Gifts for teenage girls

Hello all,

Now I think you realise that Christmas is just around the corner, whether you want it to be or not. So I'm just going to dive straight into one of the hardest tasks of the season: gift-giving. For teenage girls, to be exact.

I have researched the topic a fair bit and come up with a list of universal present ideas (for example, if you have a very alternative teenage girl this list may not work for you). These are some items I would love to receive/have received and loved. 

1. Magazine subscription

 A failsafe idea, especially if it's only for six months. My all-time favourite magazine is Teen Vogue, I read it like it's the bible. I think most teenage girls would. Here's the website!

2. Books! Lots of books!

(From bottom: Emma by Jane Austen, The Clique by Lisi Harrison, The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, another Clique book)

This little pile is some great girly reads with a bit of substance, so you don't feel like your brains are going to fall out of your head with every paragraph. And Emma, of course. I have been reading it lately and the plot is not too hardcore for my likings. Use this only for avid reader teenage girls.

3. Cosmetics

(Clockwise from bottom: Burt's Bees lip balm, lip shimmer and deep pore scrub, Prestige Soft Blend Kohl eyeliner in brown, Lucas' Pawpaw ointment, Palmers' Cocoa Butter)

Teenage girls love cosmetics. End of story. Not all of them like the same ones, though, so these are some general products I use for every day. And pretty much every other girl who goes to my school. 

TIP: When in doubt, go sample size! The smaller the better.

4. More books...

(From bottom: Fashionista: A century of style icons by Simone Werle, P.S. I made this by Erica Domesek, Fashion Illustration by Kolon books, What Shall I Wear Today by Fifi Lapin)

...Well this is a book blog. These are fashion/diy/hobby type books, not quite as universal as the other ones but I adore them. Find a hobby, find a book!

Hope these tips come in handy and you stress-less during the holiday season! Isabella X

http://viewsofnow.blogspot.com/ 

Mrs. Baja's Gift Shop: Pride & Prejudice Inspired Gifts

Wedding season begins soon. And what does that mean? Eternal love? Beautiful memories? A happy couple? 

Noooo.


It means it is bridal shower time...and THAT, my friends, means GIFTS!  The more thoughtful, the better.

And if your friend just so happens to be an ardent admirer of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, then perhaps we shall come up with something quite agreeable.


Whether the bride-to-be fancies herself the beautiful and demure Jane, or playful Lizzie, with her sharp tongue and fine eyes, you can easily put together a gift that will quite suit her fancy! (If she thinks she is one of the other sisters...hmm. Then skip this and get her a make over.)


A trademark of Jane and Lizzie's relationship are their letters. What P & P devotee wouldn't love some lovely stationery?



So cheerful, don't you think?



And when writing about their chance encounters with Mr. Bingley or Mr. Darcy, dearest Jane and Lizzy likely drank a cup of tea. And so should the bride as she writes her thank you notes.




Chamomile, to calm the nerves....lavender is always good too.









Perhaps a few biscuits with her tea, if she is famished.



And what blushing bride doesn't need a P&P inspired nightgown? I am quite sure the Bennett sisters would find this acceptable.



Doesn't that look soooo comfy?

 The sun can be such an enemy to genteel ladies. They might freckle! That will never do! A sunblock that protects the skin, regardless of their shade, is a must! Especially when touring castles and mansions!




Take care of that gorgeous face!



Now, the honeymoon will be over soon enough. And what will fill her days (after work, cleaning the house, and paying bills)? Your dearest friend will need a book, of course! Because after all, there is no enjoyment like reading!


And not just any book! Only the complete works of Jane Austen will do!




The fairer sex may need help holding this book!


Jane and Lizzie carried their dried flowers in baskets. But what a lovely way to present your gift, don't you think?




A lovely gift in itself.

 
Upon my word, I do think these ideas must be acceptable to you, especially when tempered with a thorough reading of Pride and Prejudice, which these suggestions will inevitably interest.


With that I leave you, dear ones. Please enjoy the gift-giving and those warm summer weddings.  And don't forget your gloves!

Please click to vote for Mrs. BG at the free-ranked blog directory Picket Fence Blogs!

What to read when you are sick...

I have a cold. It's not a flu, as Aussies are apt to label anything that involves sniffing or sneezing. But I am resting in bed with a calendar mostly cleared for the next two days. And what does a book worm do when she has a cold? She puts chicken soup in the crock pot (check) and she reads and she blogs about books.



What do you read when you are sick? When I am sick I want to read easy, short-story type texts. Nothing too challenging or taxing. I found a wonderful book that's just right for girly reading whether you are sick or well.

