Great Gift Ideas for the Stumped Shopper

Still searching for the perfect gift? Yep, most of us are.  Time is running out! Most online orders need to be placed by the end of this week to ensure timely delivery for Christmas, so you may want to get to mouse clicking lickety split - or haul your rear to the mall before all of the great gifts run out! Continuing with the 25 Days of Christmas, here are my gift picks for both girlies and guys - some of which I may have actually purchased for special loved ones of my own! 




Shop books at Anthropologie

My absolute favorite items of the year are the fresh-cut clothbound literary classics by Penguin.  I stumbled upon these at Anthropologie, but unfortunately, I had already shopped for the bookworms on my Christmas list! I'm definitely keeping them in mind for friends and family - and for myself, too - for future gift giving occasions. The brightly colored and classy embossed canvas covers  accompanied by a color coordinating thin satin ribbon bookmark and thick, shaggy-edged pages would look great stacked on coffee and end tables, and bookshelves, of course! Choose from great works like Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility, Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  These gorgeous books are also available in Children's classics such as Peter Pan and Huckleberry Fin.

And now... some of my other favorites!  Get a pen and a piece of paper, and take some notes! 

1. Silk Tie ($60) and 2. Collar Stays ($12.50 for 8), Banana Republic; 3. Power Stretch Glove, $30, The North Face; 4. NFL Training Camp for Nintendo Wii, $100, NFL Shop; 5. "Assistant to the Regional Manager" Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute bobbleheads, NBC Universal Store; 6. Showtime's The Tudors complete series DVD collection, $129, Barnes & Noble; 7. Charcoal keg-a-cue grill by Wincraft (available in all NFL teams), $109, NFL Shop; 8. Picnictime football cutting board, $30, Bed, Bath, & Beyond; 9. Kobalt utility toolbox ($30), long-nose pliars ($9), hammer ($8), and screwdriver set ($20), Lowes.

1. Tree Coin pendant necklace, "Live the Green Life" collection ($28), Fossil; 2. C.O. Bigelow Lemon-Lime body care, $12-$16.50, C.O. Bigelow; 3. Year of Cookie Cutters (set of 12), $25, Crate & Barrel; 4. Peppermint Hot Cocoa mix (8 servings), $6, Starbucks; 5. Martha Stewart Collection non-skid mixing bowl set, $17, Macy's; 6. Knit muk-luk slippers, $15, Old Navy; 7. Boyfriend lounge pant, $40, Pink by Victoria's Secret; 8. "Love" print socks, $7, Gap; 9. Ragtime throw, $50, Coldwater Creek. 

...I'll take one of each, please! Happy Shopping!

The Best Christmas Gifts and a Giveaway!

Happy Monday!
I hope everyone is having fun Christmas shopping, filling and mailing out cards, and decorating! We're well on our way to December 25th.  I love the most wonderful time of the year!
WIN IT! - Don't forget to enter the giveaway for the "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland" wooden sign hand painted by moi! I created the sign as part of the 25 Days of Christmas, and featured a tutorial in yesterday's post.  Click on the icon at the right hand side of the screen for more details!

You may have noticed that there's been a bit of a wintry change around here.  I'm gradually phasing into a new look and feel for my blog, and working toward the format of aprofessorswife.com.  (Notice how the composition notebook graphic shrinked?  That's because my husband's adventure as a graduate student is coming to an end.) Loving that font? It's "Another Typewriter", and you can download it for free here! As for the cute tree graphic, it's all mine - a wing it attempt at free-handing on Photoshop.  The snowflakes come courtesy of Crate & Barrel (check the ornament page), and the snowy pine cones were found at Microsoft Office Clipart online.


It's time to kick off a new week of Star & Jmo's 25 Days of Christmas; the topic for Day 8 is "the best gift you've ever received".  I simply can't pick one, so I picked a couple of the best gifts from my childhood, and a few from my adult life. 
I'm sure most of the gals out there remember the magic that Happy Holidays Barbie brought on Christmas morning! I collected these throughout my childhood; now that I'm blogging about them, I wish I would have continued to collect them! My favorite Happy Holidays Barbie is from 1990, which is the first doll on the left:

As i grew out of Holiday Barbies, I grew into a tomboyish phase. The Chicago Bulls Starter Jacket I opened on Christmas 1997 was my favorite gift as a teen. Sorry there isn't an image; the only one i could find on Google was a pic of the jacket hanging on a fence post.  Yeah, I didn't understand it either.
My three favorite gifts as an adult are still being used/worn/admired on a daily basis.  My in-laws hooked me up with an engraved lime green iPod Nano and JVC dock for my office.   Two years later, the iPod is completely full.  It's my best friend!
My husband gave me a framed print of Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards Stadium, matted in green.  It was a complete surprise, and I will always have it hanging in my home as long as I live!  
There's always a jewelry gift involved in "the best gifts I received", isn't there?  For me, it's definitely the Tiffany & Co Bar pendant/necklace my husband gifted me last year.  It's my first piece of Tiffany, and I wear it every single day.  Timeless, classy, elegant, simple - perfect for me! And the best part? He picked it out all by himself!

What are the best gifts you've received?  Blog a little about it, and link up!


Catch up on my 25 Days of Christmas:
Day 1 - Christmas Decorations
Day 2 - Christmas Traditions
Day 3 - My dreambook (Wishlist)
Day 4 - Favorite Christmas Movies
Day 5 - Favorite Christmas Songs
Day 6 - Dresses for the Holiday Season
Day 7 - Christmas Crafts