Works for Me Wednesday: 5 Inexpensive Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
With Mother’s Day quickly approaching I’ve been trying to come up with some unique gift ideas for my mom and mother in law. The main qualifications for the gift is that it must be inexpensive and shows them how much we love and appreciate them. Any homemade gifts have to be simple and not too time-consuming because the big day is only a few weeks away.
Here are few ideas I found online and thought I’d share to help others:
Price: $19.99 ($3 Shipping)
For an additional cost, it can be engraved.
2. Photo Storybook There are two ways to go about doing this. You could scrapbook with actual paper, photos and embellishments or you could upload your pictures to a website and create one online. Photo websites such as Kodak, Shutterfly, or even Walmart do this.
Sample prices: Walmart has soft cover books starting at $3.88 and hard cover books starting at $17.96
3. Flower Pot Pens–My mom doesn’t like a lot of clutter in her kitchen, but does a lot of writing there, so I thought this might be a fun way to disguise her pens. This looks like an easy enough craft.
To personalize this even further, you could give her a gratitude journal to go along with it and start it by writing out a few pages on why you are grateful for her.
You can find the materials necessary and directions to make them here.
4. Make her a mix cd–Head on over to iTunes and download 10-20 of your mom’s favorite songs. Then you could put them on a cd.
If she is a hip mom and has an iPod, you could get her an iTunes gift card, but that isn’t as thoughtful. She’d probably appreciate the cd more.
5. Hobby Themed Gift Basket–The possibilities are endless here. Think about what your mom is most passionate about and put together a few things in a basket that goes along with her special hobby. This one could get expensive, so it is important to hunt down the good deals and try to add some homemade items. For example, if your mom enjoys cooking as mine does, you could put together a basket with a cookbook, some pre-made mixes, and a couple of new kitchen gadgets. You could even get a personalized apron from the craft store and personalize it in some way for your mom. Other ideas for gift basket themes include wine, scrapbooking, chocolate, relaxation, and so many more.
If you have any other suggestions, please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear what other ideas you may have!
Don’t forget to head on over to Rocks in My Dryer for some more great Works for Me Wednesday tips. Btw, Shannon is giving away an awesome dvd box set of Pride and Prejudice (with sexy Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy) and Jane Eyre.
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Idol Recap–Top 5
Simon called tonight the strangest show they’ve ever done. I think I’m going to have to agree. We haven’t really had too many Paula “moments” this season, but tonight made up for the dry spell. Hearing her commentary on Jason’s second song that he hadn’t yet song was completely priceless. It was all Ryan’s fault though. He totally rocked her world when he decided to switch things up on her.
It was Neil Diamond night and I’m not a fan of his music, so my expectations were pretty low. Thank goodness, because I wasn’t jumping up and down for anyone.
Jason–I love Jason. That said, both songs were just ok. Really nothing special. The judges thought that he wasn’t trying to wow us and I have to agree.
David C.–His first song was pretty forgettable, but I really loved the second one. Paula said that she felt like she was already looking at the American Idol and I agree.
Brooke–Her first song was “I’m a Believer”. I didn’t know that Neil Diamond had anything to do with this song. I love this song! I did not love Brooke doing this song. She really should try not to move when she sings. The poor girl has no rhythm at all. I’m going to have to agree with Simon that it was a complete nightmare. What was she thinking? Thankfully, she totally redeemed herself with the second song even with the cheesy “Arizona” line. I thought she looked really pretty tonight.
David A.–Well you have to give the guy credit for attempting the two most popular of Neil Diamond’s songs. I preferred “Comin to America” over “Sweet Caroline” , but I really didn’t love either performance. I think I may be over him.
Syesha– Alright, enough already with the bare feet. What is the purpose of that? Her second song was way better than the first, but I still feel like her problem is that she oversells the song. She doesn’t need to be so theatrical all the time.
The two that didn’t completely annoy me were Jason and David C. My guess is that Brooke or Syesha will go home. I’d be happy saying goodbye to either one of them.
For other Idol talk, head on over to Boomama’s.
Best Day Of The Year
Tomorrow is 31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin Robbins and you know I’m gonna be there! It used to be free but who can complain about 31 cents??!!
Cheap + Ice Cream = Best Day of the Year
*2.5oz scoops are 31 cents plus tax where applicable. Limit 10 scoops per person, per purchase. Available 04/30/08, from 5pm to 10pm, at your local Baskin-Robbins while supplies last.
