Somewhat Bookish Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

I update my Mother’s Day gift guide most years on the blog, so that we all (including me) have an easily email-able/text-able to children/husbands/partners! This way they have a nice list of gifts to choose from, there is still an element of surprise, but it’s surprise with parameters! Parameters are important in ensuring gifts are a lovely surprise rather than a meat mallet surprise – my mother has kept the wooden meat mallet which my dad gifted her early on in their marriage, as a reminder that meat mallets to not make appropriate gifts. He has (mostly) learnt his lesson. 

All families are different: some have a mum and some don’t; some have two mums; some have a mum who no longer lives with them; and some have several generations of mums living under the one roof. Whatever your family situation, there is a book out there which reflects your family, and I try very hard to feature books here on my blog for all families.  One of my favourite childhood photos of my own mum is the one above, with my sister and I  – dear glory we were cute!. This post is a mish mash of things I adore – some literary, some not.

Note to children/husbands/partners – you click on the pictures or hyperlinks to purchase!

In my ideal world, I’d be in bed all day on Mother’s Day reading a book – this is not going to happen for me – but maybe it will for you! I don’t read many adult books, but I’ve been on a run of them lately and the titles below are ones I would totally recommend for mum this Mother’s Day. You can also see lots of other suggestions on the ‘So What Are You Reading?’ Facebook page, which I love!

‘Miss Lily’s Lovely Ladies’ by Jackie French

‘Music and Freedom’ by Zoe Morrison

‘The Dry’ by Jane Harper

‘The Lucky One’ by Caroline Overington

‘Earthly Remains’ by Donna Leon (these are my guilty little secret – I ADORE them and this is book 26)

‘The Scent of You’ by Maggie Alderson

‘See What I Have Done’ by Sarah Schmidt

‘The Museum of Modern Love’ by Heather Rose

…and a few from last year that you just CANNOT go past:

‘The Light Between Oceans’ by M J Stedman

‘All The Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr

‘Big Little Lies’ by Lianne Moriarty

I personally don’t think you can go past a magazine subscription. It’s the gift that gives every month for a year – that is lots of times that you will be thanked for the gift! There is nothing nicer than sitting and reading a magazine with a cup of tea for five minutes or so and though I subscribe to some magazines online, it is just NOT the same as a paper copy in the mail each month. You can’t post-it note an online copy. 

I recently posted on social media that my new favourite magazine is Breathe, thanks to Bec Sparrow who gave me a copy recently (along with chocolate and green tea to soothe the soul – she is a gem that woman!). I also highly recommend ‘Frankie’, ‘Flow’, ‘Womankind’, ‘Lunch Lady’, ‘Smith Journal’, ‘Organic Gardener’, ‘Donna Hay’, ‘Gardening Australia’, ‘Delicious’ and ‘Mindfood’. 

Then there is stationery, always stationery. I cannot get enough notebooks in my life and am lusting after these Marimekko ones and the McCalls Vintage Pattern ones which are here.

Or you can go a bookish voucher of course! Click here to see the range of vouchers offered by Booktopia. You can also see lots of ideas here for books about Mother’s Day, which make heart-warming gifts from children or for grandmothers.

Again in my fantasy ideal world….I would start each day with an hour in a park, with my Keepcup full of strong coffee and a brilliant book. I need a new Keepcup and a glass one from Biome will do nicely thanks family!

Skye Anderton is Ruby Olive’s Chief Dreamer and I’ve been so pleased to be able to work with her and her Ruby Olive products a few times now as she is just an all-round GOOD person with a wonderfully colourful business. Ruby Olive currently has gorgeous Petunia Brooches where $5 from each purchase goes to Womens’ Cancer charities. There is nothing better than knowing that your gift is also supporting others. The colours and the quality of Ruby Olive pieces are delicious – funny word to use when describing accessories but they really are – they look and feel edible (note: they are not!). Dear glory, they even featured me on their blog – despite the fact that I am CLEARLY not a fashion blogger!

For colour, I like Ruby Olive, for memories I like Oh My Giddy Aunt. I’ve spoken on here many, many time before about Nikki’s Oh My Giddy Aunt business and how I love that she basically creates wearable stories. My smelted pieces, which you can read about here are still worn pretty much daily and if you have old silver that you no longer wear but still want – smelt it baby! Dan actually found Oh My Giddy Aunt years ago when he was looking for a Harmony Ball for me when I was pregnant with Pud. The tinkling was meant to calm the nerves of a crazed pregnant lady – it didn’t – but I love my harmony ball all the same. My girls and my nieces have charm bracelets (read about them here) from Oh My Giddy Aunt and Bluebird pieces (remember them!?). As I have a thing for bees, I continue to contemplate the bee ring above – I love a gold and white gold combo and anything with a bee is just GRAND in my opinion, I’m just pondering if I actually like the birthstones in this family!

As an ongoing offer, Nikki offers Children’s Books Daily readers a free sterling silver charm (lucky dip!) on all orders with the code ‘childrensbooksdaily’.

Clothing might seem a risky choice but it’s pretty much impossible to go wrong with a shift dress if you know a basic size range. I am utterly in need of the Merida dress from Adrift, and I’d also like the legs on the model to go with the dress. I have a fair few Adrift items in my wardrobe and they never disappoint – one dress in particular features FAR TOO OFTEN on my social media (I swear I wash it between wears!).

As mentioned above, ‘m not a fashion blogger  – I KNOW you’re shocked as I’m such a style icon #saidnooneever. Despite not having much of a clue, I do adore a few brands and stick with them season in, season out. Gorman, Dogstar, Adrift, Maiocchi, Little Tienda and Bohemian Traders is pretty much my wardrobe – with random staples thrown in. I have now owned two Dreamer dresses from Bohemian Traders, and this Thyme winter version is calling my name. As are their boyfriend jeans…I feel like I need to try these out as I just keep seeing them on so many people and they look SO comfortable. The Dreamer dress is a winner all round for every body shape and age.

Bath and beauty products are controversial I know…but I’m a big fan and they are better than a meat mallet (note to my dad). I like nothing better than gorgeous bathy smells and last year my divine International student Rachel, reminded me how much I missed The Body Shop products when she got me some of the above. I hadn’t shopped there since the 90s…dear glory it’s come a long way. Love these products above, the sleep spray is a MUST. They still also do some of the 90s smells like White Musk – which was my sisters scent, I wasn’t allowed to go near it.

Speaking of scent…I am out of my usual Issey Miyake (note to Dan) and am thinking I would like to try the Jo Malone Lime Blossom, having smelt Rachel’s Nectarine Blossom wafting from her bedroom :). Again, it can be tricky buying a perfume for people but if you know their favourites you cannot go wrong.

Finally? If you aren’t game to buy books for mum? What about a shelf for her favourites? The ‘Love’ shelf by House of Cherub is one of my favourites. It’s finely crafted, a fully functional shelf and utterly perfect for favourite books! Have a look at their Instagram for ways to style it.

So…what are you hoping for this Mother’s Day? Apart from a day in bed reading of course!

Oh My Giddy Aunt offers all Children’s Books Daily readers a free sterling silver ‘lucky dip’ charm with the code ‘childrensbooksdaily’.

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