Monday Minute: Gift Ideas

It seems like there is a lot to celebrate this summer and not just the usual weddings and baby showers. My bank account has taken a hit this year with so many gifts - graduations, retirements, 1st birthdays, thank yous - you name it, I probably bought a gift. I highlighted here for today's Monday Minute, gift ideas for retirement and graduation.

The director at the library retired and her retirement party was on Friday. I had never been to a retirement party and thanks to some help from Pinterest, I found a creative gift idea that I modified a bit. And of course I didn't take any pictures, so this really is a brief glimpse at that gift idea. It was a retirement bucket list, so I basically just bought different items for activities you could do in retirement and put notes on them. Some examples were an adult coloring book, a movie and a travel magazine.

(Photo Credit: Pinterest)

Then Dennis and I both had cousins graduate. I love graduation gifts and a few years ago I found this great idea on Pinterest that I've now done four or five times. It's so simple too. You just get a plastic container and fill it with lots of small things that students need in college - office supplies, gift cards, food, etc. It can be done on any budget too by the size of the container and the amount of items you put in. It works great for guys and girls too!

(Picture Credit: Pinterest)

Those are just two gift ideas. Maybe you'll find one works for your next occasion!

Gift Ideas: Anniversary

Do you celebrate anniversaries with gifts? My answer of course is that every special occasion should be celebrated with gifts but of course that's just me. I love to give gifts!

Dennis and I have only been married a little more than two years, so my anniversary gift ideas today will focus on my own personal experience - 1st and 2nd anniversaries. I would like to follow those traditional charts of anniversary gifts but that isn't always the case.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

(Image from Pinterest.)

So for a 1st anniversary, the traditional gift is paper. Last year, I ordered Dennis a small picture canvas of a wedding photo and the lyrics to our song on top of the picture. It's kind of hard to describe but I included a picture below. These are affordable gifts for any occasion because they are always on Groupon or Living Social. The picture is really simple to make as well, I just used PowerPoint.

Then I made one of those great Year in Reviews that are always popping up on Facebook. I included places we visited, restaurants we liked, etc. Then I decided to make it into a scrapbook with pictures, so that I could make a page each year.

Finally, I got 12 brown paper bags (lunch size) and put a date of a special event within our first year on the front of the bag. Inside I put a gift that represented that event. For instance, we went to some Pirate games, so I put a Pirate gift card inside. Then I had 12 gifts. Some could be very simple and cost-friendly, and others like the gift card may cost more.

This year, the traditional gift was cotton. This was a little harder. I did a lot of Pinterest searching of course. I ended up doing six different gifts that spelled out cotton and had a Post-It on each one. I also made the scrapbook page to add to the gift from the year before. So, cotton ended up being:

C: Candle (cotton smelling)

O: One pair of tickets to see Spectre

T: Toilet Paper

T: Tennis Shoes

O: One Blockbuster hit - San Andreas

N: New sheets

Well, those are two years of anniversary gifts and some ideas that could be applied tho more then the 1st and 2nd anniversaries.

Until next time, Happy Gifting!