Mother’s Day Gifts“1 Comment”
katia | 12:56 pm | April 22, 2008 | Mother's Day, Mother's Day gifts, Mother's Day flowers, Mother's Day gift ideas, Mothering Sunday, Happy Mother's Day, Ann Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, Gifts for Mother's Day, TheGift.com
It’s that time of the year again… yeap, mother’s day is crawling up on us little by little. Have you thought about what you’re giving to your mom? I haven’t yet, but as usual, this is a last-minute purchase for me, unfortunately, because I definitely should spend more time choosing something unique and special just for my mother… something that no other mother is likely to get… but, in the interest of time, I take the shortcut and go for the safe items, which, although nothing original and out-of-box, still says a lot about what my mother means to me. And better yet, I know she likes them, so I know I’m making her happy.
Mother’s Day, as we know it today, is not even 100 years old, but it is one of the biggest special occasions (or days) in our society, and I believe in other countries too, such as in England, where they celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In fact, early history of mother’s day can be traced back to 1600 England, where children and away-from-home servants and apprentices were encourage to bring flowers and gifts to pay tribute to their mothers on that day.
But, it wasn’t until Ann Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe that mother’s day gain popularity and a permanent place in our calendar. Ann Jarvis was a homemaker in the 1850’s actively fighting to improve women’s sanitation condition in the workplace, which came to be title Mothers Work Days. She organized women through out the Civil war to fight for their cause. Ann went to great lengths and even worked to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
Julia Ward Howe, a poet and social activist, is credited with actually bringing the idea of celebrating Mothering Sunday to the US after the American Civil War in the 1870s. She wrote the famous Mother’s Day Proclamation to call for peace, but failed to get it recognized as an official peace day. Both collaborated enormously to the creation of this day.
Anna Jarvis, Ann Jarvis’ daughter, is the culprit of this historical day, however. When her mother died in 1907, Anna began working on founding a memorial day for women. The firt official mother’s day was celebrated on May 10, 1908 in Grafton, Virginia, and soon after, the custom was spread to the remaining states.
Mother’s Day is an internationally celebrated occasion and one of the most commercialized days in our calendar. How can we just let it pass by? Moms are too important and we have to make them feel the most special person in the world. So, here’s my list for the last-minute shopper or the not-so-in-the-mood-to-make-a-gift shopper:
- What Type of Mom is Your Mom? Even if you’re short on time, you can get your mom mother’s day gift or mother’s day flowers that’s just perfect for her!
- You’re assured to find almost any gift for your mom here. Gifts.com usually have some pretty good stuff to give you endless ideas!
- If you still need some inspiration on what to get, Annie’s gift ideas for Mother’s Day is sure to help! Annie lists quite a few gift ideas for moms.
Happy shopping! And to all moms out there, HAPPY MOTHER”S DAY! 
Gifts for Administrative Professionals Day“0 Comments”
katia | 5:26 pm | April 4, 2008 | Contest, Admin Professionals, Admin Professionals Day, Admin Professionals Week, Administrative Professionals, TheGift.com
Administrative Professionals Day and Week is fast approaching and will fall on the April 21-25 and April 23rd, respectively. Nowadays, we don’t hear much about this special date, which is unfortunate, and because of that I decided to celebrate it by writing about it. It’s always important to recognize any profession as it makes us, the professionals, feel very good about ourselves and proud of our work.
So, I went online and did a search on “administrative professionals day” and found a couple of interesting things/sites I’d like to share with you. The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) offers an array of resources for admin professionals from valuable educational and research opportunity to office supplies to their OfficePro Magazine. Right on the website there was also a brief history of the administrative professionals day, of which I’m pasting a little excerpt below.
“This annual event was originally organized in 1952 as “National Secretaries Week” by the National Secretaries Association (now known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals) in conjunction with public relations executive Harry Klemfuss and a consortium of office product manufacturers. It was established as an effort to recognize secretaries for their contributions in the workplace, and to attract people to secretarial/administrative careers. In the year 2000, IAAP announced a name change for Professional Secretaries Week and Professional Secretaries Day. The names were changed to Administrative Professionals Week and Administrative Professionals Day to keep pace with changing job titles and expanding responsibilities of today’s administrative workforce.
Over the years, Administrative Professionals Week has become one of the largest workplace observances. The event is celebrated worldwide, bringing together millions of people for community events, educational seminars, and individual corporate activities recognizing support staff with gifts of appreciation.”
After reading this I decided to search for gifts for these professionals, just out of curiosity to see what was popular out there. I found gifts for almost every taste, I would say, from office supplies, office decor to gift and fruit basket to flowers. I also found this cool article titled “The Top 5 Gifts to Give on Administrative Professionals Day” from Monster Career Advice listing the top 5 gifts to give, which are:
- A day off with pay
- A gift certificate to a restaurant, hotel or play
- A bonus or raise
- Career development seminars or training
- A SPA massage
As we can see, none of the gifts I found online are listed here, BUT it doesn’t mean they won’t be appreciated. Except for gifts # 2 and 5, all the others listed above are a matter of internal policies. I happened to find that office décor is a great gift. Who wouldn’t want a little cute paper weight, or maybe a nice silver set of pen, stapler and clip holder? I would. In fact, office décor is what I asked for on my last secret Santa. So, here are few ideas:Office décor gifts, such as tabletop dish gardens, “Pimp My Cubicle” toys, frames and more.Office/desk flowers, where you will find beautiful arrangements to add color to your or your colleagues’ desk.THE MOST EXCITING result I found was on a sweepstakes for Admin Professionals Day. This is good for you to show your bosses (or managers) so they can enter you to win 1 flower arrangement for 12 months from 1-800-FLOWERS.COM! I thought that this is such a cute idea! So, go ahead and check this out and show it to our boss!Good luck and Happy Administrative Professionals Day!