The perfect Mo Sista thank-you card

For the third year in a row I am participating in Movember. During the month of November men (Mo Bros) grow moustaches (Mos) in support of men's health (In Canada -Prostate Cancer Canada). Women (Mo Sistas) can also participate by providing the Mo Bros with morale support and collecting donations for the cause.

This year, I have collected $1000 (so far) from my generous sponsors. To thank them I ordered the most fabulous personalized cards from etsy store ylimepulp. The seller changed the cards to read Mo Sista (rather than mister) and my full name.


Although the seller is in the U.S.A, the cards arrived within a week and a half. I am going to frame one of my cards for my desk as the 3D moustache makes me smile every time I look at the card.

ylimepulp has a wide variety of stationery, which makes this gift geek very excited.

Thank you Emily from ylimepulp for putting a smile on this Mo Sista and all of my Movember sponsors.

Check out Emily's shop and tell her the gift geek sent you.

It's gift giving time - keep it unique!
The Gift Geek

Another great baby shower gift idea - at least I think so.

My friend Amy and I were excited to be invited to our friend Denise's baby shower. We spoke about possible gifts and settled on an idea ... granted an idea I stole from a facebook friend. We decided to start the baby a library!

The library would consist of two bookends and as many books as we could purchase, keeping in mind our budget.

I went to Chapters/Indigo and found the most adorable bookends by a company named Zuny. The ends are sold separately for $29.99 a piece. For the most part, the bookends are animals and there is quite the variety to choose from. Chapters had five choices and I decided to pick-up the Elephant and a Lion.


I wrapped it up nicely with the books we picked up to help start the babies library and voila!


These bookends are also designed to work as door stops, so I wasn't too upset when Denise received a second elephant (her favourite animal). I was apparently not as original as I thought.

As I mentioned, I stole this idea from my friend Jordana. How nice do these bookends look on her son's bookshelf??!!!! GORGEOUS!


Note: The bookshelf itself is from ducduc -- an American company. Designed in NYC and built in Connecticut from sustainable wood. www.ducducnyc.com. Purchased from Ella & Elliot in Toronto.

Back to the shower ...

Denise's shower was a lovely luncheon event at Fire on the East Side. The meal was delicious, the conversation was great and Denise was glowing. She is such a beautiful expectant mother.

One of Denise's friends made cupcakes for each of the shower guests to take home with them. They were amazingly delicious and so cute.

The chick is made of cake that was dipped in white chocolate. YUM!

Denise said her husband liked the idea of receiving books for their new baby. I hope they will enjoy reading these books to their baby for years to come.

Keep on Giving -
The Gift Geek

Do you know anyone moving?

Guest blogger - My friend, the fabulous Amy

At my monthly girl’s dinner last week my friend Jill surprised another friend of ours with the cutest little gift: Return address labels. Now I know that doesn’t sound super exciting, but wait until you see them:




Cute right?

At Vista Print (where I also ordered my wedding invitations and must say was very happy with the quality), you can order address labels with a variety of different designs. In this case Jill customized Katie, her husband, and her cat’s caricature on to the address label. Caricature options include customizing one’s head shape, eye color, hair color etc not just for humans, but for your animal too! That way you can make sure to include everyone in your house on your label. You can even put head pieces like antlers on your little furry friends. Jill’s gift also included matching pens and sticky notes with the same design. So cute!

I ran a half marathon - what did you do?

On May 30th I completed my first half marathon with some of my good friends - including Amy, Elizabeth and Alison. My mom, aunt and cousin were there to cheer me on, which made the experience extra special.





What an awesome day. Now as this was my first, I learned of a few items that I absolutely love. Here are a few:

My favourite by far is the Nike Sports Band. It comes in a variety of colours and tracks pace, kms or miles, time, calories burned. I will admit when I first got this it didn't collaborate properly (off by .5 -.75 kms, but Nike has since fixed the problem and when I ran my half last May, it was dead-on. A small chip attaches to your shoe laces or if you have a Nike shoe, goes under your insole. The black piece (show below) communicates with the chip and plugs into your computer so that you can track your distance. My mom - who is just getting the hang of technology - uses one and loves it. She has only had to call me a handful of times with questions. I find the band is a motivator as when I start to feel tired, I know how much further I have to go and keep pushing through.


Another item I love is Road ID. They come in many different styles - ankle, wrist, shoe pouch or shoe id. The idea is that should you ever get into trouble while running, all of your important info will be on your id so that you can get the appropriate help - eg. year of birth, telephone numbers, city etc. (especially since a lot of runner don't carry ID. While I don't own this yet, I will be purchasing in the near future. I like the shoe id myself, because I wouldn't have to worry about remembering to put the id on before each run - plus I already wear my sports band on one wrist and sometimes an interval timer on the other.




I love he Lulu Lemon Running tights. LOVE!!!!! Their running shirts with the scuba hoods and cuffins are also great. Check out their full line of running gear.

I could probably go on forever about the things I like and dislike, but instead I am going to start training for the next Women Set the Pace - Toronto Women's Half Marathon in May. This year will be special as my mom won't be cheering from the sidelines, but joining me for the run. I couldn't be more proud!

Make your gifts memorable!
The Gift Geek

So - I won a trip ...

I'm not sure if I shared with you all that I won a trip for 4 to Orlando from Breakfast Television and iTravel 2000. At the end April I boarded the plane with my guests - Dianne, Fraser and Jocelyn. If you want to read out blog from FLA, take a look: http://flafour.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the weekend and keep your umbrella handy ...

Speaking of umbrellas ... I'll share that in another post. But believe me- It's a great gift idea in my mind and an awesome conversation starter!

Keep on gift giving!
The Gift Geek

Miss Muggs turned 5 on June 8th - Happy Birthday Ethel

My baby ethel turned 5 years-ols on June 8th. We celebrated with a trip to Bark & Fitz to get her some yummy puppy birthday treats, followed by a walk in her FAVOURITE park in the beach - a place we go every year on her birthday.

Here is Miss Ethel Muggs with one of her favourite birthday treats!

Happy Birthday ethy baby!

The Gift Geek - Your Mama

Rhys & Super Rhys

Thank you to my dear friends Tatiana and Sean for sharing this adorable picture of new baby Rhys with the sock monkey I made him. The sock monkey is complete with a cape - making him Super Rhys ... Baby Rhys' little buddy.


I can't wait to met you Rhys! I am sure that Super Rhys will watch over you until then.

xo
The Gift Geek