I’ve resolved to do these posts sooner rather than too late in the year to be useful like this one or this one.

And honestly… do I have any new ideas? I’ve already gotten old books for folks. I have a SLEW of Turkish blankets in my closet as I type this. And Amaryllis bulbs. I am quasi in a Groundhog day of gift giving, I guess. I have kitchen towels in there too though? And a mug for someone? And… that’s almost it.

But! I also have some Turkish towels this time!

So Turkish towels are made from rough, thin linen- but they absorb water like a dream, dry quickly, and don’t pick up sand like terry cloth towels do. They’re also larger than bath towels as they are 40″x70″ and bath towel dimensions are normally 30″x56″.

I got a couple families we know with pools some sets of these for Christmas- maybe they’ll hate them! Who knows! But I have some for my family and the fact that they roll up way smaller than normal towels, make a more reputable sarong/scarf (if needed), and are lighter makes them useful for our beach kit. Towels are difficult to buy for folks because of color and decor matching issues, but I figure beach/pool towels have less chances of mis-stepping there.

I’m already out of ideas.

Let’s see- okay this is pretty specific to my family but if you have preteen or teenage girls who like nail stuff, ColorStreet nail strips are awesome. Yes, it’s an MLM (multi-level marketing) thing and you have to buy from a rep and NO, I am NOT one of those reps nor will I be. And there is some trial and error to applying them too. But when applied right they TRULY last for up to 2 weeks and are easier and faster than painting your own nails.

My advice here though- get the small scale glitter ones to start with. The solid colors are thinner and require some more skill to apply. But not the big chunky glitter ones either- those are also a little harder to apply as if you have a big chunk of glitter hanging over the tip you have to clip it off instead of just folding it under. But my girls love them (15, 12, and the 5 year old) as do I.

They’re packaging is thin, lightweight, and easy to mail packaging as well.

There are other nail strips and press on things that are available from Amazon or grocery stores- but those are plastic and don’t have the staying power as these. And these don’t need any heat activation or special equipment to apply.

I think it’s a better preteen/teen gift than to adults… women are generally really specific in their polish or no polish preferences, also types (gel, polish, strips) and color choices. God forbid you get the wrong red, or red for someone who would never wear red nails, or “Glitter?! Do you even KNOW me?!” and screw up Christmas.

I have also done some custom T-shirt creating.

After I made my t-shirt to wear to get my second vaccine dose in Gonzales (post here) I liked the concept of custom shirts but I thought it was a bit pain in the ass on set up from the company I used.

But, I just made this image into a t-shirt for the 15 year old (very on brand for her lately)

I used Zazzle and it was easy, inexpensive, and free of all that annoying copyright infringement stuff it probably should have. I don’t have the finished product in yet though, so not sure as to the quality, but the concept amiright?

In previous years I got rocks glasses for my husband with lines from his songs a couple of times- but a custom one with a quote or joke would be as cool too. While the shop seems to promote monogramming predominantly, rest assured you can just do a sentence or a couple of lines.. and they send you proofs before etching them too. Also I kind of hate monograms. They were packaged well and I never had any breakage issues in shipping.

Here is the company I used from etsy

Till next time!