Last-minute gift ideas for Mom

As promised , here are some suggestions for gifts for you last-minute Mother’s Day shoppers out there.

-Take your mom to Fresh Abundance’s Community Roots Market tomorrow and tell her to pick out something nice for herself.

-Stop by Auntie’s or another bookstore and buy your mom a good read.

-A bouquet of aNeMoNe handmade paper flowers , available online or in a kiosk on the second floor of River Park Square mall. I was at RPS the other day and saw more than a few customers carrying the flowers around. Of course, fresh-cut flowers are gorgeous, too, but consider how long lasting paper flowers are. Maybe you could buy your mother a small bouquet this year—perhaps the flower she carried for her wedding?—and then add a stem or two every Mother’s Day.

-Going out for brunch is a Mother’s Day tradition for many families, and this article offers plenty of suggestions on where to go in Spokane. But why not treat Mom to a meal—or meals —when she needs it most? In other words, fill her freezer with “homemade” dinners she can thaw and reheat on busy days.
There are several dinner assembly outfits in town, including Cena in North Spokane, Dinner’s Ready on the South Hill, Home on the Range in Coeur d’Alene, and The Meal Maker in Spokane Valley.
You could also do this yourself, though, in your own kitchen or a sibling’s. So buy a gift certificate at a professional meal-prep kitchen or present your mom with a menu of options when you see her tomorrow.

-I don’t know many moms who wouldn’t enjoy some time at a day spa, either for a manicure, pedicure, massage, facial or other relaxing treatment. I don’t do this often enough, but I walked away from a massage by Mariah Neeson of Elysium Touch two weeks ago vowing to treat myself more frequently. You remember the old airplane analogy, right? In the unexpected event of the oxygen masks dropping down from the overhead compartment, adults should put on their own masks before assisting children. In other words, take care of your own well being so you can be healthy enough to take care of those around you. Or, in the case of Mother’s Day, treat the person who most likely puts everyone else ahead of herself.

-If your mom is like mine, her favorite recipes are scribbled on scraps of paper or are on cards that have been used so many times, the paper is disintegrating along the folds. Here’s an idea: use a service like Lulu to publish a cookbook with your family’s recipes.
Of course, part of the reason many of us hold onto old recipe cards is to remember the handwriting of relatives who are no longer with us or to smile at the scribbles children made on the paper. If that’s holding you back from creating a more polished cookbook, consider scanning the recipe cards into your computer and using the scanned images as part of the art in your Lulu cookbook.

-Buy her a bike in honor of Bike to Work Week . I have my heart set on this one (see photo above) … in case anyone in particular is reading this. If a tricycle isn’t what you had in mind, River Park Square has some more conventional bicycles on display from various shops around town.

Image from Domino magazine