Shopping Site for the Hard to Gift People in Your Life

Phew, things have been busy.  My husband still travels for work all week every week so I'm at home with a 3 year old and a 17 month old - I couldn't be happier but finding time to blog and do things for myself is a rare occurrence.  We are finally feeling a little more settled in our new house in Raleigh, NC and now that everyone is getting a little more sleep, the boxes are all unpacked and life has settled into a routine, I'm really starting to get my groove back.  I struggled for a while with the transition from working to stay at home mom, living in a new place and adjusting to life with a husband on the road and two VERY active children to care for.   But, in the end, I do think the big move was the right thing for our family.  I feel like my blood pressure has dropped significantly not having to fight traffic and rush hour every day and just having a slower, simpler pace of life.

I have so many things I want to blog about and so new ideas for things to come (if I can wrangle the time to get to it) but for now, I wanted to share a new-to-me website that I came across in case any of you are struggling for any hard-to-buy-for friends or family members.

I am so, so, so, SO excited that the holiday season is upon us and as usual, it is flying by much too quickly!  I don't even know how Halloween and Thanksgiving are already over.  I usually pride myself on starting Christmas shopping VERY early so that I am mostly done come December.  I do have a head start this year but the difference is that I am not out and about shopping as much as I used to be since I always have at least one kid in tow.  So, like many of us who are busy working, watching kids, or just want to avoid crowded places and too many people, I have become an avid online shopper.  I truly can't imagine what life was like prior to Amazon Prime.  I digress.

Anyway, I am feeling okay about my Christmas shopping so far but there are a couple of people on my shopping list (namely my husband) who are extremely difficult to buy for.  If you ask my husband what he wants, he'll just tell you a BestBuy gift card.  I mean, fine, but how BORING is that to open on Christmas morning.  Not to mention, I want him to be a little surprised.  I pride myself on not just buying gifts for people just out of obligatory Christmas duty - I truly love giving the perfect gift and being excited about watching the recipient open it up.

I recently came across a foodie's paradise of a website, Food52.  As many of you know, my husband has become the chef around here these days and has really gotten into cooking.  But this site has so many beautiful and unique gifts that you don't need to be an avid food-lover to enjoy it.  Here are a few of my favorite picks:

Vintage French Decanters: So elegantly beautiful yet practical.  These would be lovely displayed empty or containing a tasty beverage.

Vintage French Ice Buckets: And if liquors aren't your thing, these Vintage French Ice Buckets are just as beautiful as the decanters (above) and would be a great gift to anyone who entertains on the regular.

Sculptural Throw Pillows: These handwoven pillows are so neutral so they are easy to give regardless of the color scheme the recipient may have.  The texture just works SO well.  And I love the shape which adds another element to spice up the neutrality of these.

Plant and Flower Cookbooks: Part cookbook, part coffee table book.  Two beautiful gifts in one.  Even someone who doesn't love to cook can appreciate the beauty of these.  Oh and did I mention they are signed copies?  Something even more special. 

Morrocan Wine Glasses: A little masculine and again very practical - no stems to break off in the dishwasher and very comfortable to hold.  I love entertaining with this type of glass.  It's also versatile enough to serve water or another cocktail.  Looks great on many different styles of table settings and a range of seasons.

Cast Iron Tomato Cocotte: Another practical and gorgeous gift.  This is a pot so beautiful that you can leave on your stove top year-round.  And what a stunner!

Gold Dipped Pink Pinch Bowls: Even non-cooks could find a practical purpose in these delicate little pinch bowls.  Would be perfect to hold jewelery or other trinkets as well as spices.  And if pink isn't your thing, there are some other beautiful colors available as well.

Animal Magnets and Card Holders: Super cute to hold up kids artwork or photos on the fridge but these also handily double as card holders for meal placecards, cheese trays or buffets.  And I'll bet the guests won't soon forget them!

