Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

 Now these couple of bites came to mind when we were chatting about birthdays the other day ... nothing to do with the fact that one of them is mine I suppose!! 

Month 4 - Bite 14

As a family we’ve always enjoyed a good celebration! That doesn’t mean these occasions are necessarily lavish or expensive affairs. On the contrary waste is never a good thing. For example anyone celebrating usually gets asked well in advance what they’d like so that any gifts are the right thing and not blow out throwaways.

Sometimes the asked-for present is somewhat small or one of us doesn’t know exactly what we’d like. At that point we do fall back on vouchers and deciding what kind is easy! There are one or two stores  that sell both groceries and other things like clothes so we tend to choose vouchers from them. The recipient then can choose to spend the voucher on something they want in the store or they can buy something themselves to that value and then spend the voucher to do their food shopping.

My sister and I joke about the fact that when we were younger it was seen as unimaginative to buy certain older members of the family bath stuff, moisturiser and so forth, but now we seen to have turned into the very ‘old ladies’ that actually want that kind of thing. It’s fun to get mini parcels of the sort of everyday nice things you use without spending your own cash on them. 

So it’s not usual for us to ask for something useful like this for our birthdays or to say that we want vouchers towards a bigger item -my niece and her husband trumped the unexpected request list by asking for vouchers towards paint to decorate for their Christmas presents! 

Anyway - today's the day I examine my list of stuff I need and let the family know what useful things I'd like this year... think some vouchers for my e-reader might feature!

Month 4 - Bite 15

From thoughts of my birthday to some others... For today's task I need to start listing what I might need to buy or make over the next month or two - in our family the occasions come thick and fast from June onward.

We've had to think ahead with part of the family in Italy and have come to an arrangement whereby the presents get sourced over there, even if they are ordered online for delivery direct, and then the wrapping paper, card and gift tags are sent over from here for use. That way the gifts are still personalised while keeping the postage costs down.

I also need to look at multiple versions of the same presents for similar recipients both for birthdays and Christmas as it's often cheaper to buy in bulk or, alternatively, time efficient to make similar items in one making session. Although I'm not actually buying or making today a planning list is needed.