I Hate Gift Guides

Confession: if you write a gift guide blog post, I'm probably not gonna read it. Yes, I know you've put loads of time and effort into it but here's the thing.

A) I've already done all my Christmas shopping. I know. Smugface. Feel free to kick me.

B) You have no idea what my family and friends will like. When I buy presents, I like them to be personal and awesome, not just what's helpfully packaged up for me as suitable for that particular person/gender/relation. Newsflash: not all women bake/love candles/want smellies.

I can pick presents for them by myself. Par exemple, recent gifts for my dad, brother and mum have included Enid Blyton's The Adventure Series of books, a Gameboy (old school 90s one) and a tailor's dummy. Heck, I even gave my friend Lisa a swede once. It's a long story relating to vegetable shortages but trust me, she was made up with it. What I'm trying to say is that you won't find any of those things included in gift guides but the recipients all loved them.

All gift guides tend to do (other than make me wonder which bloggers are being paid by brands to include the items. Suspicious, moi?) is make me think "but I want that for me. Dammit!"

So this is about the only gift guide I'm qualified to write. What I want. Cos I'm shameless like that. Also cos  I've spent all my money on carpets and bookcases and treats are strictly off the menu for the time being.

Subscriptions:

• Notonthehighstreet's vintage book, tea and stationery idea. That'd be a little parcel of joy to have landing on your door mat every month!
• A Persephone book once a month would be even more welcome.
• Six months of Oh Comely for £12 is quite a bargain. I stopped buying it a while ago and I'm really not sure why. It's a lovely magazine. 

Entertainmenty things:

• I've lent my copy of E&P to someone and I can't remember who and they haven't given it back and WAAAAHHHHHHHH.
• On a more positive note, Begin Again was one of the best films I've seen this year. A must-own.
• Watched the first couple of episodes of My Mad Fat Diary at a pal's house and then promptly forgot about the rest of the series. I have time off over Christmas and New Year so boxsets would be awesome.

Random stuff for me and the house:

• Matalan's alphabet scarves are ace, plus they support Alder Hey hospital and I know from experience of the amazing work that place does.
• Who doesn't love starry nights? A starry lamp is a great idea.
• Erm I don't even use my landline at the moment but that phone is a beaut and would make me reconsider.
• Yayyyy, wellies for fat calves. GREEN wellies for fat calves.

Ultimately though, anything would be great (but not crap smelly gift sets, m'kay?). I love presents and I really love the fact that someone has put thought and effort into getting me something. Doesn't matter a jot how much it cost: something tracked down in a charity shop for £1 that they know I'll love is gonna be way better than something costing 20 times that much that has been bought in a Boots 3 for 2 deal.

The Odd Socks Christmas Gift Guide

There are a lot of Christmas gift guides floating around the internet at the moment.  I love them.  I adore buying presents anyway but with gift guides, someone else has done all the hard work and found amazing things and shops for you.  What's not to like?  If I have a slight beef with them (and I do), it's that they tend to be very specific in their categories - "For him" "For her" "For the kids" "For your mum".  That's not my approach to present buying, or to life in general.  Why categorise things and people?  Just buy good stuff! I got my dad the Adventure Series by Enid Blyton for Christmas last year (which he LOVED btw) and I highly doubt that would have appeared on any of these "For Your Dad" lists.

I hereby dub this The Odd Socks Guide to Shiny, Marvellous Things on the Internet.

Catchy, huh?  Basically, these are amazing things I have discovered. Not your obvious things from places like ASOS and Amazon (although I do very strongly recommend the waterproof mp3 player from my last post cos it's brilliant) because you're bound to come across those yourself during the course of your mooches around the internet. These are just things I've found that I like. If they match the taste of someone you need to buy a present for, get them.  Or just buy them for yourself.  I won't judge.

