Make a Note.

To be honest, I don't always manage to personalise my gifts as fancily as I would like. Time is a constraint for all of us, right? So I have a little ritual that I follow every time I give gifts: I write notes. Sometimes small, sometimes letter-ish, but they do make my gifts rather special. What adds this touch is the matter that goes in the note: it's well thought out, it's well written, but mostly, it's genuine, always heartfelt, and that is what makes my gifts very cherished. Sometimes the note lasts beyond the gift, but even when it doesn't, the note makes sure that the gift is remembered for a while.

So what do these notes contain? The usual stuff, generally written spontaneously in a moment of fondness. However, I do have some markers that help me write it.

• I write about why I bought the person the gift: I explain why the perfume smell reminded me of her, and why the wallet seemed perfect for him, or why I thought she would enjoy this absurd looking game. It makes a statement that says that I did not buy your gift in bulk, I did not just pick it up, but I put thought in it.
• I pay a genuine compliment, something to the effect of why that person is special/important to me, and what I  admire in that person. I give this enough thought and often find something new and interesting to say. It doesn’t have to be profound, just sincere. And I tweak this and make it a part of the reason why I gifted that gift. "The freshness of the perfume reminded me of the cheer you bring to my life everyday", kind of thing, though not always this cheesy.
• I try poetry. It's not always amazing publishable poetry, but it adds a little cute factor, and reflects the effort I put into the gift. And even bad poetry always brings in a smile, which is the desired outcome anyway?
• I use good stationery, because I like collecting great looking stationery. If I don’t have it, I try decorating it. Sometimes though, just small post-its suffice, given that it's hand written. Always hand written.

It is not as systematic as this makes it seem. But it is this thoughtful, and that's what makes my gift stand apart. Also, it allows me to give gifts throughout the year and thus reduces the pressure to gift on birthdays. More on that later.

Till then, happy note-making :)

Cheers!

Just Pass on the Wisdom.

My personal vote for the best, and the one I have worked the hardest for.

I like to call it the Wisdom box. Or the problem solver. Whichever one makes more sense.

So, I had left home by the time my sister approached her teenage, yet I wanted to be there while watching her grow. Mainly because I had assumed that it was my responsibility to pass on the "wisdom" I had received from my parents and life while I was growing up, so she could go out there and make better mistakes. Which is why, since the time she had started reading, I used to write to her telling her about my life then, about my friends, my art, my work (or lack of it), everything that I could remember and thought was important. (Here you must know that there is an almost 7 year gap between the two of us, so she could not remember much of my life).

However, as she approached teenage, she needed more than that. There would be important decisions to make, and some important changes she has to wrap her head around. Moreover, given that my sister was very introverted, and would never share her worries, I needed her to have something to help her that instant.

So I made her the problem solver kit. It contains small notes of the common quotes used by my parents, starting from "I told you so" to more profound stuff, and some other stuff that I found useful while growing up. Each one of them is tied with a ribbon and put in a huge chocolate box (which I later painted). It comes with a  set of instructions that tells her to just pick a chit when she is in doubt and she will have an answer. As and when I learnt new things, I added it to the list with a ribbon, sometimes with her knowing, sometimes not.

The secret is that most of these aphorisms are very general, and make sense in most situations. Sometimes she has needed more than one chit. In that sense, this is not fool-proof. But it has always served as a reminder that there is wisdom in every problem, and every mistake overcome. It still rests by her bedside, and I feel proud knowing that she uses it sometimes, and that in that way, I have managed to be a part of her growing up. And it lasts forever,  because wisdom never grows old. :)

Make News with Love.

I guess this is one that I am very proud of. It takes a lot of work. But if there are a group of people helping you out, it cannot be that hard to finish.

So, this friend of mine is a writer, painter, singer, designer, cook…. Basically she is an incredibly creative person and extremely popular. While brainstorming ideas for what we can do for her, I wanted to make her something where we can creatively tell her how much difference she has made in all our lives. We wanted to shout it out to the world, so we decided to make a newsletter out of it, just not necessarily publicly spread.

In my years of gift making and receiving, I have learnt that when gifting people, they love to be spoken about, to get the attention, if it is genuine. The "genuine" is extremely important though. There is no use to saying good stuff if you don’t mean it, right? So give it a little thought, think of the things that this person means to you, of the memories you have shared, and what you genuinely appreciate about the person, how that person matters to you, and put it down just like that. It's an amazingly useful exercise to keep your relationships warm and fresh, and one of the reasons why I love gifting so much!

So anyway, with this kind of instructions, a bunch of us friends got together to create this newsletter. We wanted to include different aspects of magazines, newspapers, etc. and everyone volunteered to contribute something. We write articles, some general and some specific, we made crossword puzzles (there are websites which help you do it for free, just google a crossword maker), recipes to some of the dishes she made best, a fashion column, a free coupon to a café run by some of our friends, quotes, tips, you name it. We even had a page 3 with pictures of parties and captions!

We made this on Microsoft publisher with help from Adobe Photoshop, and voila! We printed it on A3 glossy sheets, and it looks rather good! This could also be done in a magazine format.

Another of the things we could have done was also print out copies of it and keep them in her birthday party, that way the activities like the crossword can also become interesting, and it adds a whole different flavour to the party!

Happy compiling! :)

Make the Candle-glow Say It.

This is one of my favourite (and commonly used) gifting ideas: it has the wonder of something new as well as has a personal touch.

 

Get a candle in a tin/glass in a relatively simple shape. Decorate it with a collage in one colour, many colours, with little things written on them. This could have a theme, or could just be random. I have used quotes, nicknames, commonly used words, what that person means to me, songs we both liked, etc. It could be anything. I fill the spaces using small cut-outs of things that mean something commonly to both of us, and fill the space.

This can also be done with perfumes, cups, glasses, notebook covers, etc.

The fun part is that you can personalise it as you wish, experiment with colours, textures, messages, blank spaces, or just small cut outs of something common to you two. :)