Home Decor Ideas as a Gift Option

All of us love to come back to a home which is beautiful and well decorated. A home that gives us a feeling of comfort and makes us feel welcome every time is a dream come true.

We might not even realise it, but somewhere the combinations of the various decorative items add up to the well being and presence of a beauteous home. Here we will describe some decorative ideas which imbibe these very qualities and are a great gift idea for any and every occasion. So, be it birthday gifts, anniversary gifts, wedding gifts or gifts for any cultural/religious festival, you are sure to never go wrong with these gift options.

Lamps and Lanterns
One can choose from a range of materials like Cloth, Glass, Brass, White Metal etc. When it comes to lamps and lanterns, make sure that your choice suits the occasion and the style and preferences of the recipient.

Door Hangings and Wall Hangings
Trendy and traditionally crafted door hangings or wall hangings bring in peace and prosperity to your home and make for great gift options as well.

Paintings
When it comes to beautifying home and surroundings, there is no better gift idea than one or more exquisite art forms. These will always keep reminding the recipient of you and of the occasion for a long time to come.

Flower Vases
Marble, White Metal, Brass, Glass or Handcrafted vases add to the overall home decor. Flower vases are one of the most multipurpose products cum gifts of all.

Other Show Pieces
These gift ideas only serve to give a unique look to someone's house. A show piece is also one of the most safe gift option across occasions. One just needs to have an artistic approach when it comes to selecting one.

With so many different gift shopping avenues available, choosing a perfect gift could not have been easier. One can send online gifts from anywhere to anywhere across the world sitting at home. For someone who is not as confident about e-shopping, then the traditional gift shopping route is always an option.

Gift Ideas for Golden Wedding Anniversary

There is a special feel to a union that has lasted for half a century. The number of lives that this couple might have touched is in itself an indication of what makes this anniversary celebration worth a mention. A couple married for 50 years and going strong is a rare occurrence.

The traditional symbol that is associated with 50 years of married life is Gold. Some gift ideas on the golden wedding anniversary made of gold can include jewelry, tableware, key rings, engraved keepsakes, gold plated souvenirs, gold picture frames and decorative that can also include flowers made of Gold.

One need not follow the symbolic gift idea when it comes to exchanging gifts in a golden anniversary party. Some other gifts that can be given to someone celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary may range from any of the following.

Memory book, photo scrap book, a family tree, 50 reasons why you love them, music compilation of music over these 5 decades, 50 golden balloons and 50 different flowers, personalised golden anniversary plate etc. are all anniversary gifts that can be given to a couple on their golden anniversary celebration.

A gift basket of souvenirs can also be given to a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. The collectibles in this basket can include anything that suits the style and preferences of the recipient.

Three Thoughtful Birthday Gifts For Your Mother

A mother does so much for her children, the least one can do is acknowledge her hard work and her selfless love. Her birthday is the perfect occasion to pamper your mom with special gifts and lots of love.

Birthday Flowers for Your Mom
Flowers speak a thousand languages. They are the best way of expressing your feelings and emotions for your mom on her special occasion. The choice of the birthday flowers should depend on what your mother loves. So, be it a mixed bouquet, lilies, daffodils, roses, tulips or irises or any other flower, the main thing is to make your mother happy. Flowers can also serve as an add on gift with any other birthday gift idea.

A Holiday to Remember on Her Birthday
From taking over all or most of her responsibilities or sharing them with someone to pampering her with a visit to the spa, shopping, dinner, movies. You can even take this a step ahead and organise a trip or a getaway for her with whoever she chooses to go with.

Birthday Gift Baskets for Your Mother
Another very thoughtful yet appropriate birthday present that you can give your mother is a gift basket. When you wish to pamper your mother with loads of gifts on this very special occasion of her birthday, send birthday gifts assembled in a basket and decorated with love. You can even get a customised or personalised gift basket for her.

