My 28 month old girl has loved the following items for the past year:
Any arts and crafts - markers on paper, paint on the easel, crayons, stickers, sticker books, tracing her hand, hand prints
An easel- from IKEA is cheap.
Her favorite dollies, they have names and they sleep with her
A toddler sleeping bag that she now sleeps in in her crib
Christmas lights and decorations - she goes nuts over them. Santa night light, music box with ice skaters on an ice rink, Christmas tree.
Feeding her goldfish.
Her play grocery store, house, kitchen. She has more recently gotten into those toys and now loves them.
Any of those would be good gifts that she'd enjoy for a long time.