cornstarch, diaper rash cream (preferably Boudreaux’s Butt Paste), and a pack of wipes.
- Book Gift Basket: Pick out a cute cloth bag for the container. Fill the bag with cloth and plastic children’s books. Make sure to include a teething book in the bag, too. Books that call for a picture of the baby make a nice addition to this gift bag.
Parents will enjoy any one of these gifts baskets because certain items are always a necessity when a baby is in the house.
July 21st, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Baby Showers, Gift ideas | Comments (0)
by cityflickr
After a woman has a baby, she and older members of her household may not have time to prepare meals. Many women don’t have the luxury of having someone come into the home to help prepare meals for her and her family. Consequently, an edible baby shower gift will make a significant contribution to providing meals to a family with a newborn in the home.
- Give restaurant gift certificates. These restaurants should not be fast-food restaurants, but restaurants that offer healthy dishes. If you can, give gift certificates that offer delivery service.
- Purchase meal packages for the family from businesses like Dinner by Design (dinnerbydesignkitchen.com). They will prepare the dishes, and the customer just has to cook them at home. Some of the locations offer delivery services.
- Commit to making and delivering a meal a week for one month or longer to the family. If you really want to be ambitious, you can organize a group of people to prepare meals for the family with the newborn.
- Give frozen entrees. Deliver frozen entrees or dishes to the family after the baby is born. They can put them in the freezer and pull them out when they’re ready to heat them.
If you’ve been in a home with a newborn, you know how difficult planning and preparing meals can be for families. So next time you’re invited to a baby shower consider giving an edible baby shower gift.
July 20th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Baby Showers, Gift ideas | Comments (0)
by mothersday009
Personalized gift baskets are fun to prepare and to receive. When you put together personalized gift baskets for friends or family, they know that you’ve taken the time to consider their personality and their interests. Here are a few tips to help you create personalized gift baskets.
- Decide on a theme. Creating baskets around themes helps focus your shopping. If you decide to create a sports gift basket, for instance, you can concentrate on buying sports theme gifts to go in the basket.
- Buy the items. Purchase all the items that will fill your gift basket.
- Purchase container or basket. You should be creative when deciding on the container that will hold your gift items. A small decorative garbage can makes a nice container for a gift of towels, washcloths, soap dish, and toothbrush holder. Consider using a flower pot for a gift basket filled with gardening tools, gloves, seeds, and knee pad.
- Gather packaging materials. You’ll need tissue paper and shredded paper to fill the bottom of your container. Glue dots are useful for holding gift items in place in the container. Also, you’ll need either cellophane to package your gift basket. You can buy the cellophane on a roll or cellophane bags. Don’t forget to buy ribbon to top off your gift basket.
- Put the basket together. Fill the bottom of your container with tissue paper. Then put some shredded paper over the tissue paper. Arrange the gift items in the basket on top of the shredded paper. Place them so the taller items are in the middle and the smaller items are in the front of the basket. Use glue dots if necessary. Place the gift basket in a gift basket bag or wrap with cellophane. Put the bow on.
The recipient of the gift basket will be happy that you made something special just for them.
July 14th, 2009 by Yolanda D. Young | Posted in Gift ideas | Comments (0)
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