Things that Make Me Happy: A Gift Guide

The holiday season is upon us and I don’t know about you, but this time of year can be really stressful for me. I make my list and check it twice…and then I check it again and again, trying to find the perfect gift. Sometimes I need a little help finding the one true gift. When I’m stumped, I think of the things I really enjoy because I figure if I them it, chances are you will too. Here’s what makes me happy:

Things That Make Me Happy

The Beauty of Different by Karen Walrond  Karen’s photography is beautiful, but what really moves me about this book is her words. She explores all of the ways each one of us is beautiful, and reinforces to everyone that it is our unique qualities that make us beautiful, not the ways we struggle to make ourselves fit the mold of “normal” as dictated by our society. I think this book is a must-read for everyone. I display her book on my coffee table for everyone who comes over to see and ask about, I think her message is that important. In fact, my copy is so well loved that it now sports a broken spine.

Prismatic Globe Patio Lights – I recently became an RV owner. We have an annual campsite for our 5^th wheel where we spend weekends for six months out of the year. Everyone decorates their campsite with lights and fancy fire pits and furniture. These lights are awesome. I saw them at Camping World and instantly had a bad case of the wants. They come in a rainbow of colors and each globe is 6” in diameter. They are definitely big enough that I can follow them home after a few cocktails at the neighbor’s campsite, which is important. Having to make apologies in the morning for stumbling into the wrong trailer is awkward. These globe lights are not just for RV awnings, though. They would be great for a backyard patio.

VitaMix Blender – Ok, I know. $450 for a blender? But this isn’t just any old blender. I’m pretty sure I could grind up my car if I could get it in small enough chunks to fit in the container. With this blender I can make smoothies, shakes, sauces, and salsas. Oh – you can make those in your regular blender? But wait! There’s more. This blender also makes soup – hot soup! You put some broth and veggies and spices in the VitaMix, whirr it up, add a little cooked chicken, and voila! You have hot soup. It cooks with the friction of the blades. To go along with your soup, the VitaMix even mixes and kneads bread dough. I bet your Osterizer doesn’t do that!

Veronica Mars: Seasons 1 – 3 –  Spoiler alert: there are only three seasons of this smart, engaging show and that fact makes me sad. I came to this show really late. In fact, it was long off the air before I saw a single episode. It took me exactly one episode for me to be hooked. Yes, it’s about high school kids but it’s definitely not Beverly Hills 90210, the next generation. The dialog is snappy, the characters are well-developed, and the plots are engaging. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend spending quality time with Miss Veronica. Hint: it’s cheaper to buy the seasons individually than in the box set.

There you have it. Things that make me happy. I hope they make you happy too.

Featured Photo Credit ]babi]

5 Gifts That Do Good

Sometimes I feel like ditching the whole idea of gift-giving for the holidays because it seems so commercial. You’re trying to get the best gift possible to avoid looking cheap or chintzy. There has to be something better. Never fear. There is. Here are a few simple ideas for gifts that are not only useful, they actually do good.

5 Gifts That Do Good

1. Prosperity Candle – Prosperity Candles looks to provide women displaced by war, political unrest or natural disasters with the opportunity, tools and resources to start a successful business producing candles and related accessories. A candle from Prosperity Candles can help a woman build a life for herself, and then share that light with others. Your gift will include the name of the woman who made it, and your recipient can go to Prosperity’s Engage page and send her a message. An empowering gift with a side of horizon expansion. How cool is that?

2. Artisan Items From Around The World – I’ve raved about this site before, and I still do. Novica features handcrafted gifts from around the world. Everything from clothing to jewelry to leather goods to home decor. It’s reasonably priced, and you’ll help an artist in another corner of the world make a living. And don’t forget to pick out something for yourself while you’re there.

3. A Cow – Or a goat or flock of geese or a water buffalo. Heifer International allows you do give gifts that will help impoverished people helps themselves. The animals can help provide milk for sustenance, manure for farming and income from their offspring. Instead of just a handout, livestock offer a way to a better life. You give the gift in the name of your intended and they get an Honor Card sent to them with a personalized message from you. A great gift for the girl who has everything, including a soft heart. If the options are too pricey, you can buy a share of the animal at a more affordable price.

4. A Fair Trade Gift – Seven Hopes United has some gorgeous items made by artisans all over the world. Fair trade products pay a decent wage, foster safe working conditions and protect the rights of children while being environmentally friendly and maintaining the artists’ cultural identity. You’re helping someone climb out of poverty by learning a skill and selling what they produce. And there is some gorgeous stuff on this site. Make some coffee or tea and plan to stay awhile.

