Guest Blog! Giving Ideas from Janice

Well, the countdown to the holidays has officially begun.  The malls are crazy crowded, online stores are dishing out the last minute offers, and people are in a frenzy of wrapping and crossing their fingers that mailed gifts arrive on time.  Amidst all the craziness, my good friend Janice (and author of Pretty Ponderations) has put together a handy list of ideas to help you make it through.  She shares her ideas with The Ballerina Birthday in this blog, thanks Janice!  And make sure you read all the way to the end... there's a surprise offer waiting for you!

There are many types of holiday shoppers.

•  the online shopper: who actually follows the gift guides that instruct you on what to buy for “chic celine” or the “adventurous adam”
•  the planner: who knows what they want to get people by early fall and spends three months gathering the goods
•   the suggestion-maker: who buys you a pot when you don’t know how to cook
•      the clueless: who buys you a colander, thinking it’s a pot
•    the procrastinator: who is reading this a mere four days before Christmas, wondering what to do now?!?!

I am a planner, and annoyingly so. The day before Thanksgiving all of the presents were wrapped and just awaiting a tree. But in an attempt to be less annoying I have some last-minute gift ideas that can complement a variety of people. And here they are:

• Give creatively. Specifically, make a collage because it is the easiest DIY project that there is. Feel free to steal my idea – cut up the ugly wrapping paper that is “so last year” and use elmers glue to collage it. Or to steer away from holiday, print out a bunch of facebook pictures and collage the pics in a picture frame.
• Give calories. Buy the premade cookie dough from Safeway and bake it. If you’re lazy, get the rolls that have the designs in the middle. If you’re ambitious, mix milk + powdered sugar + food coloring and make your own royal icing and decorate away!
• Give coffee. Starbucks gift cards, done.
• Give convenience. Buy someone an Amazon Prime membership. It will change their lives because they will have access to thousands of products on Amazon for two-day shipping FOR FREE.
• Give Gilt. Full disclaimer, I work for Gilt Groupe. But I feel that for the amount of shopping that I do on Gilt Groupe I am within my rights to shamelessly plug my company. If you’ve already missed the shipping deadlines, go on giltcity.com and gift an experience to your fancy friends! And just because you are Ballerina Blog fan, click this link to get 25% off your next order:  http://www.giltcity.com/sigma 

Happy Holidays!