Gift Ideas for Q

If you want the gift that gives as much by effort spent/effort saved as by the item itself, skip down to the "holy grails" section. (These will get big smiles, perhaps even yelps of joy.)

Some vineyards will sell this to aspiring wine makers who want to ferment it at home. I'm interested because I think grape juice can come in tastier varieties than the purple stuff most groceries carry. (I have a fondness for Welches red grape juice in the plastic bottles, for example.) I saw bottled chardonay grape juice and cabernet grape juice in the Napa Style catalogue once. They have a website: napastyle.com

Bandanas should be 100% cotton, and made in the USA (good luck). If there is a pattern it should be dyed in, not painted on. I have no need for pink bandanas. I do have a need for solid black 100% cotton (or silk or linen) handkerchiefs. [Adult novelty superstores tend to have a lot of colors. Though I don't actually subscribe to "the hanky code" I do appreciate the rainbow palette it demands.]

One of the nice things about giving candles to a fire-loving recipient is that even if the candle doesn't suit their particular sense of decor they can enjoy it for its intended purpose: burning it. My fourth grade circle of friends spent that year giving each other those curly, cut candles, pillar candles that resemble wedding cakes after being sliced with sharp knives while the wax is still warm. Cool. :) The Saturday Market and lots of other Portland places have excellent candles.]

For a while I've had quite a colorful collection of poly-acrylic toe socks (often available at Fred Meyer, Nordstrom, Target or the 'Marts). I got a pair of ankle-high hemp ones at Whole Foods and would love taller hemp toe socks (try Joy of Socks below). In November/December 2004 I finally went to Japan and discovered the right place to buy silk and cotton toe socks: Asia. I have great grattitude for Asian tastes enabling me to collect tall, short, cotton, silk, and other toe socks in drab adult colors like black, white, beige and grey (plus a few patterns). A smile to all those Tatuana employees all over Japan who looked at me funny for buying so many pairs at a time! Prior to that trip a night of online research turned up some sock sources for those confined to the US. Be careful not to get socks that contain actual rubber or latex. Websites for toe socks include: Hikerchicks on E-Bay (silk) (might take renewed searching, this link seems broken); www.wintersilks.com; (silk)(I could use another pair of black ones for choir) 1-(888)-782-2224; www.footraffic.com (angora, prints, other) 1-(800)-789-3668; www.fabulousfurs.com (angora in 3 colors) 1-(800)-848-4650; www.toesocks.co.uk (90% cotton, some even undyed just waiting for me to add my own color...); www.JoyofSocks.com (yes, you suspected The Joy of Socks was out there) (70% cotton, dip dyed for me); and Sock Dreams, based in Portland. For colors, rainbow is a good pattern choice, or black or white. Argyle is awesome. Aim to avoid pink. Calf high is better than ankle. No rubber content in the elastic. I have developed a latex allergy (long story).
You can also get in the know with the "In" toe crowd at the ToeSock Clique's website!

Actually, speaking of hemp, gift certificates to hemp stores are appreciated, too. There's one down by Saturday Market, but the one in Vancouver Mall tends to have a better selection when it comes to "upscale" merchandise, I think. I did buy a great pair of socks at the one by Skidmore Fountain several years ago (back when I wasn't exclusively wearing toe socks). They haven't had them lately, but hemp socks are a good idea if you don't like gift certificates.

Chocolate is hardly ever a bad idea. Gift certificates to See's are especially sought. [If you'd like to give an actual box, my See's favorites are pretty simple: butter cream filling (vanilla or chocolate) with any chocolate coating (milk, dark, white). Generally the further away it gets from that the less I like it. I am actually allergic to Brazil nuts, in case *your* favorite includes those, but other nuts are fine.]

I became attracted to license plate collecting in the mid 1980s, before silk screening images onto plates became vogue at DMVs around the country. Wyoming has a proud history of doing interesting things with their license plates. Their bucking bronco, the "You've got a friend in" line on Pennsylvania plates, and the Oregon pine tree (the first silkscreened plate I saw, despite living in VA at the time) solidified my desire to collect these bits of metal. Check out the room in our basement if you're worried I might already have one you'd like to give me. My silkscreened plate collection is very small still. I have more older plates courtesy of another friend who collects (though I am not averse to more! I don't expect to ever have an exhaustive collection, but there are many obvious and fairly easily fillable gaps. Go to). International plates, though more likely to be basic black or yellow, are also greatly appreciated! Easy ordering...

Actually, they don't have to be antique for me to want them, but the older the better for some fun things. I do not have an "unabridged" dictionary (shock). I do not have the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary. I would be especially interested in English (or American... or hey, Australian) dictionaries printed before 1920. I also wouldn't mind starting a collection of "pocket sized" (about that tall but perhaps thicker and hardcover) English-something else/something else-English dictionaries. We picked up one in the Czech Republic which was not only useful there but useful when we reciprocated by hosting some Czech singers here. Bonus points if the dictionary comes from the country of the *foriegn* language. I saw something on the shelf of a friend called "The Borrower's Dictionary." I didn't look at it but I presume it to be a dictionary of foriegn words often used by speakers of American English. Something like that could be neat.

