#regifting

So at solstice I got a female I like a necklace. I waited to give it to her alone but my brother found out and basically forbid me from even talking to her. She’s his mate’s sister and I don’t get why he has to meddle in my affairs, but by the time I left his office, she had put the gift back in the box. She clearly didn’t want it.

Yes I was a little upset my brother basically cockblocked me for no reason but I didn’t want the gift to go to waste. I took it a priestess and told her to give it to a friend but don’t tell her it was from me. No one is going to know the gift came from me but my other brother says I’m an asshole for doing it. So am I? What should I do to fix it?

Dear Anonymous,

I feel like there is a lot that was left out of this story.  Why, for example, would your brother forbid you from seeing this female? There has to be more going on behind the scenes than a simple—how did you put it?—'cockblock'.

That said, regifting is a tacky move even if the other party doesn’t know the gift came from you. For one, you bought that gift with intention for one specific person.  Does the other party share her taste? Is there a chance that the priestess and the original person this necklace was intended for will meet?  You had best pray not!

Next time, just return the gift to the store and either find something new, or get your money back. It’s easy, far more tasteful, and runs less of a risk than the social faux-pas that possibly awaits you here.

Good luck - it sounds like you’ll need it.

How Can I Tame My Family’s Crazy Gift-giving Expectations?

Want to know how much the average American spends on Christmas gift-giving in a single year?

It’s $929.

Keep in mind that this does not include airfare to visit family, food and drink for large gatherings, donations to charity, holiday decorations, or other common yuletide purchases. That’s just the gift-giving.

Given that a majority of Americans don’t have enough savings to cover a $500 emergency, it’s hardly surprising that a majority of Americans also go into debt to buy Christmas gifts.

This indicates there is a startling cognitive dissonance around Christmas. Our cultural scripts constantly remind us that gifts are unnecessary, that the true spirit of the season is love. Yet so many of us martyr ourselves financially to be able to give each other yet more stuff.

It’s hard to push back against the weight of tradition, but the results are well worth the effort. We Bitches, using different systems, have managed to make the last several winter holidays a stress-free, debt-free season. Here are our secrets.

It’s a housewarming gift for a friend. She actually found these frames in the house they bought, and she asked me if I wanted them. I never say no to freebees 😄 They were these simple black frames with postcards as motifs. I removed the postcards and the glass, added some patterned paper for the background and then rummaged through my big stash of little things, for objects to glue directly on the background.

My friend also gave me the small metal silver coloured frames once, which I now made look rusty (with copper and grey acrylic paints and brown ink), and added the labels.

Livets smulor (swedish) means ”crumbs of life” and Hittade skatter means ”found treasures”.

This was both fun and fairly easy to do. I’m now plotting a larger framed assemblage for a couple of friends in Greece, I’ll give it to them when we return in August.

I think the most fun part of the entire project is the hunt for all the little trinkets 🤩

Anyways, here’s a couple of final photos of the current two frames: