The Christmas Exchange.

it was the season to be jolly and on one of those days while i was waiting for traffic to ease, Cheryll called me up for a little chat and came up with a new Challenge for us.

 

last year, we accepted and accomplished the Bangkok challenge and the wedding dress challenge. and then, we ended the year with the RM10 Christmas Exchange Challenge! gosh, sounds like a gameshow.

 

the rules were simple, really. get a present for the other 3 with a budget of RM10 each.

sounds easy, right? WRONG!

initially my head was swirling with gift cert ideas or the saviour of all cheapo gifts, DAISO! but Cheryll had to up the challenge with no gift certs and only 1 item can be from Daiso.

 

the fastest present i actually got was for Jean. i was hanging around Tokyo Street area in Pavi and saw the cutest ice cream tab and kimono girl eraser and immediately thought of Jean. with just that 2 items, it was already RM9.40. but i felt abit sad giving just those 2 items. i figured i wasn't going to get very awesome gifts as well for Mel and Cheryll with the budget of RM10 and decided to go through my whole room looking for free bits and pieces i don't use to add up to the gifts.

for Jean, i found this foot spa balls thingy which i got free from signing up for some facial last time and a pair of diva pink heart earrings.

 

it still felt really sad, so i started making christmas cards.

i even googled for christmas card ideas! alot of effort was put into these.

LOL hi TOP!

 

Mel was the lucky one. previously, i got a free Voluspa candle from one of those promo days of Thimble. but since i don't burn candles, i gave it to her. her present is probably worth the most. but to satisfy RM10 budget, i got her a lightbulb post it for all her brilliant ideas and a mini white board notebook from Daiso, which i thought was pretty useful. initially, i was going to get her nail polish but those which cost less than RM10 are those dubious china brands which she would definitely not approve of.

 her card is probably the funniest.

 

i had to add a snowman to maintain its christmasness.

 

Cheryll's present was probably the hardest to sort out. i figured she'll probably appreciate something that represented our friendship and so, i decided to give her the polaroid pictures from her bday last year. i was trying to think of the best way to present it. and my initial plan was to get those clear card holders and convert it into a polaroid picture album. but due to lack of time, i couldn't find one which was less than RM10. even the ones in S&J were pretty expensive and the Daiso ones were quite ugly. in the end, i settled with trying to find a many picture photo frame which i found in S&J.  

i pasted the picture straight into photo frame. 

 

and her christmas card had more pictures of us. the buttons are spos to be like christmas deco balls hanging but i had so much trouble trying to glue everything down. it didn't turn out how i imagined it to be but you know what they always say when you screw something up... it's the thought that counts!! hehe

 

what did i get from the girls?

Mel gave an earphone case which is ridiculously useful. i now have tangle free earphones!

in addition to that, she also got each of us gold scissors which were first seen in Thimble. it was sorta like a farewell-thimble-parting gift.

 

Jean gave cute and random bits and pieces along with awesome souvenir from Japan which included a jewellery case, paper soap and lip balm.

 

Cheryll's gift is crazy awesome. she handwritten these mugs with sharpie pens and baked them in the oven. HANDWRITTEN!! and she also added a huge chocolate chip milo nugget butterscotch cookie which was really delicious. she said it was pretty dense and to pace yourself. pfftt... i finished the whole thing on the plane to Penang.

 

other gifts received/given during christmas are as follows:

 

lava lamp for Ian

beautiful necklace from Ian

 

Oh, Lola! from my brother's gf, Rebecca. he should just marry her, really.

super cute accessories from Maria

for my family's christmas exchange. i bought and wrapped this 2 hours before the event. super last minute, just bought a bunch of chocolate and snacks and called it a day.

 

and this statement necklace from Aziemah!

 

 wahh, so many presents this year. i like!

anyway, back to the tai-tai christmas exchange. in loving memory of thimble, our theme for the night was of course, thimble. since it was kinda dark, we didn't take any pictures of ootd. 

but here's mine in the toilet while waiting for the rest to arrive. top and necklace from thimble. 

dinner was at la vie en rose. the beef cheeks were pretty good. and we ordered every single item in the menu except for prunes. overall, it was pretty good. probably not awesome enough to really consider going again. 

well, i hope you all had a wonderful christmas/gifts exchange too.