With Love Gifts Blog- Personalised Gifts for Everyone - competition tag

Best Christmas Present 2009

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:17:00 GMT

Just before Christmas 2009 I fell over while running for the bus along a busy London street. Once the embarrassment had worn off and I had tried my best to laugh it off to the two concerned citizens who helped me up, I noticed that my hand was throbbing. I sat in A&E for 3 hours that day only to be looked at with contempt by the doctor who said my right wrist and hand was just swollen and not broken which translated means "get out of here and stop wasting my time"! By the evening my entire wrist had swollen up and I could barely move my hand at all.

Despite the pain (which I may or may not have played on for sympathy) I managed to wrap all of my Christmas presents and get them to my mum’s to go under the tree. I had asked everyone for book tokens so I could get some text books I needed for my sign language course so was a little surprised to see a rather nice-sized box under the tree with my name on it. On Christmas morning it was the last present I opened - my philosophy is save the best 'til last. To my shock, my usually inconsiderate brother had bought me a remote control hand! I used it for most of the morning and found it quite useful given how hard it was to move my own hand. That was until I found my brother Ben doing this...

I haven’t touched it since.

Strange Christmas Gift

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:13:00 GMT

My worst Christmas gift was given to me by my Mother in law in the 1990's. She was always very shrewd with money and never did get the Christmas spirit - always bought my husband pale blue socks, even though he always wore black socks only!

This particular year she gave us a knitted doll toilet roll holder with toilet roll included - something that was popular in the 70's and 80's, although I don't know how they were ever popular whatever the era!

We couldn't believe it - kept examining it thinking it was a joke and that there was money or a gift voucher tucked inside - but no that was it in all its pomp and glory. Needless to say even though we didn't want to appear ungrateful it never made the bathroom but went straight to the bin! We still laugh about it today but now with affection as my Mother in law has now passed away.

Christmas Gift worked out very expensive!

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:28:00 GMT

The worst Christmas present that I have ever had was a tin of Quality Street. Out of politeness, I put a delighted look on my face and thanked the giver for their kindness. I offered them around the office. The giver of the sweets said, "don't share them all around, they are for you". I had a toffee and it stuck to my teeth and pulled a crown out of my mouth and part of the tooth with it. I had to pay £2,000 on my credit card for a dental inplant as their wasn't enough tooth left to recrown.

Worst Christmas Gift turned into a great gift

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:54:00 GMT

My worst christmas gift ever was when i was 12 years old and my parents gave me a bottle of bubble bath in the shape of a swan. It was a very poor christmas that year and i received a dressing gown and this strange bubble bath. I was such a brat and was very ungrateful that christmas that every year since it has become a joke and i receive the worst bottle of bubble bath they can find. I now love receiving the bubble bath every year as it becomes exciting to see what hideous thing i will receive. So what was an awful present when i was 12 now becomes one of the things i am looking forward to.

Personal Wedding Centrepieces

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:54:00 GMT

Sometimes planning our wedding can just seem overwhelming and it's at those times I step away from worrying about the big details, and spend a little time focusing on small things that will make our wedding all the more personal and that will make us happy even if no-one else realises how much thought has gone into them. After all what is a wedding if not about the couple getting married?

Unfortunately we are rather cash poor, but fortunately quite time rich, so I am spending my time handcrafting many items for our wedding. From creating all our venue decorations to making my bouquet featuring French Beaded roses - a new craft I learnt just for my wedding (picture attached). So when another attack of the "help will my wedding be as great as I hope" struck, instead or worrying about the venue/entertainment/food, I cleared my mind and turned to another decorative aspect that would allow me to unleash my creativity, de-stress and get something useful done.

I have a collection of jars that I really love and wanted to use them as the centre pieces on the tables at our venue. As nice as they are they need to be filled with something - after all that is their purpose in life! So I swapped my tiara for my thinking cap and set to work on some ideas for filling them.

The wind was blowing against the windows and the sun was fading. Cosy indoors I was thinking about the leaves falling from the trees and the abundance of "helicopters" that litter the ground beneath the Sycamore trees in the park. I had visions of jars full of acorns and conkers but our wedding is next spring, so autumnal themes aren't much help! Friends suggested all the best jars contain sweets, but as a diabetic buying lots of sweets could be one temptation to many for me when the wedding stress kicks in! So I went back to basics: What is a wedding if not about the couple getting married? Inspiration struck like a bolt of lighting, and I ran off to tell my fiance my idea... he thought it was great, and I hope you will like it too.

We won't be buying anything to go in the jars, or worrying about the contents matching our colour scheme. In each jar we are going to put one special object with a label explaining just why we chose it and how it is special to us. It will be rather an eclectic bunch of things but each one will bring a smile to our faces. Like the little brown teddy with one leg shorter than the other, which we found on a bus trip many years ago and adopted in pity. Or the dragon ornament in our collection, that has been broken and glued back together almost as many times as we have moved house together, but still has pride of place on the shelf. Small things with no intrinsic value, but with great stories and memories attached to them, that we will enjoy sharing with all our guests on our wedding day.

101 Worries + 109 Miles = 1 Perfect Day

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:45:00 GMT

The run up to any wedding is a stressful time to say the least but when your organising a wedding knowing full well the groom could be incapable of travelling to the venue, the word “stress” doesn't even begin to cover it. You may think that’s an exaggeration, that I'm just writing it for effect but to be totally honest it doesn't even cover the anxiety we were feeling at the time. From the moment we set the date one thing was constantly going through our mind's and that was simply we were either getting married or we were going to lose most if not all of our savings.