I've just finished Dreaming of Dior by Charlotte Smith. She is a shameless name dropper who lunches with princes and sultans, a clothes horse who 'would rather dazzle than underwhelm'. Despite the vast chasm that separates our lives (what with me currently in bed wearing a daggy t-shirt and clutching tissues) I did warm to her.



Charlotte Smith currently lives in Sydney, so we can call her an Australian author, but she was born in Hong Kong, raised in the US and lived in Europe. This is a globe-trotting author and a globe-trotting, time traveling book.


Smith inherits from her godmother a priceless collection of vintage clothing from many different eras. And she decided to turn her gift into a book. Each outfit gets two pages, one for a fabulous illustration by Grant Cowan, and one for its story. Through the garments, the reader gets glimpses into the lives of women. We meet not just Charlotte, her godmother and family, but also American pioneer women, flappers, Edwardian adventuresses, brides and socialites.



This book would make a great gift for a clothes horse friend. You really can't go wrong here.



I loved the stories and vibrant images, and the book made me want to dress better. Right after I get over this cold...

Journals to gift

Recently here at Mrs Baja we have been talking about gifts, and I am revisiting an idea I had last year.





For Christmas last year I wrote my thoughts, rules, if you like, for my girls in a beautiful Korean notebook that my mother gave us.


Time has proven them to be still popular. My little one, Dellylu, recently told me, 'When I'm old, like when I carry a handbag, I'm gonna carry my rule book in there.' Not a bad endorsement for a year-old gift.

Some of the 'rules' I will add to their books include;

If it starts with, ‘No offense but…’ then it’s better left unsaid.

Never leave your friend until she is safely inside her house, or has started her car.

Learn how to make one good meal for entertaining, and always have those ingredients on hand.

So, I have found a couple of likely journals at Amazon you could use to make a gift for someone you love, if you like. They are just beautiful, and maybe now would be a good time to start a journal for yourself. I know some of us Mrs BG contributors are inveterate journal keepers.

Enjoy!

How to make your own cute little books

We read and write about books here on Baja, but we hardly ever make them. I had a go a while ago at recycled notepad books, and this is what I learned.

1) Making books is simple and easy, but time consuming and a little messy.

2) You need a Cricut unless you want to run your own personal sheltered workshop for quite a while.

3) There are heaps of sites on the web to get you started. I used this one.

4) It is really satisfying.

5) People think you're wonderfully clever and crafty. Or they think, "She should really get a life. Who makes books?"

The video instructions start with, 'Cut 50-90 pieces of paper exactly the same size.' Giggle.

If you have a Cricut or some other source of paper cut to a specific size you are good to go. I used waste paper from school so there was something interesting on the opposite side of each page. Some Italian, music, chemistry, etc. So you could recycle paper specific to the book or the recipient. Or you could just go for the random polymath approach.

I added a few coloured pages, just for interest. For the covers I used scrap booking paper my beautiful mother gave me and a vintage Italian map of Capri.

To glue the spine I used PVA and for the cover layers and 'varnish' I used Mod Podge.

This project costs next to nothing (unless you duck out to Wal Mart to buy a Cricut) and is so fun. If anyone has a go I'd love to see the photos.

Mrs. Baja's Gift Shop: Stephanie Plum Inspired Gifts

The gift giving season is upon us, but here at Mrs BG’s we think it’s always fun to shop. So we have a new, year ‘round feature, Mrs. Baja's Gift Shop.

Here we'll show off book-inspired gifts, sticking to the theme of the book, series or character. No books, book marks or book lights here; we are thinking off the page. Confused? Have a look and you'll see what we mean.

We are kicking off with gifts for Stephanie Plum readers. Wacky, exciting, Stephanie-related gifts for Evanovich aficionados.

Since Stephanie never cooks and has nothing in her pantry except peanut butter and frosted flakes, a gourmet food hamper is just the ticket. The only thing here that needs cooking is tea, so it’s perfect for stake outs. After the food is gone she could use the basket for picnics. Who are we kidding? She can use it to take her laundry to her mother’s.

Wooden donuts are low calorie fun treats. Or is that just too cruel?

This is a beautiful cookie jar. It would add a touch of class to any inner-city apartment, and it would be easy to see when you are running on low on treats. But you wouldn’t be able to hide your gun in it...

This one would be better for hiding guns, and you can personalize it with the names of the family. But which man would Stephanie put on hers? And do they have hamster images?

This is the ultimate cookie jar for Stephanie fans, since Morelli calls her cupcake.

This will make you or your partner smell like Ranger, the sexiest man in fiction.

…a cap gun, so someone can shoot at you, and you can shoot back. It’s die cast and looks really real.

For those who love bling or want to channel Sally Sweet, a pretty pair of earrings. They would dress up the t-shirt below.