5. A Direct Donation – This is the most obvious (and direct) route to take when thinking of someone who really doesn’t need or want anything and would appreciate the money for their gift going to a good cause. I recommend picking a cause close to your friend’s heart to add meaning to your gift.

Featured photo credit

5 Gift Ideas For Co-Workers

Maybe you have a Secret Santa thing going on. Maybe you have a small office (like I do) and everyone is like family so people routinely buy each other holiday gifts. Either way, you’ve got to get something for someone you’re not particularly close with, but that you still have to see everyday (read: It can’t be cheesy). I’ve come to your rescue. Please don’t be afraid to send money. PayPal is fine.

5 Gift Ideas For Co-Workers

1. Soap. Who doesn’t use soap? The best part is that there are all kinds of soap out there. How about some guest soaps from a Etsy shop like HaldeCraft? (disclosure: My friend Lorena owns HaldeCraft, but the soap is awesome). They’re less expensive and probably better quality and you can even make a custom order if you’d like. Nothing’s better than a personal touch.

2. Stationery Items. Pretty stationery or magnets from a Zazzle shop like mine (shameless plug!) or an Etsy shop like Uncommon are a great idea, especially for your old-school co-workers who still write things like thank you cards. Magnets are great for both home and office. Simple gifts, but useful and thoughtful. Like you.

3. A Calendar. Another practical but always well-received gift is a wall or desk calendar like the Cute Overload calendars. Who can resist all that cute? If cute won’t do, there are always great photography calendars or calendars for just about anything else you can think of. Just remember to keep it clean, OK? This is work, not the fraternity house.

4. Fragrance Gifts. Just about every woman likes a nice scent. A fragrance gift like Bath and Body Works’ Wallflowers can be used both at home and in the office. Pick out a nice, universal scent like lavender (calming) or citrus (energizing). If they don’t like the scent you choose they can always exchange it for another.

5. Gift Cards. If you’re stumped, there’s always a gift card for their favorite retailer or Amazon. The only drawback is they will know how much you spent. But at least they can get exactly what they want. No one can argue with that. Not even the office Scrooge.

 

Featured photo by Creative Tools

A Procrastinator’s Shopping List

Now that Christmas is over, I forget that there are other occasions that require gifts to be given. If I could, I would put blinders on and forget everything between now and then, but I can’t. I am a huge fan of mail order gifting and relatives are always telling me how wonderful and thoughtful my gifts are. Here’s the secret…I forget until the day before their birthdays and then spend 15 minutes swearing and kicking myself before logging on. I am not a flowers or plant gifter and I don’t really like sending gift cards. I prefer to make things a little bit more personal.

I know a lot of women are like me, so I’m going to clue you in on my favorite last minute gifts that send waves of delicious joy to your loved ones.

Last-Minute Gifts

Fairytale Brownies

These amazing brownies arrive via next day delivery to your friends and family in their signature purple box. The best thing about them is the variety of flavors! Regular brownies, peanut butter, chocolate chip, walnut, the choices are endless. Not only can you choose your flavors, you can also choose the size brownie you would like delivered. If you want to send someone an assortment of flavors without breaking the bank, you can deliver their Magic Morsels for as little as $20 a box! For a more substantial snack pick the Sprites and for a huge mouthful of flavor you can send their original brownies. Each of these are 3 x 3 inches of mouthwatering decadence. Not a fan of brownies? They also have assorted cookies and truffles to choose from!

Wolferman’s English Muffins

Perhaps the person you are celebrating isn’t a dessert lover. What then? Everybody loves breakfast! In that case, the best you can send are English m

uffins from Wolferman’s.

Everything I have tried from Wolferman’s has been fantastic. They offer a variety of English muffin flavors, jams and fruit butters, crumpets and other breakfast treats that will make anybody drool. The prices fit every gift size. Their gift baskets start at $19.95 and end where you choose to stop. You can use one of their preselected assortments or elect to make your own. Last year I sent my each of my Aunts a box of individually selected jams and fruit butters so that could all have the flavors they liked the most. Nobody was disappointed.

Shari’s Berries

If you remember to order a few days ahead of time, the hand dipped strawberries from Shari’s Berries can’t be beat.

Look at those things! The first time I heard about Shari and her amazing berries was when I received them as a thank you gift from a former client. I practically had to lock my office door to keep the beggars out.  In addition to the assortment of dipped berry flavors, Shari’s also offers dipped cookies, cake pops and delicious mini cheesecakes that can be added to any order or sent alone. Like my other options, these are available no matter how slim your wallet may feel. You can send a sweet Happy Birthday box of six HUGE dipped berries for $19.95 or if you feel more generous, you can splurge on an assortment of $50 or more. What does a candy maker know about baking cookies? I’m not sure if she bakes, but Shari and her berry fairies have great taste! Their cookies come courtesy of a partnership with Mrs. Fields, so there’s no way to go wrong with adding a few to your present.

