Ho! Ho! Ho!, Low on Dough: $15.00

Welcome back everyone.  Katie and her Krew were a welcome addition to all our usual suspects.  I might also add that Amber is a quasi new members - jumping in with good ideas left and right.  You realize though, that once we come to like you and get used to all your great input, we don't let you get away easily.  Just ask football lovin', ornament winnin' Montana Kelly.

Lots of good ideas were generated yesterday about ways to adapt our Christmas tree idea to fit the hobbies and interests of family and friends.  I've thought more about the tree, for Kristen's friend who is relocating to Texas.  Maybe you could wire miniature containers of hot sauce (sold at World Market), a "Don't Mess With Texas" bumper sticker, a horseshoe, a Texas ornament, a Texas shaped cookie cutter, silk yellow roses.  And, how about cutting a bandanna into strips and turning them into bows?

Or... do a moving-themed tree (cardboard and string) and attach a gift certificate to  a local Texas restaurant the couple can visit once they arrive (but before their kitchen is unpacked).

As for my cookie cutter tree?  It's on it's way to Katie K. - party host extraordinaire.  She is an expert cookie baker and "flooder," so I know she'll get great use from it.  Do you want a cool host or hostess gift?  Find out later this week how you can host your very own Highlowaha Friendship Party.

Today's price point... $15.00.

I love bookstores.  You would be hard pressed to walk in Barnes and Noble and not be able to find something for even the toughest person on you list.  The person on your list isn't into the classics - Jane Eyre, Hemmingway, Orwell, Hawthorne, Faulkner...?  How about a book on hunting, cooking, fishing, crocheting.  No books?  O.k.  How about a magazine, a CD, or a DVD?  Still no?    Stationary, journals, paperweights, games?  It's decided.  Bookstores are to me what FAO Schwartz is to my boys! 

Today's gift comes in three parts.  I'll share each part individually and in the end you'll see how they fit together... and... for under $15.00!

Part I.  Barnes and Noble Gift Card.  The other nice thing about this gift is it's scalable.  I'm putting a $10.00 gift card in mine, but if you can't spend $10.00 then how about $5.00 (lots of good magazines for less than $5.00)?  Or, if you're feeling more generous, increase the amount to fit your budget.

Part II.  Page Markers.  These are FREE!  You know all those envelopes delivered to your home every afternoon?  Don't throw them away.  With a little bit of effort and a touch of creativity, you can turn them into fun gifts to be packaged with a book or gift card.  It's simple.  (1) Cut the edges of the envelope on a diagonal, (2) decorate, and (3) slip over the page in your book where you stopped reading.  This idea is an especially nice way to involve kids in gift giving, as they will have a great time decorating the page markers.  I packaged mine in cellophane envelopes, but you could use a small box, punch a whole in the top and slip them through a metal ring, or display them on page corners throughout the book you are giving.

Part III.  Final step to today's gift.  This is the piece where you can employ as much creativity as you have time for.  Mine is not elaborate, because I was making it in time to photograph for this morning's post.  This book shaped box is made of card board.  You can buy them at any craft store for approximately $3.50 ($3.39 at Hobby Lobby).  Then use some tissue paper and a little Modge Podge to cover the front.  If you have lots of time, you can cut out pictures, letters, and words from magazines.  What is especially fun about this is that you can custom design the "book cover" to fit the interests/personality of your recipient.  Some examples.  If I was giving it to my retired mother in-law I might title it, "101 Activities for the Newly Retired"  Purchased with Susan, the avid reader from Georgia, in mind might earn it the title, "A Readers Guide to Georgia".  Ricky, my Olympic aspiring son?  How about, "Dangerous When Wet"

The title chosen for today's sample... "PPDC: The Building of a Brand"  Author, A.B.  To you know who... your treat is in the mail!

Gift Card = $10.00; Page markers = FREE; Personalized Book Box = $3.50.  Grand total...$13.50.

Either comment on the use of my $15.00 or share another idea you might have for how to spend $15.00.  Would it be in poor taste to do a shameless plug for the last box of Highlowaha Christmas Conversation Cards?  Order now!

Signing off until tomorrow...

P.S.  Mustard is the winning secret ingredient for this week's challenge, 10 votes to 7!