Gift Picks

Spring is a time for celebration! With graduations, weddings, birthdays, showers, etc. we have a lot of milestones to acknowledge and with that comes a lot of gifts to give! Not all of us are naturally great gift givers, so in this month’s edition of “Kim’s Faves” we are taking some tips from the one who has become the unofficial “best gift giver” at Whim Hospitality, our CEO, Kim Hanks. Join us as she highlights great items with equally great stories covering all things from style to sweet tooth.

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a book,  The Five Love Languages, written by Gary Chapman. Through this book I learned that people show and receive love mostly in five different ways; quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, touch and gift giving. After taking the quiz at the back of the book, I learned my love language is gifts. It makes a lot of sense to me why my blog is “Kim’s Faves”, and why I buy lots of presents for co-workers, friends, and family. I’m not a fan of just holiday giving, but instead, I love giving when I see the perfect item for someone. It feels more authentic and brings unexpected joy. Here are some of my recent “faves” for gifts and the stories behind them.

I like to source locally and purchasing items that have a worthy cause attached. My favorite local jeweler is  Jamie Pope of Liz James Designs. Though her studio is in Austin, Texas, I purchased my first collectable piece from Starrs on Mercer in the town of Dripping Springs, Texas. Why I liked her designs so well was because they are handmade and light as a feather. It was a welcome feeling from years of wearing heavy earrings and chunky necklaces. My current favorite from Liz James is the Lucky necklace which is in a shape of a wishbone. I’ve given seven of these so far and each for different reasons. My favorite reason was for my daughter Iverson’s wedding. She borrowed mine for her “something borrowed” item for her wedding. I said she could give it back after her seven year itch had passed…..I’m not superstitious!

Photo courtesy of The Scout Guide

My second favorite item of the season is my alpaca throw from  A Woven Peru. A Woven Peru provides sustainable jobs and fair wages for Peruvian women and men. I became obsessed with Alpacas and convinced my adoring husband to buy seven for our wedding venue, Camp Lucy. You may say, “Why would I need an alpaca throw in Texas, in the month of May”? My answer, air conditioning office wars. This throw is always the right weight no matter the season or reason for why the office is the temperature of Michigan in the springtime. It can also be doubled as a shrug if I need to dress up an outfit to go out after work. My favorite is the Arequipa throw in charcoal gray because it goes with everything.

Photo courtesy of AWovenPeru.com

My third pick is  chocolate gummy bears from Nuts.com. Trust me, it’s a game changer. No longer do I have to struggle with the right number of chips per bear. For the record it’s three chocolate chips to one normal size gummy bear. I usually buy the dark chocolate enrobed bears but they also carry chocolate covered cinnamon bears, white chocolate and milk chocolate gummy bears. This website also carries Prosecco Gummy Bears perfect for wedding showers. Chocolate covered gummy bears got me through the early years of my wedding planning business. I packed these babies in my fanny pack and popped a couple whenever my blood sugar would drop from forgetting to eat on wedding day and when I needed an emotional pick me up. Who doesn’t smile while eating a gummy bear?

Photo courtesy of nuts.com

We hope you have enjoyed these great items and are ready to ready to grab one of each for gifts and snag a few for yourself as well. We look forward to seeing you next month as Kim highlights more of her favorite things!