I’m being a good daughter this year — and saving myself a lot of last minute trouble — by not waiting until the Saturday before to pick out a gift for my mom. I got her something I know she’ll love, and it reminds me of the vacation we took together last summer.

My mom is actually pretty easy to shop for. She’s a big fan of rings, especially oversize ones, and she can generally use something practical for the dogs under my parent’s foster home rescue care. Of course, she’s also a fan of impractical things for dogs and dog decorations, so there are plenty of directions you can go.

Red Dog Collar I Love You Th… Dogologie $18.00	Dog Tail Leash Holder – Wasa… AplombDesigns $14.95	Dog Collar Bow Tie Set…..F… BowWowCouture $34.95
Leather dog collar / 1 inch … BackbeatLeathe… $20.00	Reversible Pet Sling – Metro… PetSlings $39.00	Custom Blue and Brown Argyle… GypsyEyesCloth… $15.00
Large Ring Flower Cabochon R… SpotLightJewel… $19.95	Rhinestone Ring Wire Wrapped… jewelrybyvicki $8.50	925 Oversized Ring with Gold… artisan925 $140.00

I went with a mix of both practical and impractical gifts, but I tried to only pick out things we would both really like. I don’t think she’d be as excited about the mix-tape pattern collar as I am, but I hope she’d love the dog leash holder just as much. I love how bright and fun this one is, but I found some other, more subdued versions too.

Maybe if I get her a ring she really likes, she would let me put the bowtie on Jojo, my parents dachshund. He would look like such a gentleman!

Since I read somewhere that you can make your own scratch-off paint by mixing 2-parts acrylic paint to 1-part dish soap, I’m on the hunt for great DIY projects involving scratchoff paint. I think this Scratch Personalized World Map Poster might be just the inspiration I need. How fun! (via Offbeat Home)

I would love this Diamond Ring Bottle Opener from fredflare.com. I prefer the ring-style bottle opener so much more than the hook-style ones on corkscrews, and this one wouldn’t look a bit out of place on the counter when left out during a party. (via Oh Joy!)

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up, I’ve rounded up all of those amazing gift guides out there in the blogosphere. (Click on all images to be taken to the orginal post).

I love this gift suggestion from Making it Lovely! Those headphones are awesome!

Kate Pruitt from Design*Sponge is awesome at gift guides. She’s got so many tech goodies and they are all featured on My Life Scoop.

30 Tech Gifts Under $100: Click through to see all thirty! I love this neutral and metallic one! That watch is oversized vintage watch is rad! 

30 Tech Gifts Under $50 that focus on Sleek and Sporty, Elegant Neutrals, and the Quirky and Colorful one is my favorite! I’d love to have that knit laptop case!

Kate from Centsational Girl has her gift guide for the host/hostess:

Apartment Therapy has sooo many gift guides right now! Here’s my favorites:

For Tech Lovers

For The Modern Gentleman

For Small Space Dwellers

For Design Lovers (Under $75) 

For Design Lovers (Under $100)

For Your Favorite DIY-er

This gift guide from Cool Hunting is totally rad. It’s just fun to look through all the unique items.

Other notables:

Pam from Retro Renovation has a gift guide miniseries happening right now of items made in the U.S. Love this! Her most recent post was about Tito’s Handmade Vodka made right here in Austin!

Also, Annie from Annilygreen is having 20%off her whole store tomorrow. I want that large “I love this town” print soooo bad.

If you’re in the US, I hope you’re all enjoying your Thanksgiving week! I speak for both Jess and myself when I say that we are so thankful for all of our readers here at our small little blog. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Mom is starting to really put pressure on Kyle and I to get her a Christmas list. This year, all I really want for Christmas is a nice Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with his family. Some of this is because there just isn’t too much we want. Usually we ask for a few things we would enjoy but wouldn’t ordinarily purchase for ourselves like movies or books or an Xbox Live account for Kyle. This year, we’re having a hard time coming up with even that list. If I had to make a Christmas list right now it would look more like a punch list with three different projects we need to hire contractors for to get the outside of the house cleaned up after hard summer storms.

Besides, I am at an age where I value personal gifts picked out by someone who loves me much more than I am concerned about getting the same number of gifts as my little brother.

If it’s time to start making a list of gifts then it’s definitely time to start thinking of gifts to give. This pre-Christmas season, I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with Ety’s Gift Ideas for Your Friends tool. It makes it super easy to shop for really personal gifts for your friends and family, as long as they’ve specified some likes on Facebook. After you go to Etsy.com/gifts, you just link up your Facebook account and search for the friend you’re buying for.

Here’s the screenshot for my family’s list:

If you click see more, you get even more listings, narrowed down by category. This is a sampling of my brother’s showing etsy finds related to Jack Kerouac, reading, and Pulp Fiction:

It’s so fun to play around with and I’ve found lots of great gift ideas!

It’s not always perfect, of course. For example, I don’t think my friend Matt who likes Gladiator would be very interested in these Gladiator Brass Ankle Chains and Shoe Harness by dearbearcat.

Though, they’re pretty hot and would really jazz up that pair of nude pumps I love.

Matt (who is in school to be an osteopath) probably would appreciate these gifts related to his love of Chemistry:

Chemistry Custom Periodic Table Cufflinks by ShopGibberish on Etsy

Vintage Wood Chemistry Test Tube Rack by havenvintage on Etsy

Trust me, it seems a lot more fun than dealing with crowds to find impersonal gifts from big box stores!

I’ve been tossing around the idea of featuring these on our Thursday Tea Time for a while, but, today, I just can’t resist. This Tub Teas by Martha Stewart Crafts are such a cute gift idea.

There are so many options to personalize them, too. You could make customized names for each tub tea that reminded the recipient of a memory you shared or make them with aphrodisiac scents for a partner and make each tag an offer for another relaxing, romantic good deed.

It’s also a really nice excuse to buy pretty boxes whenever you see one you like. I don’t know if I’m weird or not but I really like little decorative boxes but I always pass them up when I’m thrifting because I haven’t the slightest idea where they’d go or where I’d put them.

Unique Handpainted Iranian Wooden Box by missyrmom on Etsy

Vintage Retro Tartan Plaid Metal Recipe Box by TeamRuster on Etsy.

There are so many options to really reflect your or your friend/partner’s style with this gift.