Unique Gift Guru’s Blog

Those super-creative Internet stores exist. One simply has to hunt them. No, I don’t mean the novelty type online stores that sell woopie cushions and fake vomit. I mean the kind that sell high quality products, artwork, highly unique gadgets, and one-of-a-kind products, gifts and collectibles.

The year was 1997 when I first was introduced to the Internet. Yes, I was a late bloomer. I had just lost my job in sales and the computer people were in a different department. It seems a lifetime ago I was in front of the general public smiling all the time and showing sales proposals. I guess what is interesting is it still happens, but more electronically now. Yes, I do meet clients on occasion.

But back to the jest of the story. Where are those unique, no, very unique Internet shops? There are a number of ways to find them, and they do exist, but the one-of-a kind type stores are very hard to find. I should know. (I feel like the guy on the “Hair Club For Men” ad….”I liked the company so much I bought it myself”. But in my case, I had such a hard time finding any, I opened five or six of them. Not right away, and, no, I don’t exclusively shop at my own stores, though I do find what I want, especially in the way of gifts and collectibles, and, I enjoy giving funny gifts, and, my recipients seem to enjoy receiving them. Being a cartoonist, and manufacturing unique gift items is not only a challenge it is a pleasure.

It is like a dream come true. I already created 8500+ cartoons. Then the challenge became, “What type products do Internet shoppers want? The great challenge is sitting at my desk and creating those products, knowing they will be manufactured and sold and drop-shipped by my raw materials producers. It is fun and a lot more like play than work.

Are my stores the only ones out there? Heavens no. All one has to do is Google “unique gifts” or “one-of-a-kind gifts” or whatever comes to mind and a plethora of them will come up. I have shopped at many of them. Some are better than others, some are excellent and a few are dismal.

A great idea is to do some background on the store or stores. You can also do this on Google and find out quite a bit about the owners, managers, etc. If you do your homework, you will be able to find gifts or collectibles that you can keep (or give away) that nobody else has. And people love receiving those types of products. Can you see why it is more like play than work to me?

Try ordering a few unique gifts for friends next time a holiday, anniversary, or some other special occasion comes around. If you have been giving the generic, expected type gifts in the past, like I did for a long time, your new gift-giving habits will be remembered and treasured for a long, long time, not to mention shown and talked about to everyone.

You will be searching for unique gifts for her on a few occasions and you will have to go through immense anxiety and nervousness in searching for those unique and not so common gifts for her.

For most occasions jewelry and flowers would suffice but on some occasions a special consideration of the females tastes and temperaments will be required and you will need to buy a gift accordingly. That special effort you put in will make the gift unique and special.

Women generally will put value onto “how much you care for them ” and the unique gifts for her will show the effort and stress you have gone through in selecting the gift and that in turn a female will relate proportionately to how much you care.

So do not wait and try to think about a unique gift for her.

Here’s a sampling of gifts that you can try. The trick is to think simple and surprise her when she is least expecting it.

Try something she has never worn like a perfume or a special dress which she wanted but never got around to buying it.

Jewelry in unique design patterns is definitely needed , do not buy the expected patterns.

For the outdoor kinds buy a bicycle or a special hiking kit with monogrammed logos of family or special dates

Try to give a gift card for 10 music lessons or special dance lessons.

Another thing that I like are photo albums specially digitally created with a family collage or a family ancient photograph remodeled into a modern one.

Well the list can go on endless but the advice on unique gifts for her remains the same, do not rush to nearest store proclaiming unique gifts but yes try something unique online and you will get tons of ideas.

Created by designer Mark McKenna as a homage to modern lighting design, these Designer Emulation Kits are a great example of why TreeHugger loves flatpack design. Stamped from a single sheet of metal (that could fit in an envelope for easy shipping), the classic designs come to life with a few bends from the flat sheet. Once assembled, they’re powered by a single (rechargeable, of course) 9V battery. It won’t light your living room, but that’s not really the point; they’d make a fun desk lamp, and show that real function and structure can come from a simple sheet of stamped metal.

