Holiday Gift Guide : Mista-tacular

I'm very excited to give you some great last minute holiday gift ideas! Some have coupon codes to bring you extra savings. These are shops, designers, and more that I personally know, love, and am recommending to you. Happy shopping! And as always, you are helping to Buy Entrepreneur!

CHIQUE LIFE and CHIQUE PLUS



ChiqueLife and ChiquePlus is offering you 15% off both of her clothing sites sites. Enter MISTA at checkout.
Double your pleasure at one, and then the other for plus sizes.

ERTHE FAE DESIGNS : UNIQUE FANTASY JEWELRY
AJ, based in Arizona creates beautiful, one-of-a-kind fantasy jewelry. She draws inspiration from fantasy, mythology, and the beauty of the natural world. She also offers beautiful beads as she tries to "de-stash her overgrown collection."
Find one of a kind jewelry pieces


ROSANNA INC., BEAUTIFUL CHINA
I registered for lots of this china for the wedding. Not this china pictured here, but some beach cottage china, that may not all be there anymore.
Get this beautiful china before it's gone





BIJOU BOUTIQUE : UNIQUE HANDMADE JEWELRY
This designer, based in Florida, designed my bridesmaid earrings. Amazing. Every time I wear them, I get compliments. All of us did (oh, I ordered some for myself, of course ;) ). If you see something you like, she can customize it. So if it's not in her shop, just contact her.
Shop this jewelry




BESTOW BOUTIQUE
This New York based online shop is a fabulously fun and flirty store for you to browse in! She came to the Collective-E holiday party, and I found the cutest egg container of the freshest smelling black soap. Black soap? I know. Who knew it could smell so delightful.
Find lots of gift ideas...

FRETZELS
Watch out. These are serious chocolate covered pretzels. Probably the most buttery and salty and chocolate tasting chocolate covered pretzel you have ever tasted.
Order these now

SWEETMUSE
If the chocolate covered pretzels didn't get you, just wait until you bite into these chocolate brownies. Dangerous! Imagine having both of these bakers at a holiday party. You won't leave hungry, believe me. I don't know how she does it, but SweetMuse has mastered the fudgy brownie, and made a business out of it.
No really, order these now

POPJUDAICA
I found my Obamica Yamica here, and while it is now sold out (Dental Mista may have gotten the last one from me as an impulse gift!), there are plenty of other Jewish treats here.
Get stuff before it's gone



WELLALARM
WELLalarm not only has the most stylish charms on the market, but is a patent pending web-based service that offers easy secure, 24/7 access to your medical information from anywhere in the world—including your iPhone or Blackberry! For everyday convenience, keep your health information right at your fingertips in your secure WELLalarm account. Do you know people with allergies, diabetes, or other conditions? This is a great gift for them.
Look into WELLalarm Medical Alert ID charms and more

JALA DESIGNS
This is another designer who was at the Collective-E holiday party, only she came from Atlanta, GA! I'm not going to lie, I did treat myself to gold hoops with a fabric covered square dangling in the middle. Beautiful. So I got someone else a gift as well, someone who is very into fabric, and gave me the awareness I have of it.
Do look at these beautiful pieces


OPERATION NICE
And if you're more into budgeting then spending this season, but you still want to do something nice for someone or yourself, checkout Operation Nice, a wonderful project by a fellow blogger that has really caught on.
Read nice things and other happy thoughts

Happy shopping, to one and to all!

SALE and Free Shipping at Katie James!

Happy Holidays everyone! Katie James is having free shipping today, Cyber Monday, and some other limited deals, so stick around and go shopping! Plus, the first 5 Mista readers get 15% their entire order! Enter MISTAHOLIDAY at checkout...

Go shopping!

Got My Obamica from PopJudaica!

How fun! The Obamica Yarmulke at PopJudaica.com. I missed my chance at picking up a NYTimes or AMNY cover the day after the election, so here is my proof of Obama Nation!

The Amazing Copperbrill : and it's so easy!

Copperbrill copper polish goop is about the best thing I have come by in...maybe years. When building our wedding registry, I decided to go for the best. I mean, how many times do you get the chance to be given pots, and don't those pots last for years and years? I used my parent's wedding pots when I was growing up, so apparently these things last for life. So I went for the gold - copper.

Everyone pushed against this, all saying: "It gets so dirty!"

