Category "Anniversary"

Mother’s Day Love From a Special Needs Daughter

My sister-in-law Nancy is an amazing mother to her daughter, Whitney, who suffered from a brain injury at the age of four months. The doctors did not give much hope on her survival but she lived. She lives by a mother’s pure love for her child.

Then the doctors said she would never walk but she did. Nancy taught Whitney how to walk forward as she walked backwards while holding up her daughter.Mother's-Day-Banner-Gift-Sunburst-Gifts

The doctors said she would never talk but she communicates in a way her mother understands.

I am in awe of Nancy. She makes me want to be a better mother. I have also never met anyone with as much faith in God as Nancy. She praises Him for her daughter’s gift of life.

When you have a special needs daughter who is legally blind with poor hearing, your life is not considered normal. But Nancy and Whitney have created a life that is normal for them.

Did you know one in every 12 children in America is physically or mentally disabled? Mothers of disabled children earn a particularly special place on Mother’s Day, and disabled children sometimes need a little help in celebrating and expressing their love for their mother. And that’s where you and I can come in!

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These Are A Few of My Favorite Things | Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

This Mother’s Day gift idea came from my boss, even though it did not start out as a Mother’s Day gift. He asked me and several other female co-workers, “If you only had one item to choose as your favorite product, what would it be?”

I asked him, “What do you mean? Clothing? Jewelry? Makeup? A book?”Mother's Day-purse-gift-idea-sunburst-gifts

He just said, “It doesn’t matter. It can be anything.” He was going to use our best products to choose gifts for his wife’s birthday. Awesome idea!

I had to think about it for a few minutes and decided it was my eye makeup remover. I have used several different kinds through the years but this one is by far the best in removing my mascara. No fuss, no mess! Dab it on a cotton ball and swoosh your makeup comes right off!

I have given the makeup remover as a gift many times since that experiment with my boss. Just never really thought about it as a gift idea until then. Everyone that I have given it to has loved it as much as I do. Continue Reading

All Day Flower Deliveries

My mother-in-law Betty was turning 80. Seriously, what do you get someone who has everything?

Betty loves roses so I decided to get her a LOT of them.Birthday-Mother's Day-Roses-gifts-Sunburst-Gifts

We found a flower shop willing to make deliveries to her home every two hours on her birthday. Each bouquet of roses was delivered with an “original” poem from a family member.

Don’t let the poem part stress you out. They were simple. Like this one.
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Happy Birthday
and We Love You Too!

The first two deliveries were a dozen roses. The next four deliveries were 14 roses each to equal 80. One was from my father-in-law, three from each of her children and their spouses, and the last two were from her grandchildren.

Her living room looked like a flower shop there were so many different colored roses everywhere!

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Custom Personalized Name Ring | Mother’s Day Gift Idea

Coming up will be my second Mother’s Day. My son will be 19 months old, and I just love him more and more with each month that passes. (I’m surprised my heart hasn’t burst out of my chest yet!) I wanted a piece of jewelry with his first name – Aiden – and middle name – Dragen – (he was born in 2012 the Year of the Dragon) and decided on a ring so that every time I looked at my hands, this ring and my wedding ring would remind me of the two most important people in my life.

personalized name ringI found a store on Etsy.com that makes custom personalized name rings but what made them stand out is that you get to pick out the font! With so many stylized fonts in existence, a person’s name can look like a beautiful custom piece of art.

You can also choose a font style that best fits the personality of the mother. A script or cursive font might be better for one mother while a retro or handwritten font might be the better choice for another. My favorite font website is Dafont.com because they have a wide variety of font styles. You can also type in names or words and see what they will look like in a certain font.

By selecting what goes on the ring, the metal the ring is made of, and the font, you can tell someone you custom designed the ring for them!

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Time is the Best Gift of All

Time is the best gift of all. When I was 21, my 16-year old brother and I were on our way to the gym when we decided to visit our deaf  grandparents. I asked them if they would like to go and exercise too.

Grandparents-Time-Best-Gift-of-All-gift-idea-sunburst-gifts

Walter & Julia Cleaver in the 1970s.

They had no workout clothes so when Granddaddy came out in Grandma’s baby blue shorts, sleeveless undershirt, black socks and black street shoes, my brother did not want to take them. When we arrived at the club, the walk from the parking lot was the longest walk ever for my humiliated brother.

