| |
Fashion Plate By Angela Murrills
Publish Date: December 13, 2007
website
With a week left until Christmas, the gift-giving part of your brain is in overdrive. The mermaid-shaped candle you got last year from your uncle in Montreal mutates into this year's present for your kitsch-loving bud in Nanaimo. Hand-painted scarves in the wrong colours swirl and counter-swirl around the country until they land in the right hands. And so it goes. The only rule is that the shorter the distance between giver and regiftee, the higher the chance you'll be rumbled.
But that still leaves some names on your list. Your bro wants the new Bourne DVD, and you've tracked down the killer leopard-skin gloves your roommate was lusting after. Easy-peasy. Now it's just the ones who have it all or, increasingly, are trying to get rid of it. Donation, donation, donation–plant that thought at the back of your mind. The $50 you waste on Clocky, an alarm clock that runs away and hides, could pay for a whack of dinners at a local shelter, donated in someone's name.
To lead off, here's something that just about everyone–sibs, colleagues, friends–will thank you for, provided they live locally and, while not being fanatical, lean toward green living. The wisest gift this season, in my humble opinion, is the 2008 Vancouver Green Zebra guide. You've seen coupon books? This has a similar format, and every one of the 250-plus local businesses included is eco-friendly. Besides offering savings on places they'd go anyway (two-for-one tickets at Touchstone Theatre, Vancity Theatre, and the Cultch alone make the guide worth its $25 purchase price), this jam-packed little book is an eye opener to all the "green" businesses they can support. Other deals include 10 percent off at John Fluevog (837 Granville Street), plus "one hug or high-five from each staff member"–aaaaw–30 percent off at Tenth & Proper (4483 West 10th Avenue), free soap from the Rocky Mountain Soap Company (3057 Granville Street), and spa discounts and freebies. Other savings span eco paint and flooring, car sharing, groceries, and meals out. It's easy to wrap too: the guide suggests using magazine ads as wrapping paper, just one of the sound bits of advice on greening your life that makes the Green Zebra a keeper even when all the coupons are gone. Pick it up (don't forget one for yourself) at Banyen Books and Sound (3608 West 4th Avenue), Donald's Market (2342 East Hastings Street and 2279 Commercial Drive), SPUD (Granville Island Public Market), and a slew of other places. (More places to pick it up are listed at www.greenzebraguide.ca/ you can also buy the guide on-line.) Partial proceeds go to the City Farmer Youth Education Garden.
Finding a useful gift isn't as dire as it sounds. Who hasn't swooped through a thrift store and thought, "Great, if only I had time to try that on"? Safer than eyeballing a sweater or shirt is measuring its width with a handy tape measure you keep in your purse (works for secondhand furniture too). Eensy ones that double as keychains are $6.50 for three at Lee Valley Tools (1180 SE Marine Drive). Attach a note saying what it's for and, because that is one cheapo present, maybe a gift card to Value Village.
I'm even later than usual this year sending packages overseas so, right after I file this story, I'll be off to the stores to pick up small, locally made items to pack in a padded envelope, crossing my fingers that Canada Post can do in 10 days what Air Canada can achieve in 10 hours. Plans include a major run to Escents (various locations) for petite bottles of scented oil. Westcoast Pine is self-explanatory; Candy Cane too. Christmas Joy, with its cinnamon and vanilla, smells like Santa's kitchen, and Noel blends cinnamon with cedarwood. (All are $12.95 for five millilitres.) Another find here, good for older relatives, are little roll-ons ($16.95 for nine millilitres) that help cure headaches, bring on sleep, and, as we enter the stuffed-up nose season, aid respiration.
Necessities needn't be dull. They shower, don't they? Yet another store where you can decimate your gift list is BeautyMark (1120 Hamilton Street), which sells Philosophy's trio of all-in-one shower gel, bubble bath, and shampoo, plus shimmer lotion and lip shine, all sweetly scented with ginger and packaged in a Gingerbread Man Hat Box ($37). Jaqua's Cocoa Buttercream Frosting Body Butter ($24) is another treat that falls into the category of "OMG, I can't believe how yummy that smells!"
Text messages and e-mails are fine as far as they go (which is usually the electronic trash bin), but a real letter that arrives in the mail out of the blue is a keeper. Local company Haute Note will personalize sets of eight cards for you (which, sensibly, come with nine envelopes because who hasn't messed up an address; $24). Roam around www.hautenote.com/ and you'll see that these are cool, modern designs, not icky kittens and flowers. My pick would be the animal prints, although I can see how the tools set (garden, cooking, and others) would fit most friends. Get your order in by December 20 for a free gift and pre-Christmas delivery.
Next week, ideas for those who shop à la last minute.
© 2007 The Georgia Straight
|
|
