powderific posted:

Who is your giftee: My wife
Budget: $50-$200
Giftee's age: 28
Known likes/interests: Theatre, cats, warm things, soft things, cute things, eating, wearing my cologne, flowers, clothes
Known hates/allergies: complicated things, sharp things, things that make her feel self conscious, technology
Type of gift you are looking for:
Something nice that she wouldn't buy for herself — she only buys stuff on sale and often winds up with cheap stuff that doesn't work or last as well as it could. She's been experimenting a bit with makeup lately but doesn't feel confident enough in it to buy anything but $.99 sale stuff, so I'd love to get her some nicer lipstick, eyeshadow, brushes, skin care things, whatever, but I'm not sure I can navigate that world well enough to make good choices. She feels kindof guilty when I buy her too much so it'd probably better if I didn't spend a ton or at least it didn't seem super expensive. Was also thinking about fun tights as she had a bunch with patterns that she loved but wore out and hasn't replaced yet.
Ideas that you've had or gifts that have been enjoyed in the past:
Neat leather iPhone cases from 12South and now Pad and Quill, laptop and purse/briefcase thing from Jack Georges, Creed Imperial Millesime (she looooves this but watching her spray from a $300 bottle like it's Axe body spray pains me. She's down to about 1/4 bottle so maybe a cheaper something else.)

Who is your giftee: My sister
Budget: $50-$100
Giftee's age: 28
Known likes/interests: Things that are highly rated on Amazon (seriously, she loves amazon reviews), coffee, traveling, music (I think she likes vinyl stuff), organizing things, the color black, tatoos, smoking. She was/is a cool party, music scene person who lived in a big city through college but recently moved to a 800 person home town to work in our family business. Not sure how that would inform the gift buying process but there you go. It's also her birthday on Christmas Eve so if there were TWO gifts in the budget that'd be cool.
Known hates/allergies: Bright colors
Type of gift you are looking for: Maybe some kind of home or office gizmo (I saw a staple-less stapler on her Amazon wish list, so she likes that kind of thing. Her wish list is all spoken for from my folks though.) Some kind of coffee accessory or neat music thing. I'm not sure what I'm looking for here. My wife wanted to get her the fruit of the month club from Harry and David but it's waaay too expensive and I'm not sure if anything other than the pears is actually any good (she used to work at Whole Foods and good produce is hard to come by in a town of 800. And apparently she hates the grocery store people so doesn't like going there anyway.)
Ideas that you've had or gifts that have been enjoyed in the past: Aeropress coffeemaker, Bodum glassware, a selection of Origami paper when she was into that.

Who is your giftee: female friend for secret santa
Budget: $40
Giftee's age: 28
Known likes/interests: vintage clothing, clothing that's made in the USA, Audrey Hepburn, smoking, philosophy, TV, recently graduated from law school and got a job in employment law, german cars, being catholic, social justice.
Known hates/allergies: Not a hating type of person but I don't think I could successfully pick out an item of clothing/accessory that she'd like even though that would probably be the perfect gift.
Type of gift you are looking for: I really feel like some kind of accessory would be ideal, but I've zero confidence in my fashion sense. So instead was thinking some kind of thing that would be nice to have either for the new job or maybe a smoking related accessory, like this electric hand warmer since it gets cold as poo poo here and she's outside smoking all the time: http://www.amazon.com/EnergyFlux-44...ric+hand+warmer
Ideas that you've had or gifts that have been enjoyed in the past: She's socially graceful and an excellent gift receiver so it's hard to say what she truly enjoyed, but I recall a seamstress friend made her some felt christmas pins and spats one year.