A few weeks ago I wrote a post in which I asked for hostess gift ideas.  I’m sure that the fact that it received in excess of two hundred comments had nothing at all to do with the giveaway I offered.  Coerced or not though I did receive a ton of great ideas – ideas that I’m passing on to you now.  Here are my top ten:

10.  Something smelly.  In a good way of course.  A neutral (think clean cotton) reed diffuser from Pier One would be useful to just about anyone.  Candles are a popular choice, though maybe a tad dull and overdone.  You know what I love?  A basil plant.  Or oregano: fragrant and useful!

9.  Shop online.  My friends swear by these and these.

8.  Mixes in a jar.  You know the ones.  You layer the dry ingredients for brownies, or chocolate chip cookies in a cute jar.  Add a decorative ribbon along with a bamboo spoon and the recipe.  You’re good to go!

7.  Gift cards.  For a housewarming party Lowe’s or Home Depot cards are always appreciated.  Slip ‘em in an envelope and then attach it with pretty ribbon to a hammer.  For a dinner party perhaps a Whole Foods gift card along with some organic spaghetti sauce would be appropriate.

6.  Alcohol.  A bottle of wine is a fairly traditional hostess gift.  Why not put a twist on that and give two martini glasses with a fun new recipe and a bottle of liquor that the recipe calls for.  Or a set of shot glasses and some cute cocktail napkins.

5. Kitchen towels.  When my son was born his Godmother gave us a baby blanket that we’d registered for.  The fact that she’d had his name embroidered on the blanket, though, added a thoughtful, personal touch.  The same thing could be done with kitchen towels.  Only instead of embroidering on a whole name you’d just do the monogram.  Who wouldn’t love that?

4. Baked goods.  Miniature loaves of pumpkin or poppy seed bread are popular choices.  If you want to add some extra love place the baked goods into a new set of loaf pans (or muffin tin as the case may be) and wrap it up with colored cellophane and polka-dotted ribbon.

3.  Gift baskets.  There are a ton of themes you could base this on: gourmet cooking, breakfast, movie night, pampering, wine lover.  Kelly R. suggested a unique spin on the standard gift basket: including only items that start with the same letter as the host’s last name.  For the Carter family, for instance, you might give chocolates, cheese, crackers, and Cabernet.  Fun, yes?

2.  Stationary.  A personalized stamp like this one together with a box of blank stationary (readily available at craft stores nationwide), a book of stamps, and a nice pen  = a gift I’d love to get.

1.  Reusable shopping bags.  Everybody shops, right?  Why not give a gift that gives back?  And I’m not talking about the flimsy canvas bags with the grocery store logo emblazoned across them.  Splurge for some cute ones like these or these.

Surely one of these suggestions is perfect for the next party you’re attending.  And if you’re looking for gifts specific for the season, check out these 10 Holiday Hostess Gift Ideas!

Okay so last week on Works For Me Wednesday I posted a list of ten things that totally work for me.  As I was writing that post I started thinking about things that would work for me, that is of course, if they existed.  So I made a list of those too.  In spite of the fact that they don’t exist, and likely never will.  You can’t stop a girl from dreamin’ right?

1.  You know how the post office has that forever stamp?  Well, I wish there had been forever gas back in 1995.

2.  Or forever groceries in 1945.

3.  Better yet.  My forever 25 body.

4.  Teleportation.  I could so do without airplane travel.  Or the long road trips with bickering kids in the backseat.

5.  And speaking of bickering kids in the backseat, Jeff and I frequently wish that our minivan had one of those windows like they have in limos.  What I wouldn’t give for a little switch that erected a sound proof barrier between the front and back seats.

6.  A little laundry fairy who fluttered in once a week and saw the whole process through from start to finish.

7.  An update on Rob and Amber of Survivor fame.  We love them.  I’m fairly certain most of America hates them but we LOVE them, even more so after they did the Amazing Race.  If Jeff and I ever get chosen to be on that show we’d be the next Rob and Amber.  Sneaky little devils weren’t they?  We’d so be them.

8.  A switch operated mattress zapper.  What, you may be asking yourself, on Earth is a switch operated mattress zapper?  Well, duh, it doesn’t exist remember?  If it did though, I would have a handy dandy little switch in the kitchen and when I flipped it my not-so-morning-friendly teenage daughter would feel an invigorating little zip run through her body.  She’d be up and at ‘em in no time.

