Last minute gift ideas, to me, means I’m on my way to their house and am hoping to pick something up along the way.

And I’m running late.

Obviously you are much better prepared than I am and you would never desperately scan the shelves of a drugstore in order to find something, anything!, to toss into a gift bag for a holiday gathering or birthday party.  So this really last minute gift idea is purely for your entertainment.

And my survival.

REALLY Last Minute Gift Idea: The Recipe Gift Bag

1. Grab an index card and write down your favorite recipe.
2. Stop at the grocery store and purchase a gift card to cover the cost of the ingredients.
3. Check out the kitchen items aisle and buy a tool used in the recipe.  Cookie cutters, zesters, flour sifter, silicone muffin pans – something cheap but slightly “specialized” for your recipe so it looks like you put some thought into this!
4. Buy a reusable grocery bag – you can get them at the cashier – and put it all inside. Eco-friendly and creative!

The best part about this idea is that you can easily adjust it to fit any budget and personalize it to be used over and over again.

And that’s how you do procrastination right.

Photo credit.

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It’s not that I don’t like people buying me presents; it’s that I don’t like people buying me crap.  And my threshold for what constitutes not crap seems to be higher than most people’s.  I’m very picky about the stuff that I let accumulate in my life, and I’m only getting more picky with age.  I don’t want candles or bath salts or kitschy home decor items.  I don’t mean to be a bitch, but owning stuff means having to clean, put away and make room for stuff.  I try to ensure that the stuff I will end up cleaning, putting away and making room for is stuff that is really, really important to me.  Scented candles?  Not even close.

What do you get a minimalist crab like me?  Of course, you can always give gift certificates and “experience” gifts.  But if you absolutely have to have something to wrap up in pretty paper, try some of these gift ideas.

5 Great Gifts For Women Who Hate Stuff (Or Call Themselves Minimalists)

1. Great sheets

Quality sheets make a great gift

I love sleeping in other people’s houses when they have better bed linens than I do, especially because I almost always end up going cheap on my own sheets.  A gift of high quality sheets would get enjoyed over and over again and is really a gift of every day luxury.

Style & Co makes a 300 count cotton percale sheet set that is soft, durable and easy to care for.  Available at Macy’s.

2. Leather driving gloves

These are practical and sexy!

These leather driving gloves from Saks ooze cosmopolitan style and they’re practical!  Fingers get cold!  A quality pair of gloves will last a woman years.

3. A Miche Bag (and shell, or two)

My mother has one of these and I am craving one of my own.  I need to get rid of the closet full of handbags I currently own, but a girl still  needs a purse!  This lets me be fashionable without taking up any space at all.  You see, the Miche bag allows you to change the outside of your handbag while reusing the same base over and over and over again.  If you haven’t heard of this yet, checkout their site.  Then buy me one.  Please.

4. E-reader

Nook puts thousands of books in an itty bitty living space

Whether it’s a Nook, Kindle or a Sony, an e-reader takes the bulk of a bookshelf and puts it into a slim, portable reading device.  A Nook may be the best bet for your favorite minimalist if she likes to lend and borrow books or make use of her local library.  You can find refurbished Nooks on eBay at a significant discount.

4. Handmade soaps

Handmade soaps are yummy gifts for dirty hippies!

Bath salts?  No.  But soap?  Even minimalists wash up and handmade soaps will get used and be loved.  They’re also relatively inexpensive.  LUSH makes the absolute best soaps (and other body products), but you’ll get a better product if you purchase in store than you will if you order online and have to have it shipped.  Bath & Body Works is a satisfactory substitute if necessary.

5. Scarves

Colorful scarves are inexpensive gifts

I may be pruning my closet in preparation for my big trip around the country, but I am keeping every single one of my scarves.  A collection of colorful scarves prevent minimalists from walking around in the beatnik black uniform.  Bonus? You get find tons of great colors and fabrics for a steal all over.  Target is my favorite place for scarves (and tights!).

