Fruit Basket

{Knitted Fruit Rattles, $38}

One of my very good friends from college has a bun in the oven, so I have had babies on the brain lately—even if it’s not my baby, it’s still fun to look at baby items. In fact, I imagine it’s more fun when it’s someone else’s baby, because then you are supposed to spoil the child.

Anyway, I came across these adorable fruit rattles—how cute are they?! The set includes a watermelon, pear, apple, orange, and strawberry. Too fun!

Image courtesy of www.blackinkboston.com

Mind Your Manners

Good morning, everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. My husband and I decided to treat ourselves by hitting up two fine dining establishments here in Boston, which proved to be both very delicious and decadent. In the spirit of fancy food, cloth napkins, and table manners, I present you with:

{Typography Manners Napkins, $72 for a set of 6}

I came across these clever napkins as I was scouring Etsy for gift picks. They are willow green 100% linen and measure 17” x 17”. The sayings, which are embroidered in black, include: “Take your dishes to the sink,” “Chew with your mouth closed,” “Say please and thank you,” “Try it, you might like it,” “Put your napkin in your lap,” and “Elbows off the table.” A cute and cheeky way to emphasize good manners at your dining table!

Images courtesy of www.etsy.com

Split!

Good morning! My good friend Jenny came over for dinner the other night, and we ended up playing a fun game after the meal—Bananagrams! I first learned about this game a few years ago on a cabin trip with college friends, and pretty much everyone I have introduced it to ends up loving it.

{Bananagrams $14.48}

The easiest way to describe Bananagrams is “Scrabble-esque.” You can play with 2-7 people, and the general gist is that each player takes a certain number of tiles and has to create his or her own “Scrabble board.” The objective is to use up all your tiles by creating full words. Once someone successfully does so, everyone has to take another tile. This continues until there are no tiles left—at which point, whoever completes their board first shouts, “BANANA!” and wins. The game itself obviously comes with more complete instructions than my little summary.

If your gift recipient likes Scrabble or other word games, he or she will love Bananagrams!

Image courtesy of www.amazon.com

Recycled Rainbow

Good morning, and happy Chinese New Year! I hope that the year of the dragon brings everyone good health and much happiness.

Today’s gift pick comes from my good friend Robbie—he was kind enough to email me with some great suggestions that he had stumbled upon online!

{Jumbo heart-shaped recycled crayons, $7 for a set of 3}

{Building block men recycled crayons, $8 for a set of 8}

{Recycled crayon letters, $20 for 26 individually packaged letters}

These are really fun and cute, and they are sort of eco-friendly because they utilize the “Recycle” in the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra. I think the hearts would make such a sweet token of love for Valentine’s Day! There are more shapes where these came from: you can find them here.

Thanks for the tip, Robbie! Hope everyone has a great start to the week, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Images courtesy of www.etsy.com

Beau-TEA-ful

Good morning, readers! Over the holidays, I received a lovely gift from my friend Ann. She knows me too well—it’s a perfect item for someone who loves tea and beauty products as much as I do!

{Tracy Stern Beauty Tea canisters, $19-$26.50 each}

With cute names like Sleeping Beauty and Slimming Beauty, these teas come in both caffeinated and non-caffeinated forms with various ingredients that are supposed to induce beauty sleep, develop glowing skin, or provide you with necessary antioxidants. I am a big believer in the power (both good and bad) of what you put into your body, so I obviously loved this gift. Plus, the canisters are absolutely adorable. I promptly took the tea bags out and started using these as a pop of color on my desk:

Thanks so much for the amazing gift, Ann! I will be drinking the teas religiously in hopes of getting my skin to a state of radiance!

Images courtesy of www.salonteas.com (top) and The Present Perfect (bottom)

Back by Popular Demand…

I featured these money clips last year, and I was so crushed when my friend told me that they had sold out before she had a chance to buy one for her boyfriend. Luckily, the folks over at Jack Spade know a good thing when they design it!

{Jack Spade Money Clips: Bones, Bacon, Dough, $65 each}

Hoping that she manages to snag one this time around! I think these clips are very cool. If my husband used money clips, I would totally get him one.

Image courtesy of www.jackspade.com

Audrey

Good morning, and happy Monday! I hope that everyone is having a great weekend. I am actually still enjoying a long girls’ weekend with some college friends, and it’s been so nice to catch up and see how much (yet so little) has changed.

I saw this book at Anthropologie the other week, but I found it for a bit cheaper on Amazon (that is the story of my life with this blog).

{Just Being Audrey $11.55}

Just Being Audrey is a very charming children’s book about Audrey Hepburn’s life as a child, actress, and UNICEF ambassador. It features lovely illustrations and very heartwarming messages about the importance of kindness, the fact that one’s quirks and differences are what make a person special and unique, and that the best person you can try to be is yourself. Recommended for kids and Audrey Hepburn fans of all ages.

Image courtesy of www.amazon.com

Oh, Snap!

