Finding a gift online is either a) excruciatingly difficult or b) magical beyond belief. Either you find stuff you don’t really need or want for your home, car or that you can wrap for your three year old niece who has every single toy ever made OR you’ll luck your way right into the most phenomenal product ever. The latter was the case for my best friend/sister-in-law one faithful July day. This is how it happened.

My sister-in-law shops like a fiend. She’s that super-duper special privileged free-shipping customer of every cool online site known to (wo)man. She has a coupon for everything, sometimes two, and she always knows which stores are offering sales. She also sometimes has me shop online with her. She calls, I listen. She tells me what addresses to type in and I “oooh” and “awe” at her fantastic online finds.

Now, this particular July day she called really wound up! She had begun her Christmas shopping (yes, she begins shopping in July or even earlier) and she wanted me along for the “ride”. She lives in Alabama and I’m in Oklahoma so she often takes me shopping with her via our computers and phones. Usually, it’s as close as we get to a sisterchick shopping day. Her voice was up an entire octave as she described her latest treasure. “This is perfect for your parents for Christmas!” She squealed. “We can go in together. Plus this is something that can be passed down—a keepsake in the family!”

I quickly logged on and waited for the page to load. She had sent me to an excellent website--AlphabetPIX.com. I had no idea what I was in for. On the page were these fabulous pictures. They were customized name and word art from photos that look like letters! AlphabetPIX was offering you a whole gallery (600 choices of photograph letters, in fact) of brilliant letters you could “see”—taken from nature, architecture and the world around us. The sample showed “SMITH” written in the coolest letters I’ve ever seen. Imagine a church steeple as the letter “T” or a sconce in the shape of an “S”. The web page had several blocks for typing in any word we wanted. It was time to pick our letters--I liked the black and white letter photos and she thought the sepia colored photos were awesome. Together we chose the letters to write in our family name--“Johnson”. The website then took us to the frame selection. There were four gorgeous choices—fashionable black metal, contemporary black wood, warm walnut or elegant mahogany wood with gold accents. The one we chose totally completed our look!

There were so many different styles of photographs and frames…hard to imagine what I’m talking about, I know, so my best advice to you, dear reader, would be go there now. It’s hours of fun and my AlphabetPIX gift list is now longer than my arm!

Everything about this product is great—it’s unique, personalized, good-looking, quality art AND it’s perfect for my mother, who already has everything! You know the type: she finds it, she buys it. Lucky for my sister-in-law and me, she hasn’t discovered AlphabetPIX yet…we’ve got the jump!

To sum up our AlphabetPIX experience, I loved the simplicity of putting the art together and I’m well-known in my circle for buying unique gifts. After all, I have a reputation to uphold! My sister-in-law loves a good deal and quality product. AlphabetPIX’s offer of a discount incentive got her flushed and ready to add our new masterpiece to her shopping cart.

Now, both of us are giddy with the anticipation of having the best gift under the tree this year. You know that feeling of bated breath when someone you love plucks your carefully wrapped gift from the pile, looks at it thoughtfully, and begins to tear the bright paper and bows from it as you look on proudly? That’s us this Christmas—

I can’t wait!