My favorite flavor is a tie between Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cookies and Cream. Last time I tried a flavor that had something to do with ’smores–decadent. Now that you can get up to 10 scoops, I may have to try some a couple different ones. This could be dangerous.
Let me know your favorite flavor in the comments section.
Tackle It Tuesday
One of the very few talents that I have in life is being able to cram as many objects into a container as humanly possible. If there was a world record for stuffing I’d be sure to hold it. I have all these handy dandy baskets that are supposed to help “organize” me, but when you are a piler/stuffer they seem to do just the opposite.
Take this basket that I have on my microwave. This is what I like to call the “in box” . This is where I put papers that I don’t feel like dealing with at the moment. As you can see, I have serious avoidance issues.
Here is another basket that gets its fair share of stuffing. This one hangs on the door at the top of my basement steps to hold stuff that needs to be carried downstairs. As you can see, I also have a some issues with stairclimbing as well.
I have to give a shout out to the 3M company. They have invented one of the most excellent products products ever made called the Adhesive Command Hook. These things are awesome on so many different levels. They don’t do any damage to your wall, but my praise lies in how strong they are. The fact that it can withstand the sheer volume of stuff that I pile in that basket is evidence enough of its greatness. I think the door would fall down before that thing.
My last tackle was the basket of shame that holds my stationary.
To say that this isn’t working is an understatement. Last week I purchased a new container of sorts and went through the awful mess that was in the old basket. There were quite a few things that needed to be thrown away–I mean who needs three pencil sharpeners? We have an electric pencil sharpener now (Best. Purchase. Ever.), so why would we need even one of those dreadful twisty, manual ones anymore, let alone three. They annoy the heck out of me anyway with how they always seem to break the point right before you are done sharpening it.
Also, I had more pens, pencils and notecards than I knew what to do with. Considering I haven’t written a letter since email was invented I doubt that I’ll really have much use for all of this so I got rid of most of them.
Here are the after pictures. First, the new stationary center:
The basket at the top of the stairs and the in box are both empty.
They will remain empty until the barrage of papers that come home with my kids from school. I’m convinced that their goal in life is not educating my children, but deforestation of the entire world.
For more tackles, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.
Menu Plan Monday
After the rave reviews from the family on last weeks’ Cuban Sandwiches, I’ve decided that we should have sandwich night once a week. I made them on the Foreman grill and they turned out great. They were easy to make and really tasty–who could ask for anything more?
Monday-Steak, broccoli, potatoes
Tuesday-Easy Grilled Fish (Marinate in italian dressing, top w/mushrooms, grill. Add cheddar cheese during the last few minutes), rice, peas
Wednesday-Sandwich Night–Sloppy Joe’s, french fries, spinach(Baseball again, so its got to be fast and easy!)
Thursday-Baked Teriyaki Chicken, rice, stir fry veggies
Friday-Pizzas (Homemade crust for bread maker–trying Laura’s Recipe)
Saturday-Tangy Grilled Pork Tenderloin, couscous, beans
Sunday-Pasta w/ Shrimp, garlic and olive oil sauce, salad
Make Me Laugh Monday: Diary or a Dog and Cat
This has to be my absolute favorite email forward of all time. I guess it is because I’m a cat lover, but this just cracked me up. It’s not that I don’t like dogs, but any pet that needs to wake me up to go to the bathroom is never living in my house.
Leave me a comment and let me know which four legged friend you prefer.
Enjoy!
———————————————————————–
COMPARISON OF DOG AND CAT DIARIES
EXCERPTS FROM A DOG’S DIARY
Day number 180
8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm – OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
4:00 pm – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!
Day number 181
8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm – OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
4:00 pm – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!
Day number 182
8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm – OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
1:30 pm – ooooooo. bath. bummer.
4:00 pm – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!
EXCERPTS FROM A CAT’S DIARY
DAY 752 – My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.
DAY 761 – Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded; I must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair…must try this on their bed.
DAY 765 – Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was…Hmmm. Not working according to plan.
DAY 768 – I am finally aware of how sadistic they are. For no good reason I was chosen for the water torture. This time however it included a burning foamy chemical called “shampoo.” What sick minds could invent such a liquid. My only consolation is the piece of thumb still stuck between my teeth.
DAY 771 – There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I as placed in solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and smell the foul odor of the glass tubes they call “beer.” More importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to MY power of “allergies.” Must learn what this is and how to use it to my advantage.
DAY 774 – I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit. The bird on the other hand has got to be an informant, and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room his safety is assured.
But I can wait, it is only a matter of time..
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Find more funny stuff at Make Me Laugh Monday hosted by Absolutely Bananas.