9.  Go go gadget arms.  I’m not exactly a tall drink of water and I hate always having to ask my husband to reach stuff for me.  Makes me feel needy and I’m not into needy.

10.  Some sort of honing device that would let those annoying cell phone salesmen in the mall know that I am under contract and not interested in the bazillion minutes or free text messaging packages that they have to offer.  It doesn’t matter how they tout their networks because I’m not willing to pay the big bucks that it would take to get me out of my contract.  How hard is that to understand people?! Leave me alone and let me shop in peace for crying out loud.

     *****Updated with the darn drivers license photo.  Stalkers.  *****

     It’s Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer.  I came up with a list of ten very random things that work for me.  Maybe they’ll work for you too.

1.  A 50/50 cleaning solution of vinegar and water mixed in a big ‘ol spray bottle.  It’s dirt cheap.  It’s easy.  And your nose will thank your for the fume free house.

2.  Gift cards.  Both the giving and the receiving.  Nobody turns down a gift card.  Including me.

3.  Substituting whole wheat flour for 1/2 the all purpose flour in most muffin, pancake, cookie, etc. type of recipes.  The quick switcheroo will add tons of nutrition and you usually can’t even tell.  You may have to add a bit more liquid and the disclaimer is that it doesn’t ALWAYS work out, but usually it does.

4.  Growing my own basil.  My basil plant is flourishing.  My mint: eh, not so much.

5.  Lists.  Couldn’t live without ‘em.

6.  A junk-mail free mailbox.  There is nothing worse than retrieving a handful of mail from the box and being able to promptly deposit every last piece of it into the recycle bin.  How annoying is that?  Call 888-5OPT-OUT to stop pre-approved credit card offers.  This link will help you to jettison the rest of the junk.

7.  The ten cent discount I get on gas for spending a boatload of $ at the grocery store. 

8.  Kashi.  The crackers, the cereal, the energy bars.  The seven whole grains on a mission thing totally works for me.

9.  Homemade coupon books from the kids on Mother’s Day or my birthday, or any occasion really.  I’m all over the free babysitting coupons from Torri.  And the hour’s worth of complaint free chores.  Now if only I could get her to delete the expiration dates…

10.  The picture of me on my 1997 California driver’s license.  How it ended up so flattering I have no idea.  I had to go and move out of state though.  And the one I have now looks like a Lindsey Lohan mug shot sans the bleach blond hair.  Awesome.

This week’s Works For Me Wednesday edition is sort of counter intuitive seeing as how it’s theme is, “What Doesn’t Work For Me.”  And since I had a tough time narrowing down my list I thought it better to just post the whole thing.  Have a Lookie Lu.  I’m sure you’ll find a thing or two you agree with.  And please, feel free to comment with an ‘Amen sister’ if you are so moved.

Without further ado, here are just a few of the things that don’t work for me:

- Bratz dolls.  Because since the day these things showed their hideous faces on the shelves next to their far more wholesome counterpart, the Barbie, I have refused to purchase one for my own daughters.  I have also refused to purchase them as birthday gifts.  I refuse to support a doll who wears more make-up than she does clothes.  Period.

- Speaking of make-up …my ten-year-old daughter has classmates that wear eye shadow.  Purple and blue eyeshadow.  I’ve seen this with my own eyes and I find it very disturbing.  I only recently succumbed to my 13-year-old’s desire to wear eyeshadow and even then, I only allow muted tones.  These other girls are barely ten.  I have a vivid memory of getting a Cabbage Patch Kids stroller for my tenth birthday.  Make-up was so far into my future that even a crystal ball couldn’t have picked it up.  I’m sad for these young girls and their misled, pouty-plum laden eyes.

- Attending to personal hygiene in church.  I kid you not.  There is a lady who, without fail, pulls her fingernail clippers from her purse and starts clipping away during the sermon.  I don’t know what else to say about that.

- Fast food.  We’re not fast food people.  Not even during road trips.  I can’t tell you when the last time I stepped into a Taco Bell was.  I have visions of my two-year-old growing up and going on to play quarterback of his high school football team.  They’ll stop at McDonald’s after the game and he’ll look upon the french fries his teammates order with wonder and amazement.

