The Gift Detective » Birthday

Forgetful Gentleman: Classy Cards for Your Gent

The Gift Detective — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:09:38 +0000

The gentlemen, Brett and Nate, of Forgetful Gentleman know what it is like to be a busy man in these modern times, yet they also realize that in order to qualify as a “gentleman” that they must meet certain standards – like remembering to wish their mother a happy birthday, thank their friend for all those things friends do, convey their love to that special someone…because real gentlemen say, “Thank you.” and “I love you!” – and not just with an e-mail or, worse, a text message (no, sending “happy birthday 2U!” is not cool) but with a handwritten and personal note.

Elephant Cards: Classic Linen Line, $30

The handsome set above is an example of one of their products, Elephant Cards in Classic Linen, and includes:

* 12 cards and envelopes (3 Thank You, 3 Happy Birthday, 2 Thinking of You, 2 Blank, 1 Congratulations and 1 I Love You)
* Access to an online, customizable reminder system – so they won’t forget to send out that card!
* 4 envelopes with postage included, which eliminates one of the hurdles to actually getting the card in the mail.
* “A Guide to Being an Articulate Gentleman” – making this a very complete set!

There are other items in their shop like their Little Blue Book ($12), Elephant Cards: Letterpress Line ($75), Personalized Letterpress Correspondence Cards (starting at $100) and Refill Sets ($15-$35).

As you can see, these cards are refined and the sets they provide are complete to make your recipient’s life richer for being able to communicate his thoughts and easier for having all he needs to do so at his fingertips.

And these gents have heart. If you give one (or more!) of the men in your life a gift from their product line, your purchase will help support the efforts of Career Gear, a non-profit that assists disadvantaged men who are actively seeking employment actually get, retain and advance their careers with things like providing them with appropriate attire, peer support and other valuable resources on order to help them achieve and maintain self-sufficiency in the working world. Yes, these are gifts that give more!

These cards nurture a relationship with someone you care about as well as the environment – the paper is 100% cotton, made from recovered fibers and the ink is soy based. Read more about their social, environmental and local commitments.

I can see these products being wonderful for many men – the recent graduate, a bar mitzvah gift, a gift from parents to their son – either as a coming of age present to help them be the gentleman you know they can and will be, or as a present to commend them for being an extraordinary gentleman. These are classy cards with a purpose!

If you are the woman in his life and you are giving him this present for Valentine’s Day, birthday, congratulations or other occasion – my one tip: don’t make this a “hint” of any sort. Give this to him because it will be useful, not to remind him of his faults (because that isn’t really in the spirit of gift giving, is it?). In my experience men tend to love useful things, and these really will come in handy when he wants to stand out from the crowd by sending written correspondence.

This would also make a great gift from one gentlemen to another! If you are a man and this is something that you would love, why not give this to someone in your life? Friend, son, partner, father…sharing something so tasteful will be a much appreciated gift for the right man.

Want to make this gift even more personalized? Consider getting your recipient a fine writing instrument or an embosser to accompany this gift.

All photos courtesy of Forgetful Gentleman, by James Exley.

What gentleman do you think of when you see this gift idea? Let me know by leaving a comment on this post!

Happy gifting!

Sleuthing Sunday: Last Minute Birthday Gift

The Gift Detective — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:01:42 +0000

The following is a true story…

It was late. Really late. After trekking through the new fallen snow and working a very long day, I was ready to relax. Somehow, I managed to work through dinner so I decided to oblige my snarling stomach and padded into the kitchen to pour a bowl of cereal, Isabelle at my heels checking to see if I put a tasty treat in her bowl.

I sat down on the couch and tucked my feet under me. Time to get comfy for a little Hulu watching. Ah, a new episode of Lie to Me. Perfect! I waited for the buffer to fill while I poured some milk on my “dinner”.

Because it was the holiday season with mere days to go until Christmas and Kwanzaa, I checked my e-mail one last time before settling back to enjoy my show. Phew! No new messages.

I pressed play and sat back with my cereal bowl to enjoy the show. Before the credits even began to roll, I heard the chime. A tad reluctantly, I paused the show. It had been a long day after all, but I love what I do so I decided to answer. A request for a present that needs to arrive by Wednesday…and it’s Sunday. Well, technically it’s already Monday. The good news, it’s an Amazon Prime customer – that will save us a bit of headache.

So, on to the detecting phase. I start off with some questions. Who is the gift for? What is the occasion? I learn that the recipient is a longtime friend and employee and it is her birthday. Ouch. A birthday a couple of days before Christmas? This is an important gift! It is hard for anybody to feel forgotten at their birthday, let alone for someone who has undoubtedly received a few too many “combo gifts” – no wonder my client was worried about nearly forgetting her birthday!

