My mother-in-law likes to do a lot of shopping. She and her sister both do. They will go to all these cool antique shops and gift shops and also they can garage sale shop like no one can! LOL One thing my mother-in-law found recently that really piqued my interest was a Himalayan salt lamp. They are so pretty. The light they give off just gives a warm feeling to the air.

Salt Lamps are said to give off healthy negative ions and that’s really good for you, but, I don’t really understand what that’s all about. I’ve heard it compared to the air at the sea and the air after a good rain. All I know is I really like the looks of them and the peaceful feeling that they give me. My favorite ones are the ones like I have pictured here, just kind of a blob. They do, however, come in all kinds of shapes – spheres, cats, crosses, you name it, basically. I love the rough look and natural feel of the ‘blob’ ones, though. And they come in pinks, oranges, and reds.

I think I might have to do a little shopping of my own! It would be really nice to have one on my desk, to keep me feeling peaceful and unworried through the day. Or maybe when I want to take a break, I could just sit back and stare at it! You know how people always say to count to 10 when you’re upset to help you calm down? I could count to ten while staring at my salt lamp. That might just do the trick when I get all wound up about something!

1. They’re fun! You can cater them to the person’s likes and hobbies.

2. They’re easy! You just go to the site and put them all together – or choose one that’s already put together for you!

3. Someone else is putting all the stuff together for you!

4. You don’t have to mess with the shipping – they do that for you, too!

5. I love receiving gift baskets! And I bet lots and lots of other people feel the same way!

My two favorite gift baskets that I’ve received have both been from my mother. The first one was years ago when I had to work on Easter Sunday – I was so terribly bummed about it!! I was going to get off in the afternoon and get to spend time with the family, but, I was missing all of the fun morning stuff. So my mom decided to cheer me up! It was the funniest thing ever! Not the gift basket itself but the delivery dude! He was dressed as a bunny and was just the most hysterical dude! I was working as a receptionist and so there was a tall desk in between myself and the bunny man. He did something close to ‘jazz hands’ and said, “If there wasn’t this desk here between us, I would just hug you!!!” It was absolutely hysterical! Whenever I happen to see the guy that I was working with that morning, we still laugh about that – and it was over 20 years ago!! The only thing that I remember being in the basket was this cute little duck with a straw hat on – and I still have it. The best part, though, was definitely the delivery! My mom – and ‘Bunny Dude’ – definitely made my day!

My other favorite was a gift basket she sent me in May for my 40th birthday. It was a big, short basket with four different plants in it. Even after leaving the plants for a month to go to Dallas, I still have three of them alive and strong! I just love it when I get plants that I can keep for presents! I think it is absolutely the coolest thing! Flowers – like roses – are fun to get and all…. but, I would so rather have something that I can keep! And four plants in one – well, that was just totally cool!!

We have our first game tonight and this morning, I checked to make sure my band parent shirt was hanging up nicely so it wouldn’t be wrinkled. But I wasn’t in the mood to try it on. I haven’t exactly been so good between last football season and this, so I hope it still fits okay. I was thinking, though, that it would be kind of cool if it didn’t. Why? Because I could order myself a custom-made one from CafePress. I love buying stuff from them! And I could make it a regular t-shirt, as ours are polos, and that freakin’ collar makes me too hot! It’s stiff and uncomfortable and drives me crazy!

And, I could “pirate-ize” my shirt, as that is our show this year. It’s a pirate-themed show, mostly based on Pirates of the Carribean. And the kids’ t-shirts (what they wear on non-uniform days or under their uniforms) have skull and crossbones on them and they are so cool! And the custom t-shirts from Cafepress are so much fun to make! My daughter’s friend has one that her dad made for her and it is so super cute! It has her name on it, her instrument, the band name, and some other stuff. Way cute!

And it would be awesome to custom-make posters, too! It’s my daughter’s first year to march so that would be a really neat gift to make for her I think! And I’m sure the boys would like one, too! It would be really awesome to create several of them and hang them up downstairs in our cool, kid-hang-out basement!

And another thing that I would love for me, and for a gift for the band director (cuz he ROCKS!!) would be band coffee mugs. We could put some ‘pirate-y’ stuff on there and the year and they would make great mementos and a nice spirit item to have on our desk every single day! I’m pretty sure he drinks coffee…hmm…

Well, I know I do!

This is a sponsored post, but, who among us has not always had a childlike wonder about wall beds?

I’ve always had a keen interest in wall beds, I think since seeing one on Laverne and Shirley when I was a little kid. I have always thought they were so cool! This murphy bed is seventeen hundred times cooler than that old thing that flopped down from the wall on Laverne and Shirley so many years ago!

