What Did You Buy For Yourself?

JCP commented in early December:

“Sarah, I think we should have a post “What Did You Buy yourself for the Holiday”

I bought a KU gift subscription for myself that will be delivered to me in January. 24 months is about $144 which includes tax (US). They also offer 6 or 12 month deals. You can order it now and have it delivered to you anytime in the next year. That’s about $6.70/month. Normally, it’s about $10 before tax per month in the US.”

Amanda flagged this immediately because JCP is totally right!

There’s also a KU deal for six months for $30, renewing at $10/month afterward. That’s not bad!

And, if you’re after audiobooksLibro.fm is currently running a special offer with code CHOOSEINDIE: a bonus audiobook credit when you join!

I love this question, too.  What did you gift yourself for the holidays?

Sarah: After Catherine talked about her Australian chocolate subscription, I found one from Lake Champlain Chocolates, and it has been freaking delightful (and delicious)! So that’s a renewal more than a gift, but we’re definitely going to subscribe again because chocolate.

As for me: I’m buying myself the services of a local professional longarm quilter to finish a quilt I made. It’s a little too large and therefore daunting for quilting on my small home machine. I’m very excited about it. I get to pick designs and thread color and everything!

And I bought myself a new ring from one of my favorite Etsy stores, EmilyJDesigns. I have been buying personalized rings each January for the past three years, and I personalize them with my word or phrase of the year. Wearing them makes me very happy. This year: a ring with trees stamped on the outside.

A close up of a silver ring with fir trees stamped on the outside

Tara: Nintendo had a big sale for indie games over the holidays, so I got myself Umurangi Generation, Night in the Woods, Cris Tales, and Gnosia. I’d had the last three on my wish list for ages, waiting for a good sale and it was finally time!

Also, because I’ve started adding lifting to my exercise regime (I’m following the program 645 on Beachbody On Demand), I snapped up a pair of Bowflex 552 adjustable dumbbells. They were $100 off at the Bowflex Canada website, but I’d have happily paid the full price, since it would have been way more expensive for me to buy individual dumbbells ranging from 25-50 lbs.

Finally, because I live in Canada where it is freaking COLD (literally it’s -20C/-5F as I type this 🥶), I used some money I got for Christmas to buy myself an Oodie. It has quokkas on it and I cannot wait for it to arrive.

Amanda: This is a hard question to answer because I’ve treated myself right before Christmas and right after.

My big purchase was a PS5! Winter time is prime cozy up in bed and play video games time. And there are so many awesome PS5 releases early in 2022 – the sequels to both Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War. It arrived earlier than expected on a day that went spectacularly poorly, so the universe was certainly watching out for me.

I also made an appointment to get my septum pierced right after the new year! At the time of writing this, I am freshly pierced and so happy with it. I’m doing a lot of things that I felt I couldn’t do previously and it’s been both healing and a lot of fun.

Maya: I bought some fun embroidery and cross stitching patterns!! I bought the Tequitia Andrews for Sublime Stitching patterns and from Make It Pink I bought cross stitching patterns of Kidagakash from Atlantis and Tiana from the Princess and the Frog.

A picture of an art deco style illustration with beadwork and stitching instructions on top

The store has a collection of Disney princesses in an art nouveau style and I am OBSESSED. It can be pretty challenging sometimes to find WOC depicted in cross stitching patterns, so I’m pretty excited to get into these (and also buy all the other patterns).

Susan: I’m with Amanda; it’s so hard to narrow it down! I bought myself a real grown-up sewing machine, and I’m simultaneously in love with and deeply intimidated by it. It’s a Janome 725S! I’m having a lot of fun discovering how much easier and faster sewing is with it, and working up to making myself the cute plus-size dresses of my dreams.

I did also fail a will save against the winter sales, and bought myself some shiny new games. One is Disco Elysium, which looks like a deeply weird mystery with a much weirder disaster protagonist. The other is Final Fantasy Type-0, which is an older game that seems to be a mash-up of other Final Fantasy games that I enjoyed, so is either going to be great or terrible, with very little middle-ground.

Shana: I bought myself a new pair of very well made leggings (with pockets!) from Superfit Hero. They specialize in plus sizes. The first pair didn’t fit perfectly, but the staff there were amazing about emailing back and forth with me over the holidays to find a perfect pair, which are now on their way. So even though I haven’t gotten them yet, I’m pretty impressed by just the customer service.

I was trapped in Wyoming for four days during a snowstorm over New Years. I ended up buying an entire outfit at a truck stop. Should you want to recreate my stylish look, check out the UW gear here.

I also discovered that Jammie Dodgers are now sold at Wegmans, an East Coast grocery store. I may have bought a half dozen packages of them. They’re one of my favorite tea biscuits, and so hard to find in the US!