The DEK (designer emulation kits) series is an homage to some of the finest lighting designs of the twentieth century. “we revere these objects, but they are also a bane and a challenge,” Mark McKenna says. “how can we ever measure up to the genius of castiglioni, or the sheer concentrated emotion of maurer? the truth is we can’t. we have to find our own voices, our own vision.”

DEK1 is based on the lucellino lamp by ingo maurer. turns out that mckenna’s first professional job was with maurer. “it is only fitting to give props to the master,” he says. we offer three other DEKs named, appropriately enough, DEK2, DEK3 and DEK4.

The Designer Emulation Kit 4 takes the form of Castiglioni’s Toio - Mark’s favorite lamp. In Toio, Castiglioni combined a car headlight, fishing pole parts, and an industrial transformer in unequivocal style. This took guts in 1962. It also took courage for Flos to produce such a wonder. It is perhaps the most successful ready-made anywhere.

Similar to the miniature chairs from Vitra, Mark’s DEK’s are meant to pay tribute to great modern designers of our time. Take one of these small, do-it-yourself contraptions (a computerized circuit board, to be precise), snap off its template, assemble and just plug it into a nine-volt battery (not included). Voila! A simple path to gorgeous light!

Places to buy this gift:

Charlesandmarie.com

Where Do You Want Me to Put This, Ma’am? Steel And Stone Man Wine Holders

What’s a wine collection without a collection of wine holders? This particular set of wine holders will make you and your guests smile whenever you see it. Humourous yet elegant, these three wine holders show the downward progression of a man carrying a bottle of wine and capture the physical humor of drinking one too many glasses. Pefect for displaying wine bottles or keeping bottles ready-to-pour at your next get-together. Designed by Nerio Festa and Heidi Hummler, these holders are handmade with steel and hand-picked stone in California’s Sonoma Valley wine country.

Sold individually.

ITEM NUMBER: 13973
MATERIALS: stone, metal
SIZE: Standing: 13″ H x 7″ W
Kneeling: 11″ H x 7″ W
Lying: 16″ L x 3″ H

Reviews from :

1. I use it to hold my wine bottle in that I’m using as a vase to hold flowers in the kitchen and I love the artist design it adds to my kitchen.

2. I bought this for my boyfriend’s birthday. It’s larger than I thought it was going to be–a pleasant surprise! It’s really nicely made and attractive. Definitely worth the price!

3. i am very clumsy and i knocked over our speaker which showcases this lovely man and not only did the speaker survive, the man survived and our anniversary bottle survived as well. he was still holding it when i picked him up. this is a fantastic piece of art.

Want to buy this gift?

You can buy this Wine Holders from UncommonGoods, UncommonGoods is The No.1 Online Unique Gift Shop.

Beerables.net, “The Accessory Store for the Beer Enthusiast,” offers a variety of unique gifts for beer lovers, ideal for gift giving to the Dads (Father’s Day is Sunday, June 15) and grads on your list.

“We’re excited to present distinctive gifts from our travels to European breweries and hard-to-find in the United States,” said Glenn and Jennifer Faulk, founders of the online retailer. The Faulks encourage gifters to consider the recipient’s work, hobbies and personality type when deciding what to give. Following are a few ideas with prices ranging from $15.00 to $65.00. Of course, for extra cheer, add their favorite beer.

The Beer Geek - For the better beer aficionado, there’s Das Boot ($65.00 each), a 2 liter glass drinking boot popularized in the movie “BeerFest,” decorated with the logos of the Spaten, Weihenstephan or Hofbrau breweries, and made for sharing. In fact, the boots were created to commemorate the tradition of soldiers’ communally drinking beer from a leather boot during World War I. Tip: drink with the toe down to avoid spills.

The World Traveler - Globe trotters will enjoy the Global Glassware Collection ($39.99), eight distinctive glasses that highlight the unique characteristics of various beer styles and include Pilsner, Kolsch, Hand Glass, Tulip, Snifter and Weiss glasses, each with a full-color logo of a different world-class beer including Stiegl, Delirium Tremens, and La Fin du Monde.

The Traditionalist - A Weihenstephan German Stein ($35.00) with a detailed pewter lid is salt glazed, holds .5 liters and features the logo of the world’s oldest existing brewery located in Bavaria, which clearly values tradition every bit as much as he does.

