I’ve been experimenting with doing my hair in casual updos, and what has become abundantly apparent to me is that I need more clippy/pinny things (and also more strength/flexibility in the armular region, but one thing at a time). I have a large clip; and I have two smaller clips that together are just barely enough to hold up my hair; and I have a side-claw clip. Annnnd….that’s about it. Oh, and I have an assortment of barrettes and elastics, too, and some hairpins I’ve never successfully used for structural support.

I don’t want to go too wild with decorativeness. Or rather, I DO, but I’m worried it’ll take the look from “Casual Updo” to “Thinks She’s Going to the Prom.”

On the other hand, something fully practical like the Caravan Thick-Hair Tortoiseshell Barrette (photo from Amazon.com) in my shopping cart doesn’t exactly stir the soul. What I’d like to find is some clips that are sensible (i.e., hold up big chunks of hair comfortably) but also pleasing (i.e., PRETTY)—without overdoing it (i.e., PROM). It’s a fun challenge.

I noticed that Caravan hair clips were in general getting good reviews, so I browsed that section longer and found some good possibilities. The Tortoiseshell Flowers barrette (photo from Amazon.com) seems like exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for: the tortoiseshell makes it casual/plain and goes well with my shades-of-brown-and-blonde hair, and the flower shape makes it a little prettier than a rectangular barrette.
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Sigh.

I write these older-kid gift posts not because I feel like they contain Such Incredibly Awesome Ideas, but rather because there are SO FEW ideas of ANY CALIBER, it seems like we should put ALL the ideas OUT THERE. If I tell you what my 12-year-old boy is getting for his birthday, and if you tell me what your 12-year-old boy is getting for his birthday, then between us we have TWO ideas!

Spherification kit (photo from Amazon.com). We got this idea from Catherine Newman’s post. The gist, I gather, is that you add this stuff to liquid, and it turns the liquid into spheres. This seemed like the perfect present for a boy who spent one million hours with the water marbles he got for Christmas.

Magic Books and Paper Toys: Flip Books, E-Z Pop-ups, & Other Paper Playthings (photo from Amazon.com). We have a 12-year-old of the crafty/projects variety, and this looked like his sort of thing.
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We have a flatware pattern I love: it’s Hampton Finesse and it looks like this (photo from Amazon.com):

We got it at Target kind of a long time ago, and I’m certain we didn’t pay $40 per four place settings: I see similar Hampton sets selling now at Target for $20-35, and also I remember dragging Paul frantically to Target because there were orange tags everywhere and I couldn’t choose a pattern. We chose Finesse only partly for the look of it (though the look has grown on me even more with time): other issues were how the side of the fork handle feels when you’re cutting something, the bowl size/shape of the spoons, etc.

ANYWAY. We need more of it (I keep having to wash silverware in between dishwasher loads), and it’s not available anywhere except online for that high price (PLUS shipping), and I finally bit the bullet this weekend and just PAID it. It’s one of my biggest hurdles: paying more for something I could have gotten for less if I’d realized I would need it. When I am an old lady, that will be my main beef with the world: “Young man, I could have bought this on clearance at Target for ONE TENTH that price in MY day!”

But BEFORE I bit the bullet, I spent some time looking at other flatware patterns, trying out the idea that I could get a non-matching set and we could just mix them in. I didn’t find anything that made sense for this idea (the sets we liked cost MORE than our favorite set), but I did find some fun flatware.

Present Time Mix-and-Match Cutlery (photo from Amazon.com). I love this so much it makes my HEART POUND. The reviews unfortunately indicate that it may be cheap as all heck.
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Elizabeth has been invited to her first sleepover. I went on and on to the other mother about how she MIGHT be too nervous to accept the invitation—but it turns out Elizabeth’s fine and I’m the one who’s nervous.

I manage stress by shopping—or by pretend-shopping (I was glad to find recently that I am not alone in this). In this case I don’t think I actually need to buy anything: she can use an adult-sized orange-and-khaki sleeping bag we already own, and she doesn’t need new pajamas. But I had some fun putting together a pretend kit anyway.

