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Help me make my boyfriend's birthday awesome with fiendishly delightful present wrapping and delivery!

t0astie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:32:15 -0800

It's my boyfriend's birthday soon, and I want to make the present giving AWESOME! Have already purchased presents and booked flights to be with him. Am organising special birthday meals for him, and a couple of activities too, so most of the day is pretty much sorted. But I really really want the present giving/opening experience in particular to be super fun for him. I'm thinking along the lines of a treasure hunt with clues so he has to hunt for the presents... Or wrapping the presents in a giant box and painting it like a cake with sparklers on top! Or multiple layers of wrapping disguising the present...Or, um, something else. But I don't know what exactly. I just want to make it a completely excellent fun surprise for him. Some background

Him: mid-thirties engineer. Likes:dinosaurs, robots, sci-fi, machines, beer, puzzles, poker.

Me: mid-thirties journalist / photographer. Handy with glue, cutting, drawing, writing, pics, collage and general crafty stuff. But even simple woodwork or electronics would be beyond me.

Equipment available: minimal. Can go to the hardware store, and there's a not-very-good craft store in his town too. I don't have a sewing machine. Everything basic like glue, paint etc is easily available where he lives, but more complicated stuff not so much.

Finances: low. Am broke after present and plane-ticket buying. Could go $20-30AUD extra. Aiming for ingenuity and surprise over extravagance.

Location: Outback Australia. Really.

Timeframe: Nine days til I catch the plane and another eleven days in his town before B-Day. If it's going to be massive in size, must be constructed in 11 days. I won't be bringing a papier-mache fort or birthday banner on my discount flight, for example.

Help me hive!

He is really the best boyfriend in the world and deserves the Best Birthday in the History of the World Ever.

Have yourself an internet little Christmas

nax — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:07:41 -0800

Help me send virtual gifts to my kids overseas. A big part of our family Christmas tradition is Christmas stockings. This year both of my kids are working abroad in jobs that I can't mail a package to. So I want to stuff a Christmas stocking on line. I'm looking for something interactive along the lines of various online advent calendars like this one, but where you open presents instead of dates.

Does anyone know of a site or app (google? yahoo? facebook?) that will let me do this? Suggestions for what to put in it would be good too: I could stuff it with online gift certificates for games or music (assuming it's secure), fun websites, what else?

I know I can do this via a simple email, but I'd like a fun graphic interface as well. Tried googling it, but only got commercial sites. Thanks, hivemind.

Self-links welcome, if you do this yourself, or MeMail me to stay within the site rules.

Book-Hungry Mother

Weebot — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:23:23 -0800

[Xmas Filter] I'm doing my Christmas shopping, and I'm a bit stuck on what I need to get my mother. She likes culinary-cultural history books, preferably with recipes. Suggestions? She's been really into these books for a while now, and I was hoping to get some suggestions. She's gone through Salt, Cod, and all the other Mark Kurlansky books, as well as Lizzy Collingham's Curry and David Kamp's The United States of Argula.

She has also been a fan of food memoirs like Tender at the Bone as well as travel books with a strong culinary bent. You get the idea. So, any suggestions?

There's thought behind it, sure, but also twenty hours of knitting.

carbide — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:52:23 -0800

What are the most memorable, awesome or useful handmade gifts you've received or given? I'm in search of some inspiration, as well as cautionary tales. My extended family has been very polite in enduring handmade gifts from me year after year, but I think only a few people have really enjoyed what I've made them, and the pleasure in giving gets a bit lost that way. The success rate is better with friends but inspiration would still be handy.

I'd love a wide variety of suggestions so I won't say too much, but here's a few details:

- I can cook, sew, take decent photographs sometimes, bind books, knit, make prints, draw, etc, so anything goes.

- Previous gifts have included screenprints, cold-process soap, shortbread, cookies, handmade journals, and a roaring success in a portrait of my grandparents. Current plans include blank cards with suitable photographic prints on the front, some knitted hats for a few people who will definitely wear them, one well-targeted mix cd.

- Particular areas of difficulty are: teenage boys (not bookish or alternative, damn!), professional glam women in their mid 20s to early 30s (ditto!).

Any stand-out gifts you've made or received?

(Warnings about the chasm between intention and reception would probably be good, too. And weirdly, I can't find any previouslies.)

Bookfilter: what book(s) would my father love?

Acer_saccharum — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:40:59 -0800

Book filter: Getting a head start on Christmas presents - what books would you recommend for my kung fu instructing, deadwood watching, social work teaching freemason father? The last books my father really enjoyed were The Poisonwood Bible and The Davinci Code. He joined up with the freemasons shortly after he read the D. Code. He is a social work prof with special focus in aboriginal issues and community mental health organizations, has been teaching martial arts since before I was born and runs his own studio, and he and my mother ADORE the show Deadwood and have watched the entire series repeatedly.

I want to buy him a few books for Christmas that he will adore. I do not read up on these subjects and am at a loss. Help!

PS - If a movie/show/gadget/weapon is coming to mind, feel free to throw that suggestion in also. Much appreciated!