- Gas Prices.  We’re on the lower end of the spectrum here in Southern Arizona; I think we payed $3.22 per gallon when we filled up on Sunday morning.  But even that has me choking.

- Chocolate Desserts.  I know I’m in such the minority here but I’m not a fan.  I would take a tangy slice of strawberry pie over an ooey gooey brownie sundae hands down, any day of the week.

- Pets in the bed.  Or near the bed.  Or in any proximity to the bedroom really.  God bless all of you dog and cat lovers out there.  Really.  But I’m just not a pet person.  The thought of dog or cat hair coming in contact with my bedding gives me the heebie geebies.  I’m into admiring them from afar though.

- Sharing food/drink with someone else.  This, too, gives me heebie geebies.  I don’t even share water bottles with my children.  Or drinks from a straw.  If they are thirsty and I happen to have a water bottle in my hands from which I’ve been drinking, I gulp down as much as I can and then I hand it over.  When they try to give it back I tell them that it’s all theirs.  I’m not sure if they’ve figured out why yet.  I hope not.  I wouldn’t want to give them a complex.

* I do have an exception for desserts.  It is acceptable to order one dessert and split it with my husband or my children.  I just try to partition off my section.  I’m not sure why it’s okay with desserts but not dinner foods.  That’s just the way it is and I accept my limitations.

- Wasteful peeps.  These are the people who could care less about conservation.  I don’t consider myself to be hyper-eco-friendly by any means, but I do what I can when I can.  We use canvas shopping bags.  We conserve electricity whenever possible.  We recycle.  All easy steps to make our world a better place right?  Well, I went to Target recently and neglected to bring my canvas shopping bags.  (Tsk Tsk, I know).  The cashier proceeded to bag my items very liberally.  I kindly let her know that I was sort of opposed to using bags that weren’t necessary and asked that she place as many items into one bag as possible.  My request seemed to fall on deaf ears and she continued to bag each item in it’s own bag.  I ended up combining all the items into as few bags as possible before I left the counter and I gave her the excess bags to use for another customer.  You want to guess what she did?  Yep.  She threw them in the trash!

That so didn’t work for me.

- Modern Programming.  I can’t believe the filth of some TV shows that have the gall to air during family time.  Case in point: The Moment of Truth.  Oh boy, don’t get me started.  Did you see the promos for that?  Yikes.  Enough is enough.  When American people are entertained with the destruction of marriages and families before their very eyes, it’s a sad day.  A sad day indeed.

Yeah, so, those are a few of the things that don’t work for me.  Maybe not exactly what Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer was looking for with this week’s theme, but it’s what came to mind.

So I want to hear it.  What doesn’t work for you?

I’ve never done a “Works For Me Wednesday” tip before.  Mostly it’s because I’m more resourceful than creative.  By that I mean that I don’t really come up with cool ideas, rather, I borrow them from those in the know.  This tip is no different.  But it is such a handy piece of knowledge to have that it just wouldn’t be right to keep it all to myself.  So I’m sharing.

When we were moving out of our rental a few years ago (and doing that torturous cleaning to get our deposit back) I could not, for the life of me, scrub the ring from the toilet.  I tried every cleaning solution and scrubby tool I could find, all to no avail.  It wasn’t until I was talking with a neighbor who was also moving out of a rental a few months later that I learned the be-all end-all solution to this stubborn (and really quite nasty) problem.  And you’d never guess what I’m about to tell you.

Drywall Sanding Sheets.

I know.  Who’da thunk?  It’s true though.  You can buy them at the hardware store.  They typically are sold in packages that contain five sheets or so.  If you aren’t familiar with drywall sanding sheets (hello, who is?) you might be surprised to hear that they are sort of like screen material.  You just fold them up and scrub at the hard water (or whatever it is) ring in the toilet and like magic it will disappear.  I promise.  And unlike some other methods, this one won’t scratch your porcelain throne.  It will leave it shiny and pristine though.  And really, who doesn’t want a shiny and pristine throne.  I mean it’s not like you’re going to put anything gross in there.

Oh.  Okay.  You got me there.  Try it anyway though.  It works for me!