The one thing that is true is that friends are the people we CHOOSE which means they must have a special place in our hearts. I'm a very friendly person...I get along with just about everyone and enjoy most people's company on some level. However, I have a very small circle of individuals I consider true friends and I value those friendships more than words can say. From listening to our readers yesterday it seems that many of you have those important "true" friends in your lives as well. So today is all about honoring those people, the ones that have hung with you through thick and thin.
As a kid growing up in the 80s I learned the craft of the friendship bracelet. The concept? Take some brightly colored thread safety pin it to the thigh of your pants and weave it together to form identical bracelets for your friends. The funny thing about those bracelets is that I remember making DOZENS of them!!!
Those bracelets became the focal point of my early junior high existence. You see it was easy to see who valued who as a friend. Then of course the phenomenon spread to friendship jewelry that was store bought where you keep one and give the other to your best friend. I'm here today to encourage a rebirth of the friendship bracelet. No, I don't expect grown women to walk around with brightly colored thread on their wrists. But what happened to our childhood ability to recognize the people in our life that we chose? For some reason our friends are the people we EXPECT to be there, the people we use to make us happy, support us when we are sad, and experience every life moment with us and yet...we don't often take the time to recognize them or just say THANK YOU!!!
So here are three easy ways to gift a grown up version of the friendship bracelet:
#1: There are so many jewelry options out there I had to go with a REAL bracelet for my first suggestion. Starting at as little as $14.99 you can send your friend a bangle bracelet etched with a friendship sentiment that will serve as a reminder of your friendship each time they wear it. I'd recommend redenvelope.com as a good place to find a good quality bracelet for a friend.
#2: For those looking for a crafty or lower cost option of a gift to say thanks to your friends how about creating a fortune cookie box filled with fortunes that speak to how much you value your friendship. By cutting a circle out of a piece of foam or felt you can fold in half and glue the tip and fold in half again glueing just the tip to create a fortune cookie shape. Fill with your fortunes and put in a $1.49 fortune cookie box from Michael's and add a note that says, "Fortunate to have YOU as a friend".
#3: With the surge in popularity of social networking sites like Facebook it seems that many of us have reconnected with friends we once considered very important in our lives. It has been nice to see how these people are doing...if they have families, where they live, what they are up to in general. There are a few of them I'd like to rekindle a friendship with and more than just over facebook for them I recommend finding a photo of the two of you and turning it into your OWN photo postcard. Some of you may have received our photo postcard and it would be easy to make one of your own. Just pull together your pictures, drop them into Word, Photoshop, whatever and create a collage of images and send as a .jpg to your local photo processing place (Walgreens, Costco). Then attach it to a kimac with a message about how glad you are to have reconnected. At less than a $1 this is a great way to recognize as many friends as you want without breaking the bank.
Signing off until tomorrow...