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! I saw this item and laughed out loud:

{Oh, Snap Cheese Slicer, $19.95}

While mousetraps kind of give me the heebie jeebies (more the idea of mice stuck in them, not the physical traps themselves), I have to appreciate this cleverly designed cheese slicer. The 5'”x9” beech wood cheese board comes with the stainless steel slicer. Definitely a conversation piece for your next wine and cheese night!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. See you back here on Monday!

Image courtesy of www.zgallerie.com

What What in the Butt

…yeah, I’m immature. BUT (pun intended) no matter your age, there is always humor to be found in butts. Such as these animal ones:

{Set of animal butt magnets, $20}

This set of seven magnetic animal butts can instantly liven up any refrigerator. As the description on The Future Perfect (no relation) website says: “As if these even need an explanation.” It’s true.

Image courtesy of www.thefutureperfect.com

Binder of Baubles

{Clos-ette Too Travel Jewelry Case, $50}

I totally freaked out when I saw this jewelry case at my sister’s apartment over the holidays. It is AMAZING, especially for someone who travels frequently. Made of waterproof linen, this travel case works like a binder, with snap-on individual pages that feature plastic covering and individual zippers for you to store your baubles.

The cases come in a variety of colors: ivory, pink, green, and orange. The interior pages have different-sized pockets to hold a variety of jewelry (2”x2” and 4”x4”). There’s also a ring holder and an earring holder. Each purchase comes with three page inserts, and you can always purchase more as your collection grows!

What I love most about this case is that you can actually SEE what you are storing inside. The case I currently roll with does not have that feature, so I always have to dig through it—and things often get tangled in the process. This Clos-ette case allows you to prettily display everything in an organized fashion. I am not exaggerating when I say that I need this!

Image courtesy of www.clos-ettetoo.com

Knucklehead

Good morning, everyone! I hope everyone had a nice weekend… and that you are all ready for the awesomeness that is today’s gift pick. Behold:

{Knuckle Meat Pounder, $12.95}

For under $15, you can equip the lucky recipient with the most badass meat pounder ever. This thing is hilarious.

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week—see you tomorrow!

Image courtesy of www.whatonearthcatalog.com

A Very Classy Tool

{Wall Mounting Bottle Opener, $12}

…what, you don’t have a wall-mounted, semi-permanent fixture for opening your beer bottles?

I’m not sure if this belongs in a frat house, hipster-land, or somewhere in-between, but it’s simultaneously amusing and practical—all while falling in the category of, “I hope I never come home to find one of these attached to my kitchen wall.”

But it does prevent you from ever having to dig around for a bottle opener, and it even comes with the necessary hardware. What do you all think?

Image courtesy of www.butterhomeseattle.com

Perfume in a Stick

Continuing on yesterday’s travel theme, I’d like to address one annoying thing about being a girl on the go: what happens when your favorite perfume comes in a bigger-than-3-ounce bottle and you need to get onto a plane?

Enter Tsubota Pearl’s stick perfume applicator. This handy device comes with a mini funnel for you to fill the stick with your favorite scent, and it’s so tiny that it will easily fit into your trusty Ziploc bag.

{Stick Perfume Applicator, $44}

Here’s a photo of how the funnel works:

It’s an easy, convenient, and chic way to ensure that you smell your best while jet-setting! I personally love the gold version. Very luxe but simple at the same time!

Images courtesy of www.aplusrstore.com

36 Hours

One of my favorite columns in the New York Times is “36 Hours in…” It’s always fun to see what cool picks are highlighted for each city, and it’s a great source of inspiration in trip planning. When I headed to Reykjavik over Thanksgiving, I definitely drew upon the Times online archive for some ideas!

So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this in a store:

{The New York Times 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the USA & Canada $26.39}

And even more excitement ensued when I found it for cheaper on Amazon. How awesome is this?! I have always wanted to take a road trip around America, and this book would be an amazing guide for that. It comes with great photos and very charming illustrations of different regions within the coutry. Oftentimes, I tend to think internationally when envisioning a fun travel adventure, but there is so much within the United States that remains to be seen. This is a great reminder of that!

Image courtesy of www.amazon.com

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope all of you had a safe and festive New Year’s Eve. My husband and I attended a very fun party that included bubbly, tiaras, friends both old and new, and capping off the night with a dance party—the perfect recipe for success!

New Year’s always makes me think of journals. They are a great place to document the events of one’s life, as well as jot down all of those yearly resolutions. While any old notebook can do the trick, I thought this 5-year journal from Paper Source was particularly cool:

{Q&A 5-Year journal, $16.99}

This journal allows you to document every day over the course of 5 years. It has spaces for you to write one line per day, and in case you are short on inspiration, each day comes with a question for you to answer. With just one line a day, keeping a journal doesn’t have to be a time-consuming pastime. And I love the old-timey look of this journal cover!

Images courtesy of www.enjoyyourself1.blogspot.com and www.paper-source.com