A close up of a Jammy Dodger, a shortbread cookie with jam filling and a heart cut out

Sneezy: It was less ‘gift for myself for the holiday’ thing and more ‘gremlin hoarding treasure, assuring herself it’s definitely valid to gift herself many small things for the upcoming holiday. That is months away’ thing, but I got myself all the coloured inks SKB makes. All 15 of them!

I love painting and writing with them, and I made my parents’ birthday cards with them this year! SKB is a stationary brand in Taiwan that’s been around for decades. They’re not very big, and as far as I can tell are difficult to find outside of Taiwan. If you come across them, they are definitely worth getting! The fountain pens write smoothly, and they make affordable ones too.If you’re just starting out with fountain pens, regardless of what brand you get, I recommend starting with F nibs, and explore from there.

Their coloured inks all have these beautiful names in Chinese and excellent packaging that comes with a layer of cardboard inside the outer, pretty packaging to protect the inks from UV light. I actually hadn’t realized the names were pretty at first, and honestly I’m still learning. My friends and family that understand Chinese more deeply all exclaimed at how pretty the names are, while I had to look up what they mean! I got their carbon fibre inks too, which is indeed waterproof, provided you use the appropriate paper.

It tickles and weirds me out at the same time that I love them so much. For years I ran screaming from watercolour because unlike acrylic, they aren’t opaque, and you definitely need a game plan going in, and you can’t start off heavy handed. I liked being able to slap colour on and figure it out as I go, and how what colour I got on the canvas is what colour I’ll get.  Instead I’m now needing to read existing colours and learn how to finesse them to the colours I see in my head. Logically, I should hate them, and maybe teenage Sneezy would’ve, but in this time space continuum, adult Sneezy loves them.

Sarah: I LOVE this, especially because I just received the Smithsonian Associates catalog of courses and lectures, and some of the ones on sketching, painting, and crafting are very alluring. I might have to gift myself a class or…three. If they’re not sold out!

What about you? What gifts did you buy yourself, or are you planning to give yourself? 

Add Your Comment →

  1. Glauke says:

    (feel free to delete, but I think the link to the ink is broken?)

  2. LE says:

    I bought myself not one but TWO fascinators. I’m absolutely obsessed with fascinators but have never had anywhere to wear one. But, I thought maybe I can try and wear it on the back of my head as a kippah to shul, so I just went for it! They arrive next week. Cant wait to see how they look 😮

  3. Francesca says:

    I got a Le Creuset terrine mold that I’ve been obsessing over for the past two years and a lovely new duvet that makes me feel like I’m wrapped in a cloud when I get into bed.

  4. Kate says:

    That ring is gorgeous! I bought myself a Sodastream (base model) and love it, even just for plain fizzy water. If I feel fancy, I add some non-alc bitters since I haven’t been too impressed with the flavors made for it so far.

  5. EC Spurlock says:

    My sister gifted me and my sons each $100 for Christmas, so I’m planning on replacing our old TV with its no-longer-working-so well converter with a new Smart LED model, and then subscribing to Netflix so I can FINALLY watch BRIDGERTON.

  6. Vivi12 says:

    I got cross country skis so I don’t have any excuse to not get outside! Luckily my spouse is more hardcore, and I have found it’s possible to ski comfortably at -8 F if there’s no wind. After 20 years in ND I’m so glad I have them!

  7. Nicole says:

    I can’t really justify buying an iPad Air and Apple Pencil to dive into my new obsession with digital art just yet… But I did buy myself a regular digital art tablet! It’s arriving today, and hopefully I can figure out whether an iPad would be worth it while getting my feet wet in digital art!

  8. KB says:

    @Kate I love my Sodastream! I also do not love the flavors that come with it. But I have had good success with making a big bottle of fizzy water and then combining that with all manner of things. My go-to is a white wine spritzer with chardonnay + fizzy water (straight chardonnay is not my jam but the fizzy water dilutes it enough that it’s pleasant but still has flavor). But for alcohol-free beverages I have tried fizzy water with cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, a couple squeezes of lemon juice, and Emergen-C (I call this cocktail the Pandemic Anxiety). All have worked well.

    As far as gifts to myself, I somehow ended up with 4 nice Amazon gift cards and plan to get something fun. I considered the Kindle Signature Edition but in the end decided that it didn’t have enough new features to make a compelling case for replacing my much-loved 2018 version. The year of Kindle Unlimited is a strong possibility…or I could just spend it all on e-books and buy every new release I’ve been eyeing!

  9. Denise says:

    I’m still trying to think of what I want to spend my Christmas money on. Lol

  10. Susan says:

    As soon as the holiday shipping surcharges have dropped I’m buying myself a bundt pan and some baking supplies from King Arthur Flour. And I’m determined to get my Bearpaws boots repaired this month so my feet can stay toasty!

  11. DonnaMarie says:

    New mattress. ‘Nuff said.

