Young House Love

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Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Partner

We realized in all of this new house hubbub we never shared what we gifted each other for Christmas. Fishsticks! (No, we didn’t give each other fishsticks, I’m just practicing our resolution to not curse around the baby anymore).

Sherry wins the “best gift” award this year. In continuing her efforts to grow our art collection, she considered a couple of Richmond-themed pieces (including this one that we’ve always liked) and finally ended up getting me this awesome Richmond Type Map:

Gifts Type Map Full

It’s a colorful map of our fair city made up entirely of identifying text. See what I mean?

Gifts Type Map Detail

The black grid is made up of street names and the colored area behind them are the neighborhoods. So if you’re equal parts Richmond enthusiast, map connoisseur, and typography lover (like me) it’s basically the gift trifecta. Oh, and some of the proceeds of each map go to a local kids art charity called Art180. We haven’t picked out the perfect spot for it in the house yet, so for now it’s joining the pile of frames in the family room that are sitting around waiting to be hung.

I was a close second (aka last place) for the “best gift” distinction this year. Given Sherry’s growing love of tea-drinking I finally got her a proper tea kettle (no more microwaving) and two new mugs. The kettle is the Chantal Loop in cobalt blue (which seems to be our color of the moment given that it’s actually pretty similar to the backs of our built-ins). And the “Tunnel Vision” mugs are from an NYC-based dishware shop called Fishs Eddy. I figured it was a nice nod to the city where we met (NY) and the state where Sherry was born and raised (Jersey, baby).

Gifts Tea Stuff

Of course gift giving isn’t really a competition. But if it were, there is one area in which we’d tie. When my sister drew Sherry’s name in our “Petersik Sibling Gift Exchange” (which keeps the adults in our family from going present-crazy because we each just have one person to shop for) I suggested that she get Sherry a new Three Designing Women stamper with our new address on it (we both loved saving our hand and using our old one to mail out things like thank yous and holiday cards). Sherry apparently had the same thought and ordered one for me too, which I opened about ten seconds after she opened hers.

Gifts Stamper

Since they’re customized gifts we can’t exactly return one, but at least we chose two different designs (my sister ordered the design on top, Sherry ordered the one on the bottom). So for now we’ve decided to just enjoy being able to mix things up when it comes to stamping our return address on stuff. And Sherry actually loves the one on top more than the one she chose, so she’s happy about the whole overlapping gift snafu.

So that’s how we Santa’d each other this year (well, with a little help from my sister). What about you guys? We’d love to hear what you guys scored – especially if it’s home related. Any ceramic animals?

Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15! 

Comments

  5. erin says

    you can purchase three designing women (and other brands)stamps at expressionary.com. there is almost always a 40% off coupon code for this site on retailmenot.com (HOME4 is one available right now). that brings the $45 stamp down to $27. great deal and so fun.

    Reply

  6. Anne says

    Beautiful gifts (and a gorgeous baby)! This reminds me of a funny saying I heard once: Maps are like pornography for people who like to travel. So true!

    Reply

  8. Tara says

    Thank you for figuring out what to get my husband for our fifth anniversary this April 15th. I found axismaps.com has a typography map of Boston, his hometown. He’ll love it! I’m the worst gift giver and can’t keep a secret so having a perfect gift 4-months in advance is going to kill me.

    Love Clara’s toothy grin.

    Reply

  9. Courtney says

    I actually got two of the return address stampers, too! My husband and I got married in September, and my sister-in-law and a great friend of ours both gave us one… they’re very different, so I love being able to mix them up depending on what we’re mailing!

    Reply

  10. YoungHouseLove says

    GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!

    Mollie at The Paper Cafe just added a special YHL discount on the Three Designing Women stampers. Check out the bottom of this post for details. You can even get the discount applied if you ordered yesterday or earlier today!

