Monthly Archives

June 2011

Gift Baskets, Holiday Gift Baskets, Party!, Summer Time Gift, Uncategorized

Be the “Hostess with the Mostest” at your own Fourth of July celebration!

June 30, 2011
Summer Shrimp Salad Recipe

Hello readers!

Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s contest, we always love bringing you the best information and hearing what you have to say. As far as this last contest goes, there can only be one winner. Congratulations to our random winner, Bob (posted June 23, 2011 at 4:25 pm)! Please send your full name, address and gift basket selection (from the “gift baskets” gift type page) to amariscal@1800flowers.com and we can help you claim your prize. To our other readers, stick around at the end for another contest!

My grandma

my grandma

The excitement is far from over though, so don’t navigate away from me! (See? I can do internet humor). Are you all still with me? (Phew). This week we’ll be changing things up and featuring some hot summer food trends and ways to solidify your reign as “hostess with the mostest” (Martha won’t even know what’s coming). Fourth of July and summer in general, usually mean a lot of outdoor parties, grilling, and trying to come up with foods that won’t melt or make you melt in the sun. Usually I like to gather with friends or stop by my grandparents for a family party especially for my grandma’s Spanish rice and steak (we got half the holiday right). My grandma (pictured) is the one who typically does all the cooking, even the grilling (if she delivered, I would be set). At one particularly infamous family BBQs she was making her usual home-made salsa and chips and additional sauces for the meat, in which she cooks and adds a hot pepper or two, some cilantro, and usually chills the salsa (it normally helps cool you off). I guess she had too many dishes going at one time and didn’t realize how many peppers she added because what was normally a tasty and refreshing meal had nearly everyone red and drowning in their own sweat (even with the air conditioning). Eventually it became a challenge to see who would “sweat” it out the longest to please her. Needless to say, there is more taste testing during the cooking process now.

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Uncategorized

Baskets with Basia and a Gourmet Give-Away

June 23, 2011

Welcome back 1800Baskets.com readers,

The one day you have to let your dads have their way (and sadly the remote and choice of music selection) is finally over! (Well, officially that is). I hope you all had a great holiday though, and are ready to get back into the swing of things with our task at hand. This week we are jumping head first into learning all about gift baskets! (If you have any noise makers or those confetti poppers, now would be the appropriate time to use those).We’re going to delve into a behind-the-scenes look in an interview with our very own in-house designer, Basia. (Pronounced: Bah-see-ah). Don’t forget to stick around at the end for a gourmet gift basket give-away!

Taste of Tradition Gift Basket

Taste of Tradition Gift Basket

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking, “don’t you just put some food in a basket and slap a bow on it?” Well dear readers, we would all be extremely wrong about that (and a little hasty I might add) also, that is mostly just describing an unnecessarily decorated picnic. Gift baskets are definitely more complicated than that. There is a distinct art and procedure to them that I never even knew existed. Go ahead and try to make your own gourmet gift basket, I’ll wait…Done yet? Probably having troubles with a floppy bow, I bet. It’s always the bow. Well, you made a good effort at least. (Please, come back!)

There really is so much more to our gift baskets than you would expect. Every little detail has an entire team dedicated to making it perfect for our customers, from the kind of basket or container we use, choosing which products go best together, right down to that pesky bow. And we have the perfect person at the head of our team, who is always one step ahead of the crowd. Sitting with Basia is a treat, especially when you see how every part of her exudes style. With thick, trendy hair and a quick smile, Basia is truly one of a kind when it comes to design. A former architect in Poland, she came to us here at 1800Baskets.com about 10 years ago to put her talent to much-appreciated use. Her architectural training is evident in her masterfully crafted gift baskets that are both visually and structurally balanced, as well as beautiful. After sitting with Basia for a good, long talk about just how our creative designers work, I’m happy to share with all of you this crash course in Gourmet Gift Basket Designing 101!

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Father's Day, Gift Baskets

When you’re too old to pass off a hand drawn card as a Father’s Day gift, with Alex

June 16, 2011
Alex the Intern

Hello, 1800Baskets blog readers!

I hope none of you have shied away during our little hiatus (not my fault, I promise, I’m new!), because we definitely have a lot of great, interesting topics and give-a-ways to get to this summer. Before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming, I would like to introduce myself as someone other than an anonymous face who happens to blog about gift baskets. My name is Alex and I am a recent college grad interning at 1800Baskets.com and will be your new Summer Guest blogger.

Alex the Intern

Alex the Intern

To tell you the truth, I don’t really know too much about gift baskets, so this will be a huge learning process for me. Join me on this exciting adventure and read about my new discoveries, curiosities and even (willingly) help me out with what you want to know about as well. Now if I don’t know about gift baskets, then why work for 1800Baskets you ask? Well dear readers, let me explain. After a few job fairs where no one wanted to look at me unless I had a business degree, I found a booth that lured me in because I was convinced I would get to eat the contents of the gift basket if I talked to them, and if there is one fool-proof way to attract a college student, it’s offering free stuff. After talking to the nicest human resource representative, she told me that they keep getting people with business resumes but were actually looking for someone with a creative writing background (in your face other job fairs!). I was on board to learn about anything they asked of me, starting with that tasty looking gift basket at the booth, which I eventually won in a raffle later that day (Yeah me!).

After several weeks of emails, a couple of interviews, getting lost driving to the building, and a lot of research, I finally get to start my blog assignment of taking a close look at Father’s Day gift baskets. Being a procrastinating shopper myself, I’m always looking for a gift with good value and one that will convince my dad that my gift was planned and not a last minute grab (something tells me he’s not a clearance bin Hawaiian shirt kind of guy).

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