For the parents

I've been such a debbie downer lately I thought I should talk about something just about everyone gets excited about, gifts.

More specifically parents gifts (okay so no one gets really excited about having to choose those).

We've all got really hard parents to buy for, so I used my powers of turning hobbies and interests into keywords and then let etsy.com do all the work.

My mother was the only one I didn't get anything from etsy from and alas hers is already wrapped so no pictures. But just think of a simple gold locket with some flowers on the front. That's the gist of it.

For my Mother in Law, I at first wanted to get her a locket too thinking it was a pretty simple and safe jewelry hunt. Well in doing that I came across this charm bracelet from Mermaid Treasures.

Not only is she really big into the Renaissance, red is also her favorite color. So after my fiance thought and thought (he's a bit of a double or triple over thinker) he decided that yes she would wear it and we snapped it up.

I already talked about my Dad's and his really cool lab watercolor but I love seeing puppies so here it is again.

The last one, my father in law, we just got done this weekend. He's kinda like my Dad (and most guys) doesn't really have anything he wants (or if he does buys it himself) doesn't have anything he collects or any hobbies.

Well except for one. He's really big into collecting license plates. They have a huge wall of them downstairs. So I in a random mood typed in Michigan State (his alma matter) and while I didn't find anything green and white I cared for I did come across this (well not exactly this, I don't have a picture of the Michigan one).

It's a license plate that's turned into a simple photo album from Tagliatela. It's weird seeing a testosterone filled photo albume. So he can keep some simple wedding photos in a bicentennical Michigan plate.

I know these gifts won't help anyone else as they are just too specific and geared towards one audience (I don't really get the license plate thing myself) but I hope I have at least encouraged some of you to look past the whole personalized frame from a wedding store or just using etsy for jewelry.

It's bloody amazing the stuff they have there.

For any dog lovers out there

Okay if you haven't figured it out by now my screen name means black lab lover (and then there's a 5 on it for various different reasons. I make up a new one every time someone asks) so that means I love black labs.

So does my Dad (he runs our two spoiled brats in hunt tests and field trials, these are the things you see on ESPN 9 at 4 in the morning where the dog is sitting and then has to run off and follow hand signals to pick up a bird).

In looking for a possible parent gift I found these gorgeous water color pictures by DJ Rogers. Labs seem to be hard to do, people almost never get the head right much less the eyes but these are just perfect.

This is my Dad's that we got framed, but I fell in love so much I just had to get one for myself as well.I'm even looking at a few more for my new office. He does a whole host of dog breed pictures so if you are looking for a wedding present (or even an early Christmas gift) for a dog lover give this site a look.

Free gifts for all

Okay, if you are in anyway affiliated with me or the wedding party that we are trying to arrange, step back now.

Further.



Further.


Don't make me pull out medusa. She hasn't had much to do lately.


I mean it Stinky and freshman.


Okay, they'll at least feel a little bad now if they're peeking.

First off for my sexy taller flower girl (there is still just something funny about a flower girl that can legally drink).This was my second find from etsy.com.(my first was my necklace) They aren't really earrings meant for the day of wedding (though freshman can pull off anything no matter how weird it is) but she absolutely adores pink and black and these just screamed her as soon as I saw them.

Hopefully she can rock these whenever she gets an opportunity.
So she can be a super cute flower girl I also got her a tiara. I won't be wearing one but I thought it'd be really cool if both of the flower girls had their own tiaras so they can be beautiful. (If you can't tell by now Freshman is my accessories friend, who is also going to be doing my hair for the wedding).

My Matron of Honor and best friend Stinky is a whole nother kettle of fish. She barely wears any jewelry, doesn't do well with random crap (so no flasks or that other stuff everyone always gets a bridesmaid) so I thought outside the box a bit for her.She has a 3 and a half year old son (who is also one of our ring bearers) and all of her pictures of him are online. I remember when I was younger loving to flip through scrapbooks and picture books to find pictures of me when I was a baby.

So I collected a bunch of stickers, some cardstock and a lot of rubber cement to make her a scrapbook of her son.It's just amazing to flip through and watch the little-man grow up. I remember when he was just a few weeks old hearing him sneeze for the first time and realize it was just like his mom's.
For my other bridesmaid (fiance's sister) we've been hunting around for a spanish wine. She's really gotten into wine tasting recently and spent some time in Spain (for school). I don't really want to buy it yet for fear that we could have a big mess on our hands. Let's just say the wedding table is not all that stable.

Like the kids, for the girls I got them each something a bit different from the norm. None of my friends are the same so I never could have pulled off the "tote with cool things in it." But I hope that they'll all enjoy it. If not we can always get them real quick some Thomas bubbles too.

The official flower girl/ring bearer set

This is gonna be my first in a threeish day series on gifts for other people. First off I thought I'd start with the fun ones, the kids. (If any of the kids in my wedding are looking right now you better turn away. Or at least not be able to read yet).

I am not real big into the various gifts and keepsakes that wedding sites will advertise as the best things to get your flower girl or ring bearer (who wants a book on how to be a flower girl?). Instead I'd rather get them all toys. Who doesn't love toys? And it'll give them something to play with the day of as well.

The tall flower girl I'll show off tomorrow (as she can read and I want to give even more warnings and rent cerberus for the day to keep her away). For the short flower girl we looked high and low to get some ideas.Then we saw this play phone set. If she's anything like her mother she'll be addicted to the phone. And as sad as it is Disney by far had the best option. All the princess have a few different sayings (though all done by the same voice actor so it's kinda weird), and you can call them from the phone as well as leave a recorded message.

I just picture her the day of the wedding running around with a little phone in her hand (hopefully she won't smack her brother with it).To help her feel more like a little princess (or at least enjoy the dress up aspect) I got her a little hair comb. She doesn't have a really poufy dress but this will give her a little sparkle so she'll get to play dress up.

In the end her gift cost about $25. So for the price of a frame and a t-shirt she can wear once, I got her a toy she can play with til it gets broken or thrown into a puddle and some jewelry.

The boys were much easier (if you can't tell, I love looking at toys, they are so much fun to play with and figure out the good and the boring ones). They are about the same age range (one is gonna be 4 the other 3) and they both love trains. (For christmas I got my MOH's boy a thomas train set that had to be assembled and he watched it for hours as it went around and around, even jumping up and getting super excited when it dumped some coal).The first thing I found was a really cool engine (either Thomas or Percy) that has a switch on the back if you flip it to one side when you push the train it makes train noises and if you go faster the noises speed up, the other side plays the Thomas theme song (sure to drive mom nuts).

For an addition we also found some Thomas bubbles. Both of these kids love blowing bubbles (to the point where I was once covered in soap helping one of them) and the engine is actually shaped like a train whistle. Plus if we suddenly decide we want some bubbles, we'll have two toddlers that can help.

These two cool present cost about $18 total for each kid (actually got them on a 50% off toy sale) and as we realized later are actually our wedding colors. So even buying them at full price it's a bit less than an official ring bearer duffle bag, wallet, and frame set.

I just don't see the point of gifts that they can realistically use one day. Instead we went and got them some toys they can play with for a few years (assuming not put in the wood chipper of course) or at least it'll keep them distracted the day of. And the adults can play with them a bit too.