It's Not Where You Go, It's Who You're With

In the search for my own "perfect" gifts for the holiday I've come across several excellent options that I'd love to share with you. My personal favorite however? That's easy, it's the special overnight stay.

That's right, pack you and your favorite person's bags, scoop up those pre-purchased tickets and travel to another "new and exciting" town where you both can take in a show then spend the night relaxing away from the stresses that tend to surround you at home.

Here's some ideal locations/activities to consider:

• Take in an Atlantic City concert then spend the night either gambling or resting.
• Skiing by day, cuddling up to a fire by night.
• If location permits hit the Vegas Strip... I'm sure you can think of a plenty of things to do without my help here.
• Broadway is beautiful no matter what time of day, and so are those big city lights!
• Who cares where it's at, go all out for a romantic weekend stay at any luxury hotel. Pop the champagne and spread out the rose petals.
• Plan a trip to the most magical place on earth.
  

P.S. Go ahead, jump on those beds!

Wedding Favors Everyone Can Enjoy

It's standard practice at weddings for the Bride and Groom to send each guest home with a little something to remember the day by.

These wedding favors can range from the expensive mini-bottle of champagne to less expensive items like water bottles (great for an outdoor wedding). There are a number of great choices to pick from, however, I've found that what a lot of couples are searching for is something unique.

Instead of just weddings themed gifts (think covered in doves, linked rings, or pictures of bells), couples are taking the personalization one step further. Their gifts are reflecting the wedding's theme colors, the couple's personalities or even the location of the wedding itself (ex. flip flops for a beach wedding).

If you're into going green, then there are a variety of options. I suggest you start here. My favorite eco-friendly favor idea is the plantable seed flower card. These come in a variety of colors, shapes and can be personalized with the couple's name and wedding date/location.

Of course there's always the growing in popularity idea of making your wedding favor a donation to your favorite charity. Nothing shows off a caring personality more than helping your guests to give a gift to others.

After pondering a variety of excellent idea, my fiance and I came up with something that would mean a lot to his family. There's nothing wrong with that.

We opted to spend a day or two hard at work in his grandmother's kitchen baking up her famous "galaxy" cookies. These cookies have come to be a much anticipated staple at every big family gathering on his side.

For both of us the best part of this gift idea, isn't just being able to please his family and provide something tasty to each guest, it's also the opportunity to spend some quality time with his grandmother doing something she truly enjoys... baking.

If I'm lucky, maybe we can even include a few of those homemade chocolates that I so adore of hers ;).

Guys Read On

Alright, here's a girly tip for all of you guys out there...

... it's all in the details.

For instance, if you're planning on giving your significant other a bouquet of flowers I'd recommend you find out what her favorite type of flower is.

If you're planning on going to the traditional route for that next birthday with a present of jewelry consider engraving it with a special message, adding a birthstone or even picking up the gem from your significant others favorite jewelry store.

For a less expensive option consider the good ol' mixed tape/cd. With iTunes' help you can create a perfectly unique CD. Perhaps fill it with songs that make you think of them, or even just create a mix of songs you feel they'd love. As a bonus, create a CD cover with pictures you feel your significant other would enjoy.

Now, don't get me wrong, your favorite person would be perfectly happy to receive any ol' flowers, their eyes will still light up at jewelry and as a music lover myself, I can assure you if they dig discovering new music you could make a mix of any songs and they'd still find delight in the time you put into creating it.

You definitely don't have to go that extra mile for every occasion, but if this gift is meant for something extra-special then I hope these tips help you find a way to add that extra bit of unique.

Color Me Mine: DIY Pottery Options

If you're one of the many of us out there that like to make DIY gift creations, but just aren't sure where to start I've got an excellent gift-creating location for you!

Head to your local Color Me Mine location. They're conveniently located all over the world, so there's a good possibility you'll have one within driving distance from where you live.

The Color Me Mine studio allows you to pick out a piece of blank pottery, choose your own colors and begin creating your own masterpiece. You then leave your chosen piece of artwork at the studio and in about a weeks time you head back to pick up your now kiln fired piece and pay. (What's excellent is that there's something there for pretty much every budget since your total price is reflected by the price of the pottery you originally picked.)

Why paint alone? At the Color Me Mine studios you can arrange to hold parties. They're perfect for kids parties, a night out with the ladies, or even a family gathering (that's what I did :).

As a bride to be I'd love to share with you that Color Me Mine also has bridal registry items, a great space for your shower and reception. You can even go in there and create a few beautiful and unique gifts for your bridal party. Perfection!

Above is the serving tray I painted during my last minute. I hope you have as much fun as I did should you choose to visit.

Enjoy!

Gift Giving Inspiration

I think I just stumbled upon greatness. You know how you’re randomly surfing the web and then BAM a site grabs your attention that meets needs you didn’t even realize you had until just then…. Well, I just found that site.

What’s even better is that I can’t wait to share it with you.

Every once in a while there’s that one person or event that’s just impossible to buy for. You search the web, you rack your brain, you visit this site ;) and you even beg for hints on what to give them, but, alas, the search still continues on.

Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be that difficult. The FindGift.com site has a “wizard” tool that lets you pick who the gift is for, what their age is, and even what the occasion is and then magically displays a page full of options… which you can of course then buy on their site.

No, I didn’t exactly love the options. They were a bit over-priced and at times cheesy; however, as a source of creative inspiration, they were perfect! Yes, the site is jam-packed with various “gift features,” which I’m going to reserve from bragging about here since they didn’t sweep me off my feet, however, I do recommend you check out that Wizard tool.

It may just be the perfect jump-start that your gift-giving brain has been searching for.

Enjoy!

Tis the Season to Shop

Hi, I'm Daszzle from Something to Smile About! And now for the awkward "new blog" introduction:

It's been a goal of mine for quite a while to turn my random ramblings into something more concentrated, even something that could help others. While I definitely wouldn't call this blog "saving the world," I do hope it makes your gift shopping just a little bit easier.

In the future you can look forward to:

• Gift Ideas for your sister, mother, brother, father, great aunt Lucy, and that weird neighbor next door
• Holiday gift ideas (think Christmas, Valentines Day, and even Easter)
• Unique gift ideas (Green gifts, support your local artist gifts, personalized gifts, etc.)
• Hard to think of gift ideas (gifts for those you haven't met, wedding gifts, baby shower gifts, etc.)

While I can't promise not to make this a little bit of a ramble every now and then (it is what I do best). I can offer my services as a condolence prize:

Hit me with it folks. Send me your gifting problems and I'll send my solutions your way, most likely in a post or as a comment on your own blog.

The holidays are upon us, and I'm ready to shop!