We’re getting down to the wire with LESS THAN A WEEK TILL XMAS. But there is so much we can offer just by being there. Yes that sounds incredibly cheesy, but it’s also true facts. So if you still haven’t figured out what to give, why not use your biggest commodity. You.

Here are some ways to spend your time doing something useful:

* babysit * clean * house sit * take care of animals * send a blogger some guest posts to give them a break * be a chauffeur * garden * sew * give massages * give a lesson on that annoying computer related thing your family keeps asking you to do *

If you really must give something physical then feel free to make up and print some redeemable vouchers.

And if you really must spend money then pay for some of these. There are plenty of talented individuals out there ready to help. At a pinch you can pay for these last minute gifts as well:

* blog hosting * domain names * the power/phone/gas bill * phone apps *

Extras for experts: A plain silver or gold chain is perfect even for people that like wearing colourful pendants and plastic charms. Reuse that “VHS your Aunt sent you” and share one of your favourite TV shows or movies. Be romantic and give someone your favourite book.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to participate in a tradition totally new to me & not at all new to the boyf. Every year since they were youngins he & his sisters get together to make gingerbread houses.

It was pretty obvious it was my first time unfortunately. I’ve not yet mastered the roofing weight limits or the decorative sugar cement placement. I did however create a gummy bear fire pit scene. (The fire was a jaffa!)

The real masterpieces came from Brend’s sisters (and boyfriend) with decorative shutters, flake gravel roads, chocolate button tiles, and jaffa baring apple trees. There was even a chocolate car!

Brend’s house was less ‘perfectly pretty’ and more ‘all the colours & all the candy’. Closer to what our real lives are like instead of the lives in magazines.

We elected to keep our gingerbread house at Brend’s parent’s until xmas. Lest I start trying to sneak the bits no one will notice till the house is bare and crumbling.

I’ve gone with the generic ‘pictures’ because lots of people are scared of art, or aren’t interested in photography, or are scandalised by the thought of rasterbating. But really everyone likes looking at nice images, you just need to find their style.

If you’re good with a camera offer your photography skills and take some family photos that aren’t staged in a boring studio; make a scrap book of you with your person; blow up your favourite image onto a canvas.

If you’re an artist create a masterpiece featuring your person’s fur babies or copy a favourite photo of your coupled friends onto beautiful paper.

If you know an artist or photographer you could buy them tools of their trade, or better yet, buy them vouchers from their favourite art supplier so they can choose exactly what they want. Or pay for a year of their flickr subscription.

Even if you think you have no artistic talent you can give the gift of art. Just take a quick peek at Etsy and you will find over a million pieces! If your friend is an artist then get a frame made for one of their works. If it’s a teen in love with their reflection print photos from their facebook page for their bedroom wall. If you’re an instagram addict head over to printstagram and get a poster, or mini prints made. If it’s an animal lover needing some love surprise them with a full wall of kitten printed using rasterbator.

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Everyone loves food. Delicious home cooked food is even better. Delicious home cooked food that mixes in all the best ingredients – best ever!

A pretty parcel of salted caramel cookies tied with a bow. Chocolate mixed with berries and chilli set into the shape of unicorns. Pint sized rainbow cakes in mason jars (if you do it right they will keep unopened for AGES so you can make them well in advance). Mini pulled pork or bacon and egg pies. Olive and rosemary bread. Jars of bacon infused whisky. The possibilities are endless and interesting.

However.

You could go one better for your people that love to cook.

Instead of making them something how about giving them the recipe and ingredients. Hand craft a fancy recipe card from card stock, doilies, and fat felt pens – you could even laminate it so the butter and flour wipes right off.
If it’s cookies or cake you could layer the dry ingredients in a jar. All they need to do is tip it into a bowl and add eggs and butter.

If you’re super amazing (and have lots of time) think about making a collection of your favourite recipes.

If you’re like me you’ve got recipes bookmarked all over the internet, post its in your cookbooks to mark pages, and print outs that people have emailed you. Type them up, scan them, or work on writing them out over the course of a year. Print them in a book. Stick them on themed recipe cards and present in a wooden box. Hand out card stock to everyone and get them to write up their favourites.

If you go the recipe card in a box option make sure you include a few blanks for them to fill in later. Note the size of them down for yourself and you’ve got xmas and birthdays sorted forever!

Boom.