The Collector - Inspire him to exclaim “Prost!” when he next raises a toast with an authentic Hofbrauhaus Oktoberfest 2007 Black Stein ($38.00). Emblazoned with the Munich brewery’s gold lion insignia, the salt glazed, 1 liter stein will take center stage in any collection. Also available are souvenir t-shirts and baseball hats ($15.00 each).

The Legal Eagle - Prove that your on the right side of the law to your attorney father or a law school graduate with a four-pack of Delirium Tremens Snifter Glasses ($17.00), which pub owners have deemed “The Most Stolen Glass In America.” Each infamous glass is emblazoned with the name and “Pink Elephant” logo of the award-winning beer from Belgium.

The Creative - Artistic types will appreciate one or a series of six full-color reprints of Spaten Beer Vintage Advertising Posters ($40.00 each) from the early 1900s, recently found buried deep in the warehouse of the Bavarian brewery and reproduced in limited quantities. Featuring original illustrations of tall ships, bar maids and other subjects, the posters helped Spaten become the largest-selling Bavarian beer in the United States.

For information, visit www.beerables.net which also offers other glassware, signage, clothing, bar accessories and limited edition items from breweries around the globe.

The Bagir Company, in Kiryat Gat Israel, has done it again and created another eco-friendly suit for men. The new suit, called “EcoGIR Recycled”, is ready to go on the market for Father’s day. For about $200 a suit, you can buy Dad a professional looking EcoGIR recycled suit at Sears.

That’s right Bagir and Sears have joined forces. Starting Father’s day Bagir and Sears will be selling EcoGir Recycled at Sears. EcoGir Recycled is made from wool and recycled PET plastic bottles collected in Japan. It takes about 30 recycled plastic bottles to make the suit. In addition EcoGir Recycled will be the first suit in the world to carry a carbon footprint label.

Bagir is known for inventing the IPod suit and the machine wash and dry suit (available through Marks and Spencer in the UK). To reduce the toxic chemicals like perchloroethylene known as “perc” (commonly used in dry cleaning) from ending up in our drinking water Bagir invented the world’s first machine washable suit. The suit is available Marks and Spencer.

What is the benefit of a suit like this? There is no longer a need to drive to the dry cleaners (saves gas) and wait (saves time) until the next day or so to pick it up then pay a bundle for the service (saves money) that uses dangerous chemicals to clean the clothing that end up in our water (helps the environment).

Bagir has also considered implementing an ‘EcoGir Closed Loop’ voluntary return program for its old polyester tailored clothing. Consumers will be given the opportunity to send their old polyester tailored clothing back to Bagir. Bagir will then recycle them into a new polyester fiber. This is thought to first system of its kind in place for formal-wear.

Though the company doesn’t consider itself an environmentalist it has taken many steps to reduce its carbon footprint. For example instead of shipping it merchandise by air they ship by sea. Their goals are also to create clothing that has the least impact on the earth as well as other products that help reduce the carbon footprint on the environment. Their next goal is to make their whole company green

If your dad doesn’t like the idea of wearing a suit made from recycled plastic Bagir has a line of organic cotton blend suits to pick from. The lining of these suits is made from bamboo and the buttons on the suits are made from ecologically harvested Tagua palm tree seeds.

So, this Father’s day help you dad live a little greener every time he wears a suit.

For more information on Bagir and where you can purchase their clothing visit Bagir.

Salad’s Favorite Couple: Glass Oil And Vinegar Cruet

Ah, oil and vinegar - they’re so good together, yet they always live apart! This oil and vinegar vessel logically puts both liquids in the same container, since physics causes them to separate anyways. The clear cylindrical container has two pouring spouts on each side, one at the top for oil and one at the bottom for vinegar, so that you can pour them out separately and give your salad and breads the perfect balance of oil and vinegar.

ITEM NUMBER: 15541
MATERIALS: glass
NOTE: hand wash. oil and vinegar not included.
SIZE: 7.75″ H x 3.5″ W

Want to buy this gift?

You can buy this Cruet from UncommonGoods, UncommonGoods is The No.1 Online Unique Gift Shop.

