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70 envelopes

Tiny NellTiny Nell
edited February 2015 in Writing
Next year, I have two seventieth birthdays coming up.

I woke up during the night (as is my wont) and had an idea: I would give seventy envelopes in a box, each containing something simple. (This also makes posting abroad not too expensive.)
Each envelope will be dated from the birthday throughout the next seventy days so that each morning there will be something to look forward to.

I have started making a list of things that will fit. Some things I will buy, but others I would like to be a bit different - creative/informative, etc.

This is what I have come up with - and if you have any ideas at all (I'm a long way from seventy!), please feel free to add them!

Poem (one of mine)
Book review
Recipe
Crossword
Sudoku
Horoscope symbol picture
List of events that happened on birthdate
Packet of seeds
Silk painting
Photo
Proverb
Quote
Ref. to a piece of music
Amazon voucher
Word Search
Quiz
Fact
Teabag
Story (one of mine)
Flash (one of mine)
Joke
Bookmark
Postcard
Handkerchief

Subtotal:24

(possibly CD/DVD)
«1

Comments

  • LizLiz
    You can get really nice single boxes of teabags from Pukka.

    I have 3 cards I bought in a good card shop in Bristol that fold out to be birds that can be hung as a mobile. One of those would be nice.

    Otherwise you could make a Japanese crane from origami, or a few and string them in a row to hang up - I sent a row like this to a friend who was dying and his wife said he really enjoyed watching them turn in the air.
  • heatherheather
    pressed flower
    ribbon
    fridge magnet
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    Oh, forgot to say - these will be for a man, which makes it slightly more difficult!
  • JohnnywriterJohnnywriter
    beer mat/coaster
    key ring
  • cheshirecheesecheshirecheese
    The ace of spades.
    I have 51 other ideas...
  • LizLiz
    Ticket to cricket, football match, or voucher?

    Theatre voucher?

    Book voucher?
  • heatherheather
    credit-card torch
    big coloured paperclips
    jokey post-it notes pad
    mini joke book
  • BalazsBalazs
    tips
    try this: http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page
  • cheshirecheesecheshirecheese
    Swiss army card
    A reprint of a cartoon from a comic from his youth: Eagle etc?
    Origami, made or to be made
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    Great ideas. You're coming up with lots. Fab!

    It doesn't have to be something bought. It can be something written, so that's a good resource, Balazs.

    cc, what's a Swiss army 'card'? I know about the knife!
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    Lovely idea.

    Nostalgic items, such as photocopies of old adverts and headlines they might remember and/or from when they were born.
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    Write down memories of time you've shared with the person.
  • SmaugSmaug
    Directions to somewhere, significant song lyric, recipe. (and what a brilliant idea TN)
  • SmaugSmaug
    List of the number one songs on each of their birthdays (birth to 69)
  • Lou TreleavenLou Treleaven
    Love this idea! A stamp. An old postcard. Funny cartoons (you could print a few out from the internet). Cracker jokes.
  • ClaudiaClaudia
    A photo of whoever was the big Hollywood star of his year of birth.
    Ditto - motor car... photo or toy.
  • JohnnywriterJohnnywriter
    Meaning of their name
    Coat of Arms for their surname.
  • LizLiz
    To make up the seventy, if you are having trouble, you could separate some of the items with a 'to be cont...' card and they end up with them all by the end.
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    Yes, and I could put in more than one riddle/joke/story, etc.
  • LizyLizy
    140 items is going to add up to a lot of dosh.
    Even small things tot up when multiplied by seventy, so I should cut back on the vouchers you have to buy.

    Are they local? Could you make up vouchers for cutting grass, baking a cake, ironing a shirt etc?
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    edited February 2015
    No, one's in Germany and the other's in Yorkshire!

    That's why I'm not necessarily going to buy things. Instead, I'll be creative.
  • lindsayllindsayl
    little bag of sweets, one of those mini aftershave testers, shampoo sachet?
  • sallyjsallyj
    I think this is a fantastic idea. My mum is 80 later this year - I might copy this!
    What about a coffee shop chain gift card (need only be for £5) e.g Costa?
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    Amazon vouchers bought in UK probably won't work in Germany unless they opened and kept their account in the UK.
    2015-70=1945. Should be lots available for that year, though not things they would remember, being only just born.
    A selection of firsts from the archives of the last 70 years- moon landing, Supersonic flight, that sort of thing.

  • Lou TreleavenLou Treleaven
    Family photo
    Children's drawing
    Crossword from paper
    Riddle
    Optical illusion
    Feather
  • caseycasey
    What a lovely idea. Top Twenty Charts from the sixties would work (Their teenage years)
  • snailmalesnailmale
    I thought of a couple of things I'd like in an envelope for my 79th later in the year but then thought better of it.
  • heatherheather
    That's not like you. (The thinking better of it part!) :)
  • LizyLizy
    SM being circumspect?
    Is he ill?
  • snailmalesnailmale
    edited February 2015
    I've been circumspect all my life. It was standard practice in those days.
  • LizyLizy
    practice
  • snailmalesnailmale
    edited February 2015
    That's what I said...
  • snailmalesnailmale
    More or less...
  • ClaudiaClaudia
    Favourite recipes from the 40's? (Or has that already been done?)
  • LizLiz
    You mean... a slice of Spam?
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    I'm getting there, though still quite a few to fill! If you think if something in the middle of the night, jot it down on something to hand...
  • sallyjsallyj
    Lottery scratch card
    sachet of hot chocolate
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    ***UPDATE***

    I've filled 52 so far. I've got a couple of weeks left to finish...

    #:-S
  • doradora
    Re the sachet of hot chocolate which Sally J mentioned, there are all sorts of flavours you can get with Options eg popcorn flavour, so you could send more than one.

    Postcard of a place they liked to visit in years gone by.

  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    Good idea, dora!
  • LizLiz
    Photos?

    Info about what was happening on their birthday, or that day, the year they were born?

    Stories your parents told you about them, or their family?

    Memories you have about them that you treasure?
  • LizyLizy
    Are you sufficiently in funds to give them each a meal voucher, even if only for a pizza? Somewhere on a particular night when you could turn up to surprise them?
  • LizyLizy
    Do you know them well enough for a macabre joke item such as a fake graveyard plot?

    I'm 71 and nobody thought of such things on my 70th, but a few jokes among the serious/artistic/thoughtful ones would have pleased me!
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    edited August 2015
    Yes, I've got some photos lined up, Liz. The stories/memories idea is difficult.
    Lizy, he's not in the UK so a meal voucher won't work. I've got to be a bit sensitive so I think I shall avoid jokes, but I've got some meaningful quotes.
  • LizLiz
    Try to trace old friends? Find out what happened to their school?
  • doradora
    Will their school still be there? My school was bulldozed. Think all the pupils left first though.

    Care home on it now.
  • Tiny NellTiny Nell
    I might be able to find an old photo of it. That would be nice.
  • LizLiz
    There is a Facebook group of the town I was mainly brought up in... well I was there for longest, anyway. On it, people post photos of the town as it was years ago, buildings that have been lost, old shops, the park etc. It sparks a lot of memories among the people who post. Perhaps you could find the group for their old towns?
  • snailmalesnailmale
    I'm 80 next year.

    Just saying...
  • LizLiz
    You might also be able to get a screengrab of the house they used to live in off of Google.
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