Improving On the Thoughts That Count — UPDATE

Is it the thought that counts?

Almost exactly three years since my original post on this topic and today I find a reason to return to it.

During this interval, I've tried with varying degrees of success to beg off gift exchanges with hubby, but was likely only successful every other year. Or every other occasion... or something like that; I don't really remember. (Is that a reflection on the actual gifting that's been done?)

This past year, I had anticipated that he might insist on Christmas presents again, so I smartly held back a couple of items from his birthday to fulfill my side of the exchange.

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I had raised it up a notch for his birthday, commissioning a custom caricature of him. It was based on the sample shown below, purchased from a site called Photolamus (just for your information; I have no affiliation). You can also get them to draw what you want and they will give you a price.

image courtesy of Photolamus...

I requested the addition of his vintage muscle car, as well as a custom background using a photo of the mountains and lake from the place where we used to have our vacation home. I subsequently edited the drawing to add some more custom bits and then had the whole thing blown up into a 3' x 2' peel and stick wallpaper roll from Spoonflower.

Custom mousepad...

The item was certainly different and has received notice from his friends. I think it's a unique gift that will hit the mark with most recipients, if ever you're wondering just what to get to mark a special occasion for someone who doesn't really need anything.

The JPG file that you get is yours to do with what you wish, so it can potentially be several gifts in one. (Especially so if you're handy with computer graphics; I added different elements to the big wallpaper roll as opposed to the mousepad shown here.) The mousepad was what I held back to give him for Christmas.

Another item that I ultimately saved for Christmas was a sling bag similar to (but of a lesser quality than) the Swiss Wenger that he's been carrying. I've decided that there are probably sufficient parts from the original bag and the one that he's using to cobble together a replacement at some point in time. When I get around to remaking it, however, he'll need to have something else to cart his stuff, hence the "temporary" bag.

In my admittedly biased estimation, these two items were well thought out. (The reason for the mousepad being that the one he has is worn out and faded.)

I'll admit that it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I opened my gifts, and it did not start off well. In my beloved's desire to give me more than one, two, or even three packages to open, he threw in an unusual item. I'm not even going to say what it is, just that when I opened it, it made me wonder, "what the actual...". If the point of a gift is to have it not be "guessable", it scored an A+++. As something that I — or most people, for that matter — wanted, needed, or ever wished to have, however, it scored on the opposite end of that scale. But no more on that. (It got returned.)

Done and it works!

The point of this post is that lessons continue to be learned and applied. The remainder of the gifts were winners, in both thought and usability. The main gift was a ROKR wooden owl clock puzzle (from a company called Robotime). It was even more thoughtful considering that he saw how the "R" in the logo (on the pendulum) could be a monogram for me.

I've casually mentioned over the past few years that I'm intrigued by 3D puzzles. He apparently has been paying attention. While I have not been spending any more time on jigsaw puzzles — of which hubby gifted me with two at Christmas 2020 — this was something that had the potential to be fun for the both of us to attempt together. (Which we did, although it seemed to me like most of the time we were doing it "together", it was mostly him doing it! I managed to steal a couple of hours to work on it by myself one day while he was out.)

First bits of progress made between Christmas and New Year's Day...

Sometimes that's the whole point of a thoughtful gift between friends or partners: what can we do together? (My main gift to him was a book on indoor gardening, since he started one a few months ago as his winter hobby and — of course — I've been yanked in to help with it.)

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Check out crafty classes at Creativebug! [affiliate link]

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Now we come to my final two packages... and the part that has to do with the topic of this blog.

Although I just recently passed the ten year mark of starting up sewing again, it's taken this long for the other half to gift me with anything to pursue my hobby. (Of course, I was further surprised later on when he presented me with a moving dolly that he had intended to transform into an extension table for my sewing machine... until my much less complicated method was fully explained to him.) 

Fabric... of sorts!

My last two packages revealed bundles of burlap. My first reaction was "what am I going to do with burlap?" but as I inspected the material, I began to appreciate the thought behind them. (I was particularly impressed by the second one that featured a Paris print; he knew I would like that.) And while I had no idea what I was going to make out of burlap — which means, of course, that you can expect to see it as the subject of an upcoming post ಠ‿ಠ — it would obviously be a new challenge.

And doesn't that address my recent complaints about seeing too much of "same old, same old"?

'Til next...