Hiya,

this post is mainly aimed at other females - have any of you or do any of you intend on doing something nice for your loved ones before you leave the UK? I would like to get something nice for a few friends and my sister and gran but I am at a loss and looking for some inspiration. I thought about putting together one of those photo books that you can put together yourself on the internet and then order them up from the company but I've yet to look into how expensive/how much hassle that would be. I'm sure there are some lovely BE'ers who have done or are planning on doing something nice that can give me some ideas!!

Thanks!

Yvonne

what about a memory box? i 'borrowed' the idea from another forum i use, basically get a nice box or jar, decorate the outside and fill it with bits of paper with different memories written on each - am i making sense?

i have just sent one to my bf in scotland, the memories range from things that happened when we were at school, years ago, to her reaction to the news we were emigrating. It was fun sitting remembering all the incidents and events we shared, best done with a glass of wine in hand, she hasnt received it as yet to gauge her reaction, but i am sure she will love it.

when we left the uk i gave my close friends one of the Willow Tree angel things and a card telling them what they meant to me.

hope this helps x

I was going to look into geting skype set up for a few rels & really good friends.

Did not manage it for a couple of years but on a special family holiday get together I bought each mother and sister we have a present from Tiffanys.

We were a bit naughty on this front, we left so quickly we had no time to really do anything! However, our neighbours (and best friends) compiled a 'best bit DVD' which we still watch and still makes me cry because of all of the happy memories and also an Apple Mac photo album that was put together by them.
Wonderful, thoughtful pressie that we will treasure forever.
Jacqui

We had a family portrait photo done and bought really nice frames for our family and friends,

gave my mum a computer and 12 months broadband and she hates it and won't use the damn thing even though she said she would!!

I arranged special photos of my kids and my nieces and nephew and had them all framed for my folks and bro and sister. We also bought them all good webcams (not that they ever use them ) and we did a photobook at photobox.co.uk.

I did a scrapbook (never done it before) for my parents with all the family photos inside and will little poems and thoughts etc. They said it was the best present that they had ever had, I put alot of time and thought into it and it turned out brilliant. At the end I thanked them for being such wonderful parents (yes, they became quite emotional when looking though it but they still talk about it to this day).

I think I made their day

I have just done a photobook. Its for my best friends 40th birthday. I used 'myphotobook'. Great service, really easy to do and you can play around with the photos, make then black and white, larger, smaller etc... I picked it up this morning from the post depo, its fab!!. They are based in Germany, from payment to receiving it took 13 days. Not bad. Cost just over £70 (you can do it cheaper, depend what size and how many photos)
There are other sites as well, google it and have a look at them.

I have also bought a pendant from Tiffany's, there is a sale website you can go on, that sells Tiffanys at sale price, also as its in $$ it makes it cheaper if converting to ££...

The memory box sounds like a nice idea as well... and wouldn't cost £££

Caroline

I read somewhere (thought it was on here) about having a clock made of a family photo and setting the time based on your location in Oz. That way your parent etc can have an idea what you're up to at different times of day and night etc.

That's a brilliant idea - my mum always asks 'what time is it over there?' and we've been here 3 1/2 years

No problem with the clock thing. It's 12 hours difference for us.

Anyway, the nice thing...It wasn't a special just because we're leaving thing, but our family (my siblings and all the grandkids/great grandkids) had a party for my parents and presented them with a quilt we had all contributed to. My oldest sister did all the sewing and quilting, but we all contributed. All of us wrote our names with a paint pen on a peice of fabric that my sister used to make the sashings and bindings. Then she transferred photos of everyone on fabric to make the blocks. There are some really funny ones, like my 5 brothers laying on the floor with their toy guns. We kids all wrote down sayings my parents had or funny little memories from when we were growing up and my sisters and I embroidered them on the backing fabric. It's a hoot to read things like "wait until your father gets home" or "Diane, stop licking the cow salt" or "We don't swim in your toilet so don't pee in our pool".

My dad is now terminally ill and he's said how much he loves to sit with the memory quilt. My siblings live all over the world and he said it helps him feel closer to all of us.

there ar some lovly ideas on here. you'v really made me think about what to giv people when we do get to go. one of my best (but embarrassing!) presents when i got married was a photo album my 2 school friends made. the effort they went to made me cry.