Summary

Hey guys, this week Alicja and Dee are discussing the best hostess/host gifts to bring to your next get-together or dinner party. 

Takeaways from the episode: 

1. Thoughtful gifts show gratitude

2. Be creative with your presentation

3. Handmade gifts can mean so much

We also play our new game, let’s get rid of it; where we discuss something we rid ourselves of. We even gave a shoutout to a few of our listeners. 

Could it be you? Listen to find out! Leave a voice message for a shoutout next week. For the week of Halloween tune in to hear some scary design nightmares read by Dee. Starting October 25-31. Don’t forget to answer this week’s question we would love to hear from you.

Sorry to those that clicked and heard the wrong episode it has been corrected. — This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/teaoverinteriors/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/teaoverinteriors/support

Transcription

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Episode 24
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Dee: [00:00:00] I'm Dee 

Alicja: And I'm Alicja 

Dee: And welcome to Tea over Interiors everyone on today's topic. We are going to be discussing what are the best hostess gifts and why you should never show up empty handed the value of showing gratitude.

Alicja: I love that. 

Dee: You love that, right? 

Alicja: Yes. 

Dee: But before we get to that, Alicja, I needs to know girl, what you sippin' on. 

Alicja: Dee , what is the name of this wonderful tea you sent me last month?

Dee: Oh yes. I forgot. I've been sending you tea lately. The one that I sent you is called stormy night. Organic. It's a Mexican hot chocolate black tea with notes of cinnamon vanilla, and a hint of coconut. 

Alicja: That's so nice that coconut, I love coconut. 

Dee: It's almost like hot chocolate tea. It's really good. We're going to get into these teas a little more. I mean, I know people often ask us where we get our teas from, you know, we're going to start to reveal some of our sources. 

Alicja: That would be great. 


Marker
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Dee: It is time for [00:01:00] Dee's randomness.

How do you feel about brass doorknobs and handles? 

Alicja: Okay. I'm not a fan, although I think they can be appropriate sometimes. 

Dee: Well, guess what it turns out that the copper and its alloys such as brass have antibacterial properties. It's been found that brass once was used in hospitals to lessen the spread of disease. But now they've gone back to stainless steel and plastics because as you know, brass has to be polished, but brass can kill bacteria, like Mersa, the Noro virus, and other super bugs. If they brought brass back to hospitals, they can save patients and their visitors. From getting different infections by 58%. 

So you may want to rethink that brass because that is a inexpensive way. You don't have to keep Lysoling the doors or those door knobs, how often do you clean your doorknobs? Alicja let's get in your business. 

Alicja: Not often enough. I know that, but I don't have a whole bunch of [00:02:00] company. Yeah. This is true. I don't clean them. I'll spray them.

Dee: Today's topic, we are going to be discussing. Why you should not show up empty handed when you go to someone's home and the value of gratitude. Would you like to start us off with this topic? 

Alicja: I would love to, I have been the recipient of some amazing, wonderful hostess gifts. If you don't know the hostess or host very well, everybody thinks they're going to take a bottle of wine. and if it's a large gathering, just imagine what 10, 15 bottles of wine from every couple and every person that's a lot but you can be a little creative if you really don't know the person.

I suggest candles some type of really wonderful Belgian chocolates or nice box of candy, or something lovely. D and I are in the design field and I think if you have a personal relationship with someone, you know, their decor take them something that will work well with their home feels very personal. It feels [00:03:00] like you took the time to really think about them, and bring them something. You know, there's always gift receipts. If they find that they want to go back and change the color or something like that. But I do think it's really nice to bring something that shows that you really did put some thought into it.

Dee: I think just to piggyback off that one before you move to the next one. You know how sometimes you have conversations with people and they may mention something like, oh, you know, the other day I was in such and such and I saw X, Y, and Z, and I should have gotten it, but you know what.

It was a little more than I wanted to spend for myself on that particular item. If you're actively listening, when you talk to your friends or people that, you know, you can make a note in your phone. Like, I like to make a note in my phone, like Alicja, when you say certain things that you want, I don't know if you realize that sometimes when we're talking, I'll be like, yeah. Remember you said you wanted X, Y, and Z. I would go to Ws and get you something really nice, sometimes you can buy them like a $50 [00:04:00] gift or a hundred dollar gift or $200 gift depends on your budget. You buy somebody that one thing that they've been talking about, or, you know, they've been gushing over and you show up with it that makes people remember that you're thinking about them and that's where the gratitude comes in. Because when you give somebody a gift you should be giving from your heart because. You have gratitude toward that person. You're grateful to have that person in your life hopefully, and you want to get them something nice.

I always like to bring things that people can enjoy, like they can eat because , I'm a declutter queen, so I don't want to add to your home unless it's something that I know you need. With candles, Depending on what they're made of, you know, you have the black sut and that's not really good for your breathing.

