Gift ideas

Nubian Heritage soaps (and other stocking stuffers for grownups)

6 December 2012 Gift ideas
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Gifts for adults are tricky. By the time we’ve been around for three decades or more, there isn’t much of anything that would fit in a wrapped present that most of us actually need. As for guessing what someone would want – so often those types of gifts tend to end up forgotten in the [...]

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EzyRoller (and a few stocking stuffer ideas)

4 December 2012 Gift ideas
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I miss my dream kitchen in Ohio, but what my kids miss are the two Ezy Rollers they got for Christmas last year. These ride-on toys are ingenious in their simplicity – four wheels, one seat, a couple of bars of sturdy metal and an effective hand break – and powered by an intuitive back-and-forth [...]

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Tangle Teezer

23 August 2012 Gift ideas
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The first day of school used to be a real occasion for dressing up. One boy I knew always came in a suit. Other kids showcased their fall back-to-school corduroys and sweaters, excited but roasting in the late-summer sun. Abundant hair was celebrated in the 1970s, but on the first day of school, even normally [...]

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Frog Hollow Farm

13 July 2012 Food
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On a rare visit to the Ferry Building farmers market in San Francisco several years ago, I discovered Frog Hollow Farm, whose lusciously flavorful fruit brought me back to the pre-silicon Silicon Valley of my childhood. Even into the 1980s, a few family orchards still remained as shady green oases amongst the suburbs, with farm [...]

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Discovery Monday

12 December 2011 Kids' gifts
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Once again, I have an assortment of tidbits from my wayward travels on the web, gathered up for you like a motley bouquet. It’s not the freshest – I save my little bits over months – but I love having my collection of treasures here so I can always find them again. I was amazed [...]

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Holiday gift ideas 2011 (part 2)

7 December 2011 Gift ideas
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After wrapping up my holiday gift ideas for this year, I’m looking forward to getting back to food. I don’t know about you, but since we finished our glorious Thanksgiving leftovers, we’ve been eating a lot of nothing around here. We’re building up anticipation – or slimming down, depending on how you look at it [...]

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Holiday gift ideas 2011 (part 1)

4 December 2011 Gift ideas
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I had an early taste of holiday shopping this year when, at 11:45 pm after a full day of cooking and feasting, I hugged my Thanksgiving lingerers goodbye and drove off in the dark with my oldest son to GameStop’s Black Friday midnight opening (limited-edition Zelda Nintendo 3DS – don’t ask). As I stood shivering [...]

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Flameless candles

30 November 2011 Gift ideas
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The surprise hits of my Thanksgiving table were these unexpectedly realistic flameless candles. Aside from birthday cake toppers, I haven’t had candles in the house since I became a parent a decade ago. With real wax, softly flickering light and light vanilla scent, these LED pillar candles are a surprisingly satisfying – and happily carefree [...]

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Celebrating springtime: Easter tree and gifts

15 April 2011 Gift ideas
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It’s finally spring in Ohio. Grass is green, leaves are budding, and the sunlight is blessedly warm. Winter’s brittle ice tree is now a jauntily swaying festivity of rainbow eggs. My clever friend Jenny conjured up this surprise for the kids. It’s like a Christmas tree but better – easy, fun, inexpensive – and best [...]

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Magna-Tiles: Greatest toy ever

31 January 2011 Gift ideas
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Until we got these for Christmas, I thought Legos were the greatest toy ever. But now I’m all about Magna-Tiles. Colorful plastic shapes with imbedded magnets, they are easy enough for my two year old to build with but so ingenious even adults can’t resist. They have become the one toy that never gets put [...]

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