Valentine’s Gift Ideas

Engrave your True Feelings this Valentine’s Day

Give an Apple with Signature gift wrapping and message

Have your Apple product shipped in our beautiful signature gift box with a red ribbon, along with a personalized greeting card. It’s a thoughtful touch if you can’t be there to see them open it in person.

And even better if you’re there to watch their faces light up. Gift wrapping is available for select Apple products and accessories, including all iPod and certain iPad and Mac notebook models.

This Coach Business Brief is Long on Style and Function

This soft leather Coach business brief features strong hardware, versatile carrying options and, obviously, an elegant and distinguished style.

This brief is large enough to fit a 15” laptop. However, it will not protect your computer from a hard bump or drop.
Complimentary hangtag monogramming is available.

• Retro glove tanned leather
• Inside zip, cellphone and multi-function pockets
• Outside front zip pocket
• Buckle closure, fabric lining
• Leather handles with 2” drop
• 15 1/4 (L) x 11 (H) x 4
• Large enough to fit a 15” laptop; please carry with care, as this item will not protect your computer from a hard bump or drop.

Limited Edition baseball-inspired Leather from Coach

This is just one product of “A limited-edition collection in glove-tanned leather, inspired by the sport that inspired Coach.”  For more details, Click HERE.

This limited edition wallet was hand-assembled and precisely stitched using genuine glove-tanned leather—a handsomely grained version of the Coach original, baseball-inspired leather first introduced in 1958.

Here is just one of the Coach products in the Heritage baseball collection. It features full-length billfold compartments with credit card and multifunction pockets.  4 1/4″ (L) x 3 3/4″ (H)

Grand Slam! Authentic Baseball Bat Bottle Openers

Uncommon Goods offers unique gifts, many handmade and/or using recycled materials such as authentic game-day Major League baseball bats.

Gift boxed with a story card with instructions regarding its special hologram number. For more info, click HERE.

Each  is gift boxed with a story card with instructions regarding its special hologram number. Bats from the USA, hardware from China. Assembled in the USA.

You’re Framed!

Frame your loved ones with this bicycle-chain photo frame. Click here for more details.

Bicycles aren’t just for riding.  They can be recycled into such gifts such as this photo frame.

The Missing Link In Recycling
Graham Bergh and his team of gifted artisans in Mosier, Oregon.  Each month they collect 3,000 pounds of used bicycle parts, drawing from 150 shops in 17 states. The pieces that still have life in them are donated to a local non-profit group that teaches bicycle repair to children.

The ones that are beyond repair are polished and made various items.

Handmade in Oregon.  Materials: metal    Two sizes:  4×6 frame: 6.5″ H x 4.5″ W  and  5×7 frame: 7.5″ H x 5.5″ W

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Gift Ideas for a “Teatotaller”

Put the Kettle on and Relax

No need for a tea party when you own this bit of china:  Royal Albert Cheeky Pink Tea-for-One.

Relax with a cuppa anytime with this tea set for one.

An added feature is that while the tea brews in the pot, it warms the teacup below.

From Royal Albert’s popular New Country Roses collection, the 16 oz. teapot with matching teacup and saucer features 22-carat gold trim.

This design not exactly your cup of tea? How about this out-of-this world design?

Dr. Who fans will recognize The TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), a time machine and spacecraft featured in the BBC Science Fiction Television series.

As any self respecting Whovian knows, the TARDIS can transport its occupants to any point in time and any place in the universe… then again The Doctor is not the best driver so who knows where he and his trusty assistant will land?

Like the real TARDIS, this teapot is bigger on the inside than one might expect.  Click here for more details

Now everyone can transport themselves to another place in time by brewing some tea.  Like chocolate, tea fixes any and every problem right?  Plus, it’s a nice start to the day… a delightful break in the afternoon… and a comfort after a long day.

This tea mug with lid is a perfect companion to the TARDIS tea pot.

With any tea set  there is a matching tea cup.

If you are someone who just likes things simple, then the Brown Betty is for you.

This teapot is a favorite because it results in a perfect up a tea due to its shape.  When boiling water is added, the tea leaves gently swirl creating the most desired flavor.

Handmade in Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire, England, the Brown Betty is made of red clay with a Rockingham glaze.  The  36-oz. pot brews six cups. 6 1/4″ high.  To clean, hand wash and air dry.

These teapots are handmade in Stoke-on-Trent, home of the Brown Betty since the 1600s. (It also comes in blue.)

