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| Extravagant, offbeat gift ideas |
| By Leslie Hunt • Bankrate.com |
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What does a rare vintage Jimi Hendrix poster have
in common with chichi dog beds and flashlights so bright they temporarily
blind? They're all part of extravagant gift ideas that make uncommonly
good gifts. Whether your friends and family members enjoy gourmet
food or adrenaline rushes, follow fashion trends, decorate, play
music or pamper their pets, there's something on this tip list for
just about anyone with expensive tastes. If fortune has smiled on
you, consider not just sharing the wealth, but lavishing it on loved
ones with our fancy gift finds.
Fashion face-lift
For the busy woman who has everything, consider treating her to
a style update or makeover.
At wallbounce.com,
for example, $680 will purchase the services of
a fashion stylist who "will literally meet
you, go over your wardrobe with you and take Polaroids
of different outfits to create a look book, or she'll
take measurements of you and go shopping with you,
putting together outfits for you to try on,"
says Wallbounce CEO Robin Wilson.
If your friend doesn't need a whole new look, trendy
accessories might make an appropriate gift. Alison Deyette, TV correspondent,
style expert and co-founder of stylebakery.com,
suggests purchasing a handbag-rental service from a site such as
bagborroworsteal.com.
"Your friend gets to rent a new designer purse
every month. You pay the monthly fee for them." At Bag Borrow
or Steal, fees start at $20 a month and go up to $175.
Wining and dining without a clue
Even if you don't know your reds from your whites, you can still
impress wine connoisseur friends and foodies with these savvy gift
ideas:
One idea comes from Constance White, a commentator
for E!'s Fashion Police and editor for eBay's Personal Style magazine:
Buy a trip to a vineyard in France or to the Napa Valley in California,
where plenty of bed and breakfast places beckon. "That beats
a bottle of wine," she says. Top off the gift by including
a copy of the movie "Sideways."
For wannabe winemakers, let friends
not just visit the Napa Valley but make their own
wine from Napa Valley or the wine region of their
choice. It may not sound like a gift, but the wine-making
service from Crushpadwine.com
allows consumers to customize their own barrels
of wine, or about 300 bottles, and keep abreast
of the grape picking, processing and harvesting
without ever setting foot in the selected vineyard,
if they choose. Connoisseurs make decisions online
on some 30 technical preferences -- whether to chill
the must, whether they want oxygen exposure, how
long to age the wine and what kind of vessel they
want the wine stored in. The facility welcomes customers
to watch and taste, or they can follow the expensive
transformation through a webcam. Cost of becoming
a winemaker: $4,500 to $9,900 per barrel.
If spending that much isn't appealing, a portable
wine steward can be a welcome wine-saver for the wine connoisseur,
says Deyette. The portable wine steward helps with an age-old problem:
If you don't finish a bottle right away, it quickly turns so undrinkable
that the drain gets to finish it. A portable steward with cooling
capabilities keeps the remaining wine chilled at 45 or 65 degrees
and reduces further oxidation of the wine with a layer of inert
argon gas. The wine toy goes for $200 at hammacher.com.
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