Hello! Welcome to my new blog,
Stocking-Stuffer-a-Day. Why create such a blog? There are a couple of reasons:
- Stockings have always been one of my favorite Christmas traditions.
- I love small things in general, and small, beautiful little gifts in particular.
- Not only do my husband and I fill up stockings for each other, we also have one of those wooden advent calendars with little drawers to be filled. Believe me, those drawers are tiny, and unless you want to fatten each other up with nothing but candy, it's a challenge trying to find tiny inexpensive items of reasonable quality for the advent calendar.
- Once my sisters and I grew up, my mom still filled stockings for us, but nobody filled a stocking for her! I started putting one together for her, and my sisters wanted to get in on the action, so we decided that each family member would get a stocking item for each other member, and then we'd all have the fun of opening stocking gifts. Well, family members includes men.... and aren't men incredibly hard to find stocking items for?
So, what will this blog include? Mainly, stocking stuffers for grown-ups. My husband and I don't have children, and I don't always trust my interpretations of age-appropriate gifts. I will certainly include small gifts for children that really strike my fancy, but most of what I post about will be for adults. If there's enough interest, perhaps at some point I can have a guest blogger talk about stocking stuffers for children.
I also want to include seasonal variations on stocking stuffers. Once I started doing a stocking for my mom, I realized I had some little tidbits left over that were perfect for a Mother's Day gift bag, for instance. Or what about Valentine's Day and birthdays? Also, because we have relatives overseas and shipping is getting more and more expensive, smaller gift items, particularly non-breakable ones, are most desirable.
I don't, however, want to give the impression that all I ever give are small gifts, or that I'm so crazy about stocking stuffers that I shower everyone around me with yet more useless clutter. Many's the time I have seen a gorgeous little stocking stuffer that I desperately wanted to buy -- except I didn't have anyone to give it to. If I can't think of a recipient that I believe would really like the gift, I don't buy it, no matter how tempted I am. I'm also a big believer in reduce-reuse-recycle, so I'll try to incorporate that philosophy as much as possible, in part by listing some do-it-yourself ideas.
So, can I really post about a different stocking stuffer each day without resorting to ridiculous, tacky little items? Probably not, but what the heck, it's a challenge! But I'll go a day without a post if I have to, before I'll start listing garbage just for the sake of posting. And I'll probably take at least one day a week for a more general post such as this one. I'd also like to include photos and links to items where possible, and information as to where I found it (giving credit where credit is due). Of course, over time some of those links may become outdated, but remember you can always search on the Internet for an item if the link no longer works or a certain retailer no longer carries an item.
Other than that, let's just say that I'm feeling my way, and there's room to evolve. Thoughts and comments are welcome!
Congratulations to Brandy, the winner of my week 5 stocking stuffer giveaway, which was stocking stuffers for little ones! She was entry number 25 out of a total 47 entries. Brandy, I've sent you an e-mail to get your address.
Congratulations to Lorraine, the winner of my week 4 stocking stuffer giveaway, which was stocking stuffers for men! She was entry number 15 out of a total 39 entries. Lorraine, I've sent you an e-mail to get your address.
[Today is the last day to enter my ongoing giveaway of stocking stuffers for men, which ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. (based on the comment timestamp). Enter here, and remember to check back next week for another stocking stuffer giveaway! Apologies, but U.S. residents only.]
Congratulations to Kim, the winner of my week 3 stocking stuffer giveaway, which was stocking stuffers for girls! She was entry number 5 out of a total 54 entries. Kim, I've sent you an e-mail to get your address.
Congratulations to Jacky, the winner of my week 2 stocking stuffer giveaway, which was stocking stuffers for boys! She was entry number 3 out of a total 74 entries. Jacky, I've sent you an e-mail to get your address.
Congratulations to Rebekah, the winner of my week 1 stocking stuffer giveaway, which was stocking stuffers for women! She was entry number 28 out of a total 55 entries. Rebekah, I've sent you an e-mail to get your address.
First of all, Happy Halloween! My husband and I really enjoy Halloween, even though we don't have kids. Last night we went to the last of our five weeks of Friday-night hip-hop classes learning the dance routine from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. We all went in costume and they video-taped it for us so we'll have a memento of how good we were. Or, you know, not! But no matter how good or bad we were, it was great exercise and a lot of fun.
Melinda and Rob of the Look What Mom Found... And Dad Too blog kindly let me write a guest post for them while they are on vacation. My post, about free samples from Dover Publications, which you can use to collect activity book pages for your kids and clip art for yourself, appears there, and only there, today!
Congratulations to SandyM204,the winner of the Swarovski rhinestone stretch bracelet! She was entry number 6 out of a total 75 entries. SandyM204, I will be contacting you via e-mail tomorrow to get your address.
Congratulations to "Jinxy and Me", the winner of a 2x2 handcrafted ink stamp from Etsy seller Nikoart! She was entry number 32 out of a total 48 entries. (I've sent an e-mail asking for the address to which you want the stamp sent.)
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