But I thought, if all of the cooking show people use copper, dog-gone-it, I'm going to use copper too. And it's really going to make me cook again. Living in New York puts one in a very bad habit, of sighing at the end of the day, hand to brow, saying: "I can't possibly take the time to cook anything tonight! Let's order chicken burritos!"

So I registered, and received copper pots and pans by the grace of wonderful wedding goddesses, and I could not be happier! There really is a difference in the way they cook! First of all, everything cooks faster!

But this post is about Copperbrill. I've tried polishing copper before, and it wasn't easy. My godmother gave me her old copper bowls that were so tarnished, and I tried polishing them, which was a smelly, labor intensive mess. Hardly any tarnish came off. Then I went to William and Sonoma and tried their Copperbrill copper polish that they raved about.

Wow.

With just a scoop of the goop, I spread it on the copper, rub it in until it's dry (20 seconds), run under hot water, and rinse with a William and Sonoma special yellow sponge that starts as a piece of cardboard (another amazing product). The picture above shows how I polished one side of the copper lid, in 1 minute. One minute! And it's not smelly, and it's soooo satisfying

I next polished a little copper sauce pan that had already discolored to a yellow brassy color. I rubbed the Copperbrill on it, and the beautiful copper color returned before my eyes. No joke.

I polished my godmother's copper bowls. Boom. Done. Clean.

If you have copper, get this Copperbrill. It is amazing.

Hello Kitty Alarm Clock Radio for Hip Kid

How cute is this Hello Kitty Alarm Clock Radio? I needed a birthday present quick for the hippest 4 year old around (her name is Roxy...Foxy Roxy), so Gerdy and I stopped into Urban Outfitters, which is on the way to the park which is where the party was, and Urban Outfitters allows dogs in their store. There was also a Hello Kitty Toaster, and boy was it cute. It had all the settings - toast, defraud, other important things to do to toast - but I figured it was more fun for adults because what kid should be playing around with a toaster, really. When I arrived at the party, I was pretty sure that I had made the right decision. The spectical of the event was a pink Hello Kitty popup tent, that all the kids loved.

Here it is in Amazon, for cheaper! It's $30 at Urban, and $22 at Amazon. I'm seriously going to get it for myself. In this techno age, all I have is an ipod, and I want a radio to work and sometimes not be from my computer. For some reason, getting my hands on a radio has just not been happening.

Get the Hello Kitty Tea Cup Clock Radio today, if not for yourself, then for some small child.

Red Gingham Dress for Red Gingham Table Cloth Dinner?

Ha! Would this dress be too much for the rehearsal dinner? Which will be a clam bake with red gingham table cloths? I first saw it in Stylehive, and then found it at Victoria's Secret (and it's $59 on sale...). It would certainly let me be full... ;)



Not sure how I feel about those fly-away-sides of the dress. If you can see a picture here, it's because something is wrong with my DNS something or other, so go to Stylehive or Victoria's Secret to check it out and leave a comment here!

Home Office Making it Into Wedding Registry

I tried to deny myself the home office items, thinking that David and I should get kitchen items (and love money to help build the down payment for a house!). But alas, I cannot deny any longer, and have added more items to the Pottery Barn registry: home office items.

I love the rustic barn look mixed with a finished floor, or nice furniture. Since David and I started looking for a home, it really made us think about what we wanted in a home. While we were considering a fine, totally finished townhome, I started to miss the older, rustic look that I thought I could live without.

Here is an example of a rustic, converted barn look, combined with gloss that I would be happy to concentrate in:

Go see this home office >

The Pottery Barn swivel chair. It never goes out of style, or focused comfort. I did include this chair in the registry, but it's a little pricey for a registry. I did include the cushion. I could always make a velvet cushion cover to jazz it up a bit.

Go see this swivel chair >

Oh...the Project Table. How divine! First of all, I love sitting up high. Second of all, it would be so fun to sit with little projects in bookshelves! This one did not get included in the registry, because it really is out of the price range.

Go see this project table >

The home office organizer. So fun to have on your wall, to contain bills, invoices, to-dos, all at once. Stuff would be off of the desk, and onto the wall. This is in the registry.

Go see this home office organizer >

Yippie!