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8 Gifts For Women Who Travel

1. Personalized Leather Luggage Tags – serves the dual purpose of making a bag easier to spot on the baggage carousel and providing all necessary information in the event that her luggage is lost.  Something leather and monogrammed is a much classier choice than something polka dotted and flashing.

2. Cashmere Pashmina – a pashmina is an ideal accessory for a traveler because it can be layered when you find the weather chillier than the Internet told you it would be and it can be used as a blanket on the airplane, because they no longer offer those for the suckers in coach.  I am constantly freezing on the plane and use an over-sized scarf that Faiqa brought me from Saudi Arabia as my travel blanket and go-to layering piece.  A cashmere pashmina would also do the job nicely.

3. Sleep Kit - you can assemble the perfect sleep kit with a few items that help make a strange hotel room more comfortable: silk sleep mask, ear plugs, and a small (travel sized!) bottle of linen spray.

4. E-Reader gift cards - if the woman you’re shopping for is an avid reader and traveler, chances are she already has a Nook or a Kindle (or the Kindle app on her iPhone).  Find out which one she has and give her the appropriate gift card.  Regular Amazon gift cards cannot be used for books on the Kindle, so this is a gift that often gets overlooked and would be greatly appreciated by anyone who has found themselves spending $12.99 in a moment of desperation in an airport.  Repeatedly.

5. Portable Solar Charger - uh, yeah.  This thing is powered by the sun and can recharge almost any rechargeable device, including iPhones, Blackberries and many digital cameras.

6. Photography Gear - if your loved one (or liked one) travels for pleasure, there’s a really good chance that they have at least an amateur interest in photography.  Even if they aren’t good at, they probably want to capture the places they visit in pictures.  That means that photography gifts are perfect for travelers.

7. Underwater HD Video Camera – I got one of these for free at BlogWorld and it is amazing for taking underwater video.  If it can handle snorkeling, it can probably handle just about anything else your jet setter can put it through.

8. More travel! Did you know that you can actually purchase gift certificates from many travel companies, including airlines like Southwest and JetBlue?  These are great gifts if you’re hoping your frequent flier will eventually come visit you!

As with any gift, try to avoid the cutesy low-quality crap that’s more of a gimmick than it is useful.  Do not, for example, give me an inflatable travel wine bag.  Unless I am an avid wine collector, that is lame.

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Imagine her face when she opens this

Finn here again. I’ve got a lot to say. Apparently.

I’m not hard to buy for—if you pay attention. But so many people just don’t. Or at least that don’t pay enough attention. Maybe they realize that I am a perfume whore (The more the merrier, I say and I’m not ashamed). What they don’t get is that just because I like fragrance it doesn’t mean I will like their favorite, which they will invariably assume, even if I didn’t say I liked it or even notice they were wearing any. And invariably that scent will be something sweet and delicate, which is NOT me at all and should be obvious to anyone who’s ever been in my presence.

But enough about me.

What I’m getting at is this: Unless you know for sure what your giftee likes perfume-wise, it really has been better just to refrain from giving that particular item.

Until now.

Sephora has the perfect solution:  Sephora Scent Samplers. It’s ingenious really. You buy the sampler, which includes a handful (7, 10 or 12 depending on the collection) of sample bottles of their bestselling fragrances. Once you’ve tried them all and decided on a favorite, you bring the enclosed voucher to your nearest Sephora store and redeem it for a full-sized bottle of your pick.

Easy-breezy and oh-so-cool. Plus, they have samplers for men, too.

A few caveats: You must redeem the voucher at a Sephora store; you can’t use it online. And it’s not valid for our Canadian friends unless they cross the border. Finally, there is always the chance that the recipient won’t like any of the available scents. But the included selection is diverse enough that the chance would be slim. Two of the collections have one scent that I’ve recently fallen in love with and I’m picky as hell.

