Fabulicious Friday: Gift Guide for Teens

People are starting to Christmas shop, and so I thought I'd start doing a series of Fab Friday posts on GIFTS. Struggling to figure out what to buy? You've come to the right place. As the holidays approach, I'll keep adding to the lists and you can add things that YOU have found in the comments!

(***Disclaimer: The products that I will be listing are gathered from my own shopping experiences, talking with friends and family, and seen/sold at the toy store I work in. I haven't been contacted by any company or been compensated in any way for mentioning the products listed here.****)

This week I'm focusing on Teenagers.

Teens are notoriously hard to buy for. Gone are the days where they are happy with something simple (and cheap! Remember how excited they were over a BOX?). I've been asking Jake's friends, along with some of the other teens I know and this is what I've come up with besides the usual gadgetry, gift card, cash cow that is a teenager at Christmas.

1. A Family Game Night

For the teenager that loves games this can be a lot of fun. It can be given as a family gift for people who have a few kids, or it can be tailored for the individual teen who would share it with friends. First of all, you find a great game. Some recommended ones are Bananagrams and Gift Trap. Loralee told me how much she loved Bananagrams and I was sold!

Then you fill the rest of the box with snacky food. Go wild! Throw in a box of microwave popcorn, make a hot chocolate kit (can of hot chocolate, some marshmallows and candy canes), and other favorite things everyone can snack on. You could even include some tiny gift wrapped gag gifts for the winner, 2nd place, 3rd, etc.

2. A Selection of Their Favorite Books, CDs, or DVDs

It's hard to buy for teens who love to read, and even harder to keep up with those who read voraciously. Get your teen to create an account on Chapters.ca (in the USA you can do Amazon or Barnes and Noble). With an account, they can create a wish list. Check out mine! The kid's books on there are Jake's picks.

I LOVE Chapters. I can not only check out Jake's wish list, but I can do a search for specific stores to see if they have the book in stock! Or I can order it online and have it shipped right to my door. Plus we can send the wish list to relatives or friends. Not just that but if I forget what is on the list when I'm actually at the store? There are computers there where I can log in and bring up the wish list right there.

You could pair books up with a travel mug filled with candy, a book light, and funky bookmark.

3. A Digital Camera and subscription to Flickr Pro

There's a wide selection of cameras out there, and I admit I'm not familiar with 99% of them. I'd go for something inexpensive, small, but durable as kids are always losing them. If you wanted to round out the whole photography theme, you could include an Energizer compact charger (we have one-I LOVE it) with some rechargeable batteries, a memory card, and even a mini tri-pod.

4. Cozy Me

Teens love chilling out by the computer or TV, and in the winter it can get a bit chilly. Why not get yours a fuzzy Columbia blanket and some cozy pjs pants? For a girl you could throw in some funky nail polish, for a boy maybe a great throw pillow. Pair this stuff up with a DVD and you have a perfect "hanging out at home" kit.

(I love the Columbia blanket. Jake's is so soft, machine washable, and super cozy by the fire. We have found them in Columbia outlets for around $14.99 USD)

5. Artsy

If your teen is into art, why not splurge on some really great supplies? We hit up Opus Art Supplies in Vancouver, where you can get almost everything you need. You could even shop online, place an order by phone, etc. The artsy teens I know would love to have a brightly colored sketchbook and some really great colored pencils.

What are you getting your teenager? I have no idea what to buy for Jake. Last year we had bought him a Mp3, which we strongly warned him that if he lost, we would not buy another.

Two months later, he lost it. Poof! Now he wants another one. What would you do? Buy one, or refuse?

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Recipe Thursday: Breakfast Sandwiches!

Growing up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, I was completely deprived of fast food restaurants so whenever we traveled, my parents would stop at one in particular because they thought they were being nice.

I hated that place with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

Okay, maybe that's a big strong. I didn't hate the actual place. I loved their commercials. I thought the little toys/souvenirs you could buy were very cool. It's just that for a kid who didn't like burgers or fries, it was impossible to find something I loved to eat. In fact, for years (and pre-mc chicken or chicken nugget days) we'd go and there I'd sit, refusing to eat anything.

The one thing I really loved was their breakfast sandwiches. Loved. Loved so much that at 8 years old I was kicked out of a popular pancake restaurant because I smuggled one in.

So now that I'm all grown up, I make the same breakfast sandwiches at home now and then, and they are SO good. When you make them at home you can vary some of the ingredients, make them a little more gourmet, and cut out the grease.

Click on over for the recipe....

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How to Keep From Catching Swine Flu

Didn't you all know that pigs are lucky and if you carry one that glows in the dark in your pocket, it wards off the Swine Flu? Just sayin'..... (hee!)

