Thursday, December 28, 2017

Christmas Week

Today I decided to load Blogger on to my tablet and worked at trying to write an update and post some pictures. I worked on it until my head started pounding. I was so frustrated, I decided to let it go another day. I will take some pictures tonight with the tablet and see if I have better luck tomorrow. So I have gone on to my desk top computer to do this so I don't feel like a complete loser.

While I have the downloads I want to show you in my desktop files, I will show you some of the gift baskets I made up to give away. I made up two gift baskets...one around a wine theme and the other was "Beer and BBQ."

 In the back row, I bought 6 different craft beers (3 cans each), BBQ chips, BBQ peanuts, 4 different BBQ sauces (2 bottles each) , paper beer cups with BBQ King marked on them, BBQ serviettes, bamboo steak markers to identify which pieces are to be cooked rare, med. rare, well done, etc., a basting brush attachment that screws right over the tops of the BBQ sauce bottles, beer coasters (one each) and finally a pair of socks. One pair is black with pictures of craft beers all over, and the other pair has writing on the soles which says, "if you can read this...bring me a beer."
 I filled two  plastic ice buckets with identical items, printed out signs announcing BBQ and Beer and tied it up with cellophane and ribbon and attached a snowflake ornament. The bag of chips did not fit, so I handed that to them separately. 
 I forgot to include photos of the spice mixes I made up for each basket. I made up little canning jars that held BBQ spice and Montreal Steak Spice mixes.
I didn't take a separate photo of the "before", but each of these baskets contain a bottle of wine (one contains red, the other white) in a wine gift bag, a wine stopper, a bag of wine gums, a funny coaster, a funny fridge magnet, wine printed serviettes and wine printed socks.  The homemade part of the gift was a packet of six wine charms that I made for each of the women. I enjoy making up baskets of consumables.

So there is my blog post for today. I will try again tomorrow to post from the tablet. I am still getting used to using it by myself. It would be a lot easier if someone were here who knew a little bit about them to give me some guidance, but I won't see anyone until New Year's Day. Bye for now.


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8 comments:

  1. NathalieDecember 28, 2017 at 6:01 PM

    Oh man, I love your baskets and I think you should start yourself a little business of putting those together for people on commission. If we didn't live this far I'd sure commission you! I should try and remember to do something similar for my BFF and my older kids next Christmas.

    I was surprised to read that you were able to download the Blogger app on your tablet because my understanding was that the app was no longer available. I still have it on my iPhone and it kind of sucks (which is why they pulled it) but at least I was able to post during the hurricane thanks to it. This is one of the reasons why I don't update my iOS because the newer iOS removes the apps that no longer "compatible" and I don't want that.

    But then I started to think that maybe you're just using the tablet's browser and trying to use Blogger as you would on your PC. Honestly, I think tablets are great to surf the internet, read books, play games and what not but I absolutely HATE typing on mine. I get so frustrated with it. Granted mine is a cheap Kindle Fire so a more expensive piece of equipment might not be as frustrating, but I really avoid using the tablet to send emails, type posts, or even do research online. My mom has an iPad in France and she loves it. It was pretty nice when I had to use it.

    Anyhoo, good luck, there's always a bit of a learning curve when using a new piece of equipment. If you're like me you'll get frustrated and mutter that you "hate this piece of crap" but after a couple of days you'll start getting the hang of it and soon you'll love it and won't imagine not having it :)

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    1. SusanDecember 29, 2017 at 6:03 AM

      Well I wasn't able to figure out Blogger on my tablet yesterday, but I did manage to download Netflix and watched two movies last night on the Android. I was happy to have learned something on the device before I ripped it apart in frustration, Ha. In actual fact, I feel pretty stoked that I have learned how to do some of these things on my own. It gives me enough confidence to move forward and try to learn MORE things by myself. Truth is, I probably won't have any time to post while on the Cruise, but I though it would be fun to say "In Aruba today" with a photo attached.

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  2. LauraDecember 28, 2017 at 7:51 PM

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Susan! Those gift baskets are lovely and so thoughtful. I think consumables are one of the best gifts around and I love that you added a handmade component to each one.

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    1. SusanDecember 29, 2017 at 6:17 AM

      Many holiday wishes to you as well Laura.
      Men are the most difficult creatures to shop for, aren't they? And I have to buy for several of them. My sons and my father are hard enough to shop for, but when it comes to my brother and friends of the family, I try to come up with ONE gift and then I end up repeating the same idea. My brother says he always looks forward to what theme I will come up with, but it is getting harder and harder to find original ideas. I start thinking about it at the beginning of every year and so far I have been able to come up with something. I have done "punny" gifts, brown paper packages tied up with string, a Christmas survival kit, and a red-necked candlelight dinner for two. If you have ANY more suggestions for me, pass them on please.

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  3. BlessDecember 29, 2017 at 4:03 AM

    Susan, your gift baskets are wonderful! Nathalie is right - you should start your own business making those baskets!

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    1. SusanDecember 29, 2017 at 6:34 AM

      I can't imagine anyone paying money for an idea, especially when I am willing to share ideas for free (and many others do also and post them on Pinterest) It is the idea that is hard to come by, and once you have it, it is just a matter of going on-line or into a retail store and buying the items to bring the idea to fruition.Just look up gift baskets and you will have your pick of them. Last year when my husband was ill and time was short, I made up baskets based on colour only. All the items in the basket were of one colour, or the packaging was the same colour.(lip balm, hand lotion, pens, paper pads, socks, snacks, drinks,etc., etc.)The gift tag said "Orange" you glad it's Christmas. Hope your holidays are s"pink"tacular. And the yellow basket was simply, Sending you lots of "sunshine" over the Christmas season. I think consumables are always well received and make a nice presentation.

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    2. NathalieDecember 29, 2017 at 6:36 AM

      This is because you're crafty and you enjoy being crafty! Those of us who aren't crafty and hate doing crafts and suck at wrapping and making bows and can't make a basket look nice and not like a total disaster are more than willing to pay someone to do it all and make it look nice :) Same reason why I buy cards instead of making my own, lol.

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  4. SusanDecember 29, 2017 at 10:47 AM

    I am responding I hope to your comment above to see if it is possible. I know I couldn't respond to comments on my BlackBerry. You do not suck at wrapping presents. I thought they were quite lovely. Baskets are so easy to wrap as you just need to gather up the cellophane at the top and tie off with ribbons and a cheap little dangly thing from the Dollar Store. The end.

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