I've just wrapped my stepmother's birthday gifts: two blouses and one box for the special musical card and Florida-themed treat. Gathered her favorite colors of purple and gold. The tissue inside each box is different and in a tropical theme to set off the gift inside. Yes, I know I have way too much time on my hands. If I were not mailing these, the bows would be more elaborate. I like the bows to be big, complex and overflowing with the ribbon undulating around the edges of the gift.
The best part of giving the gift is more gratuitous for me and that is the wrapping. Even if I'm not necessarily fond of you, the wrapping will never let you know. The gift inside is for the recipient and the wrapping is...correct!...for me.
I didn't grow up with a lot and couldn't necessarily give a more expensive gift, but what I could do was make the wrapping beautiful. I learned (while living in the Philippines) from watching the painstaking task my mom or other live-in relative would take to make the gift presentable, more often than not the popular technique of multiple folds at the seam as seen at the top left hand box in the picture above.
Now I have an arsenal of dozens of gift wrap paper in various themes and spools and spools of mostly fabric ribbon. I try to buy them when they are on sale because I am not stingy with them when I wrap the gift. More yardage of ribbon on a gift, the better. It's the sensuality of it, too. Feeling the textures of the paper and ribbon...and feasting my eyes on the various colors heightens the experience.
This is not to say I have not thought about the gift inside. I always imagine what the recipient might think when he/she opens it. It is rare that I do the gift half-hearted. Even if I pick up something small and it would be okay to give as is, it will still have a small coordinating fabric ribbon(s) tied around it. It's just the AGOL way.
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