Each year I try to give suggestions on great gifts for people that don’t take up space, don’t add unnecessary crap to people’s lives, and don’t play directly into the hands of huge retail chains that pump out poorly made trinkets.
2008 suggested what to do and what not to do for last minute present buying.
2009 listed some consumable gifts that won’t leave a trace when they’ve been used. (Well apart from the obvious trace a tattoo will leave.)

This year I’ve got a whole lot more ideas that I would be really stoked to receive. Many of them won’t cost a thing. Others will have a small but worthwhile cost. The physical things on these lists can easily be bought second hand, some can be created from your own hands. Some only require your presence.

We’ve all gotten lost so far down the rabbit hole that we don’t even realise we’ve turned into capitalist consumerist whores. He who dies with the most toys wins and all that rubbish. We all need new clothes, and new computers when our current ones die. This is modern life after all and a computer is an integral part of living in the modern Western World. But spare a thought for those 200,000 Kiwi kids in poverty when you’re debating whether to get the $800 leather bag or the $200 leather bag.

So without further ado – here’s the first in my list of awesome shit that you should think about gifting to the people you love:

Mixtapes

You thought these went out around the same time tapes did didn’t you? Well you thought wrong. Mixtapes are still one of the ultimate romantic gifts. And even if you don’t have much of a clue about the music your giftee will like it’s really the thought that counts here.

Make a playlist for a specific mood: your favourite songs for getting ready to go out, the best to cook to, a chilled out selection to have on in the background when there are people over, power ballads that everyone loves to sing at the top of their lungs.

Find all the rare b sides and live bootlegs from your giftee’s favourite band and burn them to disk with some homemade cover art.

Or the ultimate in selfish gifting (other than the old classic power tool gift that you really want for yourself) spend an afternoon (or a lifetime) cultivating your favourite songs of ALL TIME and put them on a flash drive. Your recipient might be exposed to some new music they love just as much as you do, and if nothing else they’ll have music to put on when you’re hanging together.

If all of my friends sent me 10 of their favourite songs I would get some much needed exposure to new music and I’d finally be able to offer up my iPod for the stereo when there are people at our house! Apparently I’m the only one who chooses to fill the majority of their soundscape with Finnish metal and sex addicted pop rockers.

There are a number of things I’m wishing for for giftmas that I’m really not expecting: to wake up and realise the result of yesterday’s election was just a nightmare; a 4s iPhone; a trip to Iceland.

Here are a few more realistic ideas:

1. Daily diary with unruled pages – It is insanely hard to find daily diary with unruled pages! I have found a total of one option, the Delfonics Daily Book. The Kikki K Sundae Daily Diary looks pretty cute too though.
2. Cute storage – To hide all my mess! [Sky blue paper suitcases from Sweet Shop Lulu.]
3. Scissors – A pair of fabric scissors and some embroidery scissors would be a great addition to my craft tools. [Pink embroidery scissors from Sublime Stitching.]
4. Sweary plates from Trixie Delicious – I have wanted some of her plates for AGES. Pretty sure these have been on every wishlist of mine for years. Maybe it’s time to invest for myself? [X-boyfriend trio from Trixie Delicious.]
5. Spray paint – My 26 in 26 list says that I need to paint something to make it look prettier. I love the blue!
6. RAM – My new compy could sure do with a memory upgrade! [8gb of RAM from OWC.]
7. SDHC memory card – My camera has the ability to take videos but I still haven’t tested it out as I’m sadly lacking in the memory card department.
8. Rings – Sometimes it’s nice to have jewellery that isn’t made out of plastic or wood. These Sterling Silver rings are lovely. [Goujon Triple Ring from Alex and Chloe. Lightning Bolt Ring from Glam Rock Emporium.]
9. Animals in clothes – Or second best, these cute illustrations of my fave animals in suits. [Polar Bear and Narwhal from Berkley Illustration.]
10. Food and Drink – Or cake and gin.
11. Tattoo money – I plan to get my next tattoo in the same place as this pretty piece.

What’s on your wishlist this year?

I can’t believe I actually have to start talking about this now, but giftmas is nearly upon us! In less than 2 months we’ll be gathering with our families and taking a break from our usual lives.

Being all the way down in little old New Zealand means that things can take a while to get to you, from me. So cut off dates from the Cupcakes and Mace store for shipping overseas is the 29th of November. If you’re wanting something custom made for a gift then you should let me know asap!