    -John

    Reply

  15. Amanda says

    I actually gave the Richmond Love gocco print by Art Shark Designs to my husband for a special occasion last year, and we love them (I purchased a series of three- we honeymooned in Paris and London, and are from Richmond, so I got him all three since they are such special places for us). They are amazing! I love that she will even customize the color of the umbrellas if you ask! :o) I’m in the market for three more- I lived in Philly for 6 months last year, and we now live in Chicago…but we’re waiting for the artist to do a Williamsburg, College of William and Mary or VCU print so we can get all three!

    Reply

  17. Sarah says

    Thank you so much for the coupon code! I have tons of (now belated) holiday cards to send out with pics of our little guy and the thought of adding return addresses to all of those envelopes (as well as to all of our thank you notes) was almost making me cry. Even though we are planning to move this spring, the coupon code made it okay (in my humble opinion) to splurge and just replace the stamp part later!

    Reply

  18. Pammy says

    WOO! I’m so excited about the discount! Ordering one now as an early bday gift for myself! I also wanted to say, that I have the Ork poster for DC and I absolutely love it, i get compliments on it ALL the time. I got the Philly one for my bff too :)

    Reply

  19. amanda says

    Is there anything funnier than a laughing baby? I love how they think the most random things are hysterical! And their laughter never fails to make you laugh. I miss having babies around! I love that expression on Clara’s face after he hits at the camera, like ‘OMG, I can’t believe he just did that!!!’LOL

    Reply

  20. jennifer says

    Am I the only one that leaves coomments all the time? I promise I am not a stalker! I LOVE THESE MAPS! The map making hubs had a birthday yesterday and bc we are in the middle of House Listing “mess” he didn’t get anything too great, but how excited will he be to get these as a new house present for our new house in the R-I-C?! Or maybe I should get them for our soon to be old city?!
    Oonce again, thanks for the gift idea!!

    Reply

  22. EngineerMom says

    TEA!!! If you need a totally excellent source for tea, I highly recommend Tea Source (pun fully intended). They’re a small company operating out of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. The guy who owns it is very, very knowledgeable, and their staff are generally very educated about tea.

    They sell looseleaf tea, and it’s the most affordable I’ve seen anywhere. If you know you like a particular tea, you can call their toll-free number to get recommendations on other teas, or you can order sample packs.

    My personal favorites: Breakfast Assam, Chocolate Cream (with cocoa nibs mixed into the tea!), Decaf English Breakfast, and Evening in Missoula (not technically a tea, but a tisane – herbal “tea”).

    They also have the BEST chai ever. It’s a spice mix that you mix into sweetened condensed milk, then keep in the fridge. You brew a cup of whatever tea you like (they recommend Breakfast Assam), then stir in however much of the spice-milk mixture you like to taste. You can adjust the amount of spices in the milk to make it spicier vs. sweet, you can add more milk mixture to make it more milky vs. more tea-y, etc. Love it.

    The website is teasource.com I don’t live in Minnesota anymore, and my sister has never lived there, but we both order all of our tea from Tea Source. It’s that good. Enough tea for the two of us for about 3 months costs roughly $35, depending on what we order, and that includes shipping. I drink 16 oz of tea daily, and she drinks a comparable amount.

    Reply

  23. anne says

    I highly recommend not cursing around the baby! Great resolution! My 4-year old has definitely “practiced” a few of the things he’s heard around here….

    Reply

  27. MYE says

    Long time reader, first time poster! :) I live here in RVA and was green with envy when I saw this post about the poster. Would you believe we celebrated a late holiday present opening today and we got one? So excited. :)

    Reply

  29. Brit says

    The store I work at sells the Three Designing Women stampers (love them!) and you can actually order just a new imprint rather than having to replace the whole stamper…so, you could even replace one of them with a fun Christmas themed stamp (or any of the other fun options they have) to mix things up even more. There are about a bajillion different designs!