Pricing on these are $50 for the Best Sellers or Deluxe samplers and $75 for the Collector’s Edition, which features seven miniature versions of the regular perfume bottles rather than the little sample packages. For men there are two versions, the Deluxe for $50 and the Collector’s Edition for $75.

I gave one these to both my brother and my dad for Christmas (they like cologne almost as much as do) and they loved it. Gift-giving WIN I tell you. Even my mother liked the idea and she’s a pain in the ass when it comes to gifts. Trust me, you’ll be a hero. Try it.

P.S. These are a great way to sample several fragrances and even save a few bucks on new scent if you’re in the market for yourself.

Maybe, just maybe, someone in my life will get the hint (anyone?) and buy me one of these babies. But they’re probably not paying attention.

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Comes in five colors

This post is brought to you by the lovely Finn.  She is my personal shopping guru, so I’m beyond excited to have her pitching in here at Buy-Her!!

There are two things you should know about me: 1. I’ll read just about anything I can get my hands on. 2. I’m rarely at home when I have time to read.

I spend a lot of time in waiting rooms. Waiting. Books are great company, but I found out the hard way that my favorite metal bookmark with the inspirational quote and the leather tail really sucked outside the relative safety and calm of my house. And by that I mean the stupid thing fell out all of the time. It’s really hard to keep up with the continual stopping and starting of trying to read in between appointments when you keep losing your place.

Last year I had a little bit of money left over on a gift card, so I decided to give the Book Bungee from Levenger a try. It’s a hard plastic bookmark with a thick, flat bungee cord attached. You mark your place with the plastic part, then wrap the bungee around your book. And lo and behold it keeps your place AND keeps the book closed. It makes my heart happy. You just don’t know.

I don’t have to remember to take the book out of the car anymore; I can toss a book in my tote in the morning and have it with me whenever I have time to read. It never falls out and I never lose my page. You can use it horizontally or vertically and it fits all sizes of books: hardcover, trade paperback (my favorite) or regular paperback. The best part is that it’s cheap inexpensive at $6. And it comes in several different colors.

Two words: Stocking stuffer.

Legal nonsense: Although I’ve done freelance work for Levenger and my brother currently works there, no consideration was (or will be) provided to me (or my family) by Levenger for this review. I purchased the item myself and wanted to share it with others.

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Boys read too

Listen, I don’t subscribe to the idea that there are girl things and boy things.  While I may be what is typically called a “girly girl”, it’s by choice and not genetic shackling.

If my kids want to play with dolls, trucks or lab rats, I don’t care, as long as I don’t step on it in the middle of the night.

That being said, I’m probably not going to convince my son to read more by handing him my first edition copy of Sweet Valley High.

The holidays are coming and I think books make great gifts for kids.  Books are an especially good gift for boys who are so. not. impressed. with clothes (and really don’t need another video game.  Really.  Please.)

As of December 14th, I’ll have a 10 year old boy, so the focus of this post is “mid-grade” books for boys.  (Most of these books will work for girls as well, obviously, but I wanted to concentrate specifically on ideas for boys today.)  Let’s just pretend it’s not called “Buy Her” for a moment.

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While cash is always an option, and many couples have wedding registries to give you gift ideas, some wedding presents call for a little more thought and personalization.  Maybe you’re a friend of the groom and can’t get excited about giving him kitchen cutlery as a wedding present, or maybe the happy couple has been living together for a while (oh, for shame!) and is already well stocked in the domestic department.

Or maybe you’re just a big sappy romantic yourself and you love the chance to give a sentimental gift – and what better excuse than a wedding?

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Holy crap, it’s May.  How did that happen?

As the days get warmer and Christmas becomes a distant memory, no doubt your mailbox will soon be filling up with graduation announcements.  Yes, further reminder that time has flown by and it’s time to start thinking about ideas for graduation gifts.  High school and College graduations have begun and chances are good that someone you know will be in need of a graduation gift in the next month.

Of course, you can always stick money in a card and call it a day – or you can go the extra mile and make sure your money doesn’t go towards beer and take out.

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