Before deciding to give up my office to my oldest son so the boys can each have their own rooms, I had considered something like this for the office. I had been looking at Futons that folded out into beds. I have the perfect space for it and I thought that it would be great in here, because, when the kids want to come in here and talk and hang out with me, they would have something to sit on. And then when we have out of town guests, like my mom or my dad, the office could double as a guest room. That would definitely be cool. And holy macaronis, if I could afford this Murphy Bed – that would just totally rock!

These things are really cool! You should go to the site and watch the video to see how easily they convert back and forth between bed and couch, couch and bed. It’s really neat. It would definitely make my dream office, that’s for sure!!

I say ‘your’ car, because, I have a minivan. And this invention isn’t really needed in my minivan. I did need it this summer (several times!) when driving my mom’s car, though!! How many times have you dropped something in between the seat and the console and hurt the back of your hand or your wrist trying to fish it out? I know! Me too! I hate it when that happens! And sometimes you can’t even actually get the ‘whatever you dropped’ out! It’s like the car just swallowed it up completely. You stop the car, get out, crouch on the ground to see underneath the seat and you still can’t see the durn thing!

Well, the answer to your hand-hurting prayers is the Drop Stop – a super cool little doohickey invented by two guys who wanted to make all our lives just a little bit easier! Marc Newburger and Jeffrey Simon put their heads together to create this helpful addition to your car after Marc had a very close call with a pole!

With all of the cool stuff in the auto parts section of the giant discount stores or all of the cool things at auto parts stores – you would think someone would have thought of making this car wedge sooner! It’s so strange that someone just now came up with this! What is wrong with us? Didn’t we learn anything from all these years of scratching up the back of our hands? Thank goodness Marc and Jeffrey did! You can read all about the journey from concept to completion and all about their team on the site. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click, ‘About The Inventors’.

I love the way they surprised people in the video – that’s so funny that no one picked out what they had put in their cars! I can’t say that I would have noticed it, that’s for sure!

I’ve often thought about buying one of those consoles that you can put in minivans that you can buy in the auto parts section. (I’m torn, because, then no one can crawl through – well, not very easily.) I wonder, though, if I did – if it would work with that kind of console, too. If not, maybe that could be their next product invention. They could call it “Drop Stop II”. Until then, though, my mom’s gotta order Drop Stop for her car so next summer I won’t have so much trouble losing things in her car!

P.S. They have a Thanksgiving offer right now for 15% off!

These adorable pretend play kitchens are so completely cute and awesome! I love them! There are many different styles and sizes from which you can choose! I love toys like these that really encourage imaginative play. So many toys just ‘do the playing’ for the kids! And in my experience, the children actually tire of those toys so much faster. The thing that I really noticed with my own kids is the ‘more’ the toy does for you, the quicker that toy gets put off to the side, never to be picked up again.

Sammie did have a toy kitchen when she was little and we did really love it and got lots and lots of play time out of it. Hers was plastic, though – and these wooden ones remind me so much of the ones that were around when I was a kid. They are like the 1970s versions with a whole lot more pizazz!

Call me a child of the 70’s, but, there is just something magical about wooden toys. They just seem like a springboard for lots of fun ideas and interactive play to blossom. The Pretend Play Kitchens Shop has quite a variety of kitchens from which to choose – they are in all kinds of different sizes and styles. And they come in a lot of different color schemes, too!

Man, I’m telling you, I just love munchkin toys and I’m so bummed that my kids are so old and we don’t get to shop for this stuff anymore. I’ve actually been thinking of starting a site and/or blog just devoted to my love of munchkin toys.

The kitchen that I like best at the Pretend Play Kitchens Shop is the Grand Gourmet Corner Kitchen. It is the one that I have pictured here and I just be any one of my four nieces would just love it and have many hours of fun with it! Yep, it’s the most expensive one they have! But I am telling you – it is awesome! And it has a pink color scheme and even has pink curtains that open and close! I don’t know, though, the Pink Retro Kitchen is pretty cool! It has a separate refrigerator and because the pieces are separate, it really reminds me of the set that my cousins had when we were kids. Man, I loved their kitchen! I was so jealous of it! Hehe.

And if you have limited space available, there is even a kitchenette – and even it comes with all kinds of cool stuff!

Any one of these would make a great Christmas gift for the little one in your life! I’m just sad that we’re past that stage in this house! You should totally check out how cute these are, though!

This post was sponsored by PretendPlayKitchenShop.com and I’ve had so much fun looking at all of their cute kitchens!