Entering the gym, we had to fill out guest forms for them. Putting their birth dates of 1896 and 1902  raised eye-brows. We wanted to take our grandparents to the exercise room on our own, but the club insisted a trainer take them for their first visit. When the big, muscular trainer came in, he was shocked at the age of his clients – ages 77 and 71.

Grandma’s trainer soon had her doing sit-ups and leg lifts, riding a stationary bike, and relaxing in the sauna. We finally made it to the pool.

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Throwback Thursday | Framed Vintage Girl Scout Badge

I am long time volunteer of Girl Scouts because I love its mission of building girls of courage, confidence and character. I am also a member of Girl Scouts – Western Oklahoma’s young professionals group, GS Cornerstone.

framed vintage Girl Scout Hospitality Badge GiftIt has become tradition that each year a board member of the organization hosts GS Cornerstone in their home. I helped plan our most recent event, and I was put in charge of the thank you gift.

I definitely wanted it to be Girl Scout related. But what to give our hostess – a very accomplished woman who seemed to have it all?

I brainstormed with Queen Darlene and we came up with the idea of giving her a vintage Girl Scout Hostess Badge. After all, she will have met the requirements after graciously opening her home to all of us!

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Heart-Shaped Steaks Make Memorable Valentine’s Day Dinner

This Valentine’s Day I was looking to give my true love a gift that had the WOW factor. I wasn’t looking for romantic or sentimental. I was looking to knock his socks off!

heart-shaped-steak-valentines-day-gift-idea-sunburst-giftsSo I bought him two pounds (hoping he would share!) of prime aged hand-cut ribeye steak from a local meat market – and check this out – asked the butcher to cut it into the shape of a HEART.

A “Sweetheart Steak!”

It looked stunning – all that bright red meat marbled with strands of cream-colored fat and covered in a delicious spice rub.

The perfect hunk of meat for my sexy, hunk of meat.

The heart-shaped steak got the reaction I wanted from my husband Kevin. He was surprised by the shape and impressed by the size. (Men and their preoccupation with size… I swear.)

He had never seen anything like it, and he couldn’t wait to throw it on the grill and eat it. Mission accomplished!

The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  – Unknown

How to Buy Your Wife Gifts That Won’t Get Returned

Queen Darlene and I have a co-worker who follows our blog. He sent us an email one day after one of our gift ideas reminded him of a gift-giving strategy that has served him well as a husband.

How to Buy Your Wife Gifts That Won't Get Returned Sunburst GiftsEldon’s idea of how to buy your wife clothing, jewelry, accessories or other gifts that won’t get returned is so good that we wanted to share it with our readers! Here is what he wrote to us:

I tried to buy clothing gifts for my wife. She returned them all  because they were the wrong color, etc. So, I got wise and would find a cute photo of a dress, purse, shoes, earrings, etc. that I wanted to buy – usually if I listened closely I could pick up the hint of what she wanted.

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Surprise Love Messages and Funny Pick Up Lines

You’ve heard those people who complain about Valentine’s Day. “Valentine’s Day just forces people to buy stuff.” OR “Why do I need a holiday to make me tell someone “I Love You’ on one specific day?” You know what? Those people are absolutely right!

milk does a body good funny pick up line gift idea

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You don’t have to buy someone “stuff” to show your affection for them. You should also find ways to say “I Love You” to your special someone throughout the year, if not every single day.

This year, I’m using Valentine’s Day to kick off a year full of How-much-do-I-love-you-let-me-count-the-ways type of love messages to my husband.

All through the year, I’m going to surprise my husband with love messages that begin with things like:
“I love you because…”
“I know you love me because…”
“I am lucky to have you as my husband because…”
“Aiden is lucky to have you as his father because…”
“Thank you for…”

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Valentine’s Day Gift – Mail a Handwritten Love Letter

We email. We text. We phone. Everything is short and to the point. Many of us think we have lost the art of writing. I think we just need a little practice.

I remember in elementary school we would write and pass notes that would say, “I LIKE YOU.” In junior high, the note writing would become a little more sophisticated to something like, “I LIKE YOU VERY MUCH!” And in high school my boyfriend would write a three page love letter detailing how pretty I was, how he couldn’t wait to see me after school, and of course the three words I always wanted to hear, “I LOVE YOU!”Love Letter Gift Idea

Well… your perfect opportunity for writing a love letter is coming up – Valentine’s Day! This year, don’t spend 30 minutes in the card aisle at the store looking at Valentine’s Day cards that most of the time don’t say what your heart would say anyway. Instead, spend that 30 minutes writing a heartfelt love letter.

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