Awesome Christmas Gifts: For Her

With only three more weeks until Christmas (I know, where has the year gone?), we thought we'd give you a hand with coming up with gifts for your loved ones, and even those you don't like very much but should probably get a little something for anyway. You know, get into the spirit. It's not about the gift, it's about the giving...or something like that.

So here we go, a completely random list of absolutely awesome Christmas gifts for her.

A Light Read: Fiction, Facts and Comics

Danielle Hawkins' Chocolate Cake for Breakfast is the story of Helen McNeil, a country vet, and her whirlwind romance with All Blacks rugby player Mark Tipene. Just as they're getting to know each other their courting is suddenly interrupted by a 'little something', which changes their relationship forever (read our review here). Thoroughly chic lit, Chocolate Cake for Breakfast is one to take on holidays or throw in with the towel and sunnies for an afternoon on the beach. Chocolate Cake for Breakfast is published by Allen & Unwin.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley is a collection of short comic strips detailing various food related journeys from Lucy's life. Food discoveries, rebellion and comfort through food, the way certain kitchen smells transport you back to another time and place...this is Relish (read our review here). Relish is available through Macmillan.

Rose George's Deep Sea and Foreign Going is a detailed account of her journey from Felixstowe in the UK, though the Suez Canal, via Somali pirate waters to her final port in Singapore. The point George makes is that shipping in many respects, is a hidden industry, yet it's one that brings us '90 per cent of everything' (read our review here). Deep Sea and Foriegn Going is published by Allen & Unwin.

Brighten Up: Colourful Beads

See: emilygreen.net

Emily Green is based in Melbourne and makes various colourful wonders, including necklaces, scarves (both silk and knit), earrings and now shoes. Emily's necklaces have become iconic in and around Melbourne, with the brightly coloured polymer beads popping up in all manner of trendy places. 

The best thing about Emily's necklaces is that they're versatile and can be worn with just about anything - adding colour to a monochrome professional outfit, or pulling from a colourful spring dress. Either way, you can't lose with one of these. You can buy an Emily Green necklace here or find stockists here.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Beauty and the Geek

See: Bellabox.com.au and Lootcrate.com

What about a gift that just keeps turning up, month after month? Sound like something to get you and keep you in her good books? Well, that's the idea behind both Bella Box and Loot Crate - you subscribe and received a box of goodies delivered to you each month. The catch is that it's a bit of pot luck as you don't know what's inside until you open it.

For the lady in your life who loves fashion and beauty there's the Bella Box, which comes filled with sample sized products that effectively allow you to try before you buy in full size. Their website has a long list of the brands you might receive covering the spectrum of beauty products. They also have a men's range and baby range.

But for the lady geek in your life, maybe a Loot Crate is more up their alley. Again, the crates come on a monthly basis, but this time they're filled with 'epic geek and gamer gear'. Past crates have included The Zombie Survival Guide, TMNT Pop! Vinyl figures, an 8-bit bow tie, and various sweet things like PEZ and Warheads.

It's Alive: Great Balls of...Moss?

See: mister-moss.com

Mister Moss is another Melbourne-based company taking an interesting approach to keeping plants. Instead of pots, Mister Moss plants are balled up in moss and tied with string. Although intended to be hung, with a specially made stand also available, a Mister Moss will happily sit all on its own, bringing a feature and a little colour to your home.

Mister Moss plants, including a Christmas tree and Poinsettia are available from here or through stockists found here.

Nice Wheels: Just Like Riding a Bike...or Skates

See: reidcycles.com.au and moxirollerskates.com/shop/

You don't have to wear lycra to ride a bike, and in fact, I probably recommend you don't if you're going to be riding a vintage style bicycle from Reid Cycles. The ladies bike comes in a variety of bright colours, from red, yellow, baby blue and sunshine yellow, and you'll probably want to add a basket for all your shopping. If you're feeling truly nostalgic, I'd recommend some spokey dokeys - you know, those things that clack back and forth along the spokes as you coast along, and well, because we are grown ups here, a wine bottle carrier too.

But if cycling isn't for you, what about a pair of roller skates?! Roller skating seems to be having a bit of a revival, possibly due to the growing popularity of roller derby, but maybe because skating is just good clean fun (off the derby track that is). Moxi skates bring retro glamour to skating with their animal print, candy colours and Hello Kitty themed boots. These skates are definitely made for showing off. Skater HQ has a selection of recreational skates, as well as those for derby and speed. 

