Hostess Gift- do you give one?

First off I’d like to say I hope everyone had a Happy Memorial Day. These type of holidays (Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day,  Fourth of July) are always very precious to my heart. Not because I get time off from work (who wouldn't love that) but because I know we are Americans and with that comes our freedom and I’m especially thankful to my dad, my uncles and my grandfather who all served our country (my uncle who died for it) and have helped us keep our freedom.

With all the parties going on this weekend sometimes you run out of ideas for cute hostess gifts. Most of the time I bring food or drinks to a party but if someone tells me just to bring myself that is a concept I cannot accept. Especially if it’s a friend’s house or a place that I am just visiting for the first time. Of course I need to bring something, my mother raised me that you must bring the host something! I was invited to a pampered chef party (I just love pampered chef) last Wednesday. We had gotten home from vacation the Saturday before. I had forgotten I even had the party and it wasn’t until the night before that I remembered I needed to bring a hostess gift. Luckily for me (queen of shopping) I have a drawer filled with fun little things to give to family/friends when we are going somewhere. I call it my hostess drawer. I always like to customize it however to the person. This was for my old co-worker/friend Becca. She has an eclectic personality and I assumed her house would match that. I knew a candle wouldn’t just do it. I needed something fun, with a bit of color and different from the ordinary hostess gift. I thought of the seashells I had bought….they are vase filler and awhile back I decided to paint some of them so that they wouldn’t just be plain old white. I have a collection of hostess napkins with fun sayings on them that I have purchased so I pulled out the ones that I thought she’d enjoy and made a sachet with the shells and added some shells from a different bunch (scented ones) put them in a cute blue see-through pouch and presented her with a “summery gift”.

Tom always asks me why I buy things I buy, and why we have a drawer of this “stuff” (how he refers to my purchases). After seeing the gift I put together for Becca he knew it’s for times like this when I want to give someone something nice and can’t find it in a store I shop my hostess drawer for the perfect gift! Becca loved her “welcome to summer” gift bag. Went perfect with the Sangria she was serving!

What's your favorite hostess gift to give? 

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