The Ultimate Colorado Holiday Gift guide

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Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday season is here. It's time to choose best gifts to our loved ones, right? Isn't it a great experience to choose a local Colorado gift? 

Here is the Ultimate Colorado Gift guide featuring some hand-picked unique local Colorado gifts. 

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Cooking classes :

Do you have a friend or family member who loves cooking or baking? Then, it makes sense to gift them a cooking class. To add spice, think of gifting a couple cooking class. 

When I think of cooking classes, Monika Celly of Polka dots and Curry is the name that comes to my mind. Monika offers cooking classes focused on healthy, plant based recipes in Colorado Springs. Not only the cooking classes, you can also gift her special Spice blends and meal kits.

Check out her website for upcoming classes or follow her Facebook page so that you don't miss any upcoming cooking events. 

Paintings and home decor :

Paintings and home decor are always the best gifts for anyone. Who doesn't love a unique painting adorning their living room? I feel fortunate, if my friends can gift some home decor. 

When I first saw Bindu's paintings in her Facebook page - Shades of color, I was speechless. Bindu's paintings are expressive with a spiritual touch. 

Follow her Facebook page to contact Bindu Jackwin to order a great painting to gift your loved ones. 

One more good news, Crafted Colorado Handmade Studio in Old Colorado city is showcasing her work along with the crafts of 20 other local businesses. This store is open till Dec 31st, So what are you waiting for?

Handmade Jewelry:

Who doesn't love unique handmade jewelry showing the culture and heritage?

Sougandhika Jewelry is owned by Meena, who exquisitely crafts jewelry with great quality. She gives her special touch of craftsmanship to her designs being a diploma holder in Jewelry designing. 

I bought a pair of lovely jhumkis (ear rings) from her and cannot wait to wear them for the next function. 

Follow her Facebook page so that you don't miss her latest holiday collection. I am sure you will buy many wonderful jewelry pieces  from her collection to wow your friends and family. 

Essential oil classes and gift sets :

These days, we want to live in a toxin free environment and use products which are harmless, environment friendly and healthy, right?

I attended Michelle Wilson's Essential oils class a year ago and I am inspired to know how useful are essential oils in our every day life. 

Visit her Facebook page and know for yourselves the benefits of gifting an essential oil and diffuser kit. 

Traditional Apparel and, jewelry gifts:

It's tough to get authentic Indian traditional outfits, jewelry and shoes in USA, right? Mio Mora solves that problem by bringing Indian traditional jewelry, apparel and shoes to USA through their boutique in Colorado Springs owned by Anu Kochhar. 

Here is the link for their Facebook page which gets updated with the latest collection to order your gifts in the festive season. 

Donuts :

Who doesn't love donuts? This sweet snack is a great dessert and the best gift option to both adults and kids. 

Amy's Donuts in Colorado Springs is serving the fresh donuts of various types - seasonal, gourmet, traditional, frosted, filled etc., 

Donuts are always special, Is it because they are cute with little holes in the middle or the sprinkles or the fillings or colors? what can I say, I don't know. I love them as perfect gifts.

We recently discovered Horseshoe Donuts 🍩 from Monument. The size of donuts is very big and they taste great. A real worth of money. They sell out sometimes by 12pm itself,  so get it early. 

Children Clothing :

Kids grow faster. As parents, we buy new clothes to our toddlers more times than necessary. So, It makes sense to gift fashionable clothes to our friends' or relatives' kids or even to the children in our family, right?

Navira is a children apparel store with unique and stylish designs. This store is owned and managed by Nisha who says that her specialty is kalamkari designs. Kalamkari is a type of hand printed /  block printed cotton textile and they use only natural dyes, thus it's good for our little ones.

Here is a link to their Facebook page. 

Books :

Do you have a friend/ family member who is a book worm? We will have atleast one such person, right?

There are 2 Colorado Authors that I admire of. 

Simi K Rao writes about cross-cultural traditions, lifestyles and relationships. I love her romantic novels like Milan and The Accidental Wife. Here is her Amazon profile with all the links of her books.












Milan by Simi K Rao

Accidental Wife by Simi K Rao

Recently, I came across the book "The 30-minute Ayurvedic Cookbook" by Danielle Martin. This book is wonderful to know about the basics of Ayurveda and some simple recipes to improve our health.

So, those are my suggestions for Holiday gifts from our local Colorado businesses. How do you like it? Do let me know your opinion in comments.


Until next time,

Scampy Doodle and the Reindeer by G. J. Barnes - [Book Review]

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Summary:

Scampy Doodle is a happy go lucky black dog who has a strong nose for adventure.

It's Christmas Eve and Scampy Doodle is fast asleep when he is woken by a strange noise coming from the chimney. Discover what happens when he goes to investigate and gets the greatest surprise of his life!

Information about the Book

Title: Scampy Doodle and the Reindeer

Author: G J Barnes

Illustrator: Chris Sorensen

Release Date: 4^th December 2017

Genre: Picture Book

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Clink Street Publishing

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43020585-scampy-doodle-and-the-reindeer

Purchase link:

Amazon 

My Review

This is a good time to read a Christmas story, Isn't it? My 4-year-old son wants to read a Christmas story and this book has come to me at right time.

The story is about a lovely pet dog Scampy Doodle, who like every other kid is waiting ready to receive presents from Santa. Scampy keeps a plate of carrots for the Reindeer and a drink for Sata Claus before the night of Christmas. 

Scampy is a kind and helpful dog who gives her collar to the reindeer and offers dog biscuits to the reindeer. 