Celebrate Hope and Renewal on Easter

Easter is a spring festival that celebrates resurrection of Christ three days after his crucifixion. It is a holiday that celebrates hope, faith and renewal.

All the Christian moveable feasts and the entire liturgical year of worship are decided as per Easter. The dates of Easter keep changing every year, for example, Easter 2010 is on 4th April. The Lent season precedes Easter. Lent is a 40-day period of fasting that asks for repentance culminating in Holy Week. It is then followed by a 50-day Easter Season that stretches from Easter to Pentecost.

It is a very well known fact that the symbols most associated with the festival of Easter are the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs. Since, this is a festival with pagan origins, its symbols too share a history as ancient as this holiday.

Easter Bunny is considered symbolic with the pagan festival of Eastre, or Easter (of today). The egg represents rebirth in many cultures the world over. It is customary to wrap eggs in a gold leaf or decorated in natural colours of leaves and flowers. Children too hunt coloured eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the plastic or chocolate Easter eggs. Commonly given Easter gifts are Easter Gift Baskets, Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies/Bears.

A Lavish Birthday Party

Everyone has their own ideas to having a great birthday celebration.There are those among us who are happy with a small get-together of family and friends. Some of us, on the other hand, love a loud and grand birthday celebratory atmosphere.

There are many ways of making someone feel like a king or queen on his/her birthday (send birthday gifts, surprise birthday parties, an exotic trip on birthdays). Here are some ideas that make for interesting and lavish birthday celebrations

The Party Expenditure
Money is one of the most important factors in such a celebration. So, be ready to spend without reservation. On the other hand one should be careful about the planning behind the expenditure a well.

Venue of the Birthday Party
Some ideas of a birthday venue are a mall, beach, farmhouses, boats, spas, hotels, a pool, golf courses, parks, water park and so on. The location has to add to the feel of largesse and luxury of the occasion.

An Organised Birthday Party
An unorganised birthday party is no fun at all. Fun, food, games, birthday gifts, return gifts, have to be planned yet should appear unplanned. This is sure to add zing to the birthday fun.

Birthday Celebration Music
Music is a great mood setter for any kind of festivity. You would not even realise why the whole feel of the occasion is so special, music adds to it and makes it that way.

Send Flowers Across Celebrations

Flowers are one of the most beautiful of all creations. Their presence itself spreads the magic of celebration or gives gravity to a serious occasion. Any and every situation is incomplete without them.

So one should send flowers to their loved ones on every common occasion and celebration. Some popular festivals or 'days' and the flowers associated with them are described here.

Valentine's Day Flowers
Valentine's Day flowers should ideally be the one your 'valentine' or your 'to be valentine' loves. The most common flowers for Valentines Day are red, pink, peach and yellow Roses.

Friendship's Day Flowers
Yellow Roses, pink or orange Roses, Tulips, Sunflowers, oriental Lilies, Gerberas, Daisies and Orchids are all examples of flowers for friends.

Easter Flowers
White Lily, white Roses, white Carnations, green Euphorbia are some of the flowers that are associated with Easter celebrations.

Christmas Flowers
Poinsettia with red or white flowers, Christmas Cactus with pink or red flowers, Christmas Rose and Holly are popular Christmas flowers.

Father's Day Flowers
Some favourite Father's Day flowers are roses and exotic or tropical flowers. Tropical flowers include Orchids, Rhizomes, Gingers, Helicon etc.

Mother's Day Flowers
Most popular among all Mother's Day flowers are Carnations and especially so white Carnations. Roses, spring flowers like Narcissi, Tulips and Daffodils can also be given to your mother on Mother's Day.

Flowers - Making Every Celebration Count

Flowers are said to represent feelings of a person or the underlying emotions of a particular event or occasion. Once one is aware of the meaning or symbolism of each flower and its relationship with the the celebration or remembrance, the choice is no longer so difficult. Here we present the nature of the occasion and the suitable flower that should be presented on the same.

