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| Forums > Gifts From the Heart |
By Robbie Motter
On 09/07/07
At 12:11:05
Posts: 0
Threads: 4
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Robbie shares gift ideas
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Whether we like it or not the Holidays will soon be here and many of you who are so organized you are already doing your Holiday Shopping. .One person I talked to is already done. Many times with all this shopping we end up spending more than our budget allows and then we stress out when the bills come in. I am not a shopper, however I love gifts from the heart and love to give those gifts to others. The gifts are always well received and the end result is that I am not in the hole when the holiday season is over. Also the person getting the gift ends up keeping it for years because it is a heart gift, unless it is homemade food and then they usually eat it right way.
How about doing something different this year and give ?Gifts from the Heart. In talking with many women they all say they love these types of gifts because they know someone took time to put them together. It is not the cost of a gift but the thought that someone cared to remember you and your family that?s important.
Are you a poet, a painter or creative person? There are so many wonderful things that can be created in so many areas. I love poetry and I still have a poem someone wrote for me when I worked in New York. They gave it to me when I moved to take a high level position in Washington, DC. The poem is called ?Leaving? and she burnt the edges of the paper and framed it and I remember crying when she gave it to me as it was so beautiful. That poem has moved with me to DC and to CA and still hangs on my wall to this day/ Every time I look at it I think of that special person who in the early 80?s was a member of my staff.
I remember one year my daughter Lisa and her husband were in Boston as he was at the Kennedy School, so their money was tight. She went to a place and made and painted me a beautiful handmade vase. It was such a wonderful gift that every time I look at it I know how much time and love she put into it and I cherish it. She had never made a vase before and she started with nothing and the end result was this beautiful vase. That same year she also found beautiful cards with photos and framed them as gifts for others and everyone receiving them to this day still has those pictures hanging and this happened over 10 years ago. Also every year I get a wonderful gift from my hairdresser. She uses a canning jar and puts a wonderful mixture for hot chocolate with miniature marshmallows with a beautiful poem. It is so delicious that each year I wait to get another years supply. Another person bakes me a tin of cookies. I don?t bake so I totally enjoy that gift and as I eat the cookies I think of the time and love that the person giving me the gift took to create it.
Here are some ideas and stories that I received from many of my For You/NAFE members who are all Professional very busy women . There gifts are treasured every day.
Bertha Wallace a Moreno Valley, CA ?I am from a small country area near the panhandle of Texas and holidays were always filled with "gifts from the heart" due to lack of money. That has been maintained throughout my adult life even though I can afford to purchase gifts now. But I want to tell you about the greatest gift that I have received. It was a couple years ago at Christmas time and two of my granddaughters, ages 14 and 12 came to my home and asked if they could go through my old photos as they were doing something for their mom. Well, imagine my surprise when on Christmas Day I opened their gift and found a homemade scrapbook filled with photos and writings from them. It was truly from their heart and the most precious thing they could have given me?.
Shirley Kerr a Riverside CA,, ?Being the creative type, I love to make things. I have always made gifts and very personalized cards. When our children were young we always made our holiday gifts. During the summer it gave us something to do on those long, hot summer days and Brian and Jeanine beamed with pride when people opened their gifts.
I have carried that to our grandchildren. When we get together, before Thanksgiving, we spend one day making ornaments with their picture in them for all the aunts, uncles and cousins. Even those thousands of miles away receive one before the holidays. It's a great way for cousins to keep in touch. Everyone enjoys putting up the ornaments each year and remarking on how much the children have grown.
I have a number of gifts I have cherished over the years that are home made. One of my favorite and most used is a can, my godchild Stephanie, made for me. It is in my bathroom and used everyday. I've had to glue the bow on more than once, but I have had it over 20 years.
When I have Thanksgiving meal, at our home, while the men are watching football, the women and children create a Christmas craft. Even those who say they aren't artistic do a very good job. Naturally I have all the materials ready and all they have to do is put them together. One year a sister in law who said she "can't make anything, like Shirley" had so much fun she went home and make the craft for everyone in her family?.
Erika Kaufmann, Glendale, CA ?You are right, gifts from the heart. I LOVE giving gifts and buy things all year long when I see something that somebody I know might like. It is like some gift calls out to me, saying buy me, so-and-so is going to love it. So I have a large closet with only gifts for people, and when I need a gift I often have it at home. Recently I started making little photo albums (with as much work I as have to do, I don?t know how I do it but sometimes late at night when you unwind, it's nice to do something with your hands.) The little albums are so unique, everybody loves them. I just discovered them and have made a few since, I have made many homemade gift, like, jams, liquors, breads, cookies, etc. and other things from the kitchen, pet clothes, baby clothes, hand painted pictures, photography, etc?.
