Unique Shopping

Welcome, welcome to the holiday shopping season! Oh wait, that started a month ago according to retail decorations. I'm thankful right about now that I'm done shopping for Aidan and his brothers' Christmas gifts on my list, now just the adults and some home-spun gifts to finish off the rest of those I typically shop for. If you're on my list and reading this, I hope you won't be disappointed if your gift turns out to be cost-effectively home-made. Oh and here's a clue, if I do buy it retail it probably won't be featured here; I'm big on surprises.

I finally started catching up on my magazine reading (or skimming) and cracked open the December/January issue of Country Living. They have a wonderful section full of unique gift ideas titled "fresh picks". I checked a few of the sources out and found some really cool venues.

Sharing this here serves a few purposes:

• I love to share and discuss
• Creating this list allows me to recycle my magazine and not have stacks piling up (ok, I still have stacks, but less in them because of this).
• It serves as another blog post to keep me updating!

The first site I checked out was  the Curiosity Shoppe. Some of their items made me laugh out loud, literally. They have an octopus specimen in a jar! I wouldn't pay their price for him, but these kinds of anomalies are scattered around the site, varying from stocking stuffer prices to, well...not stocking prices at all.

Next, twine has interesting items, ranging from candles shaped like radios to trivets shaped like toast. Pretty nifty stuff.

 Orange and Pear sells items for the home, to wear, for baby, personalized things, etc.

An old favorite for unique items (not featured in CL this month) is the Container Store. They can be a bit pricey but if you're looking for a gift that stands out they have a few cool ideas this year. I like the straw glasses and the re-usable sandwich and snack bags.

Fireworks has a category called "Indescribable"! How cool is that? They are a bit on the pricey side, though.

I hopped on over to Karma Kiss. Among other things, they feature 310 items for $15 or less. It's their largest category. Check them out for anything from toys to wine openers that evolve into trivets.

And last but never least, Mxyplyzyk has a unique site design itself, let alone their products. They sell cups with noses printed on them, so when party guests drink from them they put on a new appendage. Tee-hee. Among other crazy-cool things. They're just cool all over.

Inspired yet?

I am.