1. First: thanks for the ideas on the dark green vase. The beads sounded like a GREAT idea (no chance to try that yet, but soon).
2. People keep referring to a store called "Michael's". What is that? I'm in NYC, if that helps (i.e., if this is a chain that exists only in the Midwest or something).
3. Although, people in the NYC area, I can say nothing but good things about the Pearl Paint craft supplies store.
4. Okay. I had an idea for gifts for people this year -- I have a membership in a service that lets you get things like movie tickets, play tickets, etc. for discounts. One of the things you can order from them is gift certificates to Blockbuster, or movie theaters, or such. You can only get them in packs of ten.
What I was thinking of doing, though, was: I have a few people on my Christmas list that I never know what to get them, including a whole family of aunt/uncle/cousins/cousin's husband/cousin's daughter. I was thinking of ordering a couple ten-packs of movie gift certificates or Blockbuster certificates, splitting them up into pairs, and then giving each couple a pair of certificates (the family would get four or something). But, because they're just, well, gift certificates, I wanted to throw in a little something more.
I was thinking some kind of "movie night" gift basket -- sending along a package of popcorn and Jujubees or something. But I was looking for ideas to jazz up the popcorn. I've found spice mixes that you can mix with butter to drizzle over the popcorn; any other ideas? Or, even non-popcorn ideas?
2. People keep referring to a store called "Michael's". What is that? I'm in NYC, if that helps (i.e., if this is a chain that exists only in the Midwest or something).
3. Although, people in the NYC area, I can say nothing but good things about the Pearl Paint craft supplies store.
4. Okay. I had an idea for gifts for people this year -- I have a membership in a service that lets you get things like movie tickets, play tickets, etc. for discounts. One of the things you can order from them is gift certificates to Blockbuster, or movie theaters, or such. You can only get them in packs of ten.
What I was thinking of doing, though, was: I have a few people on my Christmas list that I never know what to get them, including a whole family of aunt/uncle/cousins/cousin's husband/cousin's daughter. I was thinking of ordering a couple ten-packs of movie gift certificates or Blockbuster certificates, splitting them up into pairs, and then giving each couple a pair of certificates (the family would get four or something). But, because they're just, well, gift certificates, I wanted to throw in a little something more.
I was thinking some kind of "movie night" gift basket -- sending along a package of popcorn and Jujubees or something. But I was looking for ideas to jazz up the popcorn. I've found spice mixes that you can mix with butter to drizzle over the popcorn; any other ideas? Or, even non-popcorn ideas?
There are a few Rag Shops http://www.ragshop.com - 2 in brooklyn and one in Queens. I haven't been to one yet but they seem to be similar to Michaels and Joanns.
There's also a store called Design Partners at 343 7th Ave (at 29th st) in manhattan. I haven't been there either but according to their ad they're supposed to have arts and crafts stuff in addition to regular artists supplies.
If your looking for fabric or beads your best bet is the garment district- 6th, 7th, 8th ave between 35th and 40th I guess. This may be helpful:
http://www.taunton.com/threads/pdf/NYCS
The names Michael and Joann keep getting invoked in connection with crafting, and I'm wondering if they're crafters that are so good they're referred to with just their first names, kind of like "Sting" or "Cher" or something. I was wondering who or what they are.
...And for some reason now I'm all paranoid that my last comment sounded snarky, when it really wasn't. Sorry!
It's too bad that you don't have any Michael's over in New York. They're quite handy to go to, if a little overpriced at times.
Good luck with the gifts!