This actually was yesterday's Nablopomo picture but I couldn't help but share.

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Remembering

Photo Credit: petercastleton

I had the opportunity to watch this beautiful tribute to our troops on the Global Edmonton's Facebook page, and just knew I had to share it with you. Click on over and watch; I promise you, it's absolutely worth it.

Have a wonderful, peaceful, Remembrance Day.

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Weekly Catch up

Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into some photo blog with only a photo and caption for the month of November. I've already lost two readers, so I thought I should actually write something before the rest of you all decide to make for the hills.

Well-the picture thing will likely happen just on the weekends, which is when I usually don't post anyway, so you won't mind, right? I'll have some pictures on here, but I think I'm going to start moving them over to my Nablopomo set on my Flickr photostream. Seriously though, who has time to even do pictures? I've discovered that I would not make a good candidate for a 365 project. It's only 9 days in and already I'm thinking..."Oh my GOD, I have to keep taking pictures? Of what? There's no light! I'm too busy! Maybe I'll take one of....my shoes! Or the pumpkins molding on the front porch!."

Ya because you ALL are just dying to see my moldy pumpkins.

So what's been up here in the Cookie Jar over the past week?

*We found out one of my photos was chosen to be printed on Jones Orange Cream Soda bottles, and we've been looking for a bottle around town. No luck yet! Jake seems to think this calls for us to drink soda every single day, and has lobbied for that each time I've picked him up after school.

*H1N1 (Swine flu) hasn't hit our family yet, as far as I know. Which is more than I can say for...um..certain places that have had around a 40% absentee rate almost all last week. I'm still feeling like I'm walking around with a huge bulls-eye on my back, and washing my hands every 5 seconds, but so far we are swine free! (as far as I know) It could be that I'm wiping down everything in sight with the awesome Clorox wipes that Clorox so kindly sent me awhile ago to test out.

*On Saturday we trekked into the city, which was lots of fun. I bought some cute funky Kamik rain boots to keep my feet dry, and we've been rocking out to Carrie Underwood's new CD Play On. If you like country music, make sure to pick it up. Hubs especially liked her new video (I think it might have had something to do with the sexy outfits, hmm?)

*There has been a LOT going on here that I can't write about. Things that are just very hard and have my emotions all over the place, and quite honestly, I come here and I have nothing left. Life for ME is wonderful, but for some of the people I love, not so much. Hubs and Jake say that I was "uber-bitchy" last week, until I finally got my emotions under control (no medication was involved, I promise). A few nights I just put myself to bed and called it a day.

I'm still doing that now and then. It's great. You should try it.

*Have you ever been put on an e-mail list where a gazillion people all hit "send to all", and you get something like 20 million-ish e-mails a day that have nothing to do with you? I have considered finding some lovely spam-ish type e-mail (you know, the kind that say "forward this to 3 people in an hour or pygmies will attack and snack on your toes") to counter this. Maybe once they all get some spammy things from me, they will take me off their list.

Please?

*Oh! To top that off, with Hubs diagnosed as diabetes type 2, now I have the joys of trying to convert all my baking recipes so he can eat them. That should be fun. (you know I'm being sarcastic here, right?) It kind of takes all the fun out of baking. Especially once I realized that if Hubs isn't eating my baking anymore then it's just me and Jake, and I certainly don't NEED to be eating that much baking.

Don't worry, I'll still bake. I just need to find new taste testers.

So that was pretty much my week.

Oh, and hey-I still have a zillion clorox wipes hanging out here at my house. They are awesome for disinfecting countertops, bathrooms, and we used them on door knobs and light switches around the house. I love them! Want some?

-open to people with a Canadian mailing address
-leave me a comment below
-I will pick 2 comments at random and send the winners each a box with 3 cans of wipes in them (1 lemon, 1 lavendar, 1 fresh scent)
-you have until Friday November 13 to enter!

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Reflection

On the way back from Vancouver via BC Ferries, after a day of shopping.

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Kindred Spirit

Every Friday without fail, I meet a friend here for coffee and we enjoy the view until the sun sets and the stars come out. It is, without a doubt, my favorite part of the week and I am blessed beyond measure to have a friend like her. Time slows, worries of the week fade, and I come away feeling full.

We often share some food, but being with her by the ocean feeds my soul.

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How to Make Your 13 Year Old Think You are Super Cool

Guess what?!?

Over the summer I submitted some photos to Jones, in the hopes that one would be chosen to grace their bottles of soda. One of my photos was picked and will be printed on their sodas that are distributed all across the USA and Canada. If you see this label on an orange and cream flavor, it is MINE! Cool!

Now we just have to find some so we can buy a few bottles.

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