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Oct. 17th, 2013 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cblj_backupMum asked me to make a Christmas wish list. It's always hard, because I already have so much stuff, I keep getting rid of stuff but the stuff keeps arriving, and it makes me nervous since I never really got over the fact that for ten years I was moving at least once a year, and often more. So much stuff. :( And it's hard to get rid of stuff people gave me. Because they gave it to me! And I like it! I just don't know where to put it!
Also, Mum makes it extra hard on herself and everyone else because she considers gift-cards to be gauche. I don't; I fucking love gift cards, but she thinks they show a lack of initiative. IDEK, she likes making life difficult.
I've become reduced to wandering around retail websites, looking at stuff and trying to get ideas from it, like grow your own oyster mushroom kits and thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles. I've asked for a lot of art prints and messenger bags because let's face it, I have a million messenger bags already but I will never have too many, and it's hard to have too many art prints, like, walls are pretty big.
She told me to ask for some "Crazy expensive stuff" because she's getting an inheritance, but the craziest thing I can think of is a sofa from Ikea and I want to pick that out myself because furniture is important and I have very specific requirements.
I mean, I guess I could get a sofa from somewhere else, but that enters a murky and unfamiliar world I'm not eager to brave.
Also, Mum makes it extra hard on herself and everyone else because she considers gift-cards to be gauche. I don't; I fucking love gift cards, but she thinks they show a lack of initiative. IDEK, she likes making life difficult.
I've become reduced to wandering around retail websites, looking at stuff and trying to get ideas from it, like grow your own oyster mushroom kits and thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles. I've asked for a lot of art prints and messenger bags because let's face it, I have a million messenger bags already but I will never have too many, and it's hard to have too many art prints, like, walls are pretty big.
She told me to ask for some "Crazy expensive stuff" because she's getting an inheritance, but the craziest thing I can think of is a sofa from Ikea and I want to pick that out myself because furniture is important and I have very specific requirements.
I mean, I guess I could get a sofa from somewhere else, but that enters a murky and unfamiliar world I'm not eager to brave.
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Date: 2013-10-17 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-10-17 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-10-17 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2013-10-18 02:00 am (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
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Date: 2013-10-17 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 08:59 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOz-kMrBTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7W1qm5V7SQ
I love the Heifer Project, and I adore goats and want one of my own. And also it kills me that they give this little girl an outline of how a scene is supposed to go and she gets to make stuff up. :)
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Date: 2013-10-17 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 08:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-10-17 07:18 pm (UTC)As for a sofa, you could try Rooms to Go if IKEA doesn't work out. It's good quality, esp. compared to IKEA sofas, though more expensive--but still reasonable for most sofas. They're really good about shipping/delivery, too.
You could also go the route of replacing some things you already have (assorted kitchen tools, for example) with high quality, super nice new shiny versions of them, and donating the older (still perfectly good) items somewhere. That way your mom still gets to buy you things, but you're not stuck with more stuff.
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Date: 2013-10-18 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 08:00 pm (UTC)And for seriously crazy expensive, this round-the-world cruise is probably at the very top of the wish list. Of course, I'd have to figure out how to miss a few months' of work, but since I can't afford it anyway, the point is moot.
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Date: 2013-10-17 09:20 pm (UTC)Sam, tell your mum you want a sofa from IKEA, but you want to choose it, and can you have an IKEA gift certificate up to the value of $X. And make X larger than the value of the sofa you want, and then use the rest of it on other things. As
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Date: 2013-10-17 08:06 pm (UTC)Other expensive but nice things: Nice leather bag, down pillows or comforter, new mattress and or bed frame, good winter coat, a suit, nice clothes, really good shoes, rug for apartment floor, armchair, good bookshelves, curtains, new set of dishes or pots and pans, luggage, really good chefs knife, kitchen gadgets. Basically high quality durable versions of things you already have and know you'll use or things you want/need.
Of course everyone's value for crazy expensive varies....
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Date: 2013-10-17 08:14 pm (UTC)I ask for kitchen stuff a lot because it's useful, but my kitchen is small and reaching max capacity.
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Date: 2013-10-17 09:03 pm (UTC)Maybe, if you can shop with your mom, that might work for you?
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Date: 2013-10-18 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-17 10:42 pm (UTC)How about saying that you'd like a sofa, but you want to wait until you know where you're moving to. That then buys you time to find the right sofa - and means you don't end up getting something the wrong scale for your new flat. (Also, means you don't have to move it from one to the other.)
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Date: 2013-10-18 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-21 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-18 02:01 am (UTC)Food, paper goods (in quantity), drinks, party goods (paper plates, plastic cups, plastic flatware)...
Stuff like that.
When I moved into my first by-myself apartment, I told everyone I wanted consumables because I had too much stuff.
I didn't have to buy toilet tissue for a year. A year.
That was extremely nice. I should also point out that a friend of mine got married that year, and I used one of the bulk packages of the stuff for her bridal shower where we used the rolls to make "wedding dresses".
So here are some luxury consumables that I personally like:
Body care products from Lush
Fragrance-free dryer sheets
Honey liqueurs
Absinthe
Sugar in the raw, or German rock sugar
High-end loose tea (Teavana comes to mind)
Ginger beer, the more exotic the better
High-end steaks
High-end fish steaks
Pink Himalayan Salt
Curry mix (the more exotic the better)
Mochi
hand-crafted soaps
Does that help?
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Date: 2013-10-18 02:03 am (UTC)TICKETS TO SHOWS.
These can be very expensive, and don't generate "stuff" but give wonderful experiences. Send her a list of musical acts/broadway shows/weird independent films that you would like to attend. Season tickets for a sports team? Season tickets for the Opera?
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Date: 2013-10-18 03:49 am (UTC)Another idea might be some sort of subscription service or food of the month club. They have subscription services for all sorts of interests.
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Date: 2013-10-21 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-18 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-21 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-18 11:23 am (UTC)I saw my Mum's copy of http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Berrys-Complete-Cookbook-Berry/dp/1405370955/ when I was at home last time and I asked her if she could get me a copy for Christmas (because she likes to give us cookbooks every year) - but instead of me having to pack up a giant heavy hardback cookbook and lug it back here with me, get it shipped for free from Amazon and just wrap her copy and put it under the tree on Christmas Day. I know you don't want a lot of books, but it is an AMAZING book - step-by-step instructions for all of the recipes, lots of pictures, lots of general stuff like a two-page spread showing five types of pastry and explaining the differences in making each one with helpful pictures...
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Date: 2013-10-21 02:03 pm (UTC)I probably should look outside of Ikea for couches, I've never been that impressed either, but that involves going places where people actually actively try to sell you things....
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Date: 2013-10-18 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-18 08:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-10-19 10:37 am (UTC)In the food-of-the-month vein, how about a CSA share?
Or, for a great gift that you don't have to store or move, a couple of shares of stock of a company you like?
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Date: 2013-10-19 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-20 06:53 am (UTC)-delirieuse, onna iPad, which won't let her sign in.
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Date: 2013-10-21 08:37 pm (UTC)I googled 'small expensive gifts' and have uncovered such treasures as the carbon fiber toilet seat, leather keyboard, or even the prank owl portrait (http://www.neimanmarcus.com/christmasbook/fantasy.jsp?cid=CBF12_O5408&r=cat44770736&rdesc=The%20Fantasy%20Gifts&pageName=What%20a%20Hoot&icid=CBF12_05408&ecid=NMALRje6NUbpObpQ&CS_003=5630585) that occasionally moves it's head, scaring passersby.
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Date: 2013-10-21 08:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-10-23 08:41 am (UTC)