Clothing is the most popular type of baby gift, because new mothers need so many of them.

Next time you’re attending a baby shower and plan on giving a oneside (those little all-in-one baby suits), buy one from Baby Teresa.

This Tasmanian company, launched only in September 2009, donates one onesie for every suit you buy, for a baby in need. Most recently a donated shipment of onesies went to a benevolent organisation that helps mothers in need in Uganda.

Choose from short-sleeved or long-sleeved 100% cotton onesies in cute stripes from just $AUD29.95.

Forbes ran a great story about a company which has tapped into people’s concern about people in Third World countries being paid fairly for their work. Ten Thousand Villages works with over 130 artisan groups in 38 countries who make fair trade jewellery, home decor, gifts, clothing and other items and is considered one of the largest companies in this field (it netted $US24 million in sales in 2009, up from $US10 million in 2000). In addittion to its website, it also has bricks-and-mortar stores in upscale neighbourhoods to reach the affluent gift-buyer.

There are a lot of fantastic fair trade websites out there! Here is a not-exhaustive list of 44 other fair trade websites (let me know about others!) that you might like to know about for truly unusual anniversary, birthday, christening, Christmas, engagement, housewarming, Valentines Day and wedding gifts that will help to support artisans in developing countries..

These ones feature artisans’ works from a number of countries
Pachacuti (I want their amethyst & blue topaz necklace), A Better Footprint (little boys will love the recycled cans made into toy cars), Global Goods Partners (how cute is their hot pink dog collar?!) Global Sister Goods (make Christmas an international affair with their Zulu nativity set), Serrv (I’m loving their Neela bright blue ceramic tile towel hooks), World Next Door (I love their Zulusports brightly coloured bracelets), World of Good (created by eBay), Trade As One (see their sweet children’s elephant puzzle), Manos de Madres (my niece would love their dresses), Gifts With Humanity (the Tree of Life wall art made from recycled oil drums is very now), Five Accessories, Fair Trade Marketplace, One World Projects (you’ve gotta see their gift baskets!), Global Exchange Store (check out their ingenious baby pumice stone feet), Pangea Collection (intricate artisan jewellery), World Shoppe (check out their pretty greeting cards from Bangladesh), Generation Wonder (your little girl might like their pink heart purse), and Brindabella Baby.

Central & South America
Ecobre of Mexico makes beautiful hand-hammered copper items, including unique copper kitchen sinks), Pueblito (it sells a range of South American jewellery including a striking seed necklace), Propueblo (their banana husk tissue box from Ecuador could make a great housewarming gift), Mayan Hands (check out the purple chenille shawl), Maya Works (the children’s backpacks are great value), Shop Mayu (see their beautiful alpaca throws), Partners for Just Trade (they’ve got some fun animal pillows in Spanish - great for kids), Inca Kids (check out their handknitted cupcakes), Kusikuy (Bolivia and Peru), Basura Bags (they make amazingly colourful bags and totes from 100% chip packets in Honduras - quite striking and a cool way to clean up the streets).

Africa
Shea Yeleen, Baskets of Africa (stunning grass baskets), Bridge for Africa (I’m loving their cool telephone wire baskets), Suubi(hope) (check out their particularly funky t-shirts), Indego Africa (be a geek with a conscience using their laptop sleeve made in Rwanda), Rwanda Baskets, Leakey Collection (eye-catching necklaces made by the Maasi in Kenya), and Tropical Items (out-of-the-ordinary raffia hats made in Madagascar).

Asia
Rupalee (fantastic Christmas decorations), Tilonia (lovely cotton tablecloths), Mata Traders (great accessories and clothing from India), Orijyn (Laos silver and silks), Wear Gianna (from India, Laos and Thailand), and Brag Bags (which makes beautiful bags in Vietnam - my favourite is the overnight bag).

There are also some others you might like to visit, including Make Piece (which sells pretty jewellery made by African-American women living below the poverty line in Washington DC), Shanti Boutique (see their Buddhist jewellery), and Taraluna (which has a variety of fair trade items, including a wooden earring stand made in India).

I’ve been to a few baby showers where it’s for the first child but it’s not so common to have a formal baby shower for the second, third or fourth child. Can you imagine going to Octomom’s?!

When your favourite mother is having her second/third/fourth etc child, what she really needs is a break! If her kids have been born close enough, she’ll still have the pram, cot, baby bath and a range of teeny tiny clothing (for the baby, not her, unless she’s Victoria Beckham). So to get inside her head for a moment, she just really needs another pair of hands to help her get things done, or ideally, less to do and more time to enjoy her new baby.

Why not consider giving her a gift certificate for home-delivered gourmet meals, or for a cleaning service to give her a break from doing the bathroom and vacuuming? Perhaps you can give her and her partner a couple of tickets to the movies along with a gift voucher for a babysitter so they can have time as a couple together. Or if she’s exhausted and needs some pampering, you might give her a gift voucher for hair, beauty or massage treatments.

