Quick Christmas gift stitching

Polly Esther, Those are great ideas for younger children who live near by. Sometimes, if I'm giving gift cards to family members, I'll make envelopes of red felt, embroidered with their initials or names(if the names are short), then punch punch holes at the top so they can be hung on the tree.

-- Emily

Just one more Practical Gift. There is just no such thing as too many flashlights. No such thing. Except: they get carried off and are never handy when you've just got to have one. We growl and snarl and commit assorted mayhem when a fellow 'borrows' our best scissors until they learn better. Flashlights, on the other hand, seem to be fair game. Today, I bought our four girls plain old ordinary flashlights. To make them totally disgusting to the dear men who would take them away 'just for the moment' and never return them... I decorated the flashlights with every sort of bling sacked away in my stash. I wish I could show them to you. I have super-serious glued all manner of rhinestone, aurora bowreeallis ( too late at night for me to worry about spelling), pearls and glitzy girly stuff all around the head of the lights. My. They are just so pretty. Tomorrow, I just might add some feathers and silk ribbon bows. Polly

oh Polly-

my 17 year old DD would have loved to have helped you bling out those flashlights! what a fun idea!!! Katie is a HUGE believer in bling ....the western show clothes all are into bling, and she believes that anything can be rhinestoned.

Betsey

My handyman picked up a package of two penlights -- these have an LED bulb and a laser pointer at one end, and on the other, a ball-point pen and a stylus. Really nifty gadget, and the two of them were under $5. Found at Home Depot. Great stocking stuffer!

What a great gift! I could use a couple more myself, not because someone takes them, but because I misplace them myself.

Emily

I'm going to Home Depot Saturday and I will definitely see if they have these in stock; great gifts for children & grandchildren. I don't promise to add bling to them, not enough time for that before mailing the pkgs. Emily

ROFL, Polly! I love the idea of blinged out flashlights. I carry a little LED flashlight in my purse always, and woe betide you if I lend it to you and it's not back in my hand ASAP.

The flashlights I love the best, of all I've had over the years, are the BOGO lights. These are solar charged battery operated flashlights that can be used in a number of different ways, and are designed to be run all night. Eventually the batteries will wear out, but they're easily replaced. I like them because they're bright, versatile, fit my hand, and I leave one on the bedroom windowsill, facing out. I can see immediately if it's not there and go chase down the flashlight thief.

They're designed for use in 3rd world countries, and the name comes from the funding model for the project: BOGO: Buy one, give one (to someone who really needs one). You can choose pink flashlights to give... they found that the women get to keep those.

The SN2 light is really pretty amazing... I've used it for general lighting room lighting, more directed light when cooking, and even more concentrated light for reading and tasks. I have not yet tried a minilight, but have the SN1 and SN2. Gave the SN2 to all my elderly relatives in hurricane and winter storm areas.

OK, commercial over. I don't sell 'em, I have no interest in the company. They're just darn good flashlights, and I'm sure they're even better when there's no other light source.

Kay