Friday, December 23, 2016

The Worst Thing About Birthday Shopping For Your Wife

... is finding the right card.

My wife has a late-December birthday, so there are complications a-plenty right from the start, but we've found solutions to those over the years. No, the very worst thing, regardless of what time of year it is, is finding the right card.

I can usually find good ones for mom, dad, the boys, our daughter and friends, but for your wife it needs to be just right. This year, I spent more time and anxiety finding the card than just about everything else combined and I still don't like what I got.

I used to give blank cards where I could write my own sentiments, but for whatever reason, those are becoming harder and harder to find in stores and those you do find have clichéd photos - flowers, puppies, dolphins, rotifers, decaying leaves, buckets of spackle ...

OK, well, maybe a few of those aren't actually offered, but you get the idea.

A hypothetical rotifer birthday card for your wife: "To my little love-bug..."

Back in the day when I was still doing photography for this blog (I have no idea why I stopped, it just happened), I would make my own cards on our printer with a favorite photo as the cover. I never liked those either, as the card stock always seemed flimsy and unprofessional. Since the stock was 8 1/2 x 11, when folded, the cards were puny compared to store-bought cards.

I'm sure there are online artists who sell their work as cards and I ought to look them up and bookmark their sites, but to be perfectly honest, I usually forget and leave the card shopping until the last minute.

Grumble, grumble, grumble. (Leaves room, muttering to self about how things were so much better in the old days...)

5 comments:

Ilíon said...

"... I would make my own cards on our printer with a favorite photo as the cover."

If you are married to (a gem of) a woman who *didn't* throw a hissy-fit, or at least sulk, because you *made* the card, rather than buying one at the store, then it seems to me that you are married to a woman who wouldn't object if you just skip whole the silly concept of a card.

Ilíon said...

... but, what do I know? I stopped trying to please women a long time ago.

K T Cat said...

She appreciates *almost* everything I do, but in the end, she's still a woman and needs a card.

:-)

Ilíon said...

Still, that a card you made, rather than bought, fulfills that need indicates a rare woman.

ligneus said...

I think a homemade card is more thoughtful and has more meaning than a 'mere' store bought card.
You could make a New Year's Resolution to post one photo each week. When I look back over what seems to be becoming a long life and I've been taking photos since my camera was a box Brownie, I see the most important photos are those of family, specially of everyday life.