While 8 in 10 people have taken part in a group gift - most commonly for baby gifts - it can be a hard ask organising the money if you don’t all live in the same city. Someone usually has to shell out the full amount on their credit card (or pay for it from their savings account via Paypal if they get the option) and then have to contact all the people concerned to get reimbursed in slow dribs and drabs.

A new website called eDivvy is making it easy for far-flung friends and family to put in for a group gift that’s really special. It suggests baby showers, back-to-school (you never know, some families might need help buying a laptop for junior), housewarmings, birthdays and weddings but of course you could also use it to organise a farewell gift for an office colleague, money for a honeymoon or long-awaited anniversary mini-break, or maybe even as a whiparound for someone who’s really down on their luck.

You simply enter the eDivvy number - that is, the number of people going in on the gift - and see what your share is. No need to break out the scientific calculator! You don’t actually have to contribute the set amount but it does make it fairer. It seems to have a default of “10″ but it is amazing how affordable someone’s gift can be when 10 people (or at least more than 2) are sharing the cost. And if your fellow gift-givers don’t quite cough up the amount needed, the recipient receives a Visa gift card for that amount.

I attended a baby shower recently and as is the usual practice, watched as the mum-to-be opened her mountain of baby gifts. There were a surprising number of items which were, frankly, useless, (one was a mother and child figurine, and another was a ceramic moneybox, for example), and it made me wonder about the wasted opportunity to buy her something decent that she would have liked and could have used.

Unlike a wedding, where most couples give their hapless guests a wishlist of items that they would really like, I haven’t yet attended a baby shower where the mother gave us directions to a gift registry list. For many Australians, baby registries are still uncommon and still seem a little grasping. But to help those baby shower guests who don’t have children and might not know what you need, it can be a godsend. If not, you could end up with two dozen white 000-size singlets and socks, and a nappy cake, but nothing that your baby can use after his or her first six weeks.

And there’s so many interesting gifts out there! After clothes, personalised gifts are the most popular baby gifts, especially for nieces and nephews. And who said you have to keep it to purely baby things, anyway? This might be the perfect time for a heavily pregnant mother to receive say, a gift certificate for a lovely salon pampering session, a weekend away or a dinner out with her partner before she enters Baby World!

It might be worth checking out My Registry.com which lets you add items from any store in the world onto one centralised gift registry. It lists 6 registry types to get you started: “Baby Shower”, “Bridal”, “Lifestyle”, “Birthday”, “Student” and for the on-trend among us, “Green”. It then further breaks all of these except for “Birthday” into a handful of types with product suggestions for each one. The suggested items for a “Posh Baby” registry are quite different from an “Eco Baby”, while “Lifestyle - For Teens” is going to provide a radically different  range of items than “Lifestyle - For the Home”. It also has a cash gift fund option, which will always be ideal for a young family.

For those of you about getting married, this new gift registry could suit you like a 10-carat ring from Tiffany’s.

While it’s not the first online gift registry to let you add items from any store, nor probably to allow you to donate to charity nor even to request cash gifts (which is uh, difficult to do at the best of times), It’s My Gift Registry is the first gift registry I’ve seen that also provides free party planning features for hosting low-key weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, or birthdays at home, etc.

The Party Checklist lets your guests see everything from your gift (wish)list,  to checking off the food and drinks they’ll be bringing. Which certainly stops those awkward now-we’ve-got-7-barbecue-chickens-and-no-salads dilemmas and lets you know if your Nigella Lawson-level cooking buddy will be bringing her famous cupcakes or not.

In very exciting gift news, It’s In The Stars has teamed up with Australia’s leading online florist, Roses Only to create a stunning gift to take their breath away!

If you’ve got an anniversary, birthday, Christmas, engagement, wedding or important romantic gift occasion, you can now give your partner a box of beautiful long-stemmed roses from Roses Only with a boxed gift certificate for a beautifully designed, hardcover, 30-35 page LoveStars report!

And if you’ve got a baby shower, a christening, naming ceremony or want to delight a new parent, you can surprise them with a box of long-stemmed roses with a boxed gift certificate for a beautifully designed, hardcover 45-50 page BabyStars report!

Note: deliveries currently for Sydney and Melbourne only. Please contact Roses Only to request other locations.

If you’re hoping to a) save some money and b) get what you need as well as you want, here are five ideas to help you maximise the amazing gift bonanza that are wedding gift registries.

Unless you’re planning to be the next Liz Taylor, you’ll only have this one chance to ask for what you’d really like. Using a wedding gift registry that allows you the flexibility to add a variety of items and gift certificates from different retailers will pay off.

1. Honeymoon. Well, since I put this one first it gives away my preferences! Why not add in a request for a gift certificate for two for a beautiful dinner for two, a snorkelling class, a hot air balloon ride or a local cooking class at your destination? Many people would rather say they paid for some amazing experience on your honeymoon than receive a stock-standard thank-you note for say, a stainless steel rubbish bin.