I began getting into more detailed questions and I started taking mental notes as I come across each clue – she seems to have a fun side, loves to entertain in her new home, though he just got her a housewarming gift specifically geared toward entertaining already. I immediately cross that off my list. No need to be repetitive!

“What colors did you see in her home?” I ask. “Did she paint the rooms herself or were they already those colors when she purchased the house?” Okay, now I have evidence of some of her favorite colors. Off to a good start.

Through a series of brief but pointed questions, I learn that she loves photography and she lights candles every evening. Oh, and she has a cat she adores that is pretty high ~~strung~~, er, energy.

Knowing that I have to perform quickly I promise to get back to him within 20 minutes. Ten minutes later, I e-mail him a list of urls with a brief note letting him know I will call him to discuss the details.

I go over my suggestions with him, one-by-one. I warm up with the subject of candles. Clearly she likes them so I explain it is safe gift…but maybe a little too safe. He definitely likes a few of the options that I sent, and we even talk about the newest craze, candle warmers, but it doesn’t feel like the right gift to either of us, so I move on.

She has a creative side and a new home that she has already been stenciling so I included a book I’ve seen mentioned a number of times. “Nope, I think she done with decorating!” is his emphatic reply.

Now I move on to one of the two ideas that I think are the winners – she loves photography, but he didn’t notice that she had a way to print her own photos, besides a regular printer. She loves to take pictures of her nephew and at social events, of her friends when they visit her…not a serious photographer but one who enjoys making memories. “How about this photo printer?” I can hear the delight in his voice when he says he loves the idea and I know we’ve found the perfect gift. This is the part I love! Solving the mystery.

Just to be thorough, I mention a few other ideas that I had, a neat camera that is pretty beloved to many (which was my runner-up bet) and some fun 3D photography items but he has already made up his mind – the photo printer it was! I suspected as much and I smiled to myself. Now time to add a little extra something to her package – I suggested a gift for her cat as well, mentioning that I included a few suggestions in my e-mail, the last being the best bet, in my opinion. (hopefully the cat agrees!)

He’s a frequent Amazon shopper so he needs little help with the check-out process, but I stay on the line with him anyway. I make sure he’s sending it to her new home instead of her previous address and remind him to check the option for adding gift wrap and a personal note. Since he contacted me about thirty minutes ago, he’s gone from stressed out to confident that, with a little guidance, he has picked out the perfect present. Instead of feeling frazzled he is now excited to be giving her something that he is sure she is going to love. Now that he is relaxed, he has no problem writing her a lovely note, explaining why he thought she would love the photo printer, writing a brief story about how he loves one of the photographs she’s sent him. As he read me the note, I was really touched by why he chose the photo printer because, although I followed the evidence to be able to make some suggestions, he was the witness that told me what clues I (we) were looking for and came to me with the desire to give, not just a present but of himself.

Nearly done he adds the cat toy to his cart as well and balks when I remind him to add the gift wrap for that item as well. He insists that the cat doesn’t need the present wrapped so why spend the $4 to wrap a $6 present? Because it is a present, and she will be opening it, never mind it is a present for the cat. He is adding the cat toy because she loves her cat, and so they present for her cat will still be a present to her. The wrapping will make her feel remembered instead of feeling like her birthday is an afterthought.

I ended the call satisfied that she had gotten a nice gift. Because he was stressed out to begin with, he might have accidentally picked a token “I didn’t quite forget your birthday” gift. Instead, he was sending her a thoughtful, “I thought about what you liked and wanted to show you that I appreciate you, your friendship and all of your hard work!” gift.

After I hung up the phone, I made a note on my calendar so that I could offer my services next year and, at the very least remind him of the upcoming date. I wrote up some notes for my files and since I already had my creative juices flowing decided to save a few ideas that, if we had more time to work with, may be good options for other occasions.

It was too late to go back to my show so I wrote up my notes instead and, satisfied that I had helped find the perfect present, I hit ‘save’ and closed my computer.

Case closed!

Here are the actual suggestions I sent my client:

OIL WARMER WITH 6 TEALIGHTS AND 6 ASSORTED OILS VOT-008

Bath & Body Works White Barn Everything Apple Home Fragrance Gift Set including Perfect Autumn Apple, Alluring Apple, Applemint, and True Temptations Warm Apple Pie Scents, PLUS an Oil Warmer!