Dress Shopping Gone Wrong
This past week I had to buy a dress for a friend’s wedding because the little black dress hanging in my closet just wasn’t going to cut it for a noon wedding. So off to the store I went to look for something that wouldn’t make me look too fat. When I walked into the department store (Macy’s in case you were wondering) there were tons of choices and I was hopeful that I’d find something.
Have I mentioned that I hate shopping? I know this isn’t something you would normally hear from a woman, but it is true. Here’s the reason: Spending Money + Making Decisions = Not a Happy Me
There is one exception to this rule and that is shopping for dresses. I can almost tolerate this excursion because there is part of me that feels like a princess trying on gowns for a ball or a movie star finding a gown for Oscar night (Oh how I love a good delusion).
Its a pretty enjoyable experience until you find yourself in the dressing room next to a bunch of high school girls trying on dresses for the prom. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on them. One, because I like to eavesdrop on people in dressing rooms. And two, because they were your typical shrieky, squealy high school girls, so it was almost impossible to mind my own business.
I started feeling older and older by the minute. I listened as they tried on dress after dress and deconstructed the merits of each one. Most of the talk revolved around how this one looked like so and so’s dress from The Hills or which one made their boobs look biggest. But the biggest selling point of each dress seemed to be which dress made them look the skinniest.
For a minute I considered that they may actually be obese as I keep hearing about this growing epidemic of overweight children in America. I was curious to see the poor fat things so I made my way out of the dressing room to sneak a peek.
Of course they were not fat. They were among the other epidemic in America–girls who are not fat, but think they are because of girls like this:
(Yuck)
(Double Yuck)
So, I tried to do my good deed for the day and gushed over how beautiful the dresses looked on the girls (which they really did), how pretty they looked and how much they did NOT look fat.
I then went back into my dressing room and went back to the task at hand–finding a dress that really did hide my fat. You know-the fat that is actually there. Not the invisible kind that these girls were talking about.
I failed at the mission. I came home empty handed and will wear the black dress that sort of hides the extra pounds that I put on over the winter. Black is good.
I am seriously going to start my diet again. Tomorrow.
Our List of The Top Ten Romantic Movies of All Time
All good things must come to an end. My Bloggy Giveaway is officially closed to any new entries. According to a random drawing, the winner is……
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
274
Timestamp: 2008-04-26 04:16:35 UTC
That means Grace from Kids Health Notes is the winner. Thanks to everyone who entered and left so many wonderful recommendations for me. I had no idea people were as passionate about chick flicks (or maybe it was the possibility of free stuff) as I was.
I noticed that there were quite a few films that continued to come up over and over again. Because I will do pretty much anything to avoid cleaning my house, I went through the nearly 400 comments and pulled out the 10 most popular films and here they are:
- The Notebook (no surprise here, what’s not to love)
- Pride and Prejudice (I love this one, but surprised to see so many others listed it since it is so long)
- You’ve Got Mail
- The Princess Bride (see below for my thoughts on this one)
- Titanic
- Sleepless in Seattle
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Pretty Woman
- While You Were Sleeping
- Notting Hill
And the runners up included Ever After, Dirty Dancing, When Harry Met Sally, Gone With The Wind, Love Actually, Sense and Sensibility, The Lake House, and Return to Me.
Many people couldn’t pick just one so it was pretty time consuming to go through the list and count. I’ll have a poll up on the sidebar pretty soon to try to narrow it down to the absolute favorite. So, stay tuned for that. I’m sure you are on the edge of your seat with anticipation.
I agree with most of the choices but I have to say that “The Princess Bride” comes awfully close to hobbit territory. So, I really hesitated even letting it appear on the list, but since so many of you love it, I felt guilty leaving it off. Believe me I really wanted to leave it off, but fair is fair. I just have to say that I’ve attempted to watch the movie a couple times, but I just don’t get it. What am I missing?
Surprisingly, there were a couple of movies that showed up in my comments that I have actually never seen. I’ll be sure to add them to my Netflix queue when I sign back up again this summer (Note: We only do Netflix/Blockbuster thing over the summer because there just isn’ t much on tv then and if we didn’t have something on the screen we may just be forced to actually have a conversation and that is a scary thought.)