2. Good household stuff vs bad household stuff.  I love a good homewares shop like any girl but there are some silly things you can waste your one-in-a-lifetime opportunity (ie your wedding prezzies) on. Remember, most household stuff is on sale twice a year (if not more often at Victoria’s Basement). This includes dinnerware, glassware, towels, sheets, bathroom accessories and so on. And if you’ve married the right one, your sheets should get enough of a workout that they need replacing anyway within a couple of years. So don’ t waste this golden opportunity by stocking up on Sheridan, use it for something better. If you really think you’ll use cut-crystal stemware and you’re not just having a Mad Men fantasy, then go ahead… But it would be better spent on stuff you’ll keep such as furniture (ie a bookcase, coffee table, outdoor dining setting), power tools or appliances. If you know you want to renovate, Aunt Agatha might be tickled pink that she’s paid for your nice new bathroom taps, for example.

3. Save on wedding decor. If the wedding of your dreams is more important than “stuff”, why not add items to your gift registry that you can use for your wedding? There are countless wedding favour websites that sell everything from disposable cameras to cute candle place-holders meant as little thank-you gifts for the guests. The cost of these is reasonable, but when you add them all to the cost of the reception, dress, limousines etc it really adds up. However, since they don’t cost too much, they can make a clever, practical gift idea that a wedding guest might be willing to pay for. And a lot of these websites sell gift certificates. Why not ask someone to pay for the wedding favours? You want ‘em and there’s one less thing you have to pay for.

4. Oh my goodness, I forgot to have kids! Most people who get engaged get asked, “When are you getting married?”. Then when they’re married, “When are you having kids?”. Then after the first child, “When are you having your second?” And so on. Pip these guys at the post by adding nursery equipment, a monster pram, a cot and god-knows-what-else baby-related to your gift registry. Then you can make it clear that you’ll be getting straight onto it on your honeymoon and they might leave you alone for a bit.

5. Yes, we like to eat. After the thrill of the wedding and honeymoon comes the thumping great shock of your credit card bill. So it’s more than possible that you might not have any money to eat out after your wedding. So plan ahead. Add some restaurant gift certificates to your gift registry so you can have a break from Law & Order and leftovers in front of the TV.

The latest personalized gifts survey results are in! A new survey by It’s In The Stars on personalized gifts has found the following:

* The top 5 most popular gift occasions on which to give a personalized gift are birthdays, christenings, new babies, anniversaries and Mothers Day

* Jewellery, day of birth and art items are the 3 most popular types of personalized gifts

* The top 3 ways to personalize a gift are by name, day of birth and photography

* Most personalized gifts are given to partners, friends and children

* About 40% of personalized gifts are bought online with Gen Xers the most likely to buy from personalized gift websites

* Most people spend $50 or less on personalized gifts - Baby Boomers spend the most

* Over 60% have given two or more personalized gifts in the last year

* Most people would wait up to 7 days to get something personalized AND delivered to them or the recipient

* Gen Ys are the most likely to make use of a gift wrapping service and to give a gift certificate so the recipient could select their own personalized gift

* Cancerians and Taureans tie as the best gift-givers, voted as the Sun signs known for giving gifts that delight the recipient

For more details visit http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com/verve/_resources/personalized-gifts-survey-findings.pdf

Draw a Venn diagram of all the people you know, with you at the centre. It would probably look like a flower with all your friends, clients, colleagues, relatives, sport team members, golf buddies, church friends etc as the little petals you know.

So there’s gonna be some groups of people who’ll just never meet your other people - right? Fantastic!

When you’re the only common denominator, if you give them a gift, they’ll be none the wiser if you also happened to give that exact same thing to someone else, such as for a christening, housewarming or 21st.

If so, you might want to consider buying gifts in bulk! Simply type in “bulk lot” on eBay and you’ll be amazed what you can find.

Are a few of your girlfriends having babies all at the same time? Come pre-armed to those baby showers with a babysuit, socks, singlets or little shoes.

Got endless kids’ parties that you have to come bearing gifts? You’ll find sets of little girls’ fairy style necklaces, Lego sets and kids’ books for a steal.

Is it coming up to housewarming season? Buy a bulk lot of beeswax pillar candles, serving platters or magazine baskets.

Have you got more kitchen teas and bridal showers than you can poke a stick at? Save money with bulk purchases of tea towels, cooking utensils or coffee table books.

Are you alarmed at the number of 16th, 18th or 21st birthday gifts you’re expected to buy for your nieces, neighbours and daughters of work colleagues? You can buy Pandora beads in bulk to start them off with their own bracelets.

Even if you don’t like the idea of buying bulk, did you know you can buy giftwrap in bulk? An average sheet at the newsagent costs about $4.95 but if you buy it from a florist wholesaler (which sells a sea of retail supplies including paper, candles, baskets, silk flowers and so on), you could buy about 100 sheets of gloss wrap, cellophane, tissue paper or that funny reconstituted paper for around $29 - or about $0.29 per sheet. With the money you’ll save on gifts, you’ll be wrapt.