The 2024 Not-a-Gift-Guide
| December 16, 2024 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Even though I have allowed myself to let go of writing without regret for the next couple of years (until I retire from clinical med) I still can’t stand the idea of not doing my annual book and gift posts. So here I am, poking my head above the detritus of moving, clinical medicine, and lots and lots of horse time.
I have a longer update partially written in my book post that is going to posted shortly, so let’s get to the absolutely not a gift guide post.
For those of you that may be new to these posts, a few reminders.
This isn’t a sponsored post. In fact, this blog doesn’t have sponsors. I’m not compensated for clicks, buys, or views.
This post isn’t a list of what you should stuff stockings with, or a wish list of things I wish I had, or the most current trendy gifts.
It’s is merely the things that brought me the most joy in 2024, and might bring you joy too.
Woot!!! Let’s get started.
Reverse coloring book
On the suggestion of a friend, I bought this reverse coloring book, along with these markers. I had been doing paint by numbers (see below) for much of the year to relax, but was looking for something to take to Greece with me (my very first international trip!) when I didn’t feel like reading but needed to keep myself busy.
Here’s the one I got from Amazon, along with the pens:
This has worked so much better for my brain than coloring books where I’m choosing colors and coloring in the lines (ironically, paint by numbers feels different from a coloring book!). It’s a perfect activity to do in the evenings while listening to a book or podcast, instead of doomscrolling on the phone.
There’s no pressure – just doodle or draw or experiment with repeating patterns. I don’t sketch anything out first (although maybe in the future I will) so if I change direction or make a mistake, I just move onward with my pens and experiment with transforming mistakes into something joyfully unexpected.
Paint by Number
Most evenings and lazy afternoons this summer I could be found sipping a glass of wine, listening to an audio book, and doing a paint by number. It was a great way to wind down. These paint by numbers are incredibly cheap on amazon – most of them about $10. They come with brushes, paints, a reference image (that is usually so small and color distorted that I take a screen shot of the amazon product page to use as a reference image instead), and rolled up marked canvas. If you spend more, you probably get better quality stuff…but part of the freedom in doing this for me is that if I decide I don’t like it, I can just…..stop. And do a different one. Which means sometimes I need to create my own reference images, the paints are sometimes dried, the paint colors don’t match the reference images, and there are things that aren’t marked on the canvas that you can clearly see in the reference images. You can choose projects that span a wide range of difficulty – whether because there’s lots of small marks, or because to make the image look good you have to blend paints – something you are creatively on your own for!
This was the first one I did. I chose something with colors I enjoyed and didn’t do any blending (hadn’t even occurred to me!)
I DNF’ed this one and threw it away when I got to this point. The Red color in the poppy didn’t look anything like it was supposed to and I didn’t care about the painting enough to fix it with my own paints. So many little brush strokes that didn’t matter. Bleh.
This was was incredibly satisfying. They style of it is very compatible with paint by number without needing any blending, and the lines were very forgiving. The colors were beautiful to work with to. I have found I most like to paint with blues.
This is one that is still a work in progress. I deliberately chose this project because of all the blending opportunities. The paints – mostly the orange – is NOTHING like the reference image, which is more brown. Sort of like the poppy picture. But, I came prepared and bought some acrylic paints and in addition to practicing my blending, I’m going to try and fix the colors. This project also lacked the detail on the canvas that was clearly pictured in the reference images, so I got to do a bit of freehand drawing as well!
What do I with these when I’m done? So, far, I take a picture and then carefully…..roll them up and stash them in a closet. ????. It’s truly the process that I’m enjoying these for.
Box knife, Drill
Ah yes, tools. Matt has been slowly expanding my tool bag at a speed that is based on two things.
- Tools that I’m am “borrowing” from his stash to use to do “various” things
- Projects that I want done (curtain rods, blinds) that are so far down his list of priorities that he knows buying a tool for me to do it effectively crosses the item off his to do list.
By far my favorite tools are the drill and box knife.
It’s probably very “40’s” of me to have favorite tools. But seriously, with those two things I can create all sorts of havoc. I mean, a tape measure is nice, but mostly I use it because I know I *have to* and I’ve accepted that measuring twice three as many times as it takes to get it write does save me angry cussing at the end. But a tape measure isn’t fun. Measuring stuff is boring adulting, unlike adulting that involves slashing things to bits and pieces, and drilling holes into things.
Walking Tread Pad
I bought this one on Black Friday Sale and so far I’m using it and really liking it!
Lately (ie, this year since I’ve moved) I’ve found myself sitting more and more. That’s not a trend I like and I knew that getting a treadmill to set up as my desk and to watch movies/read on is something that works for me. I’ve owned 2 full sized treadmills over the last decade and while I loved them for a walking desk there are two truths I cannot deny. A. I don’t like run training on treadmills. I hate it. Walking – sure, all day. Running? I’d rather do any other indoor exercise. B. The bulkiness/weight/space of a full-size treadmill will eventually make me mad enough to rage get rid of it.
I’m a short person with a short stride so these little walking tread pads are just perfect. There’s a lot of options but what was important to me was:
- goes up to 4mph with the handle down (my top walking speed)
- Goes up to 10 min/mile pace overall, which is my tempo run pace, if I absolutely have to run on it.
- Reviewers mentioned it was “quiet”. I’m very noice adverse, and it’s really annoying to have to turn up a tv to top volume to hear over a treadmill.
- the handle folds down flat, even after being totally assembled.
I love it! It’s small, light, and thin. I can easily move it around the house, place under tables and desks, slip it into the living room, or in front of a window. In fact, I’m writing this blog post right now, walking 0.6 mph, looking out my front living room window.