Beauty in a Bottle: Recycled Wine Bottle Jewelry

Three pieces of recycled wine bottles, from Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and red wines, create a beautiful necklace as they hang from three layers of sterling silver chain. And you can complete your look with these elegant and contemporary earrings made of Chardonnay (amber), red wine (green) or Pinot Grigio (blue) bottles. Because each piece is handmade, expect slight variations that add to each necklace’s unique character. Handmade in Georgia by Kathleen Plate.

Sold separately.

ITEM NUMBER: 15621
MATERIALS: sterling silver, recycled glass
SIZE: chain: 16″ L pendants: 1.5″ L x .5″ W
earrings: 1″ - 1.5″ L

Reviews from :

1. I wear these all the time…they seem to go with everything. They are light-weight and haven’t fallen out, even when I’m at the gym. I want it in the other colors now!

2. I bought these earrings for my sister, who loves wine. She said they are very cool and she liked that they were from recycled bottles. She says I always buy unique gifts!

3. What’s not to love when you can wear wine around your neck? I gave this as a gift and it was even more gorgeous than I expected. the 3 sterling silver linked chains looked great. My friend wore it the first night I gave it to her and I thought it looked really fabulous.

Want to buy this gift?

You can buy this Jewelry from UncommonGoods, UncommonGoods is The No.1 Online Unique Gift Shop.

Roughly 18 months after fire scarred Gatorland, the south Orange County attraction reopened this morning with a new and greatly expanded gift shop and a freshly-painted set of choppers.

Gatorland’s 10 a.m. reopening featured the arrival of three new residents by limousine — all “four-legged types, ” said spokeswoman Michelle Harris.

The park has undergone considerable changes since the Nov. 6, 2006, fire (caused by a heater) destroyed the old gift shop, entrance and other facilities and damaged the iconic Gator jaws out front. The jaws were repainted though, because the park had outgrown them, the entrance was moved to another spot. The newly-opened 4,000-square-foot gift shop marks the last major change brought about by the fire.

TORONTO — If the bride-to-be on your shower or wedding gift list likes to cook, then here is a suggestion: a customized cookbook.

An online cookbook creator developed by KitchenAid Canada allows culinary enthusiasts to produce customized cookbooks that include personal photos and a selection of cover images.

“The book gives consumers the perfect opportunity to share their passion for cooking in a unique and memorable way,” says Valerie Malone, brand manager for the kitchen appliance company.

She adds that the online tool can let people compile their personal recipes and have them published in a professionally designed cookbook.

This is how it works: Consumers can go online at www.cookbook.kitchenaid.ca and set up their own profile. Once their profile is ready they can begin creating their cookbook by entering their own recipes, or by adding recipes from KitchenAid’s database of recipes.

The site allows for personalization, so consumers can add their own photos next to their recipes, choose from one of five cover colours and from inside page images and include their own title.

“This is great for collecting family favourites, creating an heirloom for a girlfriend’s shower or wedding, for a special birthday or anniversary and gift that will be cherished for years to come,” says Malone.

The cost is $49.95 and includes a minimum of 20 recipes and a maximum of 40. It takes four to six weeks for production and shipping. The hardcover cookbook is organized into five categories with tabs including appetizers, soups, main courses, desserts and others.

Here is a sample recipe from “Anna and Michael Olson Cook at Home: Recipes for Everyday and Every Occasion” by Anna Olson (Whitecap, 2005).

Chocolate Pistachio Truffles

250 ml (1 cup) whipping cream

350 g (12 oz) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

15 ml (1 tbsp) brandy (optional)

Coating

175 g (6 oz) dark or white chocolate, chopped and melted

125 ml ( 1/2 cup) coarsely chopped unsalted pistachios

Heat cream to just below a simmer and pour over chocolate. Stir gently to blend, stir in brandy, if using, and let cool to room temperature. Beat with a whisk to make a little fluffy, then let cool in the fridge for about half an hour before making truffles.

Cold hands are good for this task. Roll teaspoonfuls of chocolate filling into balls. Place on a baking tray and chill completely. Using a toothpick, dip truffles in melted chocolate, dip immediately in chopped pistachios and place on a cooling rack to set.

Makes 30 servings.