What do you get for an engagement gift for a creative type-couple with a wacky sense of humor?

Check out this recycled bottle lamp. Not only can they customize it with their favorite bottled beverage (Grape Nehi, anyone?) but it’s sure to be a conversation piece as well as a lesson in conservation.

What can you find on Etsy? A community of artists who, as a whole, care about their customers and their products. I’ll be writing regular posts about my ETSY finds, both because of the unique selection of gifts available through the site, and because I think it’s important to support individual artists.

To start, I’d like to recommend Savor. Savor is the creation of Lisa, a computer tech and soapstress in Northern Cal who’s managed to fuse her love of cooking and her mastery of glycerin to create some really fabulous soap products.

If we lived in a land of giants, you could give this enormous fortune cookie to a friend and he’d be all, “What’s the big deal about this? It’s not even as big as my thumb. Ho ho ho.” And you’d be all, “I thought only Santa Claus said ‘ho ho ho’” and he’d be all, “No. Giants say it too. It’s the Green Giant’s trademark phrase.”

Thankfully, we do not live amongst giants–but I am equally thankful to live amongst these really big fortune cookies.

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to attend the Toy Wishes Magazine Holiday Preview 2008. During this event, toy companies big and small present their holiday offerings to the press. The magazine also announces its “Hot Dozen”–toys that after months of testing and analyzing, the magazine has predicted will be top sellers this year.
You can [...]

Ooh. Ah. Ooh. Ah. Glug. Burp.
Well, don’t you know. . .
That’s the sound of the men working on the (recycled bicycle) chain gang bottle opener.
$14 + shipping ($10 for 2 or more), at Resource Revival.

Hey, did you steal that title from a third season episode of the Brady Bunch?

Uh, yeah. Greg didn’t have enough “dough” to rent a studio to record his really groovy song “We Can Make the World a Whole Lot Brighter.”

Maybe that’s because he spent all his dough on this bread.
I think we’ve exhausted the [...]

My sister and I have this little joke: I find out she’s throwing a party to which I’m not invited, and I call her and tell her I’m busy that night. Then, on the actual night of the wine tasting or football-watching gathering or bbq, she has a great time with her friends and I [...]