Flowers for an Anniversary Celebration
When it comes to anniversary celebrations or to a wedding anniversary, flowers should be chosen as per the year of celebration and also according to the recipient's preferences and nature. Anniversary flowers can be given as a lone flower arrangement or a bouquet of mixed flowers. Fruits or other gourmet basket can also be a part of the flowers as anniversary gifts.

Wedding Flowers
Flowers used in a wedding can range from natural to artificial flowers to handmade flowers. Seasonal blossoms are the best choice for weddings. So, on one hand rich, vibrant coloured flowers are better in the spring and on the other dark coloured flowers are suitable for weddings that take place in the fall season. For summer weddings, the modern day flower are roses of many kinds.

Birthday Flowers
When it comes to sending flowers as birthday gifts, then the most important criteria is your relationship with the person whose birthday it is. Another significant factor to be considered is the availability of the blossom. When you want to send flowers on such a personal occasion then the presentation of the flower arrangement is also to be considered well in advance.

Exclusive Ideas for a Birthday Gift

A gift can also be considered in terms of the money or currency spent. There is a sizable number of people among us who seem to measure gifts in terms of their monetary value. For such people, a priceless birthday present is something that is expensive. Some exclusive or invaluable birthday gifts (in no particular order) are,

Jewelry of Precious Metals like Gold, Platinum, Diamond or of Semi Precious stones

Collectible Accessories like watches, cuff links, brooches, caps and hats etc.

Designer Gifts which may include any gifts that have been made to order

Branded birthday gifts, the brand value is the reason behind the high price of these gift options

Monogrammed gifts or birthday gifts with initials of a/many names, monogrammed leather articles and apparels

Engraved gifts like bracelets, pendants, key chains

If you are making travel plans for someone as a gift, then be assured that its value may be much more than you realise.

If you are planning to choose and send birthday gifts to someone you love and you want the present to be as invaluable as the person then these ideas are definitely for you.

Navratri – Popular Religious Festival of India

Durga Puja, gifts, good food, plans for get together sessions with friends and family are the essence of the festive season of Chaitra Navratri (16th to 24th March 2010).

How Many Navratris in an Year?
The dates of the Navratri festival are decided as per the Lunar calender. Apart from the most popular Navratri in September – October, there are three other Navratris in a year. The most important among the three is the Chaitra Navratri in March-April. This is also known as Vasant Navratri or Ram Navratri.
The other two Navratris are Magh Navratri (January – February) and Ashad Navratri (June – July). These two Navratris are also known as Gupt Navratri and are observed only in certain regions of north India.

Basis of the Navratri Festival
The word “nava” means nine and “ratri” means nights in Sanskrit language. Hindus believe in the various avatars or appearances of one god or goddess. Goddess Shakti manifests herself in three different dimensions as Goddess Laxmi, Saraswati and Durga. On Navratri, goddess Durga is worshiped in the form of Shakti.

Celebration of Navratris
This festival is celebration with dedication and a sense of devotion in India. People visit temples and offer prayers to Maa Durga. Community prayer gatherings are also held in artistically decorated puja pandals. People fast (keep vrats) for eight days before Mahanavmi (the final prayer day). On this day Kanya Puja is performed. Nine young girls representing the nine forms of Goddess Durga are worshiped.

Send Pooja Thali, Pooja Accessories, God Idols and Sweets/Mithais to your loved ones this Chaitra Navratri.

Birthday Gift Ideas For Your Dad

Gifts are one of the best ways of expressing your heartfelt emotions. A celebration is incomplete without them. Some birthday gifts that will add to the value of your dad's birthday are,

Dress up Your Dad on His Birthday
The best birthday gift for your father is what has been chosen keeping his preferences in mind and also depends on what suits him the best. You can choose from a range of birthday gifts for your father right from suits to jackets to t-shirts to shorts to shirts and so on.