Here is a list of just a few of the ones that I will be checking out soon:
- Emma
- Love Comes Softly
- 27 Dresses
- Jane Eyre
- Somewhere in Time
- No Reservations
- Sabrina
- Persuasion
We actually rented one on the list that someone recommended–Becoming Jane. I have to say that I cried like a baby at the end, which I wasn’t expecting. I thought Anne Hathaway was believable as Jane Austen (not that I’ve met her or anything) and I am now really crushing on James McAvoy. He was seriously charming in his role as Tom Lefroy. There was one scene in particular that made me gasp with delight. It was the scene at the ball when Jane was looking for Tom and couldn’t find him, but then he just sort of appears as in the middle of the dance. It was magical. There were some dull parts, but overall I really enjoyed this movie.
It’s been so much fun reading all the comments and I hope that there will be more (even though I’m too poor to continue to pay you to do so, just so you know).
My iPod Ghost
The most peculiar thing happened to me the other day. It was just a quiet afternoon at home. I was in my bedroom (which is on the main floor) folding laundry when suddenly I heard music start to play. It was coming from my iPod that I have hooked up to the ”wanna be Bose, but really bought from Five Below” stereo in the kitchen.
That was strange because I didn’t remember turning it on. Why would I have done that when I wasn’t even in the kitchen? My house is small, but it isn’t that tiny.
To me this could mean only one thing. WE MUST HAVE A GHOST! I came running out of my bedroom eager to find out what song was playing, because I was sure that it was a message from the other side. This is where the story takes an even weirder turn.
It was the song “Realize” by Colbie Caillat. I didn’t even have that song downloaded on my iPod. Do you have shivers up and down your spine yet?
I started to think about who was trying to contact me from beyond and I just had no idea of who it could possibly be. I doubted it could be any of my deceased relatives, as they probably couldn’t figure out this kind of technology. So I began to wonder if maybe it was some kind of secret admirer ghost. You know, the ones that bring joy (and terror) to bored homemakers all over the world. It could happen.
This was just too strange, but I have to say that I wasn’t frightened. Oh no. I was just excited that something like this was actually happening to me. (My life is that boring.) I did what any normal person would do–I ran downstairs to tell my husband the news.
Oh, did I not mention that he was home too? Well, he was and you’ll never guess what he said to me (I’m sure you can because you know where this absurd story is going).
He proceeded to tell me that he was the one who downloaded the song for me because he remembered that I mentioned in the car that it was my new favorite. He said he wanted to surprise me, so he turned it on in the kitchen so I could hear it.
If you knew my husband you would know that this is not really his typical behavior. He usually doesn’t listen to a word I say and even if he did, he usually isn’t able to remember any of the details (what with all the important sports trivia taking up the precious space in brain). You really can’t blame me for concocting this elaborate story of spirits, because in my mind (however twisted it may be) the ghost was a more logical explanation for this. My husband really is that clueless.
While I was certainly appreciative of him being so sweet and all, I have to admit that I’m still a bit disappointed that I don’t have a ghost.
Just in case you are keeping score:
Husband-1
Ghost-0
Oh and just in case you wanted to hear the song (because I love, love, LOVE it, but not as much as her first song, “Bubbly”), here you go:
(Edited to add–Did you know that Colbie tried out for American Idol in 2006 but didn’t make it. I hadn’t heard that and thought it was an interesting little tidbit.)
I Thought I Liked Yoga
A few weeks ago, I ordered an exercise dvd off Amazon called Kundalini Yoga for Beginners and Beyond
This was just the motivation I needed to get my lazy, fat butt off the couch and start exercising again. Maybe I’d even change the way I ate. Visions of green tea, flax seed and blueberries were already dancing in my head. It was going to be the beginning of my new healthy lifestyle.
You can only imagine my excitement when it finally arrived in the mail. I changed into some exercise clothes and popped it in the dvd player. I decided that it would probably be best if I just watched it all the way through one time. You know, for research. Speaking of research, I really didn’t do any of it on this form of yoga beyond the fact that Rachel recommended it. I figured that I’d done my Yoga for Dummies
After about five minutes or so of watching it, I began to get a little worried that I may not actually love it. After about ten minutes, I began to wonder what in the world I was watching. Fifteen minutes into it I became very frightened. See for yourself. This is called “The Breath of Fire”:
This is just beyond strange. It seemed a little more like soft porn than an exercise dvd. Would I ever do this in front of another living soul (especially my husband or kids)? I mean is there anyone that is capable of doing this without cracking up? I even started to think that I might actually hurt myself doing this. Now we’ve got safety issues.
So, I will probably return the dvd (who am I kidding–it’ll sit on the shelf with the rest of the cast offs) and go back to the life I was meant to live. On the couch.
Damn you, McAdams, for tricking me into buying this wacky dvd. I hope you’re happy.
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