Holiday Gift Guide - Socially & Globally Concious

tonite is the first nite of hannukah, and tho it doesn't mean i'm done shopping by any means, it does mean today will probably be the last day of the gift guide. i thought i'd end on a positive note, and offer up some non-profit, fair-trade gift options to help ease that buyer's remorse. why feel guilty spending all that money if some of that money you spent on a one-of-a-kind gift goes to help the greater good? for more on non-profit and fair-trade goods to buy, just do a simple google search and you'll find many many more options than what i mention, but these'll get you started

Fair Trade and Non-Profit Gift Giving

OneWorld U.S.

this is actually an online gift guide thru One World United States. they offer a long list of good places to either donate in someone's name or online shops to purchase gifts from where part of your purchase is donated to a specific charity or cause, and there a lots and lots of those to choose from. You can shop by a cause or pick one at random or purchase from One World themselves. a great place to start for your socially concious gift shopping spree.

globalfolks.org Sweetwater Organic Coffee

when i was living in england i got super-into buying Fair Trade. all my teas, coffee and chocolate were Fair Trade, which were as yummy as they felt good to buy. globalfolks.org is offering a special organic fair trade coffee that sounds really good and is really, well, cheap! i know some people whoh ave been poking around for a good coffee to give as a gift and i think this might hit the spot. take a look at the coffee-lover's gift basket as well. it isn't as cheap as the coffee alone, but it's for a good cause!!!
Price: $11.00 (coffee only)

global exchange fair trade tea set

i found these guys just by doing a very quick google and i fell in absolute love with this tea-set. it's gorgeous!!!! crafted in Vietnam and brought to global exchange thru Craflink, and according to the website: "The Craft Link Association of Craft Producers is comprised of more than 40 producer groups, most of whom belong to ethnic minortities. Craft Link practices fair trade, ensuring that the producers earn fair wages." at 50 dollars plus an extra 4.00 for recycled gift wrapping, it's well worth it, so someone buy that for me, ok? make sure to check out the global exchange site, where you can purchase many many more fair trade goods from all over the world (including more coffee and tea for my, i mean the tea set )
Price: 49.00 (3.95 for recycled gift wrapping)

Holiday Gift Guide: Tres Random

hello again, we're back. Today's three gifts are pretty random, probably best for that off-beat, hard-to-buy for person. There is also a gift for Yoga enthusiasts (of which almost all my friends have become), an odd gift, and a gift for funky fashonistas. i try to keep the buzz words "pretty, little, funky, off-beat, artsty, hand-crafted, organic, eco-friendly and affordable" at the fore-front here. lets get it started:

Random Gifts

Travel Chopsticks by Snowpeak

i thought these were great when i came across them. you don't have to be a hiker, camper or even an on-the-go asian food enthusiast to appreciate these. the wooden parts unscrew from the stainless steel handles and all parts are neatly stored in their nylon pouch. i found these on rocketworld.org (if you have time, check out the creature hoodie), but they can also be found on the snow peak website.
Price: $19.95 (snow peak)

Yoga Wellness Set by Uhma Nagri

whilst on the hunt for both yoga gifts and bath and body gifts i stumbled onto Uhma Nagri. according to their website Uhma Nagri "Uhma Nagri is a 100% natural and organic line of bath and body products abundant in their soothing and therapeutic properties, created to bring a superior sense of beauty, health and well-being to body, mind, spirit and soul." which i though were all wonderful properties to have. they have other great gits as well, but the Yoga wellness sounds perfect for Yoga practicioners of all levels and styles. and not a bad buy, especially if you go halvsies with someone else.
Price: $40.00

Sweet and Vicious bag by Loop Design

of course i found this on Zappos.com, the best site ever. or one of, at least. this bag may be for younger girls, from mid-teens to early twenties, but i still think it's really really fun. i've long been a fan of loop design bags, tho it really takes a special occasion for me to buy one, so i'd say that yeah, this, or some of their other bags, make really great, interesting gifts.
Price: $40.95