Biedermann & Sons Glass Mosaic Vase-Shaped Candleholder and Oil Warmer, Mirrored

Stencil 101: Make Your Mark with 25 Reusable Stencils and Step-by-Step Instructions

The winner! Canon Selphy CP780 Silver Compact Photo Printer Under $75

Lomography Diana Mini- 35mm Camera

Mission 3D

KONG Squirrel Catnip Toy, Cat Toy, Brown

FroliCat BOLT Automatic Laser Toy for Cats

Sm. Talking Babble

KONG Daddy Pompom Legs Catnip Toy, Cat Toy, Brown/Black

KONG Kickeroo Pattern #3 Catnip Cat Toy, Tiger

And the second winner! Play-N-Squeak Ball of the Wild

Do you have an upcoming holiday or occasion you need some help with? If you fill out a Sleuthing Sunday request form you might get free help from me!

Happy gifting!

“Suprise!” Birthday Parties

The Gift Detective — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:00:45 +0000

Today I had a surprise birthday party for my boyfriend and I think he had a pretty wonderful time. His birthday was actually last weekend, but he was in a more reflective mood than a celebratory mood and, although I really wanted to celebrate his life and show him how happy I was that he was born, I also wanted to respect his need for a quieter birthday.

We had family and friends over and it was a low-key affair. We celebrated outside on a roof deck and the day was perfect!!! I had help decorating with birthday garland, “Happy Birthday” banners, balloons, festive colored table cloths, table cloth weights, pretty napkins, etc. His brother helped in a huge way by getting him out of the house and occupying him until everyone arrived and we were all set up.

He was definitely surprised and we had a lot of fun! I think what may have been nicest was that he was surrounded by wonderful people.

Later this evening we went over to the park and played Frisbee and watched the dogs play, then we came home and ate leftovers, more cake and played games.

Below are the pics of the cake I made him. Pictures don’t quite do it justice, mainly because I am a terrible photographer, but it was a heart-shaped strawberry cake with (homemade!) strawberry buttercream frosting. I also put sliced strawberries on top – the fancy “fan” sliced kind. The pic on the top is pre-strawberries and the pic on the bottom is the final version, minus the candles.

I’m not sure whether he enjoyed his first birthday or this one better, and maybe in some ways he can’t even compare them because they were so different, but I loved being able to bring a lovely bunch of people together to show him how wonderful he is!

More City Love!

The Gift Detective — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:06:12 +0000

I wrote about Megan Nolton’s wonderful artistry previously, and now she has added Boston to her City Love collection! Check out her store and the complete description of the Boston Love print – you can’t help but love these.

Just because Valentine’s Day has passed, doesn’t mean that you can’t do something romantic on any of the 319 days left in this year. These prints make a wonderful gift for a wedding present, an anniversary present, a birthday present or a great gift for any time you want to show your special someone that you are thinking of them. It is really versatile – see my previous post for more ideas on how to give this gift or get creative with some of your own.

Don’t forget, my services are available for personalized help, just go to my home page and you can contact me from there.

Happy gifting!

Keeping it Secret

The Gift Detective — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:28:25 +0000

I was talking to a nice young woman today while I was out getting coffee with my dog and she started talking about her cousin, which then led to her telling me what gifts she had just gotten her. She didn’t know that gifts are my specialty or that she was soon going to be the subject of my blog. Here’s the deal – her cousin was sick and her birthday was also coming up. So, she gave her cousin a get-well present (a book from a series that she knows her cousin is really into). That is right on track. A+ gift giving! She got something she knew her cousin would love and for no other reason than to surprise her in hopes of making her feel better. Not only that but a book is a great present for someone who is sick and stuck in bed. Then, while she was giving her cousin the book, she tells her not to get the next one in the series because that is what she is getting for her birthday…WHAT?!? I have two problems with this gift giving gone wrong:

photo credit: jaytkendall
1. Don’t let the proverbial cat out of the bag. Shhh! It’s a secret. (like the photo above!) There is an element of mystery and suspense in getting a present. It is wrapped so that the recipient gets to have some fun and let the anticipation build as they wonder what the person they love could have gotten for them. It is part of the process and it is a lot less fun if you know what you’ve gotten already. Sure, she’ll like the book but now she expects it and it won’t seem so much like a birthday present, will it?
2. Don’t get the same thing for someone all the time. Yes, her cousin loves this particular series but it seems a little lame to get her the same present just a week apart. It would be like a guy getting flowers for his girlfriend for every birthday and holiday because he couldn’t bother to think of what she might like. Yes, flowers can be a great gift but they shouldn’t be every gift. Book lovers shouldn’t always get books, coffee lovers shouldn’t always get coffee, etc.

The remedies:
1. No matter what the holiday or occasion, keep the present a secret!!! It makes getting something so much more special and exciting when one gets to unwrap something not knowing what lies beneath all that pretty paper.
2. Remember that there is so much more to a person than one hobby or one interest. People are pretty dynamic and varied and it is your challenge (or mine if you hire me to figure out that perfect present!) to turn what you know about a person’s character into the perfect present.

Now, happy gift giving!!!