Some Cool Accessories This Birthday
If you do not want to go wrong while selecting an accessory for your dad, plan your birthday shopping as per his wardrobe. Do a little research before you buy something for him. Some birthday accessory gift ideas are ties, belts, cuff links, tie pins, brooches, wallets, leather cases, bracelets and watches.

Recreate Memories for Your Father
Create a calender or a diary that lists in the order of time, your father's life till now. This can be done easily by making a time line and using all your creativity in doing so. Add pictures, anecdotes, list important happenings and achievements, both personal and professional. There could not be any better gift among the various choices of birthday gifts for him.

Cool Birthday Gift Ideas for Kids

From kids to adults, old to young and from men to women, everyone feels the excitement when their birthday draws near. Kids love receiving birthday gifts and attending birthday parties. Here are some ideas on gifts that are suitable for kids,

Educational Toys on Kids Birthday
These make for very engaging yet fun games for small children. What else does a small kid look for in gifts. Such birthday gifts have the dual element of learning and recreation in one place. Puzzles, simple board games, personalised story books, telescopes and building blocks are good examples of birthday gifts cum educational toys.

Bikes on Kids' Birthday
When we are talking of gifts for kids, the list in incomplete without this gift idea. As with the earlier birthday gift that had the fun element in it, even this gift gives loads of happiness and joy to children. So, bicycles, tricycles and bicycle and tricycle accessories are also good ideas of birthday gifts for kids.


Colour Books/ Small Canvas and Colours
Discover the artist in your little one/ones with a gift of a colour book and colours to go with them. The choice of the canvases and colour purely depends on the age, stage and curious interest in the child. The most appropriate colours for small children up to 10 years of age are pencil crayons, pencils for shading and water colours.

Special Birthday Gifts for Her

Our choice of birthday gifts depends on two things. One is the kind of relationship we share with the person whose birthday it is. The second is the profile of the recipient, age, gender and nature of him/her. Here are some birthday gift ideas for the women in our lives.

Birthday Decoratives
Women love decorating and designing her home. So, birthday decoratives like colourful paper and handmade lanterns, night lamps, vases and crystal figurines would be excellent ideas of birthday gifts for her. Flower vases that are handcrafted or made of a range of materials like marble, metal or brass also make for apt gift ideas on this occasion.

Keepsakes for Her Birthday
A keepsake is something all of us love to treasure and keep with us for a long time. Birthday keepsakes like glass or acrylic plaques or framed paper ones and intricately designed jewelry boxes make for ideal gift ideas to let the woman in your life know how special she is to you.

Beauty Products as a Birthday Gift
While choosing beauty products as birthday gifts, one should be careful about the kind of products the recipient uses and whether they are compatible with her skin type or not. Women might be buying products for themselves, but if it is a gift from you she would love using it and think of you every time she does.

Three Simple Homemade Birthday Gift Ideas

Homemade birthday gifts are a definitive solution to a successful celebration. Here are three such simple to implement ideas that are sure to inspire us in making something special this birthday.

Handmade Candlesticks Decorations
Discover the artist in you to make homemade candles or decorate store-bought candles for some really beautiful birthday gifts. The decorations include adding other accessories to the candles, or beautifying them with embellishments or spray painting the candles and so on. The hand crafted gift of candles will take a centre stage among all the other decorative pieces in your home.

Scrapbook for Someone You Love
One of the most creative and thoughtful gifts is a scrapbook. The first step in making a scrapbook for someone you know and love is deciding on a theme. Once that is decided, the next step is arranging for the materials that would go in to making this idea a success. These are, in no particular order, photographs, thoughts, poems or anecdotes, decorative things like glitter, coloured paper and the album or frame in which the scrapbook would take shape.

Don the Chef's Hat this Birthday
Bake a delicious cake for the one you love on his/her Birthday. Make sure to decorate it nicely and write your message on it. Organise a birthday party or get-to-gether and be sure to prepare the meal yourself. This can be done easily with a little planning and effort. If you are not so confident about cooking, take someones help. Be careful about the atmosphere as much as the food and the setting.

