Posts Tagged ‘gifts’

Bangs Recommends

Monday, December 14th, 2009

It’s the time of year we’re all buying gifts. If you, like me, struggle to find the perfect thing for your loved ones, I thought I’d compile a little list of things I have enjoyed over the last two years, to maybe help give you a little inspiration – kind of like ‘Oprah’s Favourite Things’ but without the screaming, middle aged women. However, if you’d like to scream hysterically and jump up and down while reading this, I won’t hold it against you.

Read

No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent, You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again – Edgardo Vega Yunque

I read this a couple of years ago and it’s a book that has really stuck with me. It’s set in New York in the 80s with a great cast of characters. The lead is the Puerto Rican-Irish Vidamia Farrell and the story centres around her meeting her Irish father and splitting her time between her two families (affluent mother and step-father in the suburbs and father and boho family in the Lower East Side). Her father is a former jazz pianist and the story reads like an improvised jazz song. It’s a long, meaty read that explores every aspect of the characters’ lives. It’s not for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

See

Mesrine – L’instinct de Mort

I’m a huge fan of foreign cinema, especially French. I’m also a huge fan of Vincent Cassel, because he brings the hubba hubba. Well, he doesn’t bring the hubba hubba in this particular film, but in general, he’s hubba-worthy. This is the story of the notorious French gangster, Jacques Mesrine. It’s an epic two-parter that has moments of shock, humour, outrage and a gangster you actually kind of grow to like. If Cassel doesn’t get an Oscar for this performance, there is something wrong with the world.

I should say, I have no idea if this film is out on DVD yet, but if and when it is, you should buy it.

Pampering

I have always found smellies/toiletries to be a cop out. Not much thought went into it. A nice perfume, sure, but a standard soap+body lotion+talcum powder gift set is unimaginative and boring. Having said that, if you can find a way to make something ordinary look extraordinary, then smellies suddenly become acceptable. This company makes soaps to look like slices of cake or cupcakes. Anyone I’ve bought them for has loved them. It’s better than a bath bomb from Lush (incidentally, my ex, the serial adulterer from the Village People used to get me Lush gift sets for Valentines day, so now the scent of Lush has turned into the stench of shame, anger and resentment. Fun times).

Personality/Passion Gifts

These are the good gifts, when you really know someone and what they like. The following examples are clearly about me, but think about the people in your life, what they like and how you could flip it.

Any regular reader here knows I’m a bit of a shoe fanatic (that may be understating it just slightly, but whatever). I wouldn’t expect someone to buy me a pair of shoes (but by no means would I EVER turn that down), but if someone got me an arty print of a shoe, like this, I’d be thrilled.

I’m also really into art deco and the 1920s, so getting me a art print or book about these eras would win you major brownie points.

I’m a big fan of The Wire, but if you know me, you know I’ve seen every episode of every season probably upwards of ten times. But if you were to get me, say, The Wire Re-Up: The Guardian’s Guide to the Greatest TV Show Ever Made, well then we’d really be onto something. Alternatively, you could get me Idris Elba, star of The Wire, naked, gift wrapped in a bow and cooking for me in my kitchen.

I’m also into handmade things and getting a bit crafty. The quilt I made my parents last year was probably the most well received gift I’ve ever given. And the best thing about crafty/handmade gifts is that it doesn’t even have to be good! Just the mere fact that you put the time into trying to make the thing earns you major points.

See, Christmas doesn’t have to be all socks, boxers, CDs and gift cards. Take something ordinary and then run with the idea until you get to something that will mean a little more to the person you’re giving to.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

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Posted in fashion, life | 6 Comments »

A Stitch in Time

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009


This past Christmas, I decided to take a slightly different route with a gift for my parents. Traditionally, Papa always gets a book and Mama gets a watch. But as each year passed the watches were getting bigger and bigger on account of her not-so-great eyesight. At the rate it was going, next year, she’d be like Flava Flav with a big ass clock around her neck, so that had to stop.

 

In November of 2007, after I had moved across country and was looking for a way to bond with my grandmother, who for once in my life, I was actually living near, I started to make a quilt. My grandmother, being quite the quilt connoisseur, got me all the materials I needed to get started. I found a pattern I liked and got to work. 

It had been a long time since my Home Ec classes in high school and my sewing was a bit rusty. Sewing the first few patches together, I stabbed myself with the needle more times than I care to mention, sewed bits on upside down, back to front and every variation of wrong. But it was ok, I told myself. I had time. 
This quilt couldn’t have come at a better time in my life. A few months prior, I had been laid off my job and dumped within the space of a week and this sparked the mother of all quarter-life crises. I moved across country, away from everyone and everything I knew and all I had was time and my thoughts. That was enough to drive me crazy. I needed something to get my mind off the shit heap that was, my life. Cue quilt. 

 

 


With each stitch, things seemed to get a little better. Heartache eased, quilt got bigger, more stitches, this blog was born, quilt got bigger, mind got clearer, more stitches. By the time March/April of ’08 rolled around, the quilt was damn near an obsession. Every spare second of my time, I could be found knee deep in fabric, wadding, scissors, thread, needles. At this point, I knew I would be going home for Christmas and decided that I would give the quilt to my parents. I thought it would be a nice gesture and furthermore, I figured by December, I would be sick of seeing the damn thing. 
I was working on the quilt, adding patches and tidying it up, right up until the day I left to go home. Cut to Christmas morning and the look on my parents face when they open their gift was priceless. A year before, I had shown them, via webcam, the first few patches I had sewn together, feeling all proud of myself. It was hard to imagine then, that it would get so big.

 

I called home home a couple of days ago and Mama told me Papa is at home, sick and he’s wrapped up in my quilt. My hope is that one day (provided I don’t die alone), I will wrap my children in that quilt and tell them of the place the quilt once had in my parents’ life.
Oooohhh yeah…and it’s reversible, bitches! 
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Tip of the day – Be grateful.

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Posted in life | 7 Comments »