Hope this might give you a little inspiration for those hard to gift people in your life.  Cheers! xo

#food52 #holidaygiftideas #foodiegiftideas #christmasshopping

Maira Kalman: Book Love

I saw this artwork on Pinterest and was intrigued.  I thought that Maira Kalman must be an artist and I wanted to see more of her work.  Come to find out - she's an author!

Are these not just the cutest children's books you've ever seen?  I think they'd make great unique gifts.  Look at some of the covers:

There's adult books too.  I'm intrigued enough to order one of my new ipad, I think!

All found at Maira Kalman's site.

Little Bee

If you're looking for something to read, try Little Bee.  You won't regret it.  Per the book cover, I'm not supposed to share with you any more details...just read it.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Today would have been my Mom's birthday.  Not a day goes by that I don't miss her but it is especially hard on this day. 

I finished reading The Secret Life of Bees just the other day and it couldn't have been  more timely given what this day means to me.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  I"m adding the movie to my Netflix queue asap.  Anyway, without giving too much away, the story is about a young white girl and how she and her black housekeeper escape an abusive father and a jail sentence, respectively.  They flee to Tiburon, SC and live with a household of black sisters who are also beekeepers.  The little girl lost her mother when she was young and is trying to do everything she can to connect with her mother - despite the fact her father repeatedly told her that her mother didn't love her and that she left her.  It does to me have an upbeat and enlightening ending just so you don't think I'm all doom and gloom!  My favorite quote from the book was this:

You have to find a mother inside yourself.  We all do.  Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside.

It's true.  No matter how many people are around you that love you and support you, you have to first love yourself.  I hope one day I can have children and bestow on them all the love my mom gave my brother and I.  In the meantime, with the memory of my own mother strong, I need to find a mother inside of myself.

Even more timely, my sweet mother in law sent me an email today with this poem attached (she had no idea it was my Mom's birthday):

Mother-In-Law’s Prayer

Teach me to speak or to hold my tongue

when silence is divine

Help me, I pray, to understand

this newfound child of mine.

Keep me from taking bitter sides

or adding angry flames.

Teach me to leave them both alone

like children at their games.

Teach me to be a friend in deed

whose smile they’re glad to share.

Never too near yet never too far

this is my humble prayer.

Heart of the Matter

If you haven't read Emily Giffin and you are looking for an entertaining end of summer beach read then look no further.  My friend Reeves introduced me to Emily Giffin's books.  The first one was Something Borrowed, Something Blue.  By far the best one.  But her other ones have all been page turners.  My friend Liz has named all of Emily Giffin's books by the color of their jacket.  "Greenie", "Pinky" and "Blue" were all good.  She just lent me Heart of the Matter, aka "Purple."  A really enjoyable book. 

I'm not going to mislead you and tell you this is anything other than well written chick lit but sometimes that is exactly what you need. 

To Swim or not to Swim.

Have you heard about Book Swim?  It's like Netflix for books.  I've been debating about the cost effiency of it for myself.

Pros:

• Books delivered to the house - shipping and handling included in the price which it isn't when I buy off Amazon.
• Deliver multiple books at one time.  In case I develop ADD and need to switch around. 
• Can check out lots of design books that I wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.

Cons:

• I can't keep the books to put on my shelves for my library with my sliding ladder that I'll have one day...

• How fast can I really read?  Between blogging, knitting, needlepointing, cooking, trying to exercise, travelling, etc., it seems like there are barely enough hours in the day as it is. 
• Do I really need to add one more bill when we're trying to pay things off??

What do you think?  Worth it or not?

The Sweet By and By

I'll give you some advance warning: Neither of these recommendations are particularly uplifting, nor cheerful.  They are, however, both meaningful, poignant stories that truly touched me.  And I came across both purely by accident - or luck.

