Tell me something good
What is your favorite “creative gift” given or received by you? It doesn’t have to be a physical gift, and it doesn’t have to be your work – just a time in which someone (you or someone who likes you) was really thoughtful.
I’ll tell you the one I thought of that made me ask:
One day I received a letter from a friend. She was telling me about, among other things, a boy she liked. She suggested I burn the letter after reading it.
So my reply was an 8×10 of me, in the dark, flaming letter in hand and a finger to my lips. My buddy Colleen and I went outside on a new moon and I used her like a mirror, making her first hold the letter so I could get the positioning, and then posing her with the camera so she could take my picture. In complete darkness (except for the fire in my hands).
It was such fun! We took a dozen or two photos at various speeds/apertures, and I spent awhile in the photo lab at school, toying with lighting. It was one of those ideas that makes you grin as soon as you think of it, and makes you say, “Oh, this is too rich not to pull it off!”
I bring it up ’cause I ran across the comment she made to me after she received it: “you have spread an indelible grin across my face. i will be questing for a frame this very evening.”
One of my favorite received gifts was simply a mix CD. It arrived into my hands a week after a bad break-up, and it was full of just my kind of ‘inspirational’ music. It, and the faith and positive feelings it represented, helped me to find myself once again, unforgettably.
For my birthday, my boyfriend came to my apartment when he knew I wouldn’t be there, tapped on my window, enticed my cat to poke her head through the blinds, and took a black and white photo of her, and framed it. I loved it not only for the aesthetics and the fact that it was of my kitty, but also for the thought and effort involved.
Myself, I’m not so good with this sort of thing, but for a while I gave everyone drawings I did, including one for my friend Amy of a redheaded fairy, which she loved because she’s a redhead and she loves fairies. I tried to make it look like her, but I’m not quite that talented. She got the idea regardless.
Not necessarily the bestest, but the ones that first jumped to mind…
I liked my past xmas tradition of baking cookies as gifts for people. That might be a good one to resurrect.
Two nice gifts Gail gave me : a framed drawing of her from when she was pregnant and doing the figure modeling class (before I did); my xmas gift this year of a bunch of candle molds and supplies that she found at a thrift store, so I can start making candles again (my old supplies were stolen in a move).
When I first met the boy (who I’m now married to) I had very little money and was pretty down on myself for about a lot of things. I wanted to make a lot of changes but didnt know where to start.
He called me on how way home from work one evening and asked if I would go out with him but he wouldnt tell me where we were going. He said “dress comfortably” and within an hour he was there to get me.
We drove about half an hour to a nearby town and stopped at the mall. He took me into a nice department store and let me try on a few fun dresses. When I came out of the dressing room wearing a big smile in addition to what turned out to be my favorite dress, he told the lady he’d take ‘that one’ and that I’d be wearing it out. We, of course, stopped by the shoe department and picked out matching shoes before we left.
He then took me out to a nearby chinese restaurant. Nothing fancy, at all, and we were way over dressed. Confused while we were eating, I asked him what the deal was and he said “look at everyone looking at you… now they know you are a princess just like I do…”
It was the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me.
MY favorite?
Maybe the stuffed animals. Those were such a joy to make. Especially the blue one and the surprise was amazing for them.
The first year Matt and I were together, I gave him valentines, delivered to his apartment on my lunch breaks, for a WEEK. The next year candles, candy, a stuffed animal and a love letter… I was in so much pain but wanted to let him know I really appreciated the dedication he’d given me.
The best I’ve recieved… I can’t tell, but it was wonderful.
http://lakilika.livejournal.com/264704.html
That’s the best I’ve ever given. Skip past the text and just scroll to the pictures.
Wow. *vows to build up friendship capital over decades so he, too, can have a board game remade*
Randy () is someone without whom my life would’ve been infinitely poorer. I haven’t seen him since I left Oklahoma, but he’s still totally one of my best friends in the world, if not the best and closest friend I’ve ever had. He’s made of infinite win.
We just had one of those extremely awesome friendships. We acted together in a ton of shows through college, we could tell each other anything, and we really, really understood each other. That happens for me pretty rarely. :)
Anyway, the Randy Land game was fun, because it was obviously based on Candy Land, but I turned it into a “mature” game (haha). Each colored square corresponded with a trivia card that you had to answer to advance to your next turn. I think the red cards were movie trivia, the blue cards were questions about our friends, the yellow cards were questions about our college theatre department (like who played what part in what show, or who won an award in what year), and the purple were general knowledge trivia (a la Trivial Pursuit). The green cards were called Whiny Whitt’s Woes, named after this guy we knew in our theatre group who was a big complainer about EVERYTHING; those cards were all like “lose a turn” or move back spaces or whatever. The orange cards were the Rikki cards, and they were all either good things or stupid dares, like you had to make up a song about Randy or perform Riverdance or something. Actually, this icon is from a playing of Randy Land where Randy used the Riverdance card against me, hahaha. XD
Oh, and the rule guide had a stipulation that the highest roller played first, unless I was playing the game, in which case I ALWAYS went first. Also, I was initially playing with a severe handicap because I wrote the game and made all of the trivia cards, so I knew all the answers, hahaha. We did play this game a LOT through the years, though, which is funny. I made it with the intention of it being a playable game, but I never expected we’d play it repeatedly!
Oh, and just for fun, here’s the finished product with the cards:
I was so giddy about how well the illustrations came out. It took weeks!
this year, tomak made business cards for me. on magnetic stock. for the fortunetelling stuff. very exciting as moral support.
That’s awesome! If you have an extra, I’d love to have one. I promise, if anyone I know is interested in fortune telling, I’ll send them your way. :)
you can totally have one. :) of course, that means we’ll have to meet in person at some point…unless you’d rather i mailed it to you?
I’d like to see you, certainly. :)
i look at that picture daily. i love that picture.