Saturday, December 12, 2009

Last Minute Gifts

I spent all of November and the beginning of November working on my manuscript or thinking about it just about all the time. Once I sent it off, all of a sudden I noticed there was a mountain of laundry, my kitchen was a total disaster, well, my whole house is a total disaster. For the past few days, I’ve tried to make a dent in the above before I tried out the recipes one more time and finished the two crochet projects. Or got into the holidays.

Okay, this week we’re writing about last minute gifts. I like food items. Last year I sent out homemade chocolate chip cookies and spritz cookies. I got little fluted paper holders at Jo-Anns for the cookies and packaged them in tins. They looked very festive and tasted great. I was just at Michael’s and noticed they have patterned take out containers which would work nicely for cookies or fudge.

My other idea for a last minute gift is to give a certificate for a handmade item, which in my case would be something like a scarf or shawl. The good thing about the certificate idea is the recipient can decide what color they like and what kind of yarn they want. I am hesitant to make things out of wool, even though it’s warm and looks nice, because a lot of people seem to be sensitive to it.

This isn’t handmade, but chocolate is always a good gift, last minute or otherwise. I like to send boxes of See’s candy, which is my personal favorite. Even if it arrives after Christmas, I don’t think anybody would complain.

This is an addition to Linda’s gifts for writers. Pens. I find the best ones at art stores. They even have pens you can sign glossy bookmarks with. And you can never have too many pens.

7 comments:

Camille Minichino said...

I'm often on the other end of food gifts since I have so many bakers and cooks among my friends. Being challenged that way, I love it!

One friend makes me enough chocolate peanut butter balls to last for months and at least 4 relatives send me biscotti!

I love your certificate for a handmade item, too -- makes so much sense, and I do want to check out the pens for glossy bookmarks. Do you have a brand name for those?

Terri Thayer said...

Great suggestions, Betty. Congrats on getting the manuscript done. Can't wait to read it!

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Betty, could we persuade you to share your recipe for spritz cookies? I don't think I'm familiar with those.

My sister Meg's mother-in-law Marlen always sends her a shoebox filled with homemade cookies. I love visiting Meg over the holidays for many reasons, and those cookies are one of them!

Betty Hechtman said...

Camille - I found two pens that work on bookmarks. The Sharpie permanent markers work if you let it dry for a few minutes. But the best one is the Sakura Microperm. It labels glass, disks, and film.

Joanna - Spritz cookies are butter cookies shaped with a cookie press, or cookie gun. Aren't we doing recipes next week? By then I should have located mine and will put a recipe in my blog.

Linda O. Johnston said...

The gift certificate for a handmade present is a great idea, Betty! It gives you time to make it, and it also lets the recipient participate by making choices. I agree that pens are a good gift for writers. My husband often orders pen and pencil sets for me that have my latest title on them--and I can use them at book signings.

Betty Hechtman said...

Great idea, Linda. I'll have to look into it.

Justin said...

The best extremely last minute gift is a gift card delivered via email. http://www.giftzip.com has them all, free of charge.