Life is full of so many occasions yet we seem to be stuck in a gift-giving or recognition-giving rut. When a new baby is born, we give cute clothes. On a birthday, we give a gift card to a big box retailer. For an engagement, a plate. Sure, some thought goes into these gifts, but does the person on the other end remember who gave them the adorable onesie their baby has outgrown or the Big Box gift card? Probably not.

So, why not change the paradigm? After all, it is better to give than receive, so let's have some fun with our gifts - fun choosing and purchasing it, and for the recipient, fun receiving it.

Personalized gifts are a good start. They require a bit more thought and planning than just picking up the latest best seller at Barnes & Noble. And with the Internet, we can find almost anything that we'd like to give. So, if you have your heart set on giving personalized burp cloths created in teal for your friend's new baby, they're probably available. A memorable gift yes, yet once the baby grows out of the burping/spitting up phase, those burp cloths will be folded up, boxed up and put away.

So, let's take it one step further and add some extra thought to this gift...how can we really commemorate the event or occasion?

As an example, when a new baby is born, the stats of that baby are sent out to all the friends and family via email and/or a traditional announcement. The information usually contains the birth date (duh), the time of birth, the weight, the height, and sometimes a bit of information on the actual birth or how mom and baby are doing. What if we used that information and made a gift with it?

What if we took the baby's birth statistics and his or her photo and created a gift that looks like it was "ripped from the headlines?" Many of us will never see our names on the front page of a newspaper … not such a bad thing in our scandal-a-news cycle culture.  But that doesn't mean we can't give our loved-ones, friends, and colleagues the recognition they deserve, in a creative manner they won't forget. We'd include a headline, a news story about baby and family and news and pop culture information from that day. We'd be giving this baby and its family a creative and fun keepsake that they will enjoy long after the teething phase of life.

And we could do the same thing for a number of other special occasions. Now, that would be a gift that is fun to create and great to receive.

When Wendy Jacobson formed Unique-Announce over a year ago, her aim was to provide a customized way of celebrating life's occasions.  If you are sick of giving - and receiving - lame gifts like paperweights soap-on-a-rope, then Unique-Announce is a solution. 

You can buy a custom-framed announcement of your friends or family's big event that will give them their 15 minutes of fame and commemorate an important event - a birthday, wedding, bar or bat mitzvah, retirement or even just a special holiday tradition.  For just $25 USD, Wendy Jacobson will put together the gift that will be the hit of the party and a hit for the person who receives it.