Gift Idea: Golden Pears (and Apples too!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful, long Thanksgiving weekend!  We greatly enjoyed our family time and are sad that it flew by so quickly!  We enjoyed so much fantastic food...we are still warming up leftovers!  And we certainly did our fair share of late night holiday shopping.  That's right.  We were in line at Target at 10:30pm Thanksgiving night.  Bill, Kiki and I had a blast in the balmy (for Minnesota in November) 50 degree weather waiting for the doors to open so we could fly down the aisles.  And, it's true, Target was actually our second stop of the night.  We stopped at Walmart shortly after it's 10pm opening and nearly lost our lives at the bargain DVD bins.  I did not get the DVD's I really wanted, but I got a few others and I'm alive to tell the tale, so that's good.

Since I have holiday shopping on the mind, I thought I would post today about a great, inexpensive gift idea.  While at Pier 1 a couple weeks ago, I came across these adorable ceramic golden pears:

They are priced at $3 each...and I had a 15% off coupon that I used to drop the price to $2.55 each.  I wish I had images of the apples, but I'm not able to find them on the Pier 1 website currently.  (If I'm able to find the link, I'll add it to this post.)  I can't help but think these would be an adorable teacher's gift, especially the golden apple!  I can just picture it sitting on a teacher's desk:).  And seriously, you cannot beat the $3 price tag!

Update:  Here is the link for the pears and apples at Pier1.

Happy Shopping!  Other recent gift ideas are posted here, here and here.

Gift Idea: Faux Canvas

Check out my recent faux canvas purchases:

They may look small, but they are 11" x 14" wrapped faux canvas images from Walmart.  Normally $19.96 each, I paid $9.96 each (super cheap for canvas images) using this coupon found via this post from Hip2Save.  The best part was that they were ready for pick up at my local store an hour after I submitted them for printing online!  They are about an inch in thickness (no frame required) and the canvas 'frame' is just cardboard, but on a wall you won't be able to tell the difference.

If you are interested in this deal, act fast because the coupon expires tomorrow, Monday, 11/21!  

Project Sunshine: Movie Night

What do you get when you combine a box of theater candy and a package of microwave popcorn:

....with a DVD:

Movie Night!  

I'm sending this one out to my horror movie loving BIL.  I've done similar gifts for teachers (with more appropriate movie selections, of course:)) and they make super gifts on the cheap!

Here's the cost breakdown:

The Others Blu Ray on sale for $4.75 at Target a few weeks ago - $3 Manufacturer Coupon = $1.75.  Read about the deal here.  (Target and Walmart routinely sell DVD's for $5 each, and Black Friday is a good time to stock up on $2-$3 DVD's as well!)

Whoppers Theater Candy Box: $0.98 from Walmart

Microwave Popcorn: Free-ish (I just grabbed a bag from the pantry...but you can use coupons and purchase popcorn on sale and get it for less than 50 cents per bag)

Total: $2.73...not too shabby! Here's hoping my BIL enjoys it:).

Read more about Project Sunshine here and here.  And if you have any inexpensive gift ideas, I'd love to hear about them.

Project Sunshine Gift Idea: West Elm Alphabet Mugs

Earlier this week, I mentioned my new project.  Part of that project includes finding or creating fun gifts on the cheap.  When I find a gift idea, I'll do my best to pass the information along in a timely manner so that you might be able to take advantage of sales and coupons too!
Here is one idea:

via

West Elm Alphabet Mugs

$4 each on sale, with FREE shipping!

I can personally attest to the fact that these mugs are awesome!  When I found them last spring for $4 each, I picked up several important family letters, and we have been enjoying them ever since!  They are large mugs...perfect for a nice cup of coffee or to warm up the kids' milk in the morning.  They are also nice when we have company over because everyone claims a letter and there's no question about which mug belongs to which person!

I have planned for awhile now to add to our alphabet collection (I even picked up a discounted West Elm gift card from Plastic Jungle several months ago.), but I've been waiting for them to go back on sale!  Yesterday, I noticed they were back to $4/mug, and I ordered several more to add to our collection!  We've even picked up a couple of them for presents in the past, and I ordered an extra 'N' mug this time for a family helper who could use some sunshine cheer!  I love that this gift is personalized and inexpensive.  Add a $1 bin mini-bag of coffee and you're good to go!  It'd be a perfect host gift or teacher gift as well!  Come to think of it, I'm off to place a second order for some coffee loving preschool teachers! 

Feel free to send any inexpensive gift ideas my way by adding a comment to the post.  I heart comments:)!!

Have a wonderful fall weekend!