Find out more about Stoke-on-Trent, the City fondly known as The Potteries:   Click here.  

Then again, if you are a traditionalist and want to impress, there is the silver tea set  such as the one pictured below, available at Replacements.com.

Serve a spot of tea with this silver tea set. 

You’ll love this heart-shaped teapot.

This red porcelain pot has a heart-shaped lid and platinum trim. It holds 32 oz. 6 ¾” wide from handle to lip, 6 ½” high.  For more info, click here.

Have a private tea-party for two with this stackable tea set, which is a charming addition to any kitchen. Hand-wash.

Enjoy a spot of tea with your sweetheart. 

It’s the most Emmy-nominated British TV show in history. Over 5 million viewers tuned in for the second season finale on PBS. The third season is now available.

Measurements:
* Stacked: 9″h
* Cup: 3″ diameter; 2.25″h
* Kettle: 3″ diameter; 5″h
Content & Care:
* Porcelain
* Hand wash
* Imported

In an effort to create the perfect cup of tea, this 34 oz. teapot is fashioned from clear glass so you can watch the tea steeping.  Once it reaches the desired strength, press the plunger of its infuser to instantly halt the brewing process, preventing the tea from tasting bitter. The hand-blown borosilicate glass, which was developed for laboratory use, combines extreme heat resistance with high clarity and durability. The handle provides a cool, comfortable hold, and the spout pours neatly. The lid is stainless steel.

The stainless-steel infuser provides plenty of space for the tea leaves to release their full flavor. It can also be used for holding (and easily removing) tea bags. Click HERE for more.

Find more unique and functional teapot at www.crookedbrains.net

This London telephone box teapot found on www.crookedbrains.net

Perfume for Book Lovers

Word for the Day:

bib·li·o·phile
/ˈbiblēəˌfīl/
Noun
A person who collects or has a great love of books.

Read All About It and Smell Like it Too!

Art comes in all forms — paper and perfume. Click here to get both.

This is a bibliophile’s dream come true… and, perhaps the best marketing campaign for a perfume that sounds like it might smell like my grandmother’s attic: old and musty.

The price is no joke.  This little bottle here sells for $98.  Don’t believe me?  Check it out for yourself HERE.

But before you totally dismiss this gift, which was launched in Milan of 2012, take in account that it is not just a perfume but a book as well… put together in “collaboration with fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, Wallpaper magazine, avant-garde perfumer Geza Schoen, and German fine-art publisher Gerhard Steidl” among others.

Paper Passion boasts of having the “chic and wearable smell of a freshly printed book” while including essays by Lagerfeld, Schoen, Wallpaper editor Tony Chambers, and Nobel laureate Gunter Grass.

Perfume: 50 ml. Book: 4 ½” x 6″.

Chocolate Mousse

Frugal Feeding.com  Serves some Great Recipes

Mocha Mousse by Frugal Feeding.com

Frugal Feeding creator, author and photographer

Your valentine will fall in love with the Chocolate Mousse featured in Frugal Feeding.com, if not with you. But how can someone resist a person who can make this creation?

There is also a Mocha Mousse recipe.

The Frugal Feeding site contains various recipes with easy-to-follow instructions, complete with stunning photography by the gentleman pictured above.

Check out his Frugal Feeding website today!

 

What’s Playing

Movies to Check out for Valentine’s Day… or whenever you’re Bored

On a cold night, snuggle under the covers and enjoy. And, you could even watch a movie too!

Insomnia has been labelled as a negative.  However, it has introduced me to some films I would’ve otherwise never seen.  Sure, some have had me shaking my head with frustration screaming “I’ll Never Get these Two Hours Back!”    Yet others made me feel half-way justified for denying much-needed rest.

Now this is not your average list filled with classics we all know and love like Gone with the Wind, any Jane Austen-inspired film, the over-rated Titantic, the  3 romantic comedies starring  Doris Day and Rock Hudson and the weepy An Affair to Remember, along with its remakes including the lazily written Sleepless in Seattle.
No, this litany of films is a bit different.

Placed in no particular order, here is the sampling:

In the Romantic-Comedy Category:

1.  The Decoy Bride   After the regeneration of Dr. Who,  David Tennant went on to star in this little gem alongside Kelly MacDonald and Alice Eve.