Next time: awesome Christmas gifts for him!

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A Gentleman Geek's Guide to Wedding Planning

Before you get all excited, this isn’t going to be the type of wedding that has the bride and groom dressed in super hero costumes. No lightsaber arches, no Vulcan hand gestures, and definitely no ‘so say we all’ (unless the best man decides the crowd is ready for it). 

Nope. My wedding is going to be recognisably a wedding, between two human people. But maybe, just maybe there’s room for a little geekery.

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Arrow_and_Black_Canary_Wedding_Special_Vol_1_1

My future wife, Elizabeth and I have prepared our wedding in the knowledge that the majority of our respective family members are confused by capes and glowing swords, so instead we’ve opted for a relatively Loki (see what I did there?) affair.

You see, my lovely lady wife to be isn’t what you would call a geek. When we stated going out the only thing that could put her into that category at all was a love of Stargate. Make that all of Stargate! SG:1. Atlantis. All of it!

With that in mind, Elizabeth’s vision of her wedding day has always been free of comic book and science fiction influence. But that's where I come in.

When we started seeing each other I had already been engaged. A long and convoluted story of people being young and stupid, that engagement lasted three years and never went anywhere, finally ending quite badly. I accept the blame there. What this meant, though, was that when I did meet Elizabeth, the prospect of marriage was furthest from my mind.

The big change came when I realised this person, Elizabeth, was by far the only one I could possibly want to spend my life with. Now, marriage is not for everyone, but if one of you wants this and it’s important to them, well sometimes you just have to put their happiness before your own, and very loud, opinion.

So I proposed. And she said yes.

The condition, as it were, was that the wedding be a reflection of us both, not just a celebration of love and all that, but an expression of who we are as individuals as much as who we are as a couple.

And with that I got to add my little comic book touches!

The invitation to the engagement party was a mini-comic, the save-the-date was in the style of the Green Arrow, Black Canary Wedding Special, the invites featured Elizabeth and I wearing little bits of Superman and Wonder Woman costumes, and the Order of Ceremony booklet is an homage to the Green Arrow, Black Canary cover.

Elizabeth and Paul

My groomsmen and I will wear comic book cufflinks – Green Arrow, Green Lantern, John Constantine and Lex Luthor.

The flower girl will have a little Batman pin, although, importantly, she has offered to wear her full Batman costume should we change our minds at the last minute.

As for the flowers; the bouquets are made from paper, with a few flowers made out of comic book pages – don’t worry, none were first editions, or of even slight worth. And the table decoration; the vases will be filled with large paper flowers and lined with more comic pages. The place cards will be speech bubbles and thought balloons.

Collectively, these are things that together we decided would allow my personality to be reflected in our big day, without taking away from Elizabeth’s idea of her wedding day.

But it hasn’t all been easy. On some details I’ve had to ask Elizabeth to let me make my own decisions, and allow me to get to them in my own way. My suit, for example.

Originally Elizabeth wasn’t going to join me at the suit fitting. I knew what I wanted – a three piece grey suit with a green tie. Elizabeth came. I walked out with a two piece charcoal suit and a blue tie. The justification? It’s an outdoor wedding in summer, so the vest would be too hot, charcoal was more slimming, and the blue would match the bridesmaids. While these are all perfectly reasonable points that I would have eventually come to in my own good time I felt as though I was getting steamrolled before I had the chance to even think about it!

One thing that we did agree on at the outset was making a special point in the ceremony about our views on marriage. By law the celebrant has to say that ‘marriage is between a man and a woman’, which is total bullshit. While it is required, we’ve added out own little disclaimer, which works nicely but isn’t as vocal as I originally wanted. That said, telling the Liberals to go fuck themselves in the middle of my wedding ceremony probably isn’t altogether appropriate. In fact, my political views have already seen some relatives choose to boycott the day.

While some may say weddings are the bride’s special day and that the blokes should keep out of it, I think that by adding my own personal touches this has become one of the most memorable parts of our relationship.

I know that come 7 December, I will be a very happy man, surrounded by the people I love and the comics that I hold so dear.

-Paul Briske

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Arrow_and_Black_Canary_Wedding_Special_Vol_1_1

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