This is a quick read as the book has only 20 pages. The illustrations of the dog, reindeer, and Santa are good. A sweet little story about Christmas for the little ones. The book cover is great and apt. Scampy looks adorable for kids.

My Rating: 4/5

Ps: I have received this book from the author through Authoright in exchange for a review and this is my honest opinion on the book.

Author Information

  As my daughter got older we used to (and still do) tell each other stories in the car about our family dog Scamp. Scamp had been neglected as a puppy and was rescued by my parents and became our family pet.

He was a little bit crazy (he used to try and get up on the table to lick up crumbs after a meal) but he was always happy to see you and always there for a cuddle whenever anyone needed one.

In many ways he was more like a human being, standing up on his back legs, drinking cups of tea out of a cup off the coffee table.

So I decided to write some of our stories down to share with others, the first one being Scampy Doodle and the Reindeer.

Website: https://www.scampydoodle.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/scampyd

Tour Schedule

Monday 3^rd December

Carol’s Notebook

Tuesday 4^th December

Jazzy Book Reviews

Wednesday 5^th December

Bound 4 Escape

Thursday 6^th December

Evermore Books

Friday 7^th December

Reading for Pleasure

Bumbling Blogger

Saturday 8^th December

Donna’s Book Blog

Sunday 9^th December

Rosie Writes

Monday 10^th December

Life of a Nerdish Mum

Tuesday 11^th December

Book Babble

Wednesday 12^th December

Fantastic Feathers

Thursday 13^th December

Bumbles and Fairy-tales

Criminally Good

Friday 14^th December

Dash Fan Book Reviews

Saturday 15^th December

Ellie in Heaven

Sunday 16^th December

Fraser’s Fun House

OBC Mini Reviewers

Until next time,

How to Recreate Traditional Gifts this Holiday Season?

The year is filled with gift giving occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. There are also events like births and weddings that spring up, and of course, the year ends with the gift-giving holiday season. It can all be enough to make anyone completely run out of fresh ideas when it comes to gift giving. Perhaps the solution isn’t in finding new types of gifts as much as it is in finding creative ways to present the item.

Source: www.pixaby.com

Collectibles

Do you have a friend that loves to collect, but you can’t imagine handing them another snowman, cat, or whatever their collection might be? Don’t be afraid to continue the tradition. Simply give it more creatively. For example, many people collect precious moment or willow tree figures found from retailers like Hallmark. Make the new piece the center of a basket. Paint the basket with a coordinating color, and fill it with related items. This could be candy, small picture frames, t-shirts or any number of other similar things.

Source: www.pixaby.com

Flowers

Fresh flowers make a wonderful gift, but they can seem a bit cliché. Try spicing them up a bit with imaginative ways of presenting them. Pick something to use as a vase that they can continue to use after the flowers are gone. Send a cup and saucer filled with miniature roses to the tea drinker and a mug of carnations to the coffee lover. Include a gift card to an area coffee shop as an extra bonus, and the gardener in your life will treasure a watering can filled with blossoms.

Source:www.pixabay.com

Food

One can never go wrong with the gift of food. If you are tired of the usual plate of cookies at Christmas, try filling a cookie jar instead. Cakes can be given on a covered cake plate, and a bread box filled with homemade breads and jams would be a wonderful treat. You could also shrink wrap a cutting board piled with crackers, cheese, and a slicer. Instead of giving a typical box of candy, give them a covered crystal dish filled with wrapped candies.

Use any of these suggestions to turn traditional gifts into something new and amazing. You may even think of some fresh new ideas of your own. Remember to be creative, and the next gift you give will be extraordinary.

So, how do you like recreating a traditional gift ? Do let me know in comments.

Until next time,

5 simple holiday gift ideas for kids

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I studied in a Christian missionary school in my childhood and so, the month of December was always a holiday time for us. We used to get at least 10 to 15 days of holidays in December for Christmas before our half yearly exams. Of course, we used to get holidays for Pongal too in January :-)


Gifting is a part of this holiday season. Even in our office we play Secret Santa and give gifts to our colleagues. When it comes to kids, the first gift that comes to our mind is toys. Other than that, what else can be interesting to them? Here are a few ideas that I have.. Let me know if you have any other good gifting ideas for kids.

1. Arts and crafts material

Quilling kits might find useful for kids above 6 years of age, but crayons and painting books/ books with stickers are useful for kids below 6 years of age. A gift set with a combination of pencils, crayons, colouring books, markers, fabric colours and erasers will be the best option.

 

 2. Outdoor gaming kits
Though a little expensive, a bike, skating board, tricycle etc are good gifts for kids.  Both boys and girls would enjoy this. Another option would be to buy a trampoline (quite expensive), a flying disc like frisbee, a ball etc.,

3. Indoor playing kits

 I love purchasing building blocks and board games. Board games like chinese checkers, Ludo, Monopoly, Snake and ladder, Brainvita etc., are very old traditional games which engage them for a long time. For children below 5 years of age and above 2 years, clay modeling kits are a good option.

4. Books
Please don't buy any serious books for children. First of all, it's difficult to make them read for a long time. So, Board books with pop-ups or interactive options are good for children below 3 years of age.  Some story books include stickers, fun quiz, coloring, and craft activities. These are good bets for me to gift for younger children.

5. Others

There are many things that kids use in day to day like lunch boxes, school bag, vibrant water bottles, a cozy pillow, a blanket with their favorite cartoon character, a night dress with their favorite designs etc., These items are easy to select and are very useful on a long run.

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Until next time,

This is my day 28 post for #NaBloPoMo Challenge.

Image courtesy:www.pixabay.com