give them the world

Whenever I ask my husband “What do you want for xxxx holiday?” (Christmas, Birthday, Valentine’s Day) I get the same response. “World Peace.” Said, of course, tongue in cheek. So I started taking him at his word. I never know what to get him anyway, so it’s fun to pull together bits of our history to give him a personal object.

The first year I gave him a photoshopped Japanese Ukiyo-e print of Traditional Japanese Women carrying very very large Snow Pea Pods. (World Peas, heh). Then I followed with a really weird over-sized seed pod filled with an encrypted message on each of it’s inner “peas” (as a nod to our honeymoon – when we visited a cypher museum and toured the birth of computing. Oh, the things I do for my husband.) But my favorites are the two I’m sharing with you here.

Above, I took apart an old globe, cut out a continent-like shape, and pinned it in a shadow box. I labeled it “World Piece #1422”. The number referenced an important date in our history, though, erm, I cannot remember what it is now?! Oh my.

But the gift that totally confounded him: Water from Scotland. We eloped in Edinburgh, Scotland, so the place has lots of meaning for us. I filled a vanilla bean jar with water and gave it a very official looking label. The label read:
Contents: Water Sample
Origin: Wale of Strathmore – Glamis Castle, Scotland
Collected: Field Research – London Gatwick
Date: July 2006
Can you guess where the water came from? When I was cleaning out a storage area I found a water bottle stashed in a box of stuff from the trip: Scottish Water!

I also made him a lovely book about all of Birdie’s parts and pieces. You can see it here.

This year I have wondrous plans in place for his Valentine’s gift. But he’s such a FAITHFUL reader of this blog, ahem, that I dare not breathe a word. What’s the strangest gift you’ve given a loved one over the years? Share with us!