  12. Janetm says:

    Tights and leggings from https://snagtights.us–luscious colors in a wide variety of sizes that do not slide down to your knees bringing your underwear with them. They sell other clothing too.

  13. Janetm says:

    Sorry that should be:

    https://snagtights.us

  14. Kareni says:

    My sister gave me money to order a totebag personalized with a picture of eight of my favorite books and a bookish quote.

    Here’s a link to the etsy shop ~

    https://www.etsy.com/listing/824510024/for-the-love-of-books-tote-personalized?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

  15. Lila says:

    Francesca where did you buy your cloud duvet from ?

  16. Crystal says:

    I gifted myself Two Point Hospital for my Switch on Christmas Day and so far built two hospitals. About to start a third. And this wasn’t for me, but I will be using it as well, but I got Ring Fit Adventure for my son. He has some medical issues that are necessitating that we work on really helping him exercise and strengthen his core. Since I have to teach him how to use it, I spent some time with it today myself.

  17. Kate says:

    @KB Great ideas! I did just start mixing with cranberry juice, but the wine spritzer is genius.

  18. Susan says:

    I gifted myself the Cuisinart Perfect Temp tea kettle. I love it! It has different temperature settings for what kind of tea you’re drinking. Plus a keep warm feature for that second cup. Money well spent.

  19. Trix says:

    I’ve been pretty frugal lately, but I sense another deprivation birthday coming and plan to overcompensate accordingly. (Started out slowly with some really beautiful Japanese cafe-themed stickers from a local stationery store the other day…the matcha rolls and fruit sandos are adorable, and some of the other cakes gave me styling ideas for the next time I bake.) Will most likely spring for the BL manga mystery box at the PageMasterMangaShop Etsy store shortly after eyeing it for a month. Also wanted to put the word out about BattleAxeCustomSewn at Etsy, who has cross-stitches that will appeal to the SBTB crowd, not to mention GORGEOUS handmade Muppet replicas (usually of the more obscure characters). (She was recently hit with a C&D and had her sole source of income frozen for a while, so she would likely appreciate the patronage.) Also waiting for the annual Oxford American music issue to hit the local bookstore, and may spring for Fred Goudon’s ON FIRE in spite of myself…

  20. Betsydub says:

    @Trix – That Oxford issue IS on the newsstands now (at least @ the local B&N). The cover I saw is of Tina Turner, but online, the website shows one with a pic of Aretha. Don’t know if that’s an alternate print cover or not. In any case, the Music issue is always a great deep dive; enjoy!

  21. Trix says:

    @Betsydub–yup, it’s two editions…my local bookstore usually gets it, but the magazine arrivals have been a little erratic lately. If I don’t get to the Bay Area to check other bookstores, I guess I could resort to the OA site mailorder. (There’s a digital edition, but I’m guessing it doesn’t include that precious, precious CD…)

  22. Susan says:

    I just remembered (when the box arrived, haha) that I ordered 3 Christmas puzzles for myself from Galison (https://www.galison.com/collections/holiday). It was 1 degree out when I woke up this morning so we’re having great puzzling weather.

  23. Nicky says:

    @Nicole if you pick up an iPad, I strongly recommend Procreate for your art app! It’s intuitive, has some lovely default brushes, and is a single purchase rather than a subscription service. The photoshop app is just not quiiiite there yet, MediBang paint is middling, and clip studio has some really cool capabilities but can be a little opaque. I’m so excited for you! Digital art is so much fun!!

    This year I bought myself Cozy Grove for switch, which scratches the same itch as as Animal Crossing, except there’s a sweet storyline and a delightful cottagecore/witchy aesthetic running through it. Also snagged a really quality Chinese chef’s cleaver. I’m in love, I’ve hardly touched my other knives it’s so versatile!

  24. Stacy says:

    I got a bag of Puna Chocolate’s cocoa/espresso drink mix for Christmas. I bought myself two more bags. It’s heaven in a cup.
    https://punachocolate.com/collections/chocolate-shop/products/espresso-cocoa-mojo-hot-chocolate-powder

  25. FishWithSticks aka Lynda the Guppy says:

    I did a Sipology (loose leaf tea) advent calendar for the second year in a row. Delish! And I also bought a yarn advent calendar from The Unique Sheep. They dye amazing yarn. I bought the Grinch-themed option (like I could have resisted. Ha!) in a sparkle yarn.

    And I bought my fifth pair of Rothy’s. I may have a problem. Lol

    And since my laptop is 10 years old and fading, I’ve been saving to buy a new iPad, a new iPhone, a new MacBook Pro and a new Mac desktop. I’m gonna make that purchase probably next month. But that’s less of a present to me, since I use my laptop & desktop mainly for work. I can’t wait.

    Oh! But I may splurge on the noise cancelling Bose version of AirPods.

  26. Kareni says:

    @Stacy, that sounds delicious!

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