No matter what the occasion, birthday, thank you or anniversary, any of these gifts will be a hit with the recipient and you will be hailed as a gift giving hero!

Ask Buy-Her: Ice Cream!

Dear Buy-Her -

I have a wonderful friend for whom I’d like to buy a gift. She’s got everything she could possibly want, so I want to get her something she’s never thought of. She LOVES ice cream, and I would really like to get her something ice cream-related. I’m thinking about some kind of personal ice cream set just for her and not the family. Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Having Brain Freeze

Fear not, oh frozen one, Corrin has just the thing for you!

Last summer, I received the Hamilton Beach Half Pint Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker as a gift and I’ve used it weekly ever since! Not only is it super cute and convenient, but it’s a great way to use fresh ingredients and not feel guilty about your ice cream habit.

It comes packaged like a gallon of ice cream which is super cute, and inside are two little freezer bowls and the mixing attachment. All you do is freeze your bowls, pour the ingredients right in the bowl, attach the mixer and a half hour later you have homemade ice cream! I keep the bowls in the freezer all the time and ingredients as simple as milk and chocolate syrup make great ice cream.

It’s priced reasonably enough where you could make a nice gift basket with some fun spoons and ice cream making ingredients. I will mention that the ice cream is soft serve consistency straight out of the bowl, but you can also freeze the bowl with the mixed ice cream inside for a hard freeze.

Donna would love to try the Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream, and Sorbet Maker. I have an earlier version of this ice cream maker and absolutely love it. The bowl lives in my freezer so it’s ready whenever I am. Nothing beats homemade ice cream and the Cuisinart makes it really easy. You’ll be enjoying soft-serve ice cream in about 20 minutes, or firmer ice cream after a couple of hours in the freezer. With a 1 1/2 quart capacity, the Cuisinart will make plenty of tasty ice cream for the whole family.

She also found this book, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More, which would make a great gift paired with some nice ice cream glasses.

Hopefully we’ve found a gift idea that will be perfect for your ice-cream loving friend!

Featured photo by TheCulinaryGeek

8 Gift Ideas For Women Who Travel

Do you have someone on your shopping list that loves to travel?  Or maybe you need to get a present for someone who has to travel a lot for work.  Whether she travels for pleasure or business, these gift ideas for travelers will make her life on the road more pleasant.

8 Gifts For Women Who Travel

1. Personalized Leather Luggage Tags – serves the dual purpose of making a bag easier to spot on the baggage carousel and providing all necessary information in the event that her luggage is lost.  Something leather and monogrammed is a much classier choice than something polka dotted and flashing.

2. Cashmere Pashmina – a pashmina is an ideal accessory for a traveler because it can be layered when you find the weather chillier than the Internet told you it would be and it can be used as a blanket on the airplane, because they no longer offer those for the suckers in coach.  I am constantly freezing on the plane and use an over-sized scarf that Faiqa brought me from Saudi Arabia as my travel blanket and go-to layering piece.  A cashmere pashmina would also do the job nicely.

3. Sleep Kit - you can assemble the perfect sleep kit with a few items that help make a strange hotel room more comfortable: silk sleep mask, ear plugs, and a small (travel sized!) bottle of linen spray.

4. E-Reader gift cards - if the woman you’re shopping for is an avid reader and traveler, chances are she already has a Nook or a Kindle (or the Kindle app on her iPhone).  Find out which one she has and give her the appropriate gift card.  Regular Amazon gift cards cannot be used for books on the Kindle, so this is a gift that often gets overlooked and would be greatly appreciated by anyone who has found themselves spending $12.99 in a moment of desperation in an airport.  Repeatedly.

5. Portable Solar Charger - uh, yeah.  This thing is powered by the sun and can recharge almost any rechargeable device, including iPhones, Blackberries and many digital cameras.

6. Photography Gear - if your loved one (or liked one) travels for pleasure, there’s a really good chance that they have at least an amateur interest in photography.  Even if they aren’t good at, they probably want to capture the places they visit in pictures.  That means that photography gifts are perfect for travelers.

7. Underwater HD Video Camera – I got one of these for free at BlogWorld and it is amazing for taking underwater video.  If it can handle snorkeling, it can probably handle just about anything else your jet setter can put it through.

8. More travel! Did you know that you can actually purchase gift certificates from many travel companies, including airlines like Southwest and JetBlue?  These are great gifts if you’re hoping your frequent flier will eventually come visit you!