The beauty of craft kits is that you have a choice: either give a crafty person the kit as a present or buy it, make it yourself and give the finished item to a non-crafty person instead.  I came across Gift Horse Kits on Twitter earlier this year and tackled Project Bunny as one of my summer things to do.  The kit was absolutely wonderful - very nicely packaged up, contained absolutely everything and had some brilliant, clear instructions.  I'd definitely recommend buying or making the Little Red Ted, Love Cats and amazingly cute Robins.

I went on holiday with Heather, the lovely and very creative person behind Custard Bean, earlier in the year.  Look, you can see her larking around in this post! She makes the most beautiful quilts and bunting, some of which decorated our holiday cottage in fine style.  Her etsy store is stocked up with fab handmade festive goodies at the moment, including this tweed stocking and a range of handmade tree decorations.  Or if you know someone with a Kindle, I'm sure they could do with a good Kindle cover.

Book lovers may drool at this one.  It's the Delightful Reading Spa at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath.  If you live in that part of the world then frankly I don't know why you haven't bought this already.  For the rest of us, it's worth going all the way there just for this.  It's got to be worth every single penny of the £55 it costs.  Book heaven.

Cat fans, feast your eyes upon The Cat Gallery.  One of the volunteers at work introduced me to this website after I went a bit mad at the sight of her brilliant cat earrings one day.  She'd been to the actual shop in York but the website is just as much fun.  They sell pretty much everything cat related that you might ever need.  I'm sure you know a person (or cat) who'd appreciate the Crazy Cat Lady mug, glow in the dark collar, LED miaowing keyring or black cat roll holder.

I like a good papercut.  No, not the incredible painful yet minor injury, the craft!  Rob Ryan stuff is beautiful and readily available but it's worth seeking out some of the other online alternatives, such as Folk Art Papercuts on Etsy.  It's full of stunningly intricate designs available as prints or cards - the above picks are the Folk Art House, Long Necked Cat with Birds, Hillside Village and Horse prints.

My main beef with buying things from the USA is that, unless the total cost is very cheap, you get clobbered with customs and handling charges before the Royal Mail deigns to let you have your parcel. Threadless were awesome anyway but now they are straight at the top of my Hurrah List (yes, there is such a thing) for giving you a postage price which includes pre-paid customs so you know exactly how much you're spending. Also, their sale has been extended until this evening (28th Nov) so you can get loads of their tshirts for $9.99 (about £6ish) each. BUY BUY BUY!

I recommend Toile About You (aka my favourite print in the history of the world EVER), Bunnythmetic and Paper Zoo totes, the Runnin' Rhino iPhone case, and Oscar's Hideout and Captain Obvious tshirts.  But the beauty of the site is that you can pretty much pick your favourite design and you've got a whole array of tshirt sizes and styles to choose from, plus quite often there are other products (phone cases, bags, socks etc) in that design as well.

Sweets!  None of your cynical "oh aren't we retro, lol" packaging here.  This is proper stuff, sold by people who know what they're talking about.  A Quarter Of is my go-to website when I want something delicious and sweet.  Candy necklaces, Christmas Pud sweets, Iron Brew humbugs (zomg, they are truly amazing), vampire teeth... if they don't sell them, they probably aren't worth buying.

The Literary Gift Company is a truly glorious website.  I can browse through it with quite a number of friends in mind and immediately find about 96 things they'd love.  It's that good and that full of fab, quirky items.  I know exactly which people would like the procrastination pen, I Capture The Castle earrings, Go Away I'm Blogging mug, Penguin cufflinks and Shhh mug.

If you're buying for people who are a bit more academic than literary, check out their sister site Present Indicative. We all need a Votes for Women teatowel...

Jezebel Charms is one of my very favourite Etsy shops.  Some Etsy jewellery shops can be a bit samey but this really isn't.  It's full of wonderfully designed and unusual items that span the genres from Austen to Shakespeare to music and steampunk.  The Jane Austen quote necklace, Sherlock Holmes cuff, Regency dancing earrings and antique London map cuff are all fabulous.