Red Elephant Gallery

Art Glass, Hand Blown Glass, Functional Handmade Pottery, Unique Handcrafted Jewelry

Name: RedElephantGallery

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Unique Handmade Secret Sister Gifts

If you are looking for something special for your secret sister, (secret pal, friend or even secret Santa) then you have come to the right place. The Red Elephant Gallery has a great selection of Unique Handmade Secret Sister Gifts. We’ve highlighted a few items that have been popular and we make the process of secret gift giving easy!

One of our most popular girlfriend gifts is the interchangeable marble necklace from Studio 220. It comes with a bag of thirty marbles that can switch out to match any outfit! The Love and Peace Bracelets from Sergio Lub are also best sellers. If your secret sister needs a laugh or you want to thank her for all the support she has provided maybe one of our “Flying Buttress” rattles by J. Davis Studio will do the trick. You can also send along a bit of love and environmental consciousness with the recycled glass heart from Fire and Light.

When you get to the checkout section of your order just write in the comments section that your gift is for a secret friend and we’ll make sure we don’t include your name or billing information in the package! If you would like us to include a message for your secret friend just enter that in the comments field as well. Don’t worry your identity is safe with us. Put your information in the “Billing address” and your secret sister/friend’s information in the “Shipping information” section and we’ll do the rest – it’s that easy!

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Random gifting is its own reward

I’m not a very good gift-giver. Being a guy, being so busy, being, I don’t know, name your silly excuse, I’ve never been very good at random gifting. If I know your birthday’s coming or a big anniversary I’m all over it. It’s the little stuff that really means a lot that I mostly miss out on. But, I’m getting better.

Here’s an example. There’s a woman with whom I’ve worked for a number of years. She’s funny, works hard and accurately, and saves my sorry butt on a monthly basis. She gets paid to do her job, sure, but keeping a sunny attitude and desire to do good all in the midst of publishing deadlines for multiple monthly magazines is pretty admirable. Basically, she’s the best and I tell her so. Maybe that’s enough, and I thought so.

Then one week I traveled to our home office and met with a team of people who also do a very good job in the face of goofy clients. These women chase the money that’s owed us and help to put the magazines together every month. They’re solid. I bought them some beer. Well heck, you’d have thought I gave them a key to the universe. Maybe not that, but my tiny extra bit of “gifting” in the form of a couple of glasses of barley and hops, showed them that I actually care a bit and our relationships have grown even stronger both professionally and personally. Fantastic.

So back to my office. I return from my trip determined to do something special for my co-worker and butt-saver. Drink and food are not the answer here so I hit the red elephant gallery and found her the perfect pair of earrings. Simple Kim Caisse Ocean Wigglies looked to fill the bill. They’re inexpensive but not cheap at all, just simple and cool. The cool factor and the color were the strong selling points.

The Red Elephant team boxed them up with their cool, funky ribbon and that great little elephant and I brought them to my co-worker. I didn’t want to make a big fuss, but wanted her to know that she meant a lot to me so I thought of dropping them on her desk with a card, or asking her into my office . . . . What happened was perfect, we happened to arrive at the office at the same time and as we were walking from the parking lot, I pulled the box out of my shoulder bag and handed them over with a simple explanation of thanks. She was surprised and very thankful. Later, after she’d opened them, she told me they were perfect. I glowed inside.

Giving is a tremendous “up” psychologically. There are studies I’m sure that prove that some enzyme or group of cells are stimulated by gifting giving. I also know that office gifting can be a bit touchy in the new politically correct world. But you know what, I don’t care what it is physically, or whether it’s PC or not, giving someone you appreciate a random gift is one of the coolest, best-feeling things you can do so do it soon.

I suggest Mondays. What a great way to start off the week for the both of you!

Michael Tamulaites

Labels: ,