Five Gifts for Co-Workers

It's hard when you do a Secret Santa exchange and you get a co-worker who you just don't know that well.  What do you get them? If you're like me, you don't want to give perishable gifts (so many gifts of food that come into our home go immediately into the trash) and it's lame to give another candle or lotion set. What are your other options?

1. Spirograph for adults ($15 + $3 s&h from Hardwood Home) - It just looks so nice and it's exactly the kind of thing I would use mindlessly for hours and hours.  You don't have to make a big investment, but it seems like a thoughtful gift.

2. Scarf (this one is $28 + $6.95 s&h from Mimoza Handcrafted, but you can buy scarves just about anywhere) - I am actually going to buy a scarf for a student who has helped me run my freshman seminar this past semester.  I'll probably wrap it around a small gift card to Starbucks for her.  She's been a great help to me and it's just a small gesture of my gratitude.

I must have a dozen scarves in my closet and they are quickly replacing necklaces as my go-to fashion accessory.

3. Fun kitchen accessories (Berry Basket is $4.95, hour glass is $4.95, mini grater set of 2 is $1.98 (!), vintage milk bottle is $2) - These are all things I would absolutely love to have, but I'm never going to buy them myself. Those mini graters would be awesome for grating garlic, the berry basket would make storing raspberries so much easier, and those milk jugs could be used for displaying flowers, storing flour and spices, or shaking and mixing things. If you bundled these up (maybe with a mini colander, a set of wooden spoons, a whisk, or spatula), you would make a home cook a very happy person.

4. Luggage tag (this one is $25 + $2.04 s&h from Mile Nine, but there are a lot of luggage tags out there) - If your co-worker's job involves travel, she probably deserves a lovely luggage tag for her bag to separate it from all the other black roller bags at the airport.

5.Fruit infuser water bottle ($16.95) - If your office is anything like my office, the heat is cranked up in the winter, the air conditioning is set to frigid temperatures in the summer, and the air is always too dry.  Your co-workers would love one of these, I'm sure!