If you’re ordering from Australia you have till the 6th of December. And if you’re ordering from New Zealand you have right up until the 21st of December. Sweet.

Basically you only have THREE WEEKS. Get thee orders in my inbox!

As well as all of the usual colour options I have silver mirror, gold mirror, silver holograph, light blue holograph, dark blue holograph, purple holograph, and red holograph available till it runs out. If you’re a blog reader you can have those colours for no extra as well.

Oh yes, we love our tuberculosis jokes in the Cupcake Factory (see: The Boy always shortened to TB on twitter).

I’m not actually suggesting you try to kill someone by infecting them with TB I’m making a very grown up suggestion (again) that you stop cluttering your friends and families houses gift shop trinkets and candles because you really had no idea what to get them. Instead you should be gifting consumables. Great gifts that will leave nothing but memories in the end.

Even in a recession many childless couples and singles are in a position to buy themselves whatever takes their fancy, they don’t need to wait for gifts or an increase on their credit limit, they just buy. But if they’re anything like me they’ll be buying chocolate, but never a box of the really good ones; the wine but nothing above $20; and the only foliage in the house is plants, not flowers. You see where I’m heading with this?

There is only one week till giftmas day! I know right, I have never been this disorganised before leaving on holiday in my life. I have 2 days to clean all my clothes and pack up my life for three weeks.

Just in case you’re a slacker like me this year here are some ideas for last minute gift buyers without a clue what to grab.

• Hampers Great for food lovers, fill a decorated box (easier to get rid of, and cheaper, than a wicker basket) with chocolates, olives, nuts, and sauces.
• Alcohol Be a gracious guest this holiday season and provide some lovely wine to drink. It doesn’t have to be too expensive, your host will be stoked that you appreciate them.
  Or if you have 17 year olds in your life you’ll go own in history as the best sister/aunt/mum ever if you provide the just under ageds with something that will get them wasted.
• Subscriptions Magazines, dvd rentals, cheese of the month. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
• Cleaning I would LOVE someone to come scrub my kitchen and bathroom – unless the recipient is a clean freak that doesn’t need a break in that department I wouldn’t worry too much about offending.
  Or you could offer to clean mum’s house in preparation for guests, she’ll really appreciate your help!
• Homemade treats Chinese takeout boxes can be bought for cheap and filled with homemade treats like sugar cookies, truffles, and fruit mince pies.
• Lessons Cooking lessons (available at every price point), language, dancing, photography. Won’t clutter the house but will stick with them for life!
• Tattoos What could be more special than paying for a much wanted permanent artwork that your recipient will carry for life? I say nothing.
• Body care While usually an intensely personal item if you know your recipient well, or spend a lot of time in their bathroom, you’ll probably know what products they use. Buy those. Moisturiser can be expensive yo.
• Geek stuff If you’re a geek you could create your bestie a site of her very own. Buy your travelling friend a subscription or renewal to Flickr so you can keep an eye on the snaps. Surprise your internet buddy with her very own .com so she can get rid of the blogspot part of her address.
• Vouchers If all else fails vouchers of any kind trump incense and ceramic kittens. Make it personal by giving a voucher to their favourite clothing shop, a meal at their favourite restaurant, or iTunes money for your music obsessed little brother. Other great vouchers include food, spa treatments, movie tickets, and those booklets from your boyfriend that you can use at any time and he has to do what it says.

What’s your favourite consumable?

I’m not sure if it’s this time of year or the fact that I generally like to have things but after my last wishlist post I was inspired to start noting down the things I’m lusting after.

Here a few more things I’d love to have to would also make excellent gifts for the left of centre girls in your life.

1. Anything from Trixie Delicious – This clever lady make me want to collect plates and tea cups so bad. So far I’ve only managed to score one of her badges emblazoned with flowers and the word Creep, but I’d really love some of her plates hanging in my house, the cruder the better.
   I wish I had a close gay friend so I could buy him the Gaybo plate!
2. A watch – I’ve been trying to find one I want for ages, but these styles all seem quite cool.
   Bright pink from The Warehouse
   Black Plasteramic from ToyWatch

