Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Mother's Day is soon approaching on Sunday, May 8th.  Here are some gift ideas to help you in your shopping - and make sure to remember your Grandmothers too! 

Coffee & tea travel cups from my recent blog post you can find here. 

I posted about Ame & Lulu golf accessories previously here but they also sell great tennis, yoga, travel accessories and luggage.  Here are a couple of my favorite bag combinations:

A new J. McLaughlin tote bag which I posted about previously here. 

Beautiful jewelry, including a monogram necklace from the PRADMAN store on Etsy.  I got one of these gold necklaces with my new married initials as a gift from my sister and brother-in-law and I love it!  You could give a new mom a necklace with her baby's initials.

My mom loves fresh flowers more than anyone I know and I'm sure would like the gift of a monthly flower delivery!  Here is a flower of the month club gift idea from ProFlowers which was voted as "best value" by the Wall Street Journal.  You can pick from 3, 6 or 12 month options.  Or, another flower gift idea could be to get her this spring bulb flower garden which includes 5 tulips, 3 hyacinths and 2 narcissus from Plow & Hearth that looks like this:

My mom also loves shoes more than anyone I know.  Over the years, whenever I was unsure of what to get her for her birthday or Mother's Day, I went with shoes!   One year she had talked about wanting a cute pair of everyday sneakers so I got her these Puma "Mostro Perf" sneakers from Nordstrom.  That same year, we ended up giving another pair to my grandmother for Christmas since she liked my moms, liked the good grippage on their soles, and liked how their velcro closure made them easy for her to slip on and off - pretty cool for an 87 year old to wear, right?!  Last year I got my mom a pair of metallic Jack Roger sandles because they are one of my spring and summer wardrobe staple!

For any mom who loves sparkling water you could get her a SodaStream Sparkling Water Maker from Williams-Sonoma: 

Here are some great personalized tote bags from Ballard Designs for the mom on the go:

 
Last but not least, if you live locally to your mom and grandmother(s), I'm sure they would love nothing more than the gift of your time.  You could invite them for a girls shopping/lunch day, to a day spa, to play golf, or any other ideas you have that would involve hanging out and treating them to something fun!  Or, if you don't live near each other, you can give them a gift certificate from Spa Finder and they can pick to apply that gift certificate at a spa near where they live.  Who wouldn't enjoy some pampering? 

Earring Organization

I love earrings.  A lot.  However my earrings were in desperate need of some organization.  This past weekend I stopped into Marshalls and the second I saw the below earring stand for only $9.99 I knew I had to have it.  They had a bunch of these in stock so maybe the Marshalls near you has some too!

As you can see from this "before" photo, my earrings were living all over my dresser without rhyme or reason.  Some were in a travel jewelry holder (permanently), some were in a ceramic bowl, and some were in a little white cardboard box.  Not pretty and difficult to keep track of.

The "before" shot:

The "after" shot:


Much better!



The Easter Bunny Has Good Taste

The Easter Bunny brought me a fun box filled with lots of goodies, including some Stonewall Kitchen treats.  I absolutely love their balsamic fig salad dressing and now I'm excited to try their apple balsamic salad dressing too.  PRG loves their strawberry balsamic jam so I think I'll have to share that one...




What a pretty box!



Stonewall Kitchen goodies



Happy Easter Weekend!

PRG and I are off to my parents' house in CT for the weekend.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter! 

Red Wine Transformation

Who would have thought it was possible to transform a mediocre wine into something enjoyable?  Certainly not me...until I received a red wine aerator for my b-day. This magical device instantly strips out the harsh aspects found in most inexpensive wines and makes them much more smooth.   I'm not saying this is going to transform Mad Dog Red Grape into Duckhorn, but it does make a substantial difference in the character and taste of the wine it's used with.  My love of finding budget-friendly wines at the under-$20 price point makes the Vinturi Red Wine Aerator a near necessity. This is, without a doubt, worth the $40 investment and would serve as a great gift for any wino! 

-PRG

Easter Tablesetting Inspiration

Kate from Party Resources was kind enough to ask me to guest blog post an idea for an Easter tablesetting.  Below is a picture of the collage I created and details on where you can pick up each of the items included can be found on her site here.  Thanks, Kate!   For those of you who don't already know about Party Resources, I would encourage you to visit her site to get fantastic entertaining ideas, recipes, and more!

New Baby Gift Ideas

This past weekend I was in Chicago visiting my best friend CGP who just had a baby boy.  It was so much fun to finally meet her new son in person and get to spend some quality time with them!  Here are two of the gifts I've given CGP for her new baby that I want to share in hopes they might come in handy for you down the road.  Both of these ideas are from Etsy which has definitely become one of my favorite places to shop online!

Custom Birth Announcement Wall Art from mosieposies:

All you have to do is message mosieposies with the colors you want used, the new baby's name, and the
baby's birth weight/length/time/location and they send you a proof for review, it's so easy!

Monthly Baby Onesie Stickers from babycakesdesignco:

Just apply these monthly stickers to a plain onesie and take monthly photos to watch your baby grow and track the changes.  This would be a great baby shower gift for a mom-to-be!

The stickers don't need to be ironed on - you just stick them onto the onesie and then peel them off .

Off to Bask in Some Sunshine

PRG and I are headed to Puerto Rico in the morning.  I can't wait to get some r&r and spend a few days in warm sunshine! 

 

Preppy Fabrics Touted in a Good Old-Fashioned Magazine

I don't know about you, but flipping through the pages of a real, tangible magazine is one of my favorite things to do.  I know there are websites for everything these days, and there certainly are some really fantastic home decor websites and online magazines out there, but even the best e-zine can't replace a good old-fashioned paper magazine in my mind.  Needless to say, I was very sad to see Domino's print subscription fold, and you can imagine how happy I was when I recently purchased a subscription to House Beautiful magazine with an Amazon.com gift card I received.  (By the way, who knew you could buy magazine subscriptions thru Amazon.com?  You learn something everyday.)

As I was reading the latest issue, I came across an article titled "13 Fun, Preppy Fabrics".  The article went on to say "Preppy is back.  With designs ranging from argyle, seersucker, and cable knit, consider this a handbook on how to bring the happy look into your home." 

My initial thought was, when did it ever go away?  But I guess that's beside the point.  For anyone who happens to have the April 2011 issue on-hand, you can read where to get each of the below fabrics on page 32. 



Colorful Gift Ideas

Here are some colorful ideas to keep filed away...a little variety of things to keep in mind should you need some gifting help down the road.

I have to thank the Chic Geek blog for this great idea.  These are called Eco Chic Cups and they are re-usable 16 fl. oz. ceramic coffee and/or tea cups with silicone lids and sleeves.  And, to top it all off, they are dishwasher & microwave safe. 

Blue Floral ECO Cup from Amazon
Red Ikat, Blue Ikat and Spring Floral ECO cups from South Moon Under

Check out this striped Sharp Hill Designs "Grace" clutch with a bow that's both pretty and functional!  It comes in navy or red. 

I love these personalized monthly calendars from the Stationary Studio, and you can have your year of calendars start at any month you would like!  One of these adorns my desk at work and it definitely adds some fun color to my workspace.

Monogrammed cell phone case covers from the Dani Notes Stationary store on Etsy: 

These snap onto any iPhone or Verizon 3G phone to
protect and personalize!  Each one is custom-made so you
can pick the design, color, monogram and font of your choice!