It may sound like a major risk and it was but I was so determined to somehow be there I didn't let myself think for a second that I wasn't going to make it because it was about making it as special as I could for my fiancée. The reason for all the dought surrounding attending my own wedding was due to being in an accident 2 years earlier that left me with a severely damaged back and had been housebound for almost a year at that point. We had been offered an amazing deal on Culloden House in Inverness as the venue for our wedding through a family member, not only did this include the function rooms but also discounted accommodation for our guests. It was truly a stunning venue but came with its own set of problems including having to travel over 100 miles only days before.

It wasn't the only hurdle either as my dad (who was also my best man) had accidentally booked the wrong day for the wedding, twice, yup you read that right. He originally booked it for a week where both him and my mum were away for work (clever eh) so we talked it over and finally decided on another date only for dad to forget the agreed date and book it for a week later. Unfortunately by the time we realised what he had done the second date was already spoken for so we had to change the date again (and have to tell everyone involved in the wedding the new date... yet again) but this time we made sure we made the booking ourselves.

A week before the wedding almost everything was organised but it was looking less likely that I was going to be able to make the journey as my back was as bad as it had ever been. I can't honestly remember much about the journey to Inverness apart from being on heavy duty pain killers and still feeling like I could pass out from the pain at any moment. The following 48 hours I did all I could to try and control the pain levels so when the day came I was torn between how I was feeling and making sure it was the best possible day for my future wife.

The moment I had been preparing for and we had been looking forward to for the last few months was here. I took my next lot of tablets, picked up my stick and headed towards the room where I would meet wife for the first time. Because we had scheduled tablet breaks and periods throughout the day were I could lie down to recuperate slightly I did actually manage to last the whole day. Even got to have a short but very satisfying first dance as husband and wife and another quick dance at the end of the night. It was a very special moment being on the dance floor with my wife even though I'm sure the dress was designed to trip me up with every step.

It was really an amazing day even with the pain, we got to get married in a stunning place surrounded by everyone we loved. My brother-in law flew in from Australia just in time to give her away which was as important to her as getting married to me was. My wife looked amazing wearing the wedding dress my mum made for her (with matching napkin so she didn't spill her soup on her dress) wearing my grandmother's wedding ring (which absolutely made my granddad’s day, seeing it being used again.

When your trying to get all the pieces to fall into place in the run up to the wedding day it can seam like an impossible task. Somehow you keep persevering because getting married to the person you love more than everything makes everything worth while (even if that includes having to track down the only bridesmaid dress in the UK that is still in stock and in our bridesmaid's size). I often thought the “happiest day of your life” thing was just something that was said but having been there myself I honestly wouldn't change a thing.

As It really was the happiest day of our life...

Bollywood Themed Wedding

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:24:00 GMT

I am of Indian descent but British born and therefore sometimes quite distanct from the Indian culture. I don't watch Bollywood movies or anything like that. But when it came to my wedding day, I wanted a Mughal Empire/ British Raj style wedding. I wanted to look like a Bollywood actress and a Mughal Princess from the 1800's all rolled into one. So I went about creating this scene.
Now, with am Indian wedding we create a stage/backdrop against which the bride and groom will sit, and mine was maroon and cream with flashing lights. My outfit was traditionally indian long cream swarovski skirt with a very heavily jeweled shawl draped over me. My jewellery was 1950s Bollywood.
But the best thing was my husband, he had a gold kurta on with pointy slippers. The whole thing was glamorous and really stylish. We looked like a Mughal king and queen from the days of the Raj. It was wonderful and I looked the way I always wanted to look. Loved it!

Guinea Pig Christmas Gift

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:08:00 GMT

The greatest Christmas gift that someone ever bought me was a guinea pig. Actually, that’s not strictly true. I was bought a cage – the guinea pig and all necessary accompaniments came free. This little squeaking ball of fluff rapidly became my best friend and my owner – I know everyone who has a pet insists that their pet is the cleverest and most responsive animal in the world, but in Squeak’s (yes, very original, I know!) case, it was true. She would sit for hours with me, reading, watching TV – it didn’t matter what – she wanted to be there, involved and interfering. When it came to the fridge, she was like a little dog. She would sit in front of it, grumbling, until you opened the door and handed her a peapod or sprig of parsley. She was particularly fond of Eastenders – the opening notes would be met by a squeak of joy and a long stretch before settling down to watch it – I don’t know whether she enjoyed the programme or whether she enjoyed the apple we used to share whilst watching, but either way, it was a special time for both of us.

I almost lost her on one occasion – her teeth overgrew and had to be trimmed by the vet. This necessitated a period of syringe-feeding, which brought us even closer. Unfortunately, she came to enjoy the hand-feeding so much that she wouldn’t begin eating her own food. In desperation, I adopted a second guinea pig to try and encourage her to eat. If I thought she had been animated before – I was wrong! She came so alive and instantly began eating and playing with her new friend. Whether this was through delight at having a friend, or through fear that Yoshi was getting more to eat than Squeak herself, I don’t know, but Squeak was soon well on the road to recovery....and I was well on the road to addiction!

I began collecting guinea pig paraphernalia – t-shirts, eggcups, teddies, mugs, postcards, ornaments – if it has a guinea pig on, I have it. I even had a pawprint tattoo with a guinea pig’s name above it after I lost a pig who had been extra-special. I also began rescuing abandoned guinea pigs and learning more and more about their care. Next year I intend to take a rodentology course so that I can help even more pigs in need, and it all started with one Christmas present years ago.

Squeak is long gone, but her memory and legacy live on.

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Everyone at With Love Gifts feel it appropriate to show this video, an online classic from some years ago :)

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