Four Inexpensive Gift Ideas For Any Occasion

All of us want to do something different and special for our loved ones on their special day. These are only some of the thoughtful and inexpensive gift ideas that are sure to make any and every occasion memorable for you and your loved ones.

Home Made Dinner and Cakes
Bake a delicious cake and/or prepare a meal. Make sure to decorate it nicely and write your message on it. This can be done easily with a little planning and effort. You can prepare the meal or take someones help in doing so. Though, this is one gift option where you cannot send gifts to anyone, your personal presence is required to make this idea a success.

Writing a Poem or a Heartfelt Message
Expressing your feelings could not have been easier than through this medium. This can be done by gifting someone a book of poems, messages or quotes. You can take this a step ahead by adding to this a compilation of your own feelings through poems or letters written by you.

A Gift of Flowers
Another very creative yet simple gift are flowers of the appropriate colour. You can pick these flowers yourself and arrange them into a flower vase, glass jar or even a basket. Choose from a range of addons to your gift of blossoms like balloons, pillows or soft toys.

Musical Gift
The gift of music is one of the most expressive among all gift ideas. This is also one of the most inexpensive of gifts across occasions . You can either buy or record a CD with all of the recipients' favourite music. You can even add your own compositions to the music collection.

Whether you are deciding upon birthday gifts, anniversary gifts or gifts for any other celebration, you are sure to find an answer in these gift options.

An Outdoor Birthday Party Idea

The time of the boring, usual birthday parties is passé. People are already looking for new reasons to have a great time at birthdays and other personal celebrations. Here is one such great birthday party idea.

A get-together or a party that has been organised outdoors becomes more alluring when it is close to a water body. Many of us do not live close to a place that has a natural water front or river side in it. Or, even if there is, it is not very suitable for celebrating a birthday. The main plus point about a pool birthday party is the ease of implementation of ideas. It also gives a feel of being out in the open, in natural surroundings without many of the hassles that may come with an outdoor birthday party.

One can put the venue to the maximum use by using the water body as the t-point. This can be done easily by making a partial platform, a couple of small boats, floats and thus adding to the enticing aura of the location. The food, drinks, birthday gifts and music can be accordingly kept to the tune of the party which is cool and soft yet very attractive to your guests.

The mood is set, the basic ideas are in place. Now the time is right for having the time of your lives on your birthday. This is one birthday party that will be etched in everyone's memory for years to come.

Gift Ideas for Everyone - Archies Gallery

Birthdays, Anniversaries, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Friendship Day, Valentine's Day, New Years or Christmas. Any and every celebration has been graced with Archies gifts since a very long time.

Gift Ideas from Archies
Personalised or Zodiac Mugs, Soft Toys, Chocolates, Cards For Everyone, Photo frames, Perfumes, Accessories, Wristwatches and many more.

What's so Good About Archies Gifts
The best thing about any of these gift solutions is their multipurpose usage. These make for excellent products cum gifts.

Another very interesting aspect of Archies products is the emotional value that these add to any and every occasion.

A personal touch is reflected in these gift ideas. This is perhaps where the allure of these products lie.

Beautiful to look at and made for keeps, what other qualities can someone look for in a gift.

Sending Gifts Made Easy
The exclusive gift range at Archies gallery is now available through various media. So, whether you send gifts online or through any other medium, these gift ideas will make every occasion count.

Send Your Best Wishes - It is Exam Time!!

It is exam time!! Both children and adults have lots of expectations and worries when it comes exams. It is this exam time that decides the future outlook of the young people of today. There are many ways of wishing someone loads of luck before and during their exams. Your wishes can include some tokens of love and appreciation which we call good luck gifts.

Good Luck Plants - A traditional symbol of happiness, wealth and health. These plants thus make for just the right choice of a gift before exams. They are sturdy, low maintenance and add life to your surroundings.

God Idols and Figures - People find strength and a sense of security in god idols and figures. These good luck gifts are also thought to bring in luck and good future prospects.

