gifts by Heidi

A few years ago (before my two children were born), I thought that I would start a "side business" (I was teaching at the time) called Gifts by Heidi. One thing (among many) that I LOVE doing is to give gifts and to do it creatively, so I thought what fun it would be to do that for others. It was going to be different than just giving the typical gift baskets, I wanted to make it more personal. My idea was to offer my services to create a gift using the likes of the gift-getter, along with any sort of baby or wedding registry, and make the gift personal, cute, and fun!

Well, in a nutshell, Gifts by Heidi never got off the ground and I think I only had one true customer (thanks to my friend, Leanna) and quickly realized that my heart truly wasn't into trying to make it work. I think I knew what the reality of this business would be...putting a whole lot of money into to it and not seeing much in return. I do, however, still love giving gifts and making them creative (although I do admit it's a lot harder to do now with two kids). Recently, I did help out a good friend with a couple of gift giving creations, but again realized that reality doesn't let me do that much with two kids who don't care to be running around all over the place in their mommy's heels.

All that being said, this idea won't fade away completely. It may come out again one day... In the meantime, enjoy the pictures from the past!

This was a bathtub-themed gift I put together for my sister-in-law's first little baby. It came complete with a rubber ducky, washcloths, towels, soaps, water thermometer, tub toys, and I even included a poem about bubbles!

I created this gift for a friend who was getting married. The theme for the bridal shower was "honeymoon", so I made her a Hawaiian themed basket. It included a gift certificate to a Hawaiian restaurant, authentic soap, flip flop floating candles, palm tree sugar cookies, and plumeria lotion.

This was a bridal shower gift for a friend. Most of her gift was off the registry except for a few colorful additions of the soups cookbook and cute jar of lemonade mix.

Here is the only gift I got money for! I created it to be given to a mommy of a couple of boys my friend was a nanny for. I think I made $10 profit. It was simply a purple inspired gift basket full of bath and yummy smelling goodies.

This was a baby shower gift for a girlfriend full of fun baby stuff!