Darn Cute Interior Design Blog - Trendspotting

Betty Newman, creator of the blog Trendspotting, is an expert packager (via The Holding Company). I always knew she was good, but now that she's launched this blog, I see that she's DARN good! I have the pleasure of knowing Betty through the NYC Ladies Who Launch Incubator, and I always recommend her to people who need packaging, but now I'm going to hang out on her blog and just stare at the pictures of trends that she finds! Wall art, pet pillows, clever clothes pins? Omg. Trendspotting is a baby, but it rivals Apartment Therapy in terms of eye candy and great finds! She has found some of the best wall art I've seen. Plus, she's got the inside scoop on all of the great stuff for your interior decorating splurges, or if you need packaging or promo delights...

My Sad Closet Life

My Sad Closet Life, originally uploaded by KT Flicker.

I'm sticking firm to the fact that it has taken me almost 3 years to find a shoe organizer that works in this tiny joke of a closet that every now and then sprinkles white plaster all over my clothes because of the ongoing dampness in the ceiling that gets repaired at least every year. Shoe Lover was shocked to see how my shoes overtook me, and literally sent me clear shoe boxes on the spot. So you better believe I bought this shoe organizer from Delight.com the minute it arrived in my inbox. Not only did I buy it immediately, but I bought it from my iPhone while standing in line at the bank to make a deposit. Yeah.

Tre Cool Shoe Organizer Thing!

Tre Cool Shoe Organizer Thing!, originally uploaded by KT Flicker.

Look at how pretty this shoe organizer turned out from Delight.com. It's made by Room It Up Essentials, and I must say, this could easily be used in an arts and crafts closet, as shown. Tune in next post for how it looks in my tiny closet...

Love opening packages from Delight

Love opening packages from Delight, originally uploaded by KT Flicker.

Seriously, I love opening little gifts to myself, especially from small online stores because their packaging is so fun! Delight.com included these orange EBOOSTs, and those are going straight to David because he caught that cold over the weekend and had so many Advil I about had a heart attack for him. The pink elephant in the back is that paper shredder from OneGoodBumbleee.com that I love and have used on 2 things that had my bank account number on them, and waay in the back is the valentine card from MelissaHead.

New Sexy Sleep Masks at Katie James!

Right in time for Valentine's day. These sleep masks were stitched by a fabulous woman in Alabama, and our thoughts go to her during the 2008 tornadoes, as her barn was flattened.

I use the red sleep mask myself, but my favorites are the green taffeta and the white polka dot. Quite limited edition, though, so I can't spare one for myself.

Go see the new styles...

Cutest Rolodex Ever

I should really get a glam, professional rolodex like this silver rolodex at See Jane Work, but I saw this little munchkin in Stylehive, and new it was the rolodex for me. I wanted the rolodex to close, but didn't want it to close with the cheap plastic, clear door of the generic one from Staples. Sure, this color is pretty lame, but that's what stickers are for, right? I might get the nice silver one from See Jane Work for recipes. Problem with that rolodex is the only way for a business card to stay in there is if you staple it to a card. And that just makes everything too thick. So, mini filing cabinet it is. You can get this file cabinet rolodex at Clever Gear. But hey. This one was only $13 ($18 with shipping), so if you know of other, cuter ones, please chime in!

Love Cards and a Super Funny Video

Please look at the funniest video that I saw on melissahead's blog. I was eating while watching, and if you're laughing out loud while eating, that could be a problem. So, finish up, then watch.



Then, I visited her etsy shop for stationery, and about cleaned it out for her Valentine's Cards!! Keep checking the store as she ads new things! I hope she does it soon, because I want to do some Stylehive Therapy. Some of you (only 4, sorry, that's all she had) will get a Valentine card, and David will get some love coupons for chores and a date. He's also getting a nice custom framed picture of our love ring. I should get him something manly. Maybe some golf balls as encouragement of spring.

Pink Elephant Paper Shredder - Check

Ask and you shall receive. I've been entering in expenses into QuickBooks for tax time, and have admitted that I finally need a paper shredder. Currently, I rip a statement that I don't need in half, and throw one half into kitchen garbage and the other into the office garbage. Systematic, I know. So I said to the universe: "I need a paper shredder. I hope I can find one that is not tool dull and tan."

And voila. A quick peek into One Good Bumblebee's shop for no other reason than to see what she was up to delivered me a pink elephant paper shredder!

Stylish Laundry Hampers for Apartments and Home

Saturday morning coffee was devoted to to an online search for a stylish laundry hamper. Requirements: able to fit behind bedroom door of the apartment, or off to the side; wheels would be nice to bringing to the building laundry room; no wicker (it breaks when dragged to said laundry room). I checked the usual suspects: Bed Bath, Amazon, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Stylehive (thanks to me, it now has lots more "hampers"), Etsy. Thanks to ApartmentTherapy.com, I found new hamper outlets...