Hello Kitty sleeping bag and backpack and Hello Kitty sleeping bag (photos from Amazon.com). At first I preferred the one on the left—but it’s more expensive than the one on the right, and comes with a backpack we don’t need. [The prices/sellers keep changing as I'm working on this. At first it was $40 for the one on the left and $20 for the one on the right. I'd re-do the search for "Hello Kitty sleeping bag" before buying.] I’m a little tempted to get her one of these even though she could make do with the one we have, just because the one we have is sooooo much bigger than she needs AND FINE, BECAUSE I LIKE TO BUY HELLO KITTY THINGS.

3-piece pajama set (photo from ChildrensPlace.com). Elizabeth has some footed sleepers, and she has some of the snug-fit cotton two-piece type pajamas, but it seems like the best would be the style with looser-fitting pants and a t-shirt. She has some of that type, and also some Nick & Nora button downs that would work well.
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Paul and I have had a smoother marriage since I stopped wanting us to exchange gifts on Valentine’s Day and anniversaries: Paul doesn’t like buying gifts for those occasions, and I don’t like getting gifts that come with a heavy sigh of obligation, and it’s hard to buy a similarly romantic/significant gift for a guy, and I get uptight about money—so overall it started feeling like it wasn’t a good idea for us as a couple.

Every so often my wish for a Significant Gift outweighs this, as for example on our tenth anniversary when I said ahead of time that I would like Expensive Earrings of His Choice, please, to wear sentimentally on all subsequent anniversaries, and I got him something unromantic for his computer—but for the most part we skip it. I still enjoy giving the kids a Valentine’s day gift, and I enjoy the fun of their classroom exchanges, and I still like Valentine’s Day decor and wearing pink/red that day and so forth.

I’m always interested to hear how other couples handle it. Some people who like to buy flowers are partnered with people who like to receive them. Some people who like to go out for dinner are partnered with people who like to, too. Some people who like lingerie are partnered with people who feel like it’s a gift for themselves. …And some people are not paired quite so neatly, and have to figure things out.

What I’d like to know today is what you’d LIKE to receive for Valentine’s Day—if for example you could have your same significant other, but replace the cells in their brain responsible for Valentine’s Day gifts. I’d also love to hear what you normally do, or what you’re likely to get instead—but I think it would be fun to do a sort of Fantasy List. My own tastes, as you will see, run toward the Classic: chocolates, flowers, jewelry.

See’s Pink Satin Heart (photo from Sees.com). I don’t think I even actually DO want this, even though it was the first thing I thought of when I turned my mind to the question. I DO love chocolates, ESPECIALLY heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, and I pined for this one as soon as I saw it—but $40 for not even a pound and a half of chocolate? And the box is so so pretty, but what would I use it for after the chocolate was gone? I used to save heart-shaped boxes, but I never did find a way to use them so I finally tossed them out in our last move. Still. If I were in a dating relationship, not married, I think this would be my favorite gift to get. I’d enjoy the extravagance of it, and I’d keep love notes and ticket stubs and photos in the heart-shaped box.
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I hope that this post will not give you the impression that I disapprove of candy at Valentine’s Day, or that I avoid it. FAR FROM IT. I give my own kids a candy gift, and I like that they come home with a little assortment of treats from school, too: it’s nice to have a candy holiday in between Christmas and Easter, just to keep the spirits up in the cold sad part of winter.

But I know enough from seeing/hearing OTHER people discuss it that not everyone is of the same mind. For those who are trying to avoid candy for various reasons but still would like to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a gift for the kids, here are a few ideas:

Sticky Mosaics heart box (photo from Amazon.com). I have mentioned Sticky Mosaics often enough that you already know we’re fans at my house. This heart box is a fun project we’ve also given as birthday-party gifts.

Hide ‘n’ Peek Chocolates game (photo from Amazon.com). If you look at the reviews, you’ll see that a lot of people thought this was a good Valentine’s Day gift for a child, and that unfortunately there is one main problem with it: the lid doesn’t fit on right. So it kind of depends on how important that feature is for the game to be a success. If you’re going to store it in a bin anyway (if you’re like me and wouldn’t want to assemble the toy every time you put it away, for example), it won’t matter—but it might be disappointing anyway.
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Henry is going to a birthday party in a couple of weeks. I asked him what the birthday boy likes, and he said “NINJAS!!” So we are looking at ninja ideas.

