I usually imbue whatever I have on hand and offer it when it's about to decay. Items so far have been jewelry and clothing. Recenty, I imbued a rose. When I tried to offer it, I got a message saying it was not something to offer to a God.
So what can be offered to a God?

Edit:
Compiling List of Things That Can't Be Offered (For Sanity's Sake):
- rose (flowers?)
- vial

The Solution

As far as I knew, everything could be. Was the rose a quest rose, and not a normal one?

Also, I always use bottles. Bottles seem to make sense, since they hold things, and they also don't decay, or drop when you log out. I'd purchased 10 imbued salts from someone, at 8k each, and then logged out. I never recovered them.

I imbued a vial (because it was about to decay), but the stupid thing couldn't be offered!

Ouch. Sorry to hear that.

It's a normal rose; I still have it. Its decay time is in months.

Bottles decay, they just have a good lifespan. I don't like using them because they're so conventional and require gems to create. I like salt but its got its own problems too as you mentioned.

Quite sure flowers can be imbued. Maybe yours was a bug or something? Could be a certain type of flower that can't be offered.

If you offer it containing the item's number or just the number, you will not be able to offer it. I was having that problem with a piece of jewlery, and for safety's sake, put all my bracelets in my purse and did OFFER BRACELET. It then worked. I was pissed off for a while because I was holding this thing with 98% esteem and no apparent way to offer it Silly me

I've never had a problem offering flowers. Esteem is a big reason I've kept my flowerpot

....

That may be why it didn't work.

*squees* Thank you Reiha!

I like tinderboxes personally. Iron isn't that cheap but they are the only normal non-decay item I've found.

I've been strongly considering switching over to tinderboxes for a while. I can't quite bring myself to do it though since helping out with the Trade Ministry and having to do a lot to get our iron stock to where it is now.

Flowers in stock rooms rock!

I imbue studs. They're expensive, but Lady Viravain certainly deserves the jewelry. And they're nice and shiny too. Whenever I imbue studs, I get the mental image of the shiny 'dead' gem of the stud (if it has one), and then me transfering my 'liquid' esteem into the gem, making it sparkly and 'alive'. If the stud was a Glomdoring-themed one, then I imagine shadowy 'liquid' flowing into the stud, dancing all over it if its a gemless one, or making the gem pulse slowly if it has a gem.

Ooh, and I never have to worry about imbuing wrongly, because I don't use studs other than imbuing, and they have a nice life span as well.

Do Gods see what items are offered to them for esteem?

Yup.

Something seems wrong about that sentence

Coming from the girl who didn't get what Howny meaned at first *cough*

I always buy new jewelry, and imbue only when I reach 100%. I'm decadent like that.

They do, but they'd have to wade through the enter offering logs which put powerlogs to shame. (You can't even use the search function!) The god may see it, but it'll be cleverly hidden. Just depends on how OCD the god is to want to look through the entire logs.