O is for Owls

My mother collects owls and has done since I was young which has meant that my brother and I have brought numerous owl gifts over the years.   I recently came across some great owl posters on Zazzle that would make a great gift idea for any owl lover.   There are posters derived from photographs of actual owls, retro feel owl posters and also fantasy owl posters like the one below -

2 FANTASY OWLS Poster by BY_CYRA
Browse other Owls Posters

I have never given mum a poster before, but I think I might get one framed for her for this year's birthday.   The closest to a poster that I've given her was a cross stitch of a snowy owl that I made for her and framed - it still has pride of place in the family room.

One thing that mum has received a lot of over the years from various family members has been owl figurines and they are scattered around her house on different shelves.   This set of  miniature owl figurines would make a great gift idea.

The four different styles of owls would look great on a shelf or desk and are each 2.25" tall and 1.75" wide.   They look so cute I'd even love them myself!

Another gift idea that has been popular is an owl pendant - I have given my mother a beautiful owl pendant and she has also brought herself a couple of other owl pendants as there are some great selections of owl pendants available.   Also on the subject of owl jewelry - owl brooches are another great gift idea and one which one of my nieces gave mum last year.

One piece of owl jewelry that I had never come across until I was looking on Amazon for some gift ideas recently was a ring.   An owl ring had never crossed my mind before and yet there are quite a few in lots of different styles.   

The one I've selected here is a turquoise and coral silver ring which I think looks fantastic.   The turquoise really makes the owl seem to 'pop' and the reviews sound fantastic.   I think this could easily be added to the must buy 'owl' list - what do you think?

Another great gift idea for any owl lover is an owl Christmas ornament for the tree.  This could be given as a birthday or as a Christmas gift and is bound to be a hit.   I have compiled a webpage with a lovely selection of designs available online at - Owl Christmas Ornaments.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at some owl gift ideas, let me know if you have any other great gift ideas for an owl lover as I'm all ears :D

I is for Ice Invaders

Now I never thought I'd give anyone an ice cube tray as a gift, but that was before I'd come across these ice invaders ice cube trays - they are a really great gift idea for someone who was a child or teen in the 80s.

 I have recently brought one of these trays as a 40th birthday gift and it was one of the most talked about gifts apparently.   I'm only sad that I didn't get an extra one for myself as I would love to have some space invaders ice cubes in my drinks.

These would be great as ice cubes for an 80s party and they can even be used in Space Invader's Baking to great effect - I definitely need some.

It really is amazing how many different types of ice cube trays are available these days - forget the boring square cubes you can get ice cubes shaped like the titanic or hand guns or even themed ones like Halloween style ice cubes.

I think giving someone an ice cube tray may just be getting fashionable again - but only if you give a funky and/or unique ice cube tray!

G is for Goth

If you're buying for a goth, what do you buy?   Well what about accessories?   After all if she's a woman she's going to need a bag isn't she?

A bag like the one pictured may be suitable or else you could look at purchasing a coffin shaped bag which look really awesome and are gothic inspired. You can check out a range of them at Coffin Shaped Bags including my favorite one.

If you don't fancy giving a bag then you could look at giving he or she some gothic jewelry - there are some great pieces available from pewter gothic jewelry such as the selection available at Pewter Gothic Vampire Pendants to the more unique take on gothic   jewelry that's offered at Unique Gothic Necklaces - the necklaces in this selection are all silver and are only available online.

If the goth that you're buying for has an iphone or an ipad then they might be interested in a case for it.   There are a great selection of Gothic iPhone Cases for both the iphone 3 and 4 available as well as some great gothic designs for the ipad available at Gothic iPad Cases.

Finally, I have to say go with a tee - it doesn't matter who you are there are always t-shirts that are suitable and these include some great gothic designs as well such as this one -

The Gang Little Gothics by Ricaso_Graphics
Browse more Ricaso graphics T-Shirts

There are lots more gothic tees available at Zazzle including long and short t-shirts, you're bound to find one that suits the person you're buying for.

A is for Apple

Well this is my first blog post in the A-Z Challenge which means it has to be something beginning with A.    One of the first things we learn as children is that A is for Apple.    On that note today I’m going to show you the Apple ipad 2.   This was only released in Australia last Friday which has meant that it’s been all over the morning television (along with the usual places).   One thing that really impressed me was the load time between the ipad 1 and ipad 2, the apple ipad 2 was so much faster when it compared to two side by side.   They tried three different things and the difference in response time was very noticeable.

The camera also looked pretty cool, forget about the little screens on the back of your digital camera, this shows your photo on a 9.7 inch screen which looked awesome (note I only saw this on TV, but I’ll go out on a limb and say this is a feature that I love).

Here are the technical bits (straight from Amazon, in case I stuff them up :D)

 Technical Details

Capacity: 16GB | Connectivity: Wi-Fi | Color: Black

   ·       Apple's newest generation of iPads.

   ·       9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology.

   ·       1 GHz dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed processor.

   ·       Forward facing and rear facing cameras.

   ·       Apple's iOS 4 and access to Apple's app store.

Personally I haven’t seen the ipad 2 in real life, but then I still don’t have an ipad so………..

What are your thoughts on the ipad 2, do you have one, want one or are you just meh about the whole thing?