So I kind of steer away from candles unless I know they're going to burn clean. Like you said, chocolates or their favorite candy, but you know, we're going to show, or I'm going to show up with some tea. Alicia Because I love plants. And I think that they're a great addition to every home. Depending on the plant you purchased, you can help [00:05:00] to remove chemicals from your friend's home and help them breathe easier. Cause that's what plants do for us.

Right. So I don't know. I just like giving thoughtful gifts to people that I love, because if I'm coming to your house more than likely, I love you.

Alicja: And I totally agree with that. You know along the lines of live gifts, I believe this of course is a little easier to do this season. It can be done as well as in the summer months I've been developing a cutting garden, so I will plant Flowers perennials that every year, some of my friends look forward to receiving. So I love to give the gift of flowers that I've used for my cutting garden. And during this time of year, There may be branches or leaves that are really pretty on some of my ornamental grasses. I have some really nice blooms and cut those and put them in a vase along with some great flowers.

I've talked about in the past and a previous. [00:06:00] Podcast how my parents have these wonderful hearty hibiscus bushes, they have these beautiful, sticky, like they get this patina. So after the winter and. As we go into the summer months, you go and you can cut them down they kind of get petrified after the winter.

And they are the most attractive looking. They almost look like they've dee you don't they look like they have like a little bit of a whitewash 

to them. Yeah. They look almost like Birch, but you can also see them on our Instagram because remember I posted them. Oh, 

true. Very true. 

Dee: Go check out our Instagram, make sure you're following us first and, you can see what she's talking about. The Hardy hibiscus. It's beautiful. I love it. Yeah. 

Alicja: Bringing things like that, to the home in a vase arranged and beautiful. And then I also am gifting a wonderful vase. Those vases are so lovely to pick up 

and then you wrap it up and you can tie it. All kinds of wonderful things, but I sometimes tie it with raffia. Sometimes I tie it with a great ribbon. [00:07:00] Sometimes I put around the vase, a piece of burlap or something, just whatever people look forward to those. I received a gift recently from a girlfriend.

She came for a dinner party and she has a very mature garden. She bought the house from an older couple and they had just planted everything and she had wonderful things from her garden that she brought. So anyway, I love that. I think that's a great thing. Let's talk about food.

Cause you spoke about that Dee. I'm a baker and you know, I love to bake and I love to bring my baked goods. There's this very simple cake, which is my signature that my grandmother passed down to me. 

It's a complex cake because of the richness in the flavor, but it's a simple cake in that it is a poundcake and can be done and served so many ways.

Dee: It is still delicious. Alicja made the mistake of one time. First of all, she whips this cake up, like in record time. But she made the mistake of one time sending me home with a poundcake .

And then the next time I visited, my husband was like, did, Alicja bake you a cake again. And I was like, [00:08:00] what do you think this is? Like, I go to a house and get a cake. Like, what is this? But, you know, I felt like maybe I wasn't allowed to come back home unless I came back home with that.

So darn you, Alicja. 

You guys gotta taste this thing, we got to start giving it out to people or selling it to people or something. 

Alicja: They got to get a sample. They got to get a sample, so, okay. So that's a wonderful thing to do to take a nice cake. And if you take a simple or not complicated, dessert, then it's easy for the host and hostess to put it out because it doesn't interfere with whatever they've prepared for.

Dee: I'm so happy and so grateful that handmade things are coming back, with the, invention of Etsy, that made like handmade things, very popular and back in favor again, because handmade is the best.

And sometimes when you hold an item or you eat a thing that is made from someone. With love that you love. It's like you can taste it, you can feel it. It just, it's just that's where the magic [00:09:00] happens. You know what I mean? And just that exchange of that good energy, that is why you should never show up empty handed.

Yes. Your presence is always. Appreciated by your friends. And they're probably not even expecting you to bring anything because they might see you all the time or whatever. But just that little surprise, just that little something and you show up one day with that when they have a party oh, my God, you love me. Just the act of thinking about how your friend was in their garden, clipping their flowers and going, this will be beautiful and arranging it for you. It's like they were doing this just for you. They didn't walk into a store where someone else made something beautiful and say, oh yeah, this is beautiful.

Let me get this for such and such. Not that it's. Bad or anything like that, but it's just, it's the thought that went into it and the love and care that went into it. I'm sorry. I'm don't mean to go on and on, but I'm just saying it's just makes me feel. It makes me feel good. I love to feel appreciated by people [00:10:00] and to show appreciation to other people.

Alicja: It is good. It's just a good all around feeling for everyone involved. And that's what I think we're all striving for in these days, this day and age, it's helpful and it makes us understand and appreciate why we're here. So my last thing. That I'm going to say today is a mixed cocktail, even though not necessary that, you know, what the menu is, it's helpful.