When I was at the beach with my family, I was browsing through the Quarter Moon Bookstore in Topsail, NC (adorable if you ever get the chance to visit!) and came across The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson.  I clearly didn't read the back as well as I should have - I read something about five friends and set in NC and was sold.  If I had bothered to read the entire synopsis on the back cover, I would have realized that these friends were not your average chick lit subjects since the story took place in a Nursing Home in NC. 

The characters are witty, funny, and real.  It is not a typical book I would read but I ended up loving it.  One of the best things I took from the book was something one of the characters talked about: One of the worst things to think about/talk about is aging and death yet it is something we all go through.  For all those NC girls, it is also a fun read to hear about parts of our State! 

And, as if old people in a nursing home wasn't cheery enough, I got The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on Netflix last night.  It was one of those that Netflix more or less "picked" for me based on my ratings of similar genres.  I usually prefer reading about WWII as opposed to films because somehow it is almost too gruesome to watch but this movie was fascinating.  (And I found out when researching for this post that it was based on a book so I can only imagine that is a great read!) 

It was set in Germany during the Holocaust but told the story from the perspective of the son of a Nazi Officer.  Bruno is 8 years old and his father moves his family out to the country so that he can oversee a gruesome concentration camp.  Bruno is torn from his friends and the life that he knew but has a great imagination and makes the best of things by exploring all around the countryside.  He eventually finds his way to the concentration camp and sees a little boy in "striped pajamas" on the inside of the fence that he befriends.  I can't give too much more info but let me assure you this is a powerful, wonderful movie!

These are some serious bibliophiles and I dig it.

My friend Emily emailed me the other day about this site.  I hadn't had a chance to look at it until tonight.  And it was very timely since earlier today my boss was just bragging about his newly cleaned off bookshelves in his office.  It made me think I need to get to work on the ones in my house.

At any rate, these are some spectacular shelves/book arrangements.  I think Emily loves books as much as I love thinking about decorating.  So, needless to say, the name of the site is fitting for her - Bookshelf Porn.  Thanks to Emily for turning me on to it.  Ha ha. Get it?

Enough.  Look at the beauty of these books:

This was my personal favorite image.  Not sure how they did this but awesome nonetheless.

I feel like I'm looking at the set of the next Harry Potter movie.  Oh if only they would hurry up with that and NOT split it into two parts.  Annoying.  I digress...

This was Emily's favorite.  I bet I know why.  It kind of looks like it is on a boat, doesn't it?  Emily loves boats almost as much as books.  Or is it vice versa? 

You know how much I love a ladder in a library.

Oh yes, another ladder!

Secret passageway a la Clue.  Love it.

The Postmistress

I've had quite a few of you mention how much you liked Sarah's Key that I blogged about here.  So here's another read I'd recommend.

I've always been fascinated with WWII and the Holocaust and so I continued my reading this summer with The Postmistress, another story set in that era. 

I wouldn't say that this book was as good as Sarah's Key, but it was interesting and good in its own way.  Good, not great.  And if you are looking for an uplifting story - this probably isn't it.  My favorite thing about it was how it wove in people's seemingly separate lives into the same story and how they all came together at the end.

My synopsis would be too confusing so I'll offer you the write up from Amazon:

In 1940, the lives of three women could not be more different as war rages in Europe. Iris James, postmistress of Franklin, Massachusetts, believes in order and details. She takes great pride in her work. All communications in the town come through her. The whole system works because of the neat efficient system and the trust. She keeps all the secrets of the residents, but one day, she breaks with everything she has ever believed, slipping a letter into her pocket. Emma Trask, wife of the town's doctor Will Fitch, listens to all the radio broadcasts from London with her husband. When a tragedy provokes a change in her husband and a determination to go over to Europe, Emma guards herself against the tides of war raging across a distant ocean. In London, Frankie Bard, works with Edward R. Murrow. Frankie listens to Murrow's story advice, yet her spirit chafes against the all the strictures and protocol imposed on her. Feisty, fearless and somewhat brash, she wants to get out the truth and stir her listeners to action. In 1941, Frankie rides the trains out of Germany, reporting on the war, listening to the voices of the so-called refugees. As she sees the war unfolding from a different perspective, her whole idea about the story itself changes.
In THE POSTMISTRESS, Sarah Blake looks at World War II through the eyes of three distinct women all connected through means of private and public media. In many ways, THE POSTMISTRESS itself follows Frankie's conception of a news story as story and herein lies the beauty of the novel. Sarah Blake's novel does not follow the traditional concepts of a novel. THE POSTMISTRESS tells the story of World War II through the edges, in the lives of the three women and the events of their lives, often events that even seem unrelated to the larger scene playing out in the world. Indeed, the emotional impact of the story builds as Frankie stops trying to tell the truth of the war and listens to the voices of those around her. The "truth" of the war often emerges in the edges, in those stories told and unspoken by the press and even the characters to some extent. Although Sarah Blake draws on the history and historical figures of the times, THE POSTMISTRESS is not a historical novel filled with date and details from the history books. The reader will not find all the horrific details of the Holocaust or the London Blitz and yet, in telling the story through the edges of war scene, THE POSTMISTRESS allows the reader's imagination to enter the story. With the copious amount of World War II history and fiction published, readers undoubtedly are more than familiar with the main story of the War, and yet, THE POSTMISTRESS brings a freshness to the story. For this reader, THE POSTMISTRESS, is one of the first to tell the story of the trains from a viewpoint that truly engages imagination and emotion in both the details of individuals, sometimes even the characters for whom only a name and place is known, who might have experienced the events. Like Frankie's approach to the story, less is sometimes more. Equally, the conflicts and struggles of Emma Fitch and Iris James bring a whole other emotional dimension and texture to the story.


THE POSTMISTRESS is a wonderful blend of popular women's fiction and literary fiction. The novel gains more emotional power and intellectual interest as it progresses. The first part reads more like light women's fiction as the author introduces the three women whose lives will touch one another's. Frankie's development, however, guides the heart of the story, developing the lens through which the richness of the other characters emerges. The beginning of the story actually gains more relevance and emotional depth in hindsight, as Frankie's less traditional concept of a news story begins to cast the novel itself within a different framework. THE POSTMISTRESS is a story of women's lives, of life, death and love during WWII, and by end, a story about the art of storytelling itself.
 
If any of you read it, I'd be interested to know your thoughts!

Sarah's Key

One of the best books I've read in a long time.  If you're looking for a good read, I really recommend this. 

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Basic plot (as summarized by moi):

Sarah Starzynski and family are living in an apartment in Paris in July 1942 when she and her parents are taken by French police to a concentration camp in the middle of the night.  In order to protect her younger brother from being taken by the police, she locks him a cupboard in their secret hiding place, not thinking she wouldn't be back to let him out. 

Meanwhile...
American writer living in Paris with her French husband and daughter, Julia Jarmond is writing an article on the French roundup of Jewish families in Paris from 1942.  By chance, she discovers that the the apartment she is in the process of remodeling and getting ready to move into was once that of Sarah Starzynski's family.

I won't give away any more details but this was a page turner and a great read. 

The Find

I recently purchased and just finished reading (after I finished The Help which was fabulous!) The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decorating with Thrift Shop Treatsures, Flea Market Objects and Vintage Details. It had some inspiration but I'll be honest, there were more words than I cared to read and too few pictures. I mean, this is a design book after all. If you're gonna get this one, go used in my humble opinion.  Although, that says, I'm a fan of decorating with books and I like the size and the cover of this one so it does have more than one use!

Anyway, this further confirmed my appreciation for decopage artist and designer John Derian whose shop is based out of NYC. Here are a few images from his stores/line/designs that I find inspiring and interesting.

display image from a wall in the shop as seen on Apartment Therapy

also via Apartment Therapy.  I've never seen the equal to that bed!

yes, please.  pretty fotted bowls.

another shop image

an image from the John Derian studio as seen on Habitually Chic