Your guide to getting that perfect practical present
I’m a girl who genuinely welcomes practical presents, but if they don’t sit in the hand or look as good as they perform — I’m prone to quiet disappointment.
So here’s my choice of useful, chic offerings for the adult contenders in your life — and alternatives at a slighter less demanding price.
The Homemaker: Dustbuster Flexi-Auto
I am not advocating bog standard cleaning utensils in general, but the hand vacuum retains some wry, gadget style flair you might be able to slip to the jaded domestic No 1 without fear of a verbal or physical back-lash.
Black and Decker have neatly bridged the gap between the hose of a standard machine and that of a hand-held with the Dustbuster Flexi and Flexi-Auto, and if your darling loves his or her car, it’s a brilliant little buy that’s a useful counter crawler too.
Neatly contained in a briefcase-sized bag it features not only a crevice-hungry set of tools, but proper cyclonic action which spins dirt away from the filter, maintaining optimum suction power.
The 12V adaptor fits into the cigarette lighter, ideal if the toddler explodes a French roll over the upholstery. €60 Halfords.
‘Drop Kitchen’ is a Bluetooth kitchen scale and recipe app that acts as a very able and super-helpful baking assistant. From €29/€49 depending on offers, Harvey Norman.
Your design diva: Alessi Pulcina
When it comes to neat and chic and if you have €30 to spend, go for the Alessi, ‘Lilliput’ Salt & Pepper shakers, but if you owe your recipient a lot this year and they are a demented Alessi devotee, it has to be the Pulcina — it will elicit gasps of unfettered joy.
Designed by Michele de Lucchi, this staggeringly beautiful espresso maker has been formed to tenderly mind the “organoleptic properties of coffee”.
Basically it stops the brew at what is termed the eruptions phase, to prevent the coffee being delivered bitter with that unmistakable burnt taste of a mid-range maker.
The spout, typically for the eccentric and giggle-making Alessi’s notions of design, is based on a baby bird’s beak. Available in three sizes and priced from €52-€75 at all Alessi suppliers including Brown Thomas.
Red enamel colander with strawberry piercing €5 filled with x3 €3 utensils = €14 total. Tiger Stores.
DIY Warrior: Laser measure
For DIY, decorating and buying in carpeting, curtains, paint and second or first fix anything, a laser measure will quite literally change the life of your warrior.
Alright, it won’t, but it does save thrashing around with a 6m steel tape at least 50 times a year.
It’s essentially a little hand held box that sits up against one surface and shoots an infrared beam to the nearest hard surface to measure distances and volume.
The breath the meter reads will determine price, and 20m is adequate to any amateur.
The best buy I could find is the Stanley Intelli Tools TLM 65 Laser Measure Short (20m) reduced to €77.80 at handyhardware.ie.
Woodies DIY offer a PLR 25 (25m) measure by Bosch, with an accuracy of around 2mm (expect these minute failings in greater distances or bouncing the beam off the ceiling) for €109.99.
Laser measures are safe for domestic use and classed at laser Class 2, but still not suited to young children.
Draper Tool & Nail belt in split suede leather. Sexy on anyone (even if they are completely useless). €25.69. Woodies DIY
Radio Head: DAB Radio
In 2017 Norway will drop FM broadcasting altogether, and it’s a sign of things to come here in Ireland.
Many of us still enjoy our dedicated, carry along radio set, rather than something plumbed through a computer device or phone, or ear piece.
Parked on the windowsill in the kitchen, or swung along in the garden while you weed, there’s little to beat the variety and invention of talk and music radio when your hands are otherwise engaged.
Some DAB radio even lets you pause, rewind and record. The choice is wide and travels through every genre of looks from nostalgia to grooving through the 70s.
Roberts is the name for vintage sets, with or without LCD screens, but even the old world styles in the brand include useful engineering, holding each station as you turn the dial through the thousands of available hosts worldwide.
The Mini-Revival is my choice for 50s kitsch and rotary tuning; €180 at Littlewoods.
If your recipient has an iPod, it’s possible to find many DAB radios with a dock station too.
The Pure Evoke range would suit a techno lover with contemporary tastes. Pure Evoke VL is on offer at Debenhams reduced to €113.40.
Bush Portable Speaker 3.5mm Line (red). Tiny and suited to phones and mobile devices, the sound is incredible and it charges at a USB port. €7.50. Argos.
The Crafty One:
If your quarry has a craft or art, do some gentle investigation into what might add to their tool kit.
For keen painters, the Create Burren Box Easel is an all-in-one wooden studio, table and field easel with a spacious storage area for materials.
At a maximum height of 29”, it accommodates canvases up to 24-1/2” with an adjustable rake. It folds down into a base with non-skid rubber feet. €23.99 reduced at artmaterials.ie.
Gift some canvases — from just €8.13 for a 20X16” stretched canvas, also at Art Materials Ireland. This store and most others, do gift vouchers, ideal if you know they stock suitable supplies.
‘Visions School of Art’ in Cork provide courses and regular painting and life-drawing sessions by Andrew Carroll with a learner-centred approach.
Its studio is at Granary House, Rutland Street, Cork; €90 for a six week cycle or €15 per class with gift vouchers available (materials not provided). Find more details at artclass.ie.
Try a crafting kit to give someone a taste of something new.
A couple of clear glasses from the pound shop would be ideal with the Aquaglass (glass painting) Kit.
€13.10 with lots of potential pressies from Cork Art Supplies on Princes St.
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