Cup of Life: Gift Guide Part II – Miscellaneous

Hello beautifuls!!!

Less than 7 days to go for those of you, who traditionally give their gifts on Christmas. Sorry, I didn’t mean to stress you! Within our family, we give all of our gifts on New Years Eve. The great thing about that is that you get one more week to go shopping. And usually the shopping malls are less busy than before Christmas. So it’s not always a bad thing to do last minute shopping, though it sure brings a lot of stress. That is, if you find it important to find that one item that will greatly move the receiver. Today, I’ll be addressing the more grown up gifts! And in my next post, I’ll be talking about my favorite type of gifts, which is beauty related items of course!!! What else!!

First of all, there are some basic rules to follow to choose the perfect gift! So if you wish to explore the fine arts of the gift giving science (or maybe you’re just desperate to find a gift quickly haha), here is how I choose my gifts:

1. I think the most important thing about selecting the perfect gift is incorporating some inside jokes. Because it makes it so much more personal and fun.
2. Do not fall into the trap that because someone is obsessed with something that you should get them that. If they are obsessed about something they probably know about it better than you do. For example, if someone is taking classes for make up, it’s a bit annoying if you get them a “how to do make up”-book, because it’s too straight forward and chances are they know much more about it than what you can learn in that book. For instance, my BF loves Magic cards. As I don’t play it, I wouldn’t know which deck he’s interested in… Plus it would be too obvious.
3. It’s not because you enjoy receiving something or doing something, that you should force a person to try it out. That is, unless that person is the type to need a little push…
4. Sometimes a very plain gift could be made so much more fun, because of the way you wrap it.

Let’s have a closer look at the different groups, we spoke of. Most people could be several categories. So it’s definitely not a black/white way of thinking. But it helps you to find ideas.

Brand items

If you are getting a luxury item, it’s best to pick something that is quite new, to make sure that they don’t already have it. If you don’t have a big budget, you can always go for something a bit smaller in size and price, such as:

• A Keychain
• A Pen (like from Swarovski)
  

  https://www.swarovski.com/Web_BE/fr/04/category/Accessoires.html

• A little pouch
  

  https://www.zalando.be/ted-baker-lezlie-bow-makeup-bag-toilettas-pink-te451f04v-j11.html

• A scarf
• …

When picking a clothing item, always pay attention to the colors worn by the receiver of the gift. Don’t go around buying a pink scarf, if you’ve never seen them wear that shade, not even if you think it looks beautiful. The gift is not for you, don’t forget.

DIY’s

My favorite!!! Some people don’t like DIY gifts, sometimes because they think it doesn’t hold much value. But these are great for the “I don’t need anything” people :), and also the “Free spirits”, because they like to receive a one of kind gift. I’m sure you’ve already looked on Pinterest, but here are my favorite picks and personal ideas!!

• Crochet or knit them a scarf and if you don’t have experience with with knitting, there are plenty of video’s for arm knitted scarfs… which is so cool and fast!!
  

  http://www.simplymaggie.com/the-basics-of-arm-knitting

• Make a decoration piece, such as a candle holder:
  

  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/46302702392750829/

  

  http://diyfuntips.com/pin/286/

  Last year I made this littke centerpiece for my mother in law, by making a big lump of paper. I crumpled a lot of news paper together and then made a sausage by rolling it into another sheet of paper like a spring roll. I then used a hot glue gun to stick some twigs, pot pourri, pine cones and fake flowers on it and 2 cheap candle holders.

  
  

• a Knot pillow
  

  https://www.ehow.com/how_12340972_diy-knot-pillow.html

• A calendar with pics: not original, but a lot of people will enjoy this, your grandma, a dedicated mom who doesn’t have the time to do it herself.
  

  https://www.kruidvat.be/nl/fotoservice/kalenders.html

• A planner with pictures and accessories: planning has always been hot. And even with this electronic era, a lot of people still enjoy writing the good old fashioned way. If you order your planner online and customize with pictures, you could also provide them some extra stickers with pictures and other nice stationary.
  

  https://www.kruidvat.be/nl/fotoservice/kalenders/agendas/agenda.html

• Make them a painting! Look, you don’t need to paint that greatly either. There are some really wonderful tutorials out there on Youtube, that help you make some pretty and easy paintings. Here are some that I’ve made with the help of Ryan O’Rourke (he’s an amazing artist, who gives you some really great tips). I especially love the 10 minute paintings!!
  
• Hot Chocolate on a stick!! These are wonderful. They’re so quick and easy to make and you can easily wrap these in cellophane! You can even add some flavour (hazelnut, caramel, liquor,…) and decorate these with marshmallows or sprinkles or even nuts. Put some sticks in a cute mug and you’re good to go.
  

  http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/hot-chocolate-sticks/

• A jewerly box made of a wooden tea box. If you quickly sow some mini pillows you can have a box to store your bracelets and watches in. So if there’s someone in your life obsessed with watches or bracelets, this is the perfect gift!
  

  http://www.bluemaize.net/im/watches/jewelry-watch-box-0.jpg

• How about printing a quote and stick it on a grown up colored page. If you frame this, it makes a nice gift.
  

  https://www.topkleurplaat.nl/volwassenen/attachment/kleurplaten-volwassenen28/

Assembled kits

It may sound stupid, but I’ve given boxes that were filled with some grocery finds. Here are some examples:

• If you’re dealing with a “Walking Dead”- lover: I gave my BF a shoe box filled with his favorite snacks, in case we have an end of the world scenario. I named it the “Zombie survival kit”. He got in there: a can of sausages, a can of coke (because he always nags about how others took the last can of coke :p), some Leo’s (comparable to Kit Kats), some Ferrero Rochers and a bag of salt chips. Cause you know, that’s what you’ll need when the end of the world is approaching. I also included a short fork, because he hates the long type of forks, calls them tonsil ticklers. Could come in handy to poke a zombie eye out…
• The Magic card master- kit: It’s obvious that I have a nerdy BF :). But I find it cute. I once assembled a whole kit with little trinkets of the game. I obviously didn’t buy him cards because he’s rather picky about that. But he needed some extra folders to put in his cards, some extra dices and little travel boxes for his cards.
• Treasure hunt: I know someone who’s a huge coin collector, so we wanted to give him a budget so he could buy a chosen coin (as he’s way too picky about it). So I made him an underwater scene using a bowl with sand, origami fish and shells. And we put fake coins in a small wooden chest that I stained with coffee and I put in there a small “treasure map” on which I wrote the amount of money he could spend… 
  

Those were my ideas for the end of year period gifts. I always try to be as original as possible and in these cases, Pinterest truly is my best friend. Normally I plan far ahead, but for some people it’s not always easy to find a gift. Hopefully you’ve found some inspiration from this and otherwise at least a nice read :D.

I’ll be posting my beauty picks as soon as possible. So good luck with your gift hunt! Be sure to let me know what original gifts you got your loved ones!

Love,

Sarah