Father’s Day Beer and a Handmade Bottle Opener

Last year, when my husband was in the Middle East, his trips home were a really big deal. We stocked the fridge with all of his favorite food and tried to have fun surprises waiting for him. Right before his first trip home, I asked Avery (who was barely 3 at the time) what she thought we should get for Daddy as a special treat. Without hesitation, she answered beer. So we went to the store and got him some special beer. And every trip home after that, she always reminded me to buy special beer for Daddy. I always thought that this was hilarious, because the way she talks about him and beer makes it sound like he is a huge lush. Which he really isn’t at all.

This year when we were talking about a Father’s Day gift for him, she went back to her old standby. Beer. Of course. Which is a fine welcome home surprise, but for Father’s Day, we needed to step up our game a little.

I tried to pull in his favorite color (red), our current home (San Francisco), and our soon to be home (Austria). And of course, at least part of it had to be handmade.

We started with a local San Francisco beer, Anchor Brewing California Lager, which just so happens to have a bright red label and box.

I thought a nice hand stamped bottle opener would be the perfect accessory for the beer, so I bought a plain stainless steel bottle opener, and some metal stamps. Which was a great plan, in theory. But it didn’t exactly turn out the way I had imagined. Picture my fingers holding the metal stamps and Avery holding the hammer. Let’s just leave it at that.

Since the metal stamping didn’t work out very well for us, we ended up stamping daddy on a little gift tag and wrapping it around the bottle opener with red and white striped bakers twine, to match the Austrian flag.

Then I found this beautiful, handmade Corter Leather Bottlehook Keychain, which comes in a lovely red gift box, and it completed our Father’s Day gift perfectly. (I said I wanted the gift to be handmade, I didn’t specify handmade by us, so this totally counts. And I didn’t even have to risk losing a fingernail!)

A simple, thoughtful, and a little bit handmade Father’s Day gift. I think he will love it.

Corter Leather Bottlehook c/o Red Envelope. All opinions are my own.