New Beginnings

I never thought I'd write a blog. Never. I outright refused, in fact. But, hey, here I am.

I changed my mind.

It has been a wild year (and I still mean 2008). I started a website and now a blog.

What's my site about? Gifts. Pretty simple. It's my idea of what makes a great gift. It should be beautiful, fabulously designed (and there are so many great designers), wonderfully packaged, (by the way I use a lot of parenthesis and adjectives- it can be a problem- and dashes- I love dashes), useful and well-priced. And it would nice if the gift had a story, right? I love a good story. We can all buy stuff- there is plenty of it. I think it's better to buy something that was made by an interesting person, with an interesting background who has an interesting story.

I also think everyone should be proud of what they are giving and I think people should give often. Why not? Doesn't it make us feel good to give and to receive? And don't we need to feel good these days?

I do have a passion for gift giving. I don't always get it right, but who does? But I do spend a lot of time thinking about. Even planning my daughter's party favor bags can take over my mind for weeks prior to the party- it's very odd I know.

So, that's what I'll write about - gifts. Tangible ones and intangible ones. I love hearing about great gifts- ones that someone really thought about. A good giver has been a good listener and has stockpiled tidbits of information about their friend, husband, sister, whomever and pulls out one of those tidbits when choosing a gift, such as - a need to relax, a desire to travel to Paris, a passion for planting bulbs, a love for candlelight, or a desire to organize. All of these tidbits help when choosing a gift.

I've got a good one. Michele Obama- conferred with Laura Bush about how best to raise her young children while in the White House and as a thank you for her advice Mrs. Obama gave her a great parting gift. She knew that Mrs. Bush would be writing her memoirs soon so Mrs. Obama gave her a pen that she had engraved with the date of the Inauguration and a leather bound journal inscribed with the following quotation:

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be beginning."

Now how cool is that?