Any woman would appreciate a wardrobe staple like a V neck tee. Fits nice and snug to show off your curves (donuts, anyone?) and goes anywhere. The funeral parlor, the police station, a break-and-enter, a movie and capture, a transvestite rock concert, dinner with the family, a stake out….

Aussie baby books

What to give a baby? Books, of course! My beautiful great niece was about four months old and I still hadn't given her anything. See, I don't usually give gifts to the unborn, and just hadn't found the right gift. Part of my problem was a determination to give this little Texan something made in Australia. Of course everything here is made in China, just like all over the world and I was searching in vain. And because she's there and I am mostly here, I wasn't sure of colours, tastes and sizes for clothing.

Finally, a lovely friend reminded of books for babies. She commented on how much her baby girl loved the books I had given her a year or so ago. I had forgotten, I suppose, but she said her little one was responding to books at six weeks. Mine were too, but that seems so long ago. So I sought out some Aussie board books for wee ones. They must be board books, to be chewed, bashed and played with. I found a couple of good ones.

Jackie French is an author I feel close to because I started reading her articles in the back to basics magazine Earth Garden many, many years ago. She seems like a distant aunty or long-time pen pal. Her personal story is interesting: she started writing in a desperate attempt to pay some bills and she is dyslexic. So I bought Princess the book Diary of a Wombat, illustrated by Bruce Whatley.

It is just what it says-- a recount of a week from the point of view of a marsupial. Oddly I never read this one to my own kids, but I was amused to hear my twelve year old reading it aloud to her little sister and a thirteen year old friend on the way home from the shop. The story is so charming, you can't help smiling. Mothball the wombat does a lot of sleeping, but works hard to train the humans that live nearby, and they do eventually catch on. In the end she concludes, 'Evening: Have decided that humans are easily trained and make quite good pets.'

My other choice was Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek. Again, hearing this during the back seat recitation was strange. See, this book is my main foreign language teaching source with children from about three to five years old. My little students love doing hand gestures to the story, and reciting along with me. There's no Italian or French publication that I can find. I just translated it myself and show the kids the pictures in the English version, a copy of which is in almost every kindy or grade one classroom in Australia. So, I had never read it out loud in English and hadn't realized it actually rhymed!

Obviously, the main idea is the search for the Green Sheep, and we have to meet lots of other sheep before we find him. For example, 'Here is the near sheep. And here is the far sheep. Here is the moon sheep. And here is the star sheep.' The story ends as we find that elusive sheep, asleep curled up behind a bush like Little Boy Blue…er, Green. Ending a bedtime story with a character asleep is great. Sets a good example, see?

While in the post office I saw a book by Pamela Allen with a magpie on the front, called Waggle Giggle Gargle. They are charming Aussie birds that make a fun sound (click here to hear it). This one's new to me, but I've always loved her books, and I popped it in the package. Princess' Mum and Dad will have to tell us if she likes it.

So I hope Princess' parents read her lots of books, especially ones to teach her about her family in Australia. And I hope they let her chew them, too.

Which books would you buy for a baby?

Advice for my girls

One evening not long before Christmas I was surfing the net and came across this website, 1,001 Rules for My Unborn Son. I was so enchanted with the idea that I immediately shut it down and started writing rules for my already born daughters. Had I continued to read it I would have compromised my originality, you see.

The idea appealed because I 'd like to think I am a woman with a bit to offer my kids, and God forbid I should cark it (die) before imparting all my little gems. So I started the list there and then, and it stayed in my handbag for a week or two as I kept jotting down my ideas. Trivial, serious, facetious, humourous or life-defining, I wrote them all down. Even now, there is still more wisdom to impart, and I keep a running list handy. At irregular intervals I plan to gather up books, pen and list and add a few thoughts.

The real question was into which book would I write my final copy? Then I remembered the tiny books my mother had brought back from Korea. Handmade paper was just perfect, and the small size meant I would not be trying to fill the last page after old age stole my memories. The styling is classic, understated and not girly. I got out my grandmother's silver Parker fountain pen, which lives in my wallet, and began writing. For a perfectionist this is torture, worrying over every stroke and word. But I reminded myself that my girls would be reading my thoughts, not inspecting my handwriting. If I had such a book in my grandmother's hand I would certainly treasure it, mistakes and all. Actually I do have some letters from one of my wonderful grandmothers, and they are very dear to me.

So I copied my 'rules' into the books, each as identical to the other as humanly possible, and wrapped them up for my beautiful girls. They said the little books were their favourite gifts (clever girls that they are). I know that after they have outgrown the clothes and toys, after the electronics are antiquated, they might still love these gifts.