So you can kind of think about a cocktail. You don't want to bring so much that. Overshadows, whatever the hostess has prepared. But if you can come up with a nice mixed cocktail, whether you bring the ingredients and throw it together, but I like to put it together in a pitcher. Or some type of a container that you can then leave with the hostess as a gift as well.

So I'm all about these wonderful containers I also do at Christmas time. Fantastic little Southern cookies called Southern Crescent cookies and have mercy. 

Dee: Wait, hold on. She might be mad. But the [00:11:00] other day, when we were at your house and one of our friends went inside to go to the bathroom and she came back out with the white powder on her nose, 

Alicja: you know, what, if she listens to this, she's going to be like, okay, that's it, stop, stop bringing me up in the podcast. But we didn't say the name. 

Dee: I never said anything about her before, 

We knew she was in them Southern cookies, I just thought that was so cute though. Even in my mind, just her eating that cookie and enjoying it, I felt gratitude for you making those cookies.

Like, cause I just felt like it made her happy. 

Alicja: I did too. And it makes me feel good. Let me tell you something. Most people who are givers, they love to see other people enjoying what it is that they've created. I get a great amount of joy from knowing that I'm appreciated that what I have coming from within me and of me is something that blesses and edifies and, and makes people feel good.

I'm telling you, it's a win-win everybody is, in feel good place. So I love it. So back to these little cookies. So at the holiday time, if [00:12:00] you've been. Around me long enough you'll know that they always come in a container that is also a gift. It's some pottery. I have a new Potter to a really nice lady who I'm going to be buying.

Wonderful art from her. And then I'm going to be gifting some people with her art, as well as the cookies during the holiday season. I'm very excited about it. So anyway, that's that you don't have to know a Potter. You can go out and buy some really great pieces, you know, what else is really cool thrift stores you can get some wonderful vintage pieces, so if you're going to be giving a gift, when you show up that you can't drink, except for the mixed cocktails yeah, be creative. Don't just, you know, show up with the bottle of wine or whiskey or whatever.

Dee: Another suggestion, my sister's husband, he makes jams brings those sometime too. Yes, please always bringing us some kind of goodies because he's a great baker and chef himself. So he's always making something nice and delicious.

Alicja: So yeah. Just thoughtful gifts. That's why you shouldn't show up empty handed just because they're not [00:13:00] expecting it. And you just want to put a little smile on their face and it doesn't even have to be expensive unless you know, those kind of people, but hopefully you don't hopefully, you know, the kind of people that are grateful for you and everything about you.

I think those are some great things. You have anything else? Alicja? 

I have a million things, but we can't go on all night we probably need to do this again. Cause I, I really do have more stuff like it's ridiculous.



Dee: Before we wrap up. It's time for. Let's get rid of it. Alicja, this week I finally got rid of some old, receipts I found in a folder.

I didn't even remember. I put them in the straw. But I found a folder of receipts from like two years ago from our expenses. And I'm like, okay, I've already done these expenses. It's time for me to get rid of it.

Alicja: I love it. I'm getting ready to do some major purging. I might need you back over here. 

Dee: We'd love to hear what you got rid of this week. So send us a voice message or drop us a [00:14:00] line and let us know so we can discuss

I just want to say that gratitude is definitely an attitude that you should have. I feel like living in your home, whether it's an apartment, a house, it doesn't matter. Your dwelling is your dwelling and home is what you make.

And when you invite people into your home or when other people invite you into their home, it is crucial to show them appreciation and gratitude for inviting you and thinking of you. And the way to reciprocate that through the laws of reciprocity, is to bring them a wonderful hostess gift.

That every time they eat it or they see. They will think of you. And hopefully it will think about you fondly and remember how special you made them feel, because that is what homes do they have feeling all their own. And they have an energy that you pour into it. So whatever your energy is, is the energy your home will give off when other people walk into it.

So keep that [00:15:00] energy clear by surrounding yourself with good people. Good food and lots of laughter. 

Alicja: Good stuff. Thanks. 

Dee: Thanks Alicja. Thanks guys for listening. And we will see you next week and you know what, Alisha, I'm just going to give a couple quick shout outs. I like to give a shout out to Joan, Narkide and Nyala, which I had no idea how much they love the podcast, but hopefully you guys are listening and thank you for listening. We really appreciate it. And angela. Paul G. Who's always supporting us on Instagram.

Alicja: And Sabrina

Dee: If you like a shout out, then just send us a little message and say, Hey, can you shout me out? I did X, Y, and Z this week, but I just wanted to shout out those people that came top of mind because they give us feedback on each episode. And I know that they're listening this one's for you guys.

Thank you listener for joining, and if it's your first time, welcome. And we hope to see you next week. 

Alicja: Thanks guys. We love you.