Lee Crowe, Sun City, CA ?I LOVE gifts from the heart and my most cherished gift was from my Grandmother - it is a hand crocheted bed spread and shams to match, PLUS the embroidered pillow cases and of course ALL of the crocheted doilies that adorn our home. She taught me that gifts from the heart are to be cherished for a life time, that is why I always try to give at least one item a year to my family - I cross stitch, and for the girls make dresses, and when my daughters were in high school I did all of their ball gowns and now do so for granddaughters?.
Gina Haber, Pasadena, CA ?My hobby is astrology. I have been studying and applying this field of knowledge for nearly 45 years, not so much since I began acupuncture school 10 years ago. Chinese medicine is a full-time study (and more!). However, I do have a little computer program that I delight in producing astrology charts and reports for friends as gifts. Occasionally, people purchase these reports as gifts for their friends. It makes a very personal and unique sort of gift for any occasion. The reports can be personality traits, yearly horoscopes, or compatibility charts for friends or love?
Laura Jorge, Los Angeles, "I love to work with my hands. When I was a kid and up to when I moved to the States, I used to do a lot of cross stitch embroidery as well as tapestries. I also used to do lace crochet table cloths and bedspreads and afghans. Every year I would to something for my mother, father and sister for the holidays. My mom used to do the same. My dad would always have a woodcarving piece for each of us or a painting. This was tradition in our family, we would make a special item for one another and then we would buy the practical unfeeling stuff that we needed. When I moved to the States I continued the tradition; I still made special items for my family, but now I also included my friends. Instead of making embroidered doilies, table mats, etc, I turned to ceramics and jewelry making. So to this day I never buy gifts for my friends or family, I make them specifically for each particular person; so the gifts are individually meant for a specific person and therefore unique and they carry all the love that is in my heart." Laura makes beautiful heart shaped ceramics and angels as well as beautiful quality jewelry that she specially crafts for the individual and her prices are terrific and the items are one of a kind and beautiful. lofjorge@yahoo.com
Sher Denton, San Diego Paints silk scarves to meet the needs of individuals and one year painted one esp. for a girlfriend who does accupuncture and body massage. She traced both of her hands open on the scarf and painted the scarf purple and made the hands gold with energy coming out from the fingers in gold lines. It turned out beautiful and the person loved the gift, She can create scarfs
sherdenton@hotmail.com
Ruth Woods, Lake Arrowhead, CA makes beautiful wire jewelry with great designs and stones stones rwoods91@aol.com
Darlene Shick, Laguna Niguel, CA also creates beautiful handcrafted gemstone jewelry and her real business is that of a CPA, but making these beautiful pieces for others is her passion. www.shickjewels.com
Jeri Trump Moreno Valley specializes in hand-made one of a kind shoulder bags, handbags, purses, book bags, etc. made from your jeans or hers, all 100 % washable wolfbewitched@yahoo.com
Tracey Downey, Laguna Niguel, CA makes fabulous chocolate that can be shipped around the world; her chocolate is to die for www.mychocolatefix.com
Natasha Flowers, San Bernardino, CA owner of Apron Explosion, her Aprons are unique and very inexpensive and make wonderful gifts www.apronexplosion.com
Gift certificates are big things these days, what about a gift certificate to someone to have an ad in this wonderful Sorority Factor magazine, or give a gift of knowledge as books or seminar gift certificates are great. June Davidson of Pasadena, CA has some great e-books that have been written by some great authors and they are very affordable and packed with great knowledge www.asla.com
Fran Boytos from Upland CA who loves people to Spa with her says ?I love to give the gift of sharing the time and techniques for spa pampering and hearing how it brightens someone?s day to be able to repeat the treat on their own, at home, in the parking lot, or before a big meeting, ahhhhh. It?s a personal spahhhhhh. .www.beautipage.com/franniebbc
Amy Frost Las Vegas NV says ?We should all live with heart, living with heart comes in two parts: First you need to live in your heart in YOUR life, then, you can take actions externally that are heart driven. You can tell you are living with heart when you act and feel joyful or peaceful with no expectations of what happens in reaction to what you do.? Amy@amyfrost.com
Melinda Fouches, Temecula, CA. The best ?gift from the heart? anyone ever gave me, was a whole day off of mothering. As a young single mom, I didn?t have the luxury of hiring babysitters, it just didn?t fit into the budget, ever. My 12 year old son filled in when I had classes in the evening, and the kids went to daycare during the week, but there was never, ever a day or evening off on the weekends. One weekend, my girlfriend gave me a whole weekend off. She called and said, for your birthday, I want you to bring me all your kids on Sat. morning and leave them until Sunday afternoon when you come here for a dinner we will all prepare for your birthday dinner. WOW, it was amazing and I never forgot it. Best gift I have ever had. Thanks Therese, Anna and Ethan?melinda@foucheinstitute.com
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