The charming David Tennant

Tennant plays a writer joining his actress fiancée (Alice Eve) to a remote Scottish location which is featured in his latest book.  Surprisingly the writer knows very little about the place which the locals are only too “helpful” to point out.  Nevertheless, this is where the bride wants to finally tie the knot.  In order to hide from the paparazzi, village resident Kelly MacDonald  is hired as a decoy.  Comedy ensues.

2. Jane Eyre   Keeping with a Dr. Who theme, this movie/BBC mini-series starring “Lord President” Timothy Dalton is one to watch.

Timothy Dalton as Bond, James Bond.

Maybe I’m a sucker for James Bond but Dalton’s portrayal of Mr. Rochester made this remake one of my favorites.  He is proud man yet shows signs of vulnerability.  Great work.

3. The MatchMaker is a delightful film starring Janeane Garofalo. In this film the cynical Garofalo shows a softer side with wonderful results.

Buddy Movies:

1.  Hot Fuzz  The trio that brought you Shaun of the Dead and Spaced with Jessica Hynes  reunite for this action-packed comedy.  Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright  give you plenty of action, humor and heart in this love story to Hollywood “cop movies.”  Timothy Dalton is delicious as one of the suspects.

2.  Muriel’s Wedding  Before she was a movie mom or the United States of Tara, Toni Collette played the ABBA loving wedding-obsessed girl.  Regardless of what she does, you are rooting for her.

A Different Kind of Love:

3. Children of the Revolution  This is a comedy about a woman in love with Stalin (yep, Joseph Stalin).  Really, it is a comedy… starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill, who worked together previously in the much lauded film, My Brilliant Career.  Actress Rachel Griffiths, who is featured in Muriel’s Wedding, co-stars.

Queeny and the Mad Hatter: Coincidence?

4. Suck   Forget the Twilight series.  Writer/Director/Actor Rob Stefaniuk offers us a vampire love story starring Jessica Paré and Queeny the vampire. It’s more about the lust of a band wanting to make it big in the music business with a bit of blood mixed in.  It’s a bit quirky and becomes more entertaining (and gory) as it moves along.

Plus, this film makes one wonder… did Johnny Depp borrow Quenny’s look for his Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter? Who is this Rob Stafaniuck guy and how does he know all this people?
Who knows?  Who cares?  It’s just fun to count the various celeb cameos… and see poor Hugo suffer his plight as a modern-day Renfield.

5. The Royal Tenenbaums   This Wes Anderson directed movie features a quirky family which produced three child prodigies.  The children, now adults, come back home as a result of tragic news.  As in Anderson’s films, relationships are the heart of the matter.

Is this your Glass Slipper?

6. Dogfight   Set in 1963, a young man (River Phoenix) and his buddies are celebrating their last night in the States before being shipped off to fight in Vietnam.  The viewers join Phoenix from the moment he meets the Lili Taylor character, a “girl with a great personality” until he ships off.  Stay with this one.  It is well worth it.

Rachel Griffiths and Toni Collette star in Muriel’s Wedding.

7. Mirror Has Two Faces  Babs does it again.  In her Oscar winning performance as the real-life comedienne/Ziegfeld Follies girl Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Ms. Streisand, as with Brice, got the guy with her charms and “nontraditional” good looks.
But in the end Fanny Brice dumped her gambling husband so maybe getting the guy wasn’t so great after all?

Real life is nothing like the movies.

To get a more varied and professional view, read the entertaining and educational book 10 Bad Dates with DeNiro, a book of Alternative Movie Lists, edited by Richard T. Kelly with illustrations by Andrew Rae. 

Good Grief, Charlie Brown!

Learn more about the Peanuts gang and Charles M. Schultz by clicking here and here.

Sugar Cookies

Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes

3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 TBsp. vanilla

Roll into balls and press with sugared glass.  Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes.

If desired, use colored sugar to add a more festive flavor to your dessert.

EMELI SANDÉ – Next to Me

Check out this talented UK singer below and on the Song page.

Follow Emeli:
http://twitter.com/emelisande
http://facebook.com/emelisande
http://emelisande.com/

Maze Puzzle – Try to Find Love

Work your way through the maze to find love.

The Perfect Valentine Song????

Silly Love Songs

Transport yourself to the ’70s with a click of a button.  Paul McCartney & Wings perform this catchy tune.

Regardless if you think this song is too sugary and pop, you have to admit that Paul and Linda were one of the best examples of true love — and you can’t make ridicule that.