   http://toywatchusa.com/Plasteramic-Watch-Collection-Black/M/B001KQ7YE8.htm

3. Keep Calm posters – The Boys work has a nice printer so he might be able to do these for me ;]
   Bright solid colours please, no pastels, and definitely no orange.
   Get Excited and Make Things – download
   Keep Calm and Conjure a Patronus Charm (because I’m on a massive Harry Potter kick right now) from 3 Lambs Graphics
4. Thrifted frames – Sure new frames are nice, but they’re expensive, and you can’t spray paint them without feeling guilty.
   I’d like to fill one of our walls with framed prints (like the posters above) big ones, little ones, whatever. So if you come across any cheap ones snap them up for me!
5. 0g earrings – Because the holes in my lobes are 8mm wide I usually just leave my trusty plugs in but it would be nice to change it up every now and then. These earrings are so pretty!
   Horn Hearts from Bodyartforms
   Single flare light blue pyrex plug from Bodyartforms
6. Feltidermy – Like taxidermy but with felt animals (even though The Boy feels really bad seeing soft toy heads on the wall. He said “what if that was Little Ted’s head on a plaque”. He’s a big softy!)
   Bunny and jackalope from Girl Savage on Etsy
7. Books – With a particular focus on Harry Potter. While I’ve read all of the books in the series at least twice I only own books 6 and 7. Adding hard cover copies of books 1-5 would be awesome.
8. Vouchers – Reading cinemas movie vouchers, New World vouchers, and cleaning vouchers. To entertain us, feed us, and make us look like we’re less gross than we really are.
9. Geek pride – Keep out of direct sunlight. Nuff said.

My often updated wish lists can always be found on Amazon and Etsy.

Well a lot of things really. I’m way way WAY over my current self imposed budget and I haven’t even started shopping for gifts yet! It’s a busy time of year for socialising, we had a week away in which I couldn’t resist the sales, my phone died and I had to buy a new one, and I have a tattoo appointment coming up.

Here are some of the things I’d buy myself if money wasn’t an issue.

Tattoos – I’m getting one on December 14 anyway, but it’d be nice if I had unexpected spare money to pay for it. It’d be great to get a tattoo fund started for my future tatts too!

DSLR Camera – This is going to stay on my list till I get one.

Candy and other delicious foods – I’m a big fan of food. I would call myself a foodie but I’m pretty sure you have to be discerning to be a foodie. And I think you also have to like to cook. Anyway, I love candy and chocolate and cookies. And cheese and olives and nuts. If you’re looking for something easy and cheap get me (or make me) this!

Pencil skirts and capris – Great all year round but-as with everything that’s not in fashion-hard to find. I think a spot of op shopping will be needed in my holiday.

Reading light – A carry over from my birthday, so I don’t disturb The Boy when I want to read in bed.

Hip flask – I’m not a big fan of wine or beer. I’ll drink them, but mostly because it’s easy when visiting friends. I much prefer to drink spirits but there is no way I’d get through even half a bottle in a night. So I’m faced with a dilemma, do I take a whole bottle with me and hope it doesn’t get used by everyone else, or do I take a small amount in a drink bottle and look miserly? A hip flask totally solves the problem, I can be selfish (hey, we’re not exactly swimming in money these days!) and not look like a douche. In fact hip flasks are quite sophisticated.
Just make sure it’s a 6oz flask, I’d like to get more than one drink out of it!

Slanket – It’s the wrong season for this snuggly blanket, but come winter I’d be all up in it. A blanket with arms, who wouldn’t love one. And I have it on good authority (Princess Lasertron told me) that these are way better than snuggies.

Hair clips – They make me look as young as I feel!

Sock garters and fun socks – I never wear stockings so garters don’t seem to be of any use, I always wear socks though and I like them to have a bit of fun and colour. I have a feeling sock garters are going to become popular again in the near future, but I want them so my socks don’t fall down.

Glee soundtracks + Lady Gaga’s The Fame: Monster – These may have to be another present to myself so that I can sing them loudly on our holiday road trip. (In our new car that has speakers that actually work properly :D)

Tights – I am still in deep love with tights. I own 4 black pairs (2 thick and 2 thin) and a pink pair. I need more! It’s really hard to find any that are long enough so I adore my thin pairs as they have stirrups. I’d really like some summer tights that stop above the knee, and maybe a pair made of lace. Fancy.

In reality I don’t expect any of this (except maybe some candy, it’s my life blood). It’s nice to have, but I don’t need it. I’m more excited about taking a break and spending time with my family.

What are you hoping for this year?