How much fun would it be to string this up between two trees and plop down into freshly fallen snow?
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to enter this week’s giveaway for four pairs of Happy Socks to tuck under your winter boots.
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The best gifts to please screeching, barking, tired households like mine, short of free babysitting and maid service.
Sweet felt frames for all the birds in your flock.
Because as long as you’re bribing the kids with hot chocolate, you might as well take that Carnation instant cocoa to the next level.
A trick from my beloved grandmother, who hails from the pre-germ era: kids love counting and rolling coins. These colorful metallic trays are also perfect for making change when they play store.
Put your foot down once and for all.
Be the goose that lays this golden egg in their backyard.
The only foreseeable issue with these Lego-handled utensils is that the kids will insist on eating with them stacked in an awkward fork-spoon-knife combination. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Made from densely packed magazines, this bulletin board (no push pins necessary!) is the sharpest I’ve ever seen.
The ultimate rainy day entertainment: a 500 piece “impossible” puzzle based on an abstract illustration by Alex Beard.
These cards make traveling sew much fun.
Why freeze ice when you can freeze the cup instead?
This gigantic digital photo frame (15″!) makes that newborn baby almost lifesized.
While they’re not quite Anarchy in the UK, these punky monkeys are so much cuter than letting them stick a safety pin through their ear.
Bedtime battles be gone: turn on this constellation maker and snuggle under the Milky Way tonight.
Memorialize the whole family on a stick-figure pillow that Mom and Dad will keep on their bed forever.
Yes, these are bugs encased in Lucite. Is that creepy?
Feed their Bob Ross addiction with a paint-by-numbers set. Just make sure it doesn’t end up in the garage sale by “accident.”
Use these spy sunglasses to confirm your long-standing conviction that they are indeed following you. Even if “they” just happen to be, um, your parents.
Because after all this fun, mom and dad are tired. Guaranteed.
Without fail, I get at least three hits a day from the Google phrase “hungarian baby bathtub.” I’m not surprised, because Hungarian baby bathtubs are the apotheosis of useful; I ice mine once per year, when I stock it with cheap vodka and cheaper bubbly for my December birthday bash.
Originally posted on May 6:
I’m categorizing this under Splurge-day Thursday because, while the price for this Hungarian baby bathtub isn’t outrageous, it remains, well, a Hungarian baby bathtub, with limited application beyond bathing Hungarian babies and icing cold drinks. Really, Hungarian baby bathtubs shouldn’t be more than $20, but apparently Garnet Hill didn’t get that memo. (Tangential note: How did Garnet Hill discover this stash of “vintage” bathtubs? Was J. Peterman somehow involved?)
Despite its limits, I still want one; the Hungarian baby bathtub reminds me of my best friend’s wedding, where we grabbed beers from a frosty rowboat on her deck, only this is the all-grown-up, now-we-drink-champagne version.
As you read this, Hurricane Fay bears down on my state’s shores. Our power is probably out, and a tree branch has punctured my windshield. (No one was in the car, thank goodness. Who goes out driving in a hurricane anyway?)
You might worry that we’re subsisting on a meager diet of PB&J and Tang. But no. As a veteran of exactly 873,642 hurricanes, I know that when the going gets wet and windy, the wet and windy grill. And with this griddle, our grill transforms into a skillet, so that we can eat bacon, eggs, and home fries for breakfast before we go outside to retrieve the mailbox that has inevitably landed on our front lawn.