One way to become "easy to shop for" is to commit to collecting something. One thing I collect is hand-held candle sticks -- candle holders that are designed to be picked up and walked around with, like in old scary movies or period dramas. Candle holders with handles. Brass, silver, bronze, iron, grey are good hues.

I'm still primarily interested in iron and other unpainted metals for the holders, but generally the more it really looks like a leaf the better.

I have a bit of a collection forming of stone or marble candle holders. These seem to be the candle holder theme for the downstairs bathroom, so if you give these solstice party goers and our overnight guests will be sure to see them. Rocks are cool. :) Please aim for grey, black, brown, or white. I'm trying to avoid green, red, orange, or pink-ish tones in these.

I do not mean holders for floating candles. I mean the strange glass candle holders that hold taper candles, or in some cases pillar candles. They have a dish shape at the top and the rest of their height is the shape of the candle they are meant to hold. You fill the stem with water, then set a candle in (which pushes some excess water into the dish). As the candle melts, the dish water seeps back into the stem, so the flame of the candle is always at the same height. Neat, huh? Some people don't think so -- the two I have now I got at two different good-cause auctions. I'm looking for a short one (in the neighborhood of 6 inches) and ones that hold pillars instead of tapers. [There was a shop in Portland's China Town where I saw one, but it has closed.]

Here's the list: (actually, I think these patterns are discontinued. Consult Jeff for current blacklight dreams) "Optical Rings" 1005-9063 A" "Warp Spiral" which may be sku 633317, Houston Blacklight & Posters Distr. Inc. sun and planets series #1, #3, #4, #6.

These are plastic sandals with massaging bumps. Ooooh.
Capri Ice #4500, women's size 8 in "glacier" or "black;" Diamondbacks #4000, women's size 8 in "smoke & black" or "solid black with copper logo"

Swarovski has been doing annual crystal snowflakes (and stars) since the 1980s. I have eleven of them (2001, 2, 3, & 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12), I've seen many of them, and most of them are cute. (Snowflakes and stars alternate: even years are snowflakes, odd years are stars. Both are desired.) "Back-issue" snowflakes especially appreciated. (...or in Swarovski terms, retired snowflakes...) (This is *not* the annual Swarovski member piece. The member pieces tend, in my opinion, to be big and ugly. You do not have to become a member to buy a snowflake. They run around $75 these days.) (Still missing 2004.)

I am trying to keep my holiday ornaments inside a few themes: snowflakes, icicles, leaves; clear, white, gold, silver, wood. I like the "bronzed leaves" that have been gaining popularity the past few years. (I bought my first one around 1998 and in 2001 they seemed to be everywhere.) I saw some in 2001 at a store called Twist which had nice ribbons and partners for the leaves -- the oak had an acorn, the spruce had a little strange pinecone... I probably can't have too many of these. I could decorate a whole tree with these things. They're great! (more, more... with acorns.) Things in particular I lack right now are a gold tone 2 or 3 inch pine cone, silver tone small (redwood) pine cone. If you'd like to give a gift that gives twice, you may still be able to find some of these at www.gearthatgives.com [a link from thehungersite.com and the related sites (breast cancer, rainforest, child heath, literacy, animal rescue)]. They seem to offer dove or other cool ornaments each year as well. Go wild for a good cause!

People keep giving me theater masks for some reason, you know, the decorative, too-small-to-wear, glitter and feather covered painted ceramic comedy and tragedy masks. Due to this trend, and the fact that we have a black and white tiled bathroom out of the '80s that just calls for this decoration, we have decorated a whole room with them (albeit a bathroom). We have 8 things on that theme in there now, from at least 4 sources and 3 countries (given in the US and Britain, made in China and the Czech Republic). If you want to see your gift every time you come to our house, try giving these.

You could even try to give us hand towels with theater masks or comedy & tragedy faces on them. A pale blue hand towel would go nicely with the most recent addition -- a blue plumed mask from the Czech Republic. Bonus points for the light blue towel coming from another country, especially if you bought it there. The other Czech mask matches the yellow and orange towel we brought back from Czechia (before we were given the mask). Hand towels in all black, all white, or nice stark black and white patterns will also proudly be displayed and used in the Theater Bathroom.

There are a few things we could still use as a household, stuff that's appropriate for giving us together or either of us separately.

We could use 4 or more washable black placemats in natural fibers (cotton, etc.). Round would be great. Oval, square, or rectangular would do.

We didn't have a wedding, but we did choose a "silverware" pattern: it's Oneida's "Aquarius," the all stainless, not the two-tone. We can always use a few more dinner forks, teaspoons, or full-length knives (which I think their website calls teaspoons, place forks and place knives). We did not get the salad forks or soup spoons and have no place to put them. Please *don't* get those sizes. Serving utensils would be welcome.

Our dinnerware and serving bowls are black and white. Gifts of pottery or ceramics or china are best in black, white, or grey.

For further consultation as to what the household needs, the other half of US can sometimes be reached here, and sometimes here.

"holy grails"

Over the years there have been many occasions on which I unexpectedly ran into something I really liked but could not at that time afford. Sadly, several of these instances have turned into scenarios where I went back to try to purchase the thing once I had sufficent funds -- only to find it was no longer available. These items could now be called my "holy grails:" things I'd be really, really happy if someone could find and present to me, as I am not having any luck finding them myself.