Unusual Gifts Blunders ( Unusual Gifts)

It’s getting to that time of year where most of us will be making our biggest shopping blunders as we think we are purchasing unusual gifts!

Whether you are getting close to jetting off or packing up the car to go off for your annual Summer hol’s…(hip hip hooray!) I would like to issue you all with a BIG SANITY WARNING before you become surrounded by menus full of chips, ice cream and other naughties….and the endless rows of gift shops!

Please don’t get me wrong, I want you to have a fab time, but I just don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I and my friends and family seem to make every year. I just came back from my Summer break and I committed the biggest gift blunder of my professional career as a shopaholic.

So pin back your ears and pay attention… Now if you are anything like me, I just love to shop on holiday. Being a confessed shopaholic I generally know what my weaknesses are and they are usually in the form of silver jewellery, beads, unusual jewellery, hand bags, pictures, note books etc. Generally anything cute and unusual that costs under £30 and will fit in a suitcase is in the running for being snapped up by me.

This year’s holiday was slightly different. The first part was my sister’s wedding in Amsterdam with my two young children in tow. One is 2 and the other 5. Amsterdam is not really somewhere I would recommend as a family friendly holiday and as for the shopping…forget it. It is a nightmare with the kids, trams, pushchair, stoned cyclists and a totally bored husband who just wants to sit in a bar and watch the world cup. So after 4 days of family wedding activities, boiling hot weather, walks past lots of lovely shops, that I could just not going in, and a lot of moaning… I felt starved of my purchasing power. Of course there is always duty free, but I have enough perfume in my cupboard to open my own fragrance house. Choc is out as I am on my Summer diet…so in my defence there was nothing for me to buy. (Stick with me kids, there is a point to my rant…it’s coming up real soon)

The second leg of our holiday was spending a week in beautiful Cornwall. Glorious British countryside and beaches, the weather was idyllic, the kids were content to just be running around and the hubby had access to the telly remote. Life was good, everyone was happy.

We had come across some lovely shops the week we were there with some really unusual bits and bobs. Then I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to buy a gift for my friend who was taking care of the house and business post…and other bits and pieces. I panicked thinking I had to buy something local, Cornish to make it look like I had not forgotten….desperately hunting round the local gift shop all I could see was clotted cream fudge, tacky magnets, postcards and a huge array of novelty mugs. Wading through all the different mug designs and bearing in mind I had seen them everywhere all week, my mind must have accepted that these would make an excellent choice gift. Anyway I did it, I bought one. Not just any mug, but possibly the ugliest mug ever created, but at the time of purchase I thought it to be rather charming.

Once we arrived home and my friend was here to greet us when we arrived, I presented her with my ‘fine’ gift purchase, as a ‘thank you’. The minute she opened it she said…”oh that’s interesting, really you shouldn’t have” and we both started laughing. I just apologised for getting her such a naff gift. If she hadn’t been on a Summer diet too I would have got the fudge.

So the moral of my story is, don’t buy a gift at the last minute out of sheer desperation, take your time and ask yourself the question…would I buy this if I was at home? Or if in real doubt, would Boutique To You stock this item…if the answer is “yes” then you know you have found a great unusual gift! And if you truly are looking for an unusual and highly classy mug then look no further than our superb range.