Feng Shui Gifts - These gifts are perfect representatives of luck, love and best wishes. Wind chimes, bracelets, pendants, coins, globes, Buddha sculptures, swastika, ganesha and sun are some examples of Feng Shui gifts.

Flowers and Chocolates – These are considered the traditional yet modern symbols of gifts across occasions. Best wishes are always considered incomplete without them.

Sending good luck wishes has never been this easy as in today's scenario with so many easy options for gift giving.

Personalised Gift Ideas for Birthday

Gift ideas that have an imprint or impression of a person or are customised according to someones personality are the perfect choice for a birthday present.

Photo Frames and Albums speak of memories cherished over time. They have an emotional value that is difficult to ignore. People love clicking pictures and storing them as valuables for future. Personalised gifts as these add to the emotional quotient and thus make for excellent birthday gifts.

Custom Birthday Jewelry imbibes two of the most important qualities that are relevant to a birthday. One of these is the fact that these give the impression of being especially crafted for someone. The second is the imminent message that any adornment gives to a person. They make one feel wanted, loved and cared for.

Keepsake is a gift that evokes memories of a person or event with which it is associated. People treasure their keepsakes that are either bought or made or given to them. Personalised keepsakes is a multipurpose gift as it serves any practical purpose and acts as a decorative piece as well.

Apparels that are either identical or synonymous in design or colour make for a thoughtful yet unique personalised birthday gifts. One could chose from a variety of apparels like dresses, shirts, t-shirts, suits, jackets, shorts and so on. The list is endless, and that is one of the advantages of choosing this gifting idea for your loved ones.

International Women's Day 2010

'Celebrate Women's Day on 8th March 2010.'

International Women's Day celebrates the true spirit of being a woman. It is a woman who lays and nurtures the foundation of a society. The qualities that she possesses are true to her alone.

This occasion has been observed since 1910, this gives it a long history of 100 years. The concept of Women's Day itself speaks of a new and rationalized era.This day has changed in significance and the basic approach. Started as a socialist political event, the holiday has now blended in the culture of many countries.

In many countries of the Northern Hemisphere, International Women's Day is also celebrated as the first spring holiday. This is because the first day of March is considered the first day of the spring season.

A very important tradition of this day is that men give gifts to the women in their lives. Each and every relationship that binds women in our society is remembered and given due respect on this day. This includes mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and so on. People send or exchange flowers and gifts on Women's Day. In some countries it is also observed as a day for the mother figure. In these societies, children give Women's Day gifts to their mothers, grandmothers, aunts and so on.

Also, thousands of events are held throughout the world in lieu of Women's Day. These events are political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events to local women's creative events like crafts, theatre and fashion parades. Women's Day celebrations incorporate women from every niche of society's fabric.

Marriage Anniversary Gifts for Three Decades of Togetherness

30th Marriage Anniversary
It is the celebration of three decades of togetherness and a love that has matured over time. All presents that have their elemental basis as pearl can be used as a 30th wedding anniversary gift. Gifts ranging from bracelets, necklaces or pearl cufflinks for men or maybe an oyster with a real pearl inside. Thus, it can be safely said that any pearl jewelry would work well as a gift for this anniversary.

Diamond is understood to be the modern gift for a 30th wedding anniversary. A watch encrusted with diamonds or any jewelry that has diamonds in it represents a thirtieth anniversary modern gift idea. Some examples are diamond necklace and earrings or a diamond pendant.

35th Wedding Anniversary
It has been thirty five years since your marriage or the marriage of someone you know and love. The contemporary gift material for a thirty fifth marriage anniversary is coral whereas one of the modern day anniversary gifts is the semi precious gemstone, jade.

Even though the traditional and modern gift ideas for a 35th marriage anniversary include gemstones, that should not limit the choices of gifts to jewelry only. This can even include gifts with these colours in them or maybe other gifts that are somehow associated with these gemstones.