Mothers have been remembered with special celebrations since the time of ancient Greece. Back in the days of Zeus and Aphrodite, the Greeks held a spring festival in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. In today's world, Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia is credited with bringing about our American Mother's Day. Her efforts to create a Mother's Day began as a remembrance of her own mother who had earlier tried to heal scars of the Civil War with a "Mother's Friendship Day."

Mother's Day will be celebrated this year on Sunday, May 13^th. Maybe you have been trying to decide just what you could give your mom to let her know how much you appreciate all she has done for you. Are you looking for a personalized present to make her feel special? Thanks to our good friend the Internet, you do not have to fly to Paris or scour antique shops for the perfect present. The Internet brings some wonderful personalized gifts right to your fingertips.

A Unique Fragrance for Mom

Are you looking for an extraordinary one of a kind gift? How about a custom-designed perfume for your mother? It will make her feel like Marlene Dietrich or Marilyn Monroe. After all, there was a time when a custom-designed product like this was only available to the rich and famous. Now, however, a company called Eleuria.com is offering a unique online process that results in a custom fragrance for any woman. Women enjoy wearing a uniquely individual scent that expresses their personality. Eleuria believes that the choice of fragrance reveals the personality of the wearer. They will blend perfumes and colognes based on the wearer's individual personality profile and scent preferences.Each fragrance is a unique creation containing a hundred or more separate ingredients, blended to create a harmonious and interesting scent.

The entire process takes only about ten days. A confidential personality profile provides the information that establishes the formula for the individualized scent. The user profile gathers information on your mother's psychological and physical characteristics as well as her preferences. This profile can be completed online, by fax, or by snail mail.

Eleuria steers clear of the image of mass-marketed perfumes. Their customized service is an interesting mix of science and art with a little magic thrown in. One-for-one is Eleuria's specialty. Kerry Ott, founder of Eleuria.com, finds the Internet is the perfect tool to bring the development process directly to the customer. My personal experience was a lot of fun. After filling out the personality profile, I couldn't wait to receive the perfume that was "Me". Kerry Ott and her company did a good job. My personalized fragrance makes me feel like a queen. What a perfect Mother's Day present. Any mom would see a gift like this as one with a lot of thought behind it and one that lets her express her individuality -- which is the whole point of wearing perfume in the first place. Visit Eleuria for more information and for your copy of the individual personality profile form. Information from the Web site on fragrance families and perfume history is also very interesting. If you love this idea but are squeamish about the profile information, use the gift certificate option. Within ten days after Mom has completed and submitted the profile, she will be enjoying a fragrance created especially for her.

Customized Canvas Photos

Did you snap the perfect picture of the children and have been contemplating what to do with it? How about having it enlarged and framed for Mom for Mother's Day? You can even enhance the beauty and value of your special photo by making it look like a gallery-quality reproduction. Canvas2Art will take your prized photo and transform it into an elegant portrait on authentic artist canvas. As the finishing touch, you can have the picture custom-framed. Your special gift for your mom will have the refined texture of real artist's canvas and a protective coating that will prevent fading. Make sure that shot you select for your mother's present has a sharp focus and good lighting, but any standard-size snapshot, enlargement, or digital photo is acceptable. Your mother is sure to love portrait-like photography hanging over her mantel as a treasured memory.

Sweets for the Sweet

I haven't had the opportunity to actually take a bite out of these next four gift suggestions. I am so intrigued with the idea that I am going to try them out. For starters, there is Custom Cookies. Just for mom, a cookie that is designed, cut, and decorated by hand. Use some of the designs from the Web site or create a design that would delight your mom. Custom Cookies offers a range of cookies from two-color decorated cookies for $1 to 3-dimensional architectural construction cookies. Use your mom's name, her favorite saying, her children, and grandchildren. Give her something personalized, yet edible, and something she did not have to bake herself.

The Internet has a Bakeshoppe site that offers the same type of personalized delicious treats. Again, have them decorated just to please your mother. Bakeshoppe claims if they haven't done it, they can create it. Sugar cookies can be shipped to your mom; one-week advance notice needed, plus delivery time. These hand-decorated sweets are much better than the mud pies and sand cakes you made for your mom when you were little.

Have we caught your interest with these decorated cookies because you know your mother has a sweet tooth? How about some amazing photo cookies? At Club Photo, you can decorate special cookies for your mom with a photo. This is the height of personalization - cookies with your favorite photo. How about mom's favorite pet? Or a picture of the house she lived in as a child, or her wedding picture? Club Photo's cookies are baked and decorated by professionals and certain to please that special person on Mother's Day. One order includes 24 cookies sized 2.67 x 3.33 inches. You can even select a border that says I Love You.

Photo cookies seem to be a popular online product. At Picture This -Completely Edible Photo Cookies, picture cookies are billed as the site's most popular seller. These old-fashioned shortbread cookies can be lightly frosted with a picture, logo, or any image. There are four cookie shapes to choose from. If this personalized gift is right for your mother, she will get a dozen gourmet cookies individually bagged and tied with decorative tulle.

Just Do It

Personalization doesn't stop with perfume, photos, or sweets; let's get down to the feet. Believe it or not, you can have a pair of Nikes custom-made for your athletic mom. If you are interested in customized bats or gloves for your mom, you have also come to the right spot. At the Nike Web site, select the category you want to customize. Nike's Build Page will let you mix and match colors, materials, words, and patterns to build just the pair of Nikes your mom has been longing for. A neat feature is the ability to look at her new shoes from the top side, bottom, back, etc. According to their Web Site, a one-of-a-kind-specially-for-Mom pair of Nikes costs only slightly more than a regular Nike product. You even get to make up your own "ID" product label. Better hurry, the process takes two to three weeks.

Today's technology has broadened the choices of thoughtful, personalized gifts you can use to tell your mother how much she means to you. Because of the Internet, customization is easier than before. Hopefully these few suggestions will start you thinking about a gift for your mother. You can use the high-tech approach with e-mail, e-greeting cards, or personalized gifts ordered online. You might also decide to use pre-Internet methods like a telephone call, snail mail, or a wonderful face-to-face visit. Just be sure to use this year's Mother's Day as people have done through the ages -- to honor, thank, and love your mother.