This year, to cut down on stopping into a different store for each person on our list Ms. and I are creating gift baskets of our favorite things. We've decided to divulge the secrets of our no-fail holiday gift. Assemble as many or as few of these ingredients as you like, they're all winners:
Pick up a deli-paper-wrapped chunk of Lush soap in flavors like Avowash with avocado and olive oil or Ginger soap with ginger and essential oils. Soaps range from about $5.00-$9.00 per 1/4lb, and Lush products are never tested on animals.
Yummy Spiced Fig Chocolate or Dried Fig Compote, $7.25 from Sonoma Valley's The Girl and The Fig. Great stuff for ice cream sundaes or chèvre cheese plates.
L'Occitane en Provence - pure shea butter moisturizer for the delicate types. $36
A good bottle of wine is like gold in a gift basket. Try one of these Napa valley treasures: Grgich Hills 2005 Fumé Blanc - $25, Cake Bread Cellars' Chardonnay 2005 - $36, a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Steltzner Vineyards - $36, or a pink cellophane wrapped bottle of Coppola's Sofia Blanc sparkling wine - $19.
Pair your wine with Janis and Melanie's Chardonnay biscuits with tarragon and shallots or Cabernet biscuits with cracked peppercorns. About $3 at specialty food stores or buy in bulk from Amazon.
Tate's chocolate chip cookies. Mmmmmm - light and crisp, packed with chocolate. $22.50 gets you 3 boxes (and trust me, you'll want 2 for yourself).
Throw in a dvd for Christmas night - the 5th season of "24" $36.97, "Goodnight and Goodluck" $13.49, or "Little Miss Sunshine" - $15.98, from Amazon.
Spiced chestnut soap and hand lotion from Williams Sonoma - $12.50 each online or at Williams Sonoma stores.
Jonathan's signature truffles from Compartes Chocolatier - out of this world flavors like smoked sea salt, jasmine tea, lemon citron, spicy chili pepper, and raspberry rose. A 5 piece box is $12 or get 20 pieces for $38.
A jar of Devonshire or Cornish clotted cream, available at specialty food stores and Whole Foods Markets. Fantastic on scones or served with fruit, a breakfast treat from the UK.
Add a good book from Barnes and Noble or The Strand, you might try: "The End of Mr. Y" by Scarlett Thomas - $14, "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" from Gabriel García Márquez - $11.95, or "A Photographer's Life" by Annie Leibovitz - $50-$75. Oh - and don't forget "In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot" by Graham Roumieu.
Throw in a donation to the Humane Society and help save animals stranded by natural disasters or abused at breeding facilities. $5 to $500.
And finally, no gift basket would be complete without a homemade CD full of your favorite tunes. Hit up iTunes and download some great tracks. Then pick up the Avery CD Stomper kit ($21.99 from Staples) and create a perfectly personalized label just for your disc.
Enjoy!
~ Miss
1 comment:
Okay - I'm commenting on my own site... but just to let you know - these products are items that Miss and I acutally buy -- we have not been paid in any way to advertise them.
That is not to say I wouldn't accept a gift of yumminess from one of these companies... Just so they know. :)
xoxo,
Ms.
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