Some people have an amazing knack for giving presents. I am terrible at presents so I have to try really really hard. I think I finally learned that I have to start thinking way in advance of someone’s birthday to get them something thoughtful. This summer I got started early enough to give two stellar birthday presents to two stellar ladies in my life.

The first present was for my friend Jayne. She and I trade Etsy links on a daily basis and I knew she loved this awesome little sloth necklace from marymaryhandmade. So cute! I crossed my fingers that she wouldn’t buy it before I had the chance to give it to her for her birthday. I even wanted one for myself and may still buy the Narwhal.

Sloth Necklace

The second present came about because my friend Kate loves squirrels. She’s Scottish and (I’m not sure if this is related to her Scottish-ness but) calls them “ground squirrels” for some reason I haven’t figured out yet. It’s cute! Anyway, I always have a hard time shopping for her and I usually end up buying her a book. (She usually gets me a book + something really cool from Etsy.) So this year I wanted to get something squirrel-related. I did an etsy search for “squirrel” and it returned a bunch of stuff that should totally be on regretsy.com. Then I got to these adorable earrings squirrel & pine cone earrings from Vector Cloud. Perfect!

Squirrel & Pinecone earrings

Both of these ladies seemed over the moon about these presents and I was so pleased to give them something handmade and special you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Etsy love!