Five Gift Ideas You Might Need One Day

Every year around this time, I come up with a few new ideas for gift giving that I think are so lovely and worth sharing. But then I stop myself because it feels so overwhelming to throw yet another idea your way. “I’ll do it next year” I say to myself, which is also going to be the title of my memoir. Narrator: she will never remember.

If this year has taught us anything (I also realize I have said this many times this year for many different things but we can learn more than one thing, friends, we just can) it is that Right Now is a much better time than Next Year. 

So here I go, offering a few various gift ideas that bring me joy. Maybe they will bring joy to you too. Or maybe you will pin them alongside all those other things you pinned and never did. Or maybe you will remember this next year just at the right time that you need them. Or maybe me sharing an idea will allow you to think of your own idea. Inspiration is contagious like that. 

The gift for your friend group

I purchased myself a beautiful piece of printable artwork as a teacher gift this year on Black Friday (yes, I made buying your own teacher gift a thing.) I wanted a simple way to hang it and stumbled upon these very simple, VERY affordable poster hangers for $6. Yes $6! The whole thing was so lovely and easy to pull together I decided it needed to be shared. The frames also work great for kids artwork, particularly for those grandparents who think anything your children do is a masterpiece. They click together with magnets making it easy to switch out as needed. You could continue to add a new print to the collection each year, or maybe even gift seasonal prints for them to rotate. The options are endless here. There are some beautiful pieces of art to be found on the internet and an easy way to support small businesses. I think this would make a wonderful gift for your girlfriends, your book club, your parents, or yourself, for that matter. 

Here is a list of businesses I love or others recommended to me to find great prints. Some do digital downloads while others mail their prints. If you have a favorite business, will you share it with me? I would love to continue to add to this list.

Lou Lou Art Studio / Sag Moon Paper Co / Zoe Prose / Studio Paper Stories / Flying Edna / Little Truths Studio / With One Line / Emma Make Studio / The Paira Birds / Brooklyn Swenson / Jenn Pens it All / Meg Farr Design / Hillary Mueller Art / This entire post by Elise Joy Blaha is a gold mine of printables

The gift for the new homeowner

Speaking of art, I came up with a great way to create art for free on our phone. There is an app I use called Waterlogue. It takes any photo and makes it look like a watercolor print. I did this from a photo of our cabin in Colorado, and a giant size hangs in our living room. But I also printed smaller versions for family members. What I found last year was this works great with a photograph of someone’s home. There are many artists who will create a painting of your home, and they are gorgeous. But I was surprised by how lovely the photos looked when I put them into the waterlogue app. I found photos of my friend’s home on the internet (hello stalker!) and ran them through the app. It makes for a great gift, especially for someone just moving into a new home. This year of all years we have grown more attached to our homes than ever before. What better way to honor them than with a piece of (free) art. Add the poster hanger from above and you are set!

The gift for the Grandparents

(Spoiler Alert: if you are one of the grandparents in my family, SKIP AHEAD!)

I am always in search of a great gift for the Grandparents that I haven’t already done or that isn’t too cheesy. This idea came from my friend Karen when I sent out a request for ideas. See how inspiration can strike when you share?

Seeing as we are distant from our families for a bit longer this year, we wanted more ideas to make Zoom conversions special. This year for Christmas, each grandparent will receive a book picked out by the kids to read to them. From the big kids we found a couple of fun books involving grandparents, Grandpa’s Great Escape and A Long Way from Chicago, as well as favorites like Nancy Drew and the new Stories from Wayside School. From Leo, we are sending this collection of Elephant and Piggie books along with this new edition to the “How to” series for kids we love called How to Read to A Grandparent. I’m not at all sure how he will do but he does love books so I am hoping we have a little success.

In addition to the books, we included photo bookmarks of the kids, because there are never enough pictures of the grandchildren.

The gift for the kids who don’t need any more stuff

Two years ago when looking for a “Big gift” for the kids, I was feeling overwhelmed by “stuff.” What I knew we really wanted was more quality time. But how do you wrap that up for a 3 year old and 6 year old? Balloons!

I wrote down on small slips of paper 20 different ideas for fun things we could do as a family, most of which I knew we would be doing anyway. Then I rolled up the paper, stuck it into a balloon and blew up the balloons. When the kids opened the present, first they opened calendars for each of them, which was supposed to be the simple gift but that ended up being a very exciting joy. Then we had them close their eyes and dumped the giant collection of balloons on top of them. Oh the joy! We had a great time popping each balloon and reading about all the fun ideas we could do together this year. Confession time: we didn’t do everything. But that wasn’t the point. The exciting part was dreaming up all the ways time together is a gift. It is cheesy, but they loved it. 

The gift for the kids that go through paper faster than toilet paper

This was the year for many things, or very little depending on how you look at it, but one I will remember is the year my kids became passionate about drawing. We have gone through more paper and markers than I care to count. And while I am sick of picking up all of it, I am not sick of the creativity that comes from it. 

A friend of mine, Alicia, also has a passionate artist in her house and she created a great activity to spark his creativity. It’s called the “Bowl Game” inspired by Adrienne Hedger, although I have also seen it done by Carson Ellis. She made a list of adjectives, nouns, and actions, cut them out, placed each category in a bowl, and then pulls one paper from each bowl to create an idea for drawing. For instance, “confused stink bug ice skating” or “bright pencil sneezing continuously.” I plan on wrapping this up with some paper and new markers or pencils (things we need anyway) as a gift that sparks creativity, with little to no cost to me. I think they will love it and I can’t wait to see their creations. I might have to get in on this too!

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I hope this list brings some inspiration and joy to you this year, or the next! If you love getting a regular dose of inspiration and joy, be sure to sign up for my Raise & Shine Letter. It comes out mid month-ish, which means the next one should be coming to your inbox soon-ish (ish is my favorite marker of time) so don’t wait!