{It's All About The Packaging: Personal Touches}

Over the weekend I had a birthday party to go for a good friend of mine and of course I waited until the last minute to decide on a gift. I thought about a few different things (wine, a shirt, a gift card to one of our favorite stores) but then I decided to do something a little more personal. We recently had a long conversation about life and my friend mentioned how she wanted to get back to following her passion (which is writing, and she's brilliant at it) - but felt uninspired. She also mentioned how while at the grocery store she purchased some flowers to sit on her window sill, and how happy it made her feel when she looked at them, and wanted to start to do little things like this to lift her spirits. So after remembering this conversation, I knew exactly what i was going to get her:

One of my favorite stores is Club Monaco and at their flagship store they have the most amazing book (Strand) and flower shop (Polux Fleuriste - see below) next to the clothing store and I've always wanted to purchase something from there - but never did. Remembering how happy the flowers my friend purchased made her, I thought it would be a great idea to get her a flowering plant that would last a long time and would bloom throughout the year. Unfortunately, since Easter was the next day, everything was really picked over - so I decided to purchase a succulent plant instead. 

I also purchased the book Steal Like An Artist to help inspire her to start writing again. This book put a lot of things into perspective for me as I started to doubt my purpose and creativity - so I knew this would be the perfect book for my friend. 

Finally, I got her a sparkler candle to help her remember to never dull her sparkle. 

To each gift I tied a little message (and succulent care instructions) with silk ribbon, placed everything in the box I received for the succulent (they really did all of the work for me in terms of packaging, the box was just too amazing not to use), and attached a Happy Birthday note to the top of the box.

The next time you are in need of a gift idea - put a little thought into it, think about a past conversation you had with them, add a few personal notes and packaging touches and viola! If you ever need any help or gift suggestions - just send me an email - I'd love to help! japayne3@yahoo.com

Enjoy your day!