Unique Gift Bag Giveaway: We Have a Winner!

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Yesterday, we presented a bag of goodies up for grabs from the upcoming Unique Los Angeles Independent Design & Gift Sale this Saturday, December 13, and Sunday, December 14 from 11am-7pm in the Penthouse of the California Market Center (110 East 9th Street, Downtown). What we asked of you, dear readers, was to email us the most unique gift you'd ever given or received.

This was a tough decision to make, but the swag goes to reader who received a diorama replica of their living room. The creativity and thoughtfulness blew us away. Read for yourselves below:

"My aunt made it for me, and she only visited my living room once before during a family party. She had my cousin visit and take pictures or every wall and what was on the floor! She perfectly matched the shade of orange paint we used on the walls, and even shrunk a picture of my poster to include in the room. A little green couch, handmade stacks of books, and even a mini framed picture of herself on my mantle. She added touches that completely amazed me, like the crown molding and the red brick of the fireplace. She even included a guitar hero controller and a copy of Twilight, which I was reading at the time."

Check more submissions after the jump—a personalized issue of Us Weekly, broccoli bouquet and grape corsage—as there were some very close seconds. Also, note how many bizarre food-related gifts there are.

1) My best friend made me my very own issue of US Weekly. She used an old issue of US Weekly. She relentlessly scoured my Facebook and Myspace for pictures of me and all our friends, in all shapes and sizes, to glue on to all manner of celebrity heads. She rewrote headlines and whole articles (even the 6 page cover story) in the style and pace of US Weekly headlines and articles. She mentioned incidents from years past, "interviewed" peripheral people in our lives (our hairdresser!), and made bizarre storylines fit into our own lives (a Nick Lachey / Vanessa Minillo story was appropriated for my own love life). Every single page was changed to detail OUR lives—she even added friends to ads. Every time I read it, I find something new and hilarious.

A year later, it's still on my coffee table.

2) For my high school prom, instead of a nice corsage or a bouquet of flowers, my date brought me a bouquet of broccoli. And a corsage made of purple plastic grapes on a safety pin. And a crown made of dusty fake ivy (that I knew came from his mother's kitchen). I went with it and even thought it was sort of funny, but when I wanted to carefully put aside said items when it came time to take pictures, he acted all offended and called me shallow.

Later, we ended up going to the same university (a few years apart) and told everyone I had let him have an*l sex with me in high school. Um, no. Dude never even got to third base. Had to do damage control on that one for years.

3) I had a co-worker who would often come in to work with a doggie bag from her dinner the night before. Sometimes while dining with others and they decided to leave their food, she would request a doggie bag of their leftovers. She was a doggie bag queen. So onetime when I was on a business trip to Chattanooga we ended up going to a famous ribs restaurant. There was so much food that we couldn’t possibly eat it so we decided to FedEx overnight the leftover ribs to my co-worker’s boss and had her present the gift to her in a department meeting.

4) One Christmas, I received from my grandmother a battery-operated plastic rose in a flower pot that when you turned it on swayed back and forth and sang some weird little song with the chorus "I love you" over and over.

5) When the Internet was in its infancy, I ordered my brother a frozen rattlesnake to BBQ.

6) I received a few fresh durian, the ultra stinky Asian fruit that has to be smuggled into the US. My client brought it inside a diaper bag (a la Johnny Depp in Blow). We had to evacuate the building because the smell is a cross between rotting flesh and ultra sweet burnt sugar?.umami.

7) I used to have one of these after I had my hemorrhoid surgery from my friend because she said it was supposed to be as painful if not more as childbirth.

8) When I was in high school, I went out a couple of time with this guy but it never developed into anything more than that. About a month later, I was running out to meet my carpool on the morning of my birthday and noticed a huge package on top of the car I usually drove. I only had time to grab the card and had to wait to open the package later. The card was a Garfield card, which had a one-dollar bill inside. This wasn't related to any sort of inside joke between us and there was nothing in the card to suggest why he'd given me a dollar. I was dying to know what was in the package by the end of the day and rushed home to open in: It was one of those halogen floor lamps and a glow necklace like you might get at a rave.

This was made more bizarre that he were both very devout Mormons and not at all into the rave culture or anything.

Second runner up: Another guy once gave me his blue stuffed dinosaur that had been his favorite toy as a child.

9) I just got this for my birthday the other day. It was originally a painting of Golda Meir —my friend painted over it to make it what it is today. He turned her into a volcano with eyes and munchies coming out of her mouth. I think it's pretty bizarre.

10) Bizarre gift would have to be chickens given in my name—which when I think about it was pretty nice considering where they went (heifer.org)...I will be giving cans of earthworms this year (how can anyone not think that is enduring? No...maybe a goat then!)

11) The most bizarre gift that I ever received was a snakeskin COACH iPod case from one of my best friends on earth. It's bizarre because it was really thoughtless and clueless of her, which isn't like her. Prior to receiving this gift, this friend apologized profusely for not having a chance to wrap it. I thought nothing of it. When I received the FedEx envelope and looked inside it was the wrong size case (I have a Nano) and the price tag was still attached. When I told her it was great, but too big, she suggested I might want to upgrade my iPod. wtf?!