You’re surfing the Internet, and you need to write something down. What could be more handy than this 6″ x 8″, 50-sheet mouse pad with personalization in black ink? Goodbye boring black or grey mouse pads and post-it notes; hello, cute and personalized mouse/note pad!
This is the perfect gift for the computer savvy girl in all of us!
Buy It: Neiman Marcus
Cost: $39.00
While the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints are revving up their engines for this Sunday’s Super Bowl, party planners and cooks nationwide are revving up their menus — along with their ovens and BBQs — for their own Super Bowl Sunday feasts.
Here are the top suggestions for how to host a fun and exciting Super Bowl party at your own home:
1. Invite family and friends over to watch the Super Bowl with you. If your team isn’t in the Super Bowl, then just pick a team to support, or just have everyone support their favorite team. Have everyone bring a food item. And enjoy the game and excitement of the Super Bowl, which only comes once a year.
2. When you have a Super Bowl party, don’t be biased about who cheers for what team. It’s often more fun if there is a rivalry! Make both sides comfortable and welcome (even if they are a Cardinals fan).
3. Keep the food hot and accessible all through the evening. And have a wet bar available for refreshments. Have a big cake for the team you want to win. My recipe is Pace Salsa and I cut up tomatoes, pepper, onion, and add ketchup, and a little horseradish, sour cream, mix and serve Guacamole too
4. My favorite party tip is; DON’T FORGET THE KIDS! Always plan two parties, one for the super bowl in the living room and one for the kids in the playroom. They also have special snacks and games to play!
Here are some great links for entertaining tips too:
ABC
Martha Stewart
eHow
I’ve never worn a Pierre Cardin piece, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the man behind the French fashion empire. And here’s a book — Pierre Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation ($75) by Jean-Pascal Hesse — to help educate. It highlights the Italian-born French designer’s work, all 60 fabulous years of it. Cardin, now 87, is praised for proving that fashion can be an art and a successful business. Fun fact: Cardin created the bubble dress in 1954.
The Cardin fashion house will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2010, an occasion that calls for a retrospective of the work of its founder, designer Pierre Cardin. Born in 1922 in Sant’Andrea de Barbarana, Venice province, Pierre Cardin immigrated to Paris in 1924 with his parents, who were thrown into poverty by World War I. After working briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli, Cardin joined Dior in 1946 and opened his own couture house in 1950.
Buy It: Pierre Cardin
Cost: $75.00
How about this: Socks for your chairs?
Socks for your chairs you ask? Yup, 4 to be precise. Argyle, Tube, Striped, whatever your heart or personal style desires.
Slide them on your legs – your chairs legs that is – and trust us, you’ll have a conversation starter in seconds. They also work wonders in the boardroom, or any old meeting room that you want to add a little flair to.
The socks are about 5.9″ (15 cm) long and if the chairs legs have a circumference between 4.3″ – 5.3″ (11-13,5 cm), then they’ll fit perfectly.
Buy It: Charles and Marie
Cost: $20.00
Say it with booze. Toast-Its are greeting cards that wrap around wine bottles, for a smart alternative to traditional wine bags and boxes. These greetings get noticed, make tongues wag and make your bottle stand apart in the crowd.
What’s more, Toast-Its have a smart design that includes an area for a personalized greeting that stays with the bottle even when the rest of the bottle is unwrapped–so your host or hostess will remember your thoughtfulness even when the bottle is corked.
Wine may have a nose, but it also has a mouth. Let is speak with Toast-Its.
Buy It: Toast-Its
Cost: $3.99 + free shipping
Saint Cupcake, the Portland, OR, based cupcake shop has taken to the skies and is now available for custom cupcake orders! Boutique cupcakes have been the trendy editable gift for a while now….and yet again, here is another cupcake bakery making the news and becoming trendy and cute! For those of you who aren’t in a major metropolitan city where boutique cupcake shops are around every corner, Saint Cupcake affords you the fedex luxury of shipping the lil treats to your doorstep. Another great feature is that they offer vegan cupcakes (for the vegan foodies out there)!
How to order:
1. Choose between a 3-pack, 6-pack or 12-pack of cupcakes
2. Choose your flavor of cupcake (carrot, chocolate,pumpkin spice, vanilla, vanilla choc chip, vanilla toffee, vegan vanilla and vegan chocolate)
3. Choose your flavor of frosting (choc buttercream, cream cheese, hot fudge, mint buttercream,vanilla buttercream, vegan vanilla, vegan chocolate)
4. Choose you flavor of sprinkles (too many to list…smirk)
5. Choose how to accesorize (bday pack, special occasion decorations — think blue babies and pink babies)
** the ordering process is really slick and easy to use…its just a drap-and-drop template with great, yummy, pictures!
These cupcakes are perfect for baby showers, birthday parties, or just for fun!
Buy It: Saint Cupcake
Cost: 3-pack = $10.00 + shipping; 6-pack = $17.50 + shipping; 12-pack = $25.00 + shipping
For the nesting, DIY girl in all of us, adding bright colorful items to our room or house fills us with a sense of home. And what better time to reshape your living quarters than the new year! Urban Outfitters is a fantastic store to finds eclectic odds and ends and this Gypsy Chandelier doesn’t disappoint! This ornate chandelier adds a touch of class to any room and is dripping with faceted acrylic jewels. It sports a detailed body–5 curved candelabra-style light fixtures radiating out from the center on curved spokes–and a scalloped top.
Jazz up your home in 2010!
Buy It: Urban Outfitters
Cost: $78.00
The Powermat is a slim and sleek new way to wirelessly charge all your favorite devices from one power source without the tangled mess of wires. A magnetic attraction between every receiver and each access point on every mat assures that alignment is precise and the most efficient charging will occur—it’ll be as fast or faster than the original power adapter.
The dandy “power-parking” mat delivers an exact amount of power for the proper length of time so that the transfer of power is safe and efficient and no energy is ever wasted, aka, it’s nice to the environment. Furthermore, the mat has four charging positions–three wireless, and one wired USB connector for charging a fourth device (iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, and computer). Voila!
Buy It: Amazon
Cost: $99.00
When the weather outside is frightful, celebrate inside with a cup of something spirited. From a Crème Brulee Martini to a fabulous Champagne Punch, these palette-pleasing cocktail recipes will satisfy everyone on your guest list.
The Creme Brulee Martini sounds particularity festive and delicious. Try adding the cream if the martini is a substitute for dessert; if it’s for cocktail hour skip the cream. Also, try rimming the edge of the martini glasses in brown sugar.
Ingredients:
1 ounce vanilla-flavored vodka
1 ounce Frangelico
1/2 ounce Cointreau
Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Stir gently and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Other holiday cocktails here!