Boa shorts (chicknlegs are also pretty awesome)
Running 4.0 has really cute shorts. Boa 1″ elite split shorts are my favorite, but Chicknlegs is also fabulous (better waist band, but shorts are more constraining around my thighs than the Boa full split shorts).
There’s no denying how short the shorts are…but somehow they still have full coverage and with a bit of squirrels nut butter (my favorite running lube still) they chafe less than the tight spandex style shorts I used to wear. The patterns are fun and there’s nothing like coordinating your shorts pattern with a bestie for a race.
Cozy chair
Everyone should have a cozy chair. This blue one has been a favorite of both me and Paige since I got it about 2 years ago. It’s currently out of stock at Amazon, but there’s many of the same style.
I recently bought another chair from Amazon and I’m not sure it’s as cozy as my blue chair…but it’s the favorite chair of everyone in the living room so it should probably go on this list.
Spurtles
I went back to previous lists and cannot believe that these haven’t made the list yet. Spurtles. Yes, that’s what they are called. My sister got me these for xmas one year because in her words, “you are hard to shop for, you asked for ‘cool kitchen things’ and they got good reviews on Amazon, so here you go.” I had the most skeptical look on my face but they quickly became THE thing. Matt and I both use them exclusively to any other cooking utensil. We cook, stir, scrape, scoop with them. They have replaced our spatulas, wooden spoons, and rubber scrapers. We have bought them for friends and family members on subsequent Christmas’s and everything single person has said “I didn’t know I needed these in my life, but I did.” If you are looking to gift yourself or someone else, this is THE thing, just prepared for a look of confusion and “what’s a….spurtle?”. Do not let that temper your enthusiasm to convert everyone to the spurtle way.
Jackery
Love love love my Jackery. I use it at the barn to power lights in the tack shed during the winter, to run electronics when I’m camping, for long car trips, in the horse trailer, and more. I did buy the solar panel to go with it to give us more juice when camping, but it works excellent as a large charge power bank as well. I have a littler/older unit, but it was more affordable and does a great job. I do wish that it had USB C plugs as well as the older style, but not enough to spend the money to get another one.
I’ve used my extensively over the last 3 years and it’s stayed great.
Bouge RV Car refrigerator
Yes it’s pricey. But it was worth every penny. I got the optional battery pack so that I could charge it and it would run without a power source. It also works great hooked up to my cigarette lighter in the truck, and will run for as many days as I needed off of my jackery + solar panels. Having the battery installed gives me a little extra wiggle room if it’s not a sunny day. Our polo last summer was on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings, with most Saturday nights spent camping at the club with the horses. I could carry drinks, ice cream, popsicles, lunch meat, salad, wine….all without worrying and mess of ice. It’s just like having a refrigerator.
I got the size that I knew I could lift by myself in and out of the vehicles, and would fit into the back seat of all of our vehicles (including the honda). Because I didn’t need to account for ice space, all the space can be taken up by food. It was a WONDERFUL addition to my outdoor on the move lifestyle and if you have the extra funds to get one, it’s the thing that would have been LOVELY to have during my endurance days.
Electric Lunch Box
I got this electric lunch box as a gift last year.
I had spurtle-like skepticism and completely expected to use it a couple times, and then get rid of it, as I do with anything that isn’t pulling its weight in my kitchen space.
But.
I still have it, a year later.
And I use it all the time.
It’s fast and efficient. It will heat up my soups, but also my squash and my casseroles, and anything else I shove in it. It makes the food HOT, and you don’t need to have a microwave – just a plug. In the car I plug it into my jackery. I can have hot food on the road, or on the way home from a long run. Another thing that is perfect if you spend a lot of time away from home sweet home, like good food, but can’t depend on restaurants (my job, schedule, and food allergies make eating on the run really hard).
Instant Pot
Last winter one of my best friends was horrified to hear that not only have I never owned an Instant pot, I did not intend to own one…ever. Sometimes I use the slow cooker I had, but I had finally gotten rid of my stove top pressure cooker after not using it very much. I have ONE shelf for kitchen appliances and once that is full…something has to go before I can add another one. I couldn’t imagine using the instant pot more often than my slow cooker, and instant pots are bulky and big. I used to tell people that “there are cooks like to use a crock pot and cook slower, and cooks that like to speed it up and use a pressure cooker. I’m the former.”
So, this friend…this enabling friend (Like I tell you every year on these lists, to spend less money the secret might be to have no friends) shows up at my house with HER instant pot, dumps it on my porch with ZERO DIRECTIONS, and says “I need it back in a week, but here ya go, you need this in your life.”
And damnit, she was right.
After a week I didn’t want to give it back and immediately bought my own.
I did some basic googling of “what is the best instant pot to buy” and ended up with this one.
It broke after a couple of months (an error reading of some sort connected to a sensor? ) and even though I didn’t buy the extended plan, return for a new one through amazon was a cinch.
I use the instant pot at least a couple times a week. I do appreciate some of the features that this one has like the rubber handles on the pot that make handling the inner pot easier, and the improved steam release compared to the one I borrowed.
I use it to cook grains like brown rice (which is does wonderfully – I never had time to cook anything but white rice in the past), soft boiled eggs, beans (I grew up on dried home cooked beans and they are really different than canned, I much prefer home cooked beans), gumbo, soups, brisket, pork shoulders and butts, non-dairy yogurt, beets, and I’m sure even more that I don’t remember. Matt and I don’t have time to cook anymore due to current work schedules, so the instant pot works perfectly to cook up batches of things like rice, beans, eggs, meat that can later be combined into quick meals. It’s also saved me a few times for dinner because cooking meat from frozen is no problem.
That’s a “wrap” for 2024.
Let me know what things brought you joy this year!
