Booze for a Buzz and Herbs for Medicine
Is your friend(s) into gardening? How about gardening to make them drunk? The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart is perfect for mixologists, herbologists and gardeners alike. To make it a bit more special, buy a bunch of the herbs (or seeds for them) that are required for some of the recipes or some cocktail glasses, a mortar, etc.
You can also get someone a mini-herbal garden for their kitchen. Put together six or so herbs that can be used for culinary and medicinal delights. To make it a bit more unique, you can print out some recipes for the various herbs from the internet on little postcards or in a mini-cookbook.
Another great idea is to wrap three or four wine bottles and give them individual labels. Such as:
- Open to celebrate when you break your first piece of china
- Open to celebrate when you’ve survived your first argument about interior design
- Open to celebrate when you get the neighbors’ mail in your mailbox for the first time
- Give to the neighbors as a gift when you introduce yourself
Caring Gifts
If you know you are going to the housewarming party, or you are really good friends with someone, send them a gift basket that arrives the day they move in (as opposed to bringing it to the housewarming party). Fill it with some foods for dinner and breakfast together with paper plates and cups, as well as some tea, coffee, juice and a bottle of wine. You can also add household essentials like toilet and kitchen rolls, eco-friendly cleaning products, etc.
Another option is to create a relaxing gift basket. Your friend is likely exhausted after the move, so why not stack up on some spa gifts for them? A lovely bath salt, candles to light by the bath, a nice big towel or dressing gown, some body lotion, a box of chocolates and a bottle of bubbly. You can tailor it to what you know your friend will love, such as all natural and eco-friendly or girly and pink.
Something rather different is a couple of smoke detectors and a cool fire extinguisher—there are some wicked designs out there for fire extinguishers, believe it or not. Couple it with some extension wires and maybe a handyman set, or why not candles and candle lighters?
Ice Cream Bundle
Who doesn’t like ice cream? Put together a nice gift basket with a couple of pints of Haagen Daz, an ice cream scoop, old fashioned ice cream cones, various sauces and some sprinkles or berries to top it all off. Or, simply everything they need for some banana splits! If you want, you can add some ice cream recipe postcards—just find the recipes online and print onto plain postcards.
A variation on a theme would be to get your friend an ice cream maker and a few items to go with it, like the ice cream scoop, some recipe cards (like froyo, coconut milk ice cream, traditional ice cream and so on) and a few toppings, or ingredients to make the first batch of ice cream.
Off Key Things
Is your friend forgetful? Buy them a key finder. There are various solutions out there. Nothing like locking yourself out of your new home, after all…
Then there’s this item from Etsy, which is simply a laugh. Remember: the piggy banks aren’t included, so you’ll need one of those as well. Alternative text could read: “This move made us broke and exhausted. Please help us save for our next vacation.”
Lastly, if you feel like buying something fancy and they sport a garden, then this might be what you’re looking for—an earth-shaped fire pit that looks divine.
Kitchen and Food
Does your friend like fancy gifts? How about a Louis Vuitton waffle maker? Or a Le Creuset set of pots and pans? The latter costs a fair bit of money, but if you feel like going big….
You can also get a toaster that toasts with pictures on the toast. It’s great for stylish people or friends with kids. Depends on what kind of image toaster you get—images of monsters or artworks…. Then again, some adults favor monsters over Van Gogh.
For the cook, or the person who absolutely can’t cook, putting together a bunch of cookbooks, movies about food and maybe some fresh ingredients to top it off can be a great gift—like a Julia Child’s cookbook together with the Julie & Julia DVD and a packet of real, grass-fed butter (they’ll need it for the recipes!).
Other great movies about food are The Hundred Foot Journey, Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate. Novels such as Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, The Love Goddess’ Cooking School by Melissa Senate, The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister are also great to include.
For interesting cookbooks try something old-fashioned like Elizabeth Gilbert’s great-grandmother’s cookbook At Home on the Range by Margaret Yardley Potter or something culinary raw, like Matthew Kenney’s books.
You can’t go wrong with any of these great and unique housewarming ideas. What other creative ideas could you add to the list?
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