10 Favorite Gifts

Between Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and an abundance of family birthdays, May and June are our busiest months for giving gifts! I know I have talked about it before, but I absolutely LOVE meaningful gift giving! I often find myself dreaming up ideas of things to make or find that my loved ones will genuinely appreciate and enjoy. Today I thought I’d share 10 of my favorite thoughtful gifts (in no particular order) in case you’re looking for a little inspiration for your own giving.

Custom Jewelry
These custom necklaces are among my most treasured items— not because of their aesthetics (which I also love!) but because of the sentiment behind each of them.

Isaac wrote our kiddos’ names in his handwriting.

Isla designed individual snowflakes for some of the important women in her life last Christmas.

We immortalized Isla’s most spoken phrase from the year and Cole’s adorable “mommy love monster” scribble in these adorable Mother’s Day necklaces.

I cannot recommend Caitlyn Minimalist enough for these custom jewelry projects, by the way! They were so helpful, kind, and they have gorgeous craftsmanship!

“I Love You” Art
I am a total sucker for repeating gifts, especially the “I love you” art that Isla and Isaac make me every Mother’s Day. When Isla was one she used to say, “I yuh you.” It totally melted my heart and Isaac knew that, so for Mother’s Day he and Isla collaborated on a piece of art featuring “I yuh you.” Since then, every Mother’s Day they work together to create a piece of art that features how she most frequently tells me that she loves me. Talk about sentimental!

We always seek opportunities to give gifts that honor time together and/or shared interests. The next three gifts highlight a few of our favorites…

Gruncle’s Raspberries Sign
Isla and Gruncle have picked raspberries together every summer since she was two. We were so excited to create this sign for his garden featuring Isla’s handwriting. All the details can be found HERE.

Isaac’s Birthday Video
Friends and family from around the world and every stage of Isaac’s life came together to help me create a video of birthday greetings. I compiled all of the individual video messages into one big slideshow using iMovie. This will forever be on of the most treasured gifts we have!

Nana’s Garden Book
Isla and her Nana Jan love spending time gardening together. One Christmas, Isla created a book for her Nana. She wrote all about their time together in the garden, the things they planted, what she enjoyed most about gardening, her own recipes, and listed the fruits and vegetables she hoped to plant next year. She also created all the illustrations and they are SO darling!

To go with the book, Isla made a bookmark out of the leaves and flowers she and Nana had pressed together that summer. She was strategic in selecting each item for the bookmark; Nana’s favorite green hydrangeas, strawberry leaves from the plant Isla had given her, a flower from their pea plant, and Isla’s favorite mint leaves. These were all items that would remind Nana of their time together.

Speaking of the pressed flower bookmark, she also made one for her Great Grandma DJ because we used the flower press DJ had made for me as a child!

Cheryl’s Disneyland Book
Photo books are pretty much the peak of nostalgic gifts, am I right?! My sister in law, Cheryl, and I took our girls on a wonderful surprise Disneyland trip. I compiled all our photos and created a Blurb book for Cheryl so that she and Wavy could easily relive our magical experience!

Daffodil Cards for Nana Sandy
We wanted Nana Sandy’s quarantine birthday to feel sunny and joyful! Knowing her love for the color yellow and cheerful springtime blooms, we set to work on a family art project and made her daffodil cards. Each person chose their own preferred mediums and methods. Cole and Isla created with ink pen and watercolor, Isaac made a pencil sketch, and I constructed a collage from sheets of paper I had painted with acrylics. It was so much fun to use the same source of inspiration to create our own separate projects.

Daddo, You Rock: Customizing Pinterest Finds
Pinterest is an amazing resource, and there are endless possibilities for customizing ideas you find! I saw some “Dad, you rock!” gift ideas a few years back and they were the perfect jumping off point for a Father’s Day gift. Isla and I put together this framed photo for Isaac using the rocks she had collected on our beach walks— always looking for ways to weave in personal connection! I happened to take a photo of their feet together when they were climbing earlier that week (sometimes the stars just align in your favor!) and had Isla write the phrase, “Daddo, you rock!” on the picture with a white gel pen.

70 Things
For my Mom’s 70th birthday we made her a jar of 70 Things: A collection of meaningful memories, lessons learned, and qualities we admire about her. Our hope was to help her recognize how much good she has contributed to the world through her thoughtfulness, creativity, hard work, selflessness, determination, integrity, patience, love, and humor.

Holiday Art
I mentioned earlier that I love repeating gifts— items that your loved ones look forward to receiving year after year. Holiday-themed gifts are a perfect repeating gift option! A few of our favorites are Christmas footprint crafts and abstract Easter egg paintings. They make for such festive decor and are so fun to see year after year!