Ninja costume (photo from Amazon.com). I bought this costume for Henry, for Halloween next year. It might also make a fun gift idea. But when I bought it for Henry, it was marked down to $8.50 on a post-Christmas clearance; now it’s $16-something. I find it difficult to pay more for things I could have gotten for less. Also, I’m not at all sure about the quality: the reviews are quite mixed, and for me it was worth the risk for $8.50 and for my own kid—but I feel more nervous spending $16+ and giving it to someone else’s kid.

Matryoshka ninjas (photo from Amazon.com). This was the very first search result, which is good because I never, ever, not in a dozen years of ninja birthday parties, would have thought to look for such a thing. And yet—this is exactly the sort of toy I would have found enduringly interesting as a child. Hm. Well, we’d be unlikely to be duplicating someone else’s gift!
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One of my favorite days of the year when I was a child was Valentine’s Day. Decorating the cereal box mailbox with doilies and hearts and stickers was one of my favorite crafts. And the concept of “If you bring valentines, you have to bring one for everyone” must have been established by then—or in any case, I don’t have any traumatizing memories of not getting as many valentines as other people. There was the inevitable “Someone got a BETTER and/or more SIGNIFICANT valentine”—but deciding what makes a valentine good/significant is Big Fun for some of us. (Fortunately, classroom valentines are over by the time there are serious hormones to consider.)

Little Owl valentine cards by Letter C Design on Etsy (photo from the shop). We are fond of owls at our house. It is nice to have on-trend tastes: there is so much merchandise available.

Superhero girls and boys by LuckyLu Creations on Etsy (photos from the shop). The trouble with something hand-colored is that you pay extra for the hand-coloring when maybe you would have been just as happy with the color coming from the printer. Happier, perhaps. But I would have a lot of fun getting a set each of girl and boy superheros and trying to match hair color to as many kids in the class as possible.
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Nothing. There isn’t anything. Gift card, maybe.

As we enter the Land of Teens, I’m finding it more and more difficult to choose good gifts. It’s partly that the things teenagers would like to receive are usually out of our price range now. And it’s partly that teenagers seem less delighted in holidays and gifts in general.

Well, we muddle though as best we can, relying heavily on these ideas:

1. Stuff from Zazzle (screenshot from Zazzle.com). I started messing around making custom things on Zazzle, and the children were RIVETED. You could make your OWN STUFF?? And then HAVE IT?? And then they started browsing, and of course they were cracking up at every lame joke the rest of us have heard a hundred times, because the world is all fresh and new to a child, and that world includes rude homework/gassiness jokes. Zazzle stuff is pretty expensive, but they have sales all the time for 50% off in a particular category, such as mugs or t-shirts. I have the kids send me links to things they like or things they custom-designed, and then those make good gifts.

2. Game/movie/book tie-in stuff. This is where we generally find the greatest riches. Is the teenager a fan of Minecraft? Portal? Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? Then it is your good fortune to live in a capitalistic society, because if there is any product that can be tied in, it will exist.
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I chose my kitchen wall calendar: it’s the Art of Valentina one I mentioned in this year’s calendar post. I put it up yesterday at midnight, after spending part of the evening doing my usual New Year’s Eve tradition of copying all the birthdays and anniversaries from the old calendar to the new. (I made a mistake right on the first page and had to scribble it out. Excellent.)

I also have a second calendar on its way to me: a Wallpaper calendar (photo from Amazon.com). I’m not sure about it, though; from the picture it looks like it might be iffy quality (the font does not inspire confidence, especially on the front cover), and there aren’t any reviews. I got it on a nice enough price that it was a gamble I was willing to take in case it’s awesome. In the meantime, I still have other choices in my Amazon cart, and as they drop to half price I might get a different one. It’s just for next to my computer, so I don’t need it first thing on January 1st as I do with the kitchen calendar.

Page-a-day calendars are the same way: I don’t mind catching up on the first couple of weeks all at once. Paul and Rob wanted puzzle ones this year, so I got two (photos above from Amazon.com) when they dropped to 50% off, and now Amazon keeps suggesting more page-a-days. I haven’t had one in recent years, but I might like to.
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