Wooden Amanda Double Tilt Hamper - $149
This is a favorite, though it doesn't have wheels, and I'm not sure if it can fit behind the door. But things can fit on top of it.


Wooden Hampton Bay Double Tilt-Out Hamper - $149


Kiwi 3-Compartment Hamper Tote $39.99
This super cute hamper was a tip from jewelry designer dejarnette.


Followed by the Dry Cleaning Hamper Tote


Chrome Hamper on Wheels $42.99
This is the most practical, because the wheels are so useful. But, laundry is exposed to the world, and the circular shape causes space waste in an apartment when butted between a wall, a door, and a dresser.


Wooden Modern Tilt-Out Wastebin/Hamper - $199


Whitney Design 07137 Silver Triple Sorter Plus - $17.95
A safe bet. On wheels, three sorters, square for no space waste.



But I might get two of these Laundry Boxes - $29.99...pink for me, green for David...


Lots more are in the FashionMista Stylehive:

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Brooklynites! Holiday Shop at the Brooklyn Indie Market!

If you like shopping online for unique stuff, but would like some crisp December air whipping around your hair on the inspiring streets of Brooklyn, wonder own down to Smith Street for the Brooklyn Indie Market, which is full of all kinds of jewelry designers, clothing designers, iPod designers maybe, scarves, etc and etc. Check out the designers! Some of them are only available at this market, and trust me, you will not be disappointed. In fact, I think some Mistas have been shopping there...? Chime in if you have...Pictures are below, and directions with map are here.

www.flickr.com More of brooklynindiemarket's photos

Purple Patterned Tool Box for Girls

It's at Brocade.com, and is quite girly. Of all the frilly girly tools I've seen, this screw driver at least looks like it would work for something. The hammer still looks too delicate.

Amazing Gift Tags at Etsy

I've never thought to look for gift tags, or any kind of tags, but I accidentally keep finding them, and there are so many out there! Here are a few on Etsy.com, that I hived in Stylehive, to be brought to you in this easy widget:

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My favorite of the moment:
Jenny O Designs
Amy Elise Designs
Elle's Studio

Stitch Fashion Show and Indie Craft Bazaar

Stay tuned to the Stitch Austin blog for results of their fashion show and indie craft bazaar! If I were in Austin, I'd travel down to this event.

Here's event info if you're in the neighborhood:
WHAT: Stitch Fashion Show and Indie Craft Bazaar
WHEN: Saturday Nov 10, 2007
TIME: Doors open 4pm, runway show at 9:30pm
WHERE: Austin Convention Center (500 E. Caesar Chavez) Hall 1
HOW MUCH: $10
www.stitchaustin.com

WHY: Please join us tomorrow for the 5 year anniversary show of Stitch,
Austin’s largest and best-est Indie craft bazaar and fashion show.
Over 100 amazing vendors with handmade jewelry, T-shirts, art,
clothing, purses and more from all over the country, not to mention
Austin’s finest. The runway show features designers like Tina
Sparkles, Hot Pink Pistol, Chia, Boudoir Queen and other forces to be
reckoned with in the fashion world. Auditory entertainment provided by
DJ Bigface, Prince Klassen, Ian Orth of Learning Secrets and DJ
Jennifer.

MAKE STUFF: Not only is there shopping and fashion there are
interactive booths by Duncan Crafts, Carlo Rossi, Tom’s Shoes, Birds
Barbershop and Rae Cosmetics.

FREE STUFF: The first 600 people in the door receive free goodie bags
from Blue Q, Alisa Burke, Lollibomb Beauty, Anne Marie – Style for the
Individual, Loyalty and Blood, Blue Velvet and more. Inside the bags
look for free Simplicity patterns, appliqués by Wrights, coupons,
jewelry and information on great companies like Burda, as well as
magazines like: Bust, Jewell, Adorn, Rare and Make It Mine. The raffle
will be going all night with prizes like Dremel Drills, Baby Lock
Sewing Machines, and an outfit provided by our special guest Bradley
Baumkirchner from Project Runway Season 3.

AFTER PARTY: Save your strength. Immediately following Stitch at 11pm
walk over to the Mohawk (912 Red River ) for the official Stitch after
party with drink specials and more. Free with your Stitch wristband.