As with any gift, try to avoid the cutesy low-quality crap that’s more of a gimmick than it is useful.  Do not, for example, give me an inflatable travel wine bag.  Unless I am an avid wine collector, that is lame.

What This Woman Wants: Holiday Gift Guide

My Dearest Mr. Claus,

I am sending up my list a little early. You might need a head start.  It’s a little long, sorry. But, hey, I have had a really awful year. I’ve done way more than was asked of me. I think I deserve one of everything. I’m sure you’ll agree.

First, what I and all moms everywhere would appreciate:

The Cooper Cooler Brushed Chrome Tailgater Rapid Beverage and Wine Chiller. Because, well, when it’s whine o’clock, it’s wine o’clock.

And then, for when one might get distracted, or interrupted…

The Sharper Image® Wine Vacuum Seal Wine Preserver. One should never let a good wine go bad.

Before I start sounding a lush, I better change up somethings. Let’s move on to electronics, shall we?

I need one of these. You’ve let me down in Christmas’ past.

I NEED this Nikon – D7000 16.2-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera with an 18-105mm Lens. It’s necessary. Please don’t let me down again, Claus.

And I am going to need a few things to go along with it. Like one of these flexible Gorillapod things:

 

And, I will need something pretty to put it all in, like one of these by Snugglens on Etsy:

Oh so pretty.

Of course, I need an iPad and a new MacBook Air, too. But I don’t really have to picture those do I?

I’m sure you know I stay up quite late getting my blogging in, I really need a new coffee maker. I am thinking the Wolfgang Puck Espresso & Cappuccino Maker will do.

And finally, what list would be complete without a little something in a blue box.

It’s the Tiffany Metro Five-Row Ring, in case you’re wondering.

I will be eagerly awaiting all these things Christmas morning.

Much Love,

ME

One-Item Holiday Wish List: Kindle

A few years ago my Husband and I came up with an ingenious money-and-relationship-saving plan:  We stopped exchanging gifts.  This had the upside of not spending money on gifts and trying to guess what the other wanted under the tree, and the downside of all the joy of Christmas being sucked the hell out.  It was all about the spirit of the season and family and crap like that.  It’s a Christmas miracle that we’ve avoided a massacre thus far.

This year, I’m being more bold.

I WANT A KINDLE.

I’m worried that I’m the last person in America to get one, and that if I buy it for myself, all sorts of alarms will go off and a parade of mockers will come out and point their fingers at me, so it’s a good thing to put on my “to be gifted” list.

I’ve resisted a Kindle for a while because of some prehistoric attachment to paper, and the love of “flipping pages” but I have to face facts:  I do  most of my reading on the train, and often I hesitate to bring a big, heavy book.  Because if it’s between reading material and a herniated disc, I’m afraid I’m going to have to go with health and safety.

And it doesn’t help that everyone I know who has one keeps raving about it.  And a few of my friends have even let me touch theirs.  It’s light and fun and the text is readable and I’m tired of lugging around my papyrus scrolls.

So, yes.  This holiday season I want a Kindle.  And if you could throw in some world peace, that would great.
The Kindle is available from Amazon.com.  Let me know if you’d like shipping information.

Feature image by Kevin Dooley

15 Ideas for Graduation Gifts for Women

Holy crap, it’s May.  How did that happen?

As the days get warmer and Christmas becomes a distant memory, no doubt your mailbox will soon be filling up with graduation announcements.  Yes, further reminder that time has flown by and it’s time to start thinking about ideas for graduation gifts.  High school and College graduations have begun and chances are good that someone you know will be in need of a graduation gift in the next month.

Of course, you can always stick money in a card and call it a day – or you can go the extra mile and make sure your money doesn’t go towards beer and take out.

Read more

10 Gift Ideas for a Housewarming Party

Over on my personal blog today, I’m hosting an online housewarming party for a friend of mine who just moved to Florida.  Like any internet savvy woman, she’s made an Amazon Wish List for herself so that we all have loads of ideas of things to buy for her new house.

If only ever party invitation we got came with a link to an Amazon Wish List!

Alas, no.  More often than not we have to use our own noggins and try to guess what would make the perfect gift for someone else’s new home.

10 Housewarming Gift Ideas:

Alora Ambience Reed Diffuser

The rental company that manages my friend’s new home used these amazing reed diffusers.  It was the very first thing we noticed when we walked into the house.

The verde scent smells like fresh cut grass and makes you feel like you’re standing in a clean home on a crisp spring day.

It’s to die for.

It’s also expensive as hell and not the kind of thing most people would buy for themselves.  Even in my own home I stick with Bath & Bodyworks Wallflower units.  I’m ashamed to say this – but these smell much better than anything I’ve ever used before.

Available online from Alora Ambiance.

Read more

Next Page »