I can make lists of toys I’m considering for the kids this year, and I likely WILL make such lists. But I also like to see lists of toys someone else has actually opened and played with, so that’s the theme of today’s grouping. This is mostly toys I’ve RECENTLY been surprised by and pleased with, but I’m also putting in a couple that our family has found enduringly fun to play with, and also one that I recommend you buy not for an actual child but for a grown up who likes miniatures/dollhouses (or MAYBE for a VERY CAREFUL child of the quiet and meticulous sort).

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Hide and Seek Board (photo from Amazon.com). A couple of times a year, my mom and aunt go shopping to stock their gift shelves and the toy rooms they’re responsible for freshening. This is one of the toys that most impressed everyone when we opened it up to try it out. They’d already realized that each door opened to reveal something inside (cookie inside the cookie jar, car inside the garage, etc.), but we hadn’t realized the item inside would be a removable piece. And in typical Melissa & Doug “impress ‘em by going one better than they even knew they wanted” form, the pieces are magnetic so they don’t scatter everywhere if you tip the puzzle.

Caring Corners Nanny Oakes Interactive Nursery (photo from Amazon.com). This is another of their finds, and I think what most impressed me about it was how little I thought I’d like it, compared with how much I did like it.
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I saw one of these fancy Easter baskets by chance, and now am dazzled by the idea that grown-ups can have Easter baskets too, with excellent fancy chocolate instead of the “chocolate-flavored candy” kind.

Godiva Enchanted Easter Basket (photo from Godiva.com), $85 with free shipping if you use code BUNNY.

See’s Deluxe Easter Basket (photo from Sees.com), $59.50 plus shipping, which they call the “Extra Large Family Basket” but I changed the name because I don’t want any lip about how many people ought to be sharing it.
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It had never occurred to me that I would want a vegetable peeler in the shape of a bird—until I saw one, and then I Just Knew.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Same with the can opener that looks like a toucan—or rather the head of a toucan, which is a little disturbing now that I think of it.

(photo from Amazon.com)
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I don’t think of St. Patrick’s Day as being the kind of holiday to SHOP for, and that’s a crying shame.

Green Boughs earrings by KUKLAstudio on Etsy (photo from the shop), $38 plus shipping. It is an eternal mystery why so many Etsy sellers show their earrings upside-down. My favorite way to see them is on a person; second favorite is hanging from the edge of a wine glass. (The green bough earrings were right for this post, but holy cow check out the dragonfly earrings from the same seller. My jaw shifted downwards.)

Olive Green Drop earrings by Kneehighs and Pigtails on Etsy (photo from the shop), $10 plus shipping. I have very similar earrings from this seller and I love them: they look good with a fancy outfit or with jeans and a t-shirt.
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I need a new travel mug, because mine broke. Which reminds me of how I GOT that travel mug. I was shopping with my mom at Target, and I saw a travel mug in the most gorgeous, almost ETHEREAL shade of pink. Glowing glossy pale pink. But it was only 30% off, and it was expensive to begin with so it was still well over $10, and most importantly I didn’t NEED a travel mug because I never used one. I dithered for awhile because it was SO LOVELY, but I didn’t buy it.

That evening, I was suffused with regret. WHY hadn’t I bought it?? Maybe I WOULD use a travel mug! How did I KNOW if I didn’t even TRY? Even though the Target was a half hour away and I’d need to bring kids with me, the next morning I went back to get the pink travel mug—and it was gone. I have two other Targets within reasonable driving distance, and I went to both of them over the next couple of days, but no luck. I looked online, at Target’s site and at any other site that carried that brand of travel mug: no luck. I whined about this to my mother at some length.

The next month was my birthday. One of my gifts was THE PINK TRAVEL MUG.
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I had such a nice Christmas! Paul gave me these sweet earrings:

(Bird Girl earrings from Marmar on Etsy) (photo from the shop)

and the new Lynda Barry book I would have had to buy for myself if I hadn’t gotten it as a gift, because I couldn’t wait ONE MORE MINUTE:
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Paul and I came late to alcohol, so we’re later than most people in acquiring wine glasses. Paul got a book about wine out of the library, and it suggests newbies look for two things in a starter wine glass (other than wine, ha ha more coffee QUICK):

1. a lip that curves in, as opposed to one that flares out, and
2. a stem, as opposed to stemless.

I love a quest.

It took about 5 minutes for me to realize that I dislike thin stems: they make me feel nervous, like the wine glass is fragile and unbalanced and will snap or tip in my hand. I like the kind of stem that flares out a little to support the liquid-holding part, like this:

Libbey Footed Goblet (photo from Amazon.com).
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I was considering this digital camera, and I was getting confused because of stuff like this:

and this:

Is the camera’s ability to fit into a small handbag really a…technical detail, to be at the TOP of a list that includes such things as static sensors and sonic speed? And why do they compare it to a fashion accessory?  Are either of these details meant for men? What are they trying to tell me?  Aw geez, is this a Young Female Celebrity camera, the kind I take out to snap cute pics of me and my friends drunk at clubs, thinking we’re SO CUTE and pretending to eat each other’s tiny expensive dogs like hors d’oeuvres?

Anyway.  The camera description annoyed me, but the idea of a “small handbag” captured my imagination.  This is MY purse:
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I usually try to write about shopping situations I’m actually dealing with at the actual time I write the actual post, but what I’m dealing with right now is the potential acquisition of a new digital camera, and I don’t know about YOU, but if I have to read even ONE MORE POST weighing the pros and cons of various digital cameras (or vacuum cleaners), I think my brain will shut down in protest.

So then I turned to my next category of ideas, which is Upcoming Seasonal Stuff. But what’s coming up next is Halloween, and I’m meh about Halloween. We let the kids trick-or-treat, but I don’t enjoy it (except the part where I eat their candy after they go to bed), and costumes are a matter of “Here, see what you like in this bin of costumes I bought at 75% off in previous years.”

Yom Kippur is on the 17th, but that’s not exactly a SHOPPING holiday.
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I bought myself some little daisy earrings on Etsy awhile back, to be SMALL with my new decorative glasses (big showy earrings plus decorative glasses = head accessory overkill). They were PERFECT. Sadly, some of the petals broke off a daisy, and it doesn’t look fixable to me: the little plastic daisies were glued to earring backings, but there isn’t enough earring platform for the broken-off petals to be glued back onto.

I’m in the market for replacements, and this time I’m looking for something more durable.  It doesn’t have to be a daisy, but it needs to be small.

Daisy earrings by Nest Pretty Things Kids on Etsy. They’re $13.50 including shipping, and the petals are better designed for non-snapping-off. But do they look a little tiny bit…eggy?

Little Gull Little Leaf earrings by Anna Ruby King on Etsy, $17.50 including shipping.
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