    Reply

  31. mollie says

    hi Sherry,

    Three Designing Women’s newest stamp models (marked “Changeables” right on the stamp device, allow you to interchange the polymer piece so that you can use multiple designs. Instructions come with all of the new ones, which explains how their new Changeables system works; hopefully that came with your new stamps that you received for Christmas? The older models do not allow you to do this; not sure whether your one you had before would have even worked:)

    Hope that helps!
    mollie

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Whew! So glad we didn’t toss a perfectly interchangeable stamp. It seemed like a new feature but since the old one was gone already we weren’t sure! What a cool new design though!

      xo,
      s

  32. Amy says

    Thanks so much for sharing the custom stamps. I’m on my third one. I’ve ordered one for me and two for housewarming gifts. Mollie always takes great care of me!

    Reply

  33. Ruth says

    Sorry if 87 commenters already suggested this.

    BUT I’m a tea fanatic and cannot recommend an electric kettle enough. It’s always the first appliance that gets plugged in after I move. I use it for tea, coffee, boiling water for cooking, whatever. Electric kettles boil things quickly without occupying a burner on your stove. They happen to not be as pretty as the awesome one John gave above — so they don’t cancel out a great Christmas present.

    My last tea plug: Upton Tea has a great selection, and when you order from them online they print your name on the label of the tin. I get a kick out of it every time I reach for tea.

    Reply

  34. Barbara says

    I am LOVING the stamp!!! Can’t wait to get one.

    Middle of the night and somehow I’m finally getting back here since just after your move – so much fun stuff to catch up on! Briefly, you just reminded me that somewhere in amongst the Christmas shopping, I popped into a second-hand store and nabbed a fairly large grey ceramic elephant that I’m going to spray glossy white and put on the limestone grey mantel of the fireplace in my rec room reno. I can’t believe I forgot about him! Thanks for reminding me, and for the fun new addiction of ceramic mammal collecting. :)

    (btw, did all of your family survive the move? I was thinking especially of your giant dogs. *loves* At the second-hand shop, it was hard not to take the other two smaller elephants they had too, to make a whole herd – I’m still feeling a bit bad for my guy, wondering if he’ll be lonely. I’ll try to remember to take before and after pics so I can show him off!)

    Thanks so much again for all the fun reading here – you guys never fail to add some sunshine to the day. Now to load Clara and the magical cardboard tube for more guaranteed smiles (slothlike dialup always leaves me something to look forward to – or at least I try to spin it that way). :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Barbara,

      Yes! The whole ceramic animal menagerie survived the move! I thank my lucky stars every day! And they all send their love to your elephant friend!

      xo,
      s

  36. Laura says

    I don’t know if you guys have seen this website, but the maps on it remind me of your type map and could make cool DIY art. I read about it on Yahoo News today.

    New York artist R. Luke DuBois signed up for 21 different dating sites and compiled a list of the words people used to describe themselves and their ideal mates. Then he made maps showing the locations around the country where each unique word was most often used.

    Here’s Virginia’s:
    http://music.columbia.edu/~luke/perfect/37VA.shtml

    Reply

  37. Nina says

    Question about your map and how you framed it? Did you frame just the map portion or did you include the info on the bottom too? I’m torn about how I want to frame it? Also did you put it behind glass?? Thanks

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We (unbelievably) haven’t framed it yet. But I was planning to mat it so you only saw the map part I think. We’ll be sure to share details when we (finally) do!

      xo,
      s

  38. Nina says

    Ha… I’m glad to know I’m not the only one=) Ive had my map sitting here since December=( Trying to at least get my measurements right so I can keep my eye out for a frame that may work at thrift stores and other randome places.

    Reply

    • Nina says

      Just an update on the map… I found a frame at target that is on clearance right now that I think may work for the map. It is a square frame with the opening measuring about 21.5″, and I think the map is about 16″, so it would leave 2.75″ on each side for a mat. It is dark brown (slightly reddish undertones) and has a blue fabric in it with 4 white swirly circles in it and is currently about $35. Not a super awesome deal, but not too bad!

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