Holiday Gift Guide: Crafts Issue

yes folks, since yesterday i was too crazy-busy to bring you more gift ideas, i thought i'd make it up to all y'all by writing a special issue today. the only person to respond yesterday has requested i blog about arts & crafts ideas, so i had a think and this is what i've come up with: home-made gifts and home-made packaging and things of that nature. so without further ado:

Arts N' Crafty Ideas

Make Your Own Bath Salts

perhaps this isn't completely art's n' crafts, but i believe that when ever i am making anything by hand it's art, even if it's just cooking monday's dinner. making your own bath salt is really easy, really fun, and really really appreciated by the reciever -- trust me on that one. i made a few bottles to give away last year and the reaction was great. click on the title below the image to find decent instructions by crafs.lovetoknow.com. the best thing about making your own bath salts is you can go a little nuts and get really creative. i've used everything from empty soft-drink bottles (the posh kinds of soft drinks, like that pear fizzy stuff that comes in that blue bottle. that bottle is gorgeous) which is great for recycling, to a burlap sack. you can make your own labels, add dried herbs or flowers or even put in sea shells. a nice twist on the bath salt recipe is to use unscented dead-sea salt, which you can find in health-food stored.

Packing and Wrapping

i love buying and making gifts for people, but i hate wrapping them. i have never ever been good at wrapping gifts, i either cut the wrapping paper too long or too short, my folded ends are always bunchy and crunched-up, never smooth and flat, it's a nightmare. i think it's the flimsy paper that does me in, and the fact that sometimes those papers are too nice for me to attack them with scissors and scotch tape. in any case, i'm often too busy or too lazy to wrap stuff, so i started looking for alternatives. wrapping presents in the village voice was popular for a long time, esp. wrapping them with the back pages, but if you want to go quirky here's a few things i've done: wrap wine in a tube sock, either tied with a ribbon or with a rubber-band. I did this with both un-fancy and fancy wine. It's best t use this technique if your reciever is NOT a Martha Stuart type and has a sense of humor. old cereal boxes i think i got this idea when i recieved a gift in an empty Lucky Charms box with a ribbbon stuck on top. brown craft paper & sponge paint this is an oldie but a goodie. buy several cheap-o sponges and cut them into whatever shape you think is holiday-appropriate (stars, christmas trees, dreidels, you get the idea) get some poster paint, mebbe splurge and buy a sack of glitter. wrap your presents in the brown paper (you can find this stuff practically anywhere, like Kmart) and then dip the sponges into the paint and go nuts. Or unroll a long sheet of the paper and stamp it with the paint before you wrap (let it dry before you use it, people). old cd liner notes i don't use all the cd booklets from the hundreds of cds i collected pre-iTunes so i started thinking about what i could do with them other than recycling. some of the album art reprinted on these is quite stunning, so if you have some you're willing to part with, you can glue them all over the brown paper. quick ideas: go to local art or craft supply store, go to the paper section, or go to a fabric store and buy remnants to wrap gifts in.

putting together your own kits

i only did this once or twice, but i think it's a really lovely idea. you always see baking-type and craft-type kits out there, like make your own book or somehing like that. i did see a cute kit when i was out and about last week that was for kids and it was a cookie baking kit, which is the same kind of kit i put together for a friend of mine. here's what i did, which can be translated into any other kind of kit: i hand wrote, on nice paper (rice paper actually) a cookie recipe of mine that she had liked and onthe back wrote "Merry Christmas." i went to a local supermarket and bought all the ingredients necessary to make the cookies (if you do this, stuck with a simple but yummy recipe) in the smallest sizes possible along with a cheap set of cookie cutters. i also bought a flower pot large enuff to hold everything and some tissue paper. i put the tissue paper in the pot, unpacked the cookie cutters and tied them together with some twine, and put everything into the pot. then punched a hole in the recipe and tied it around the pot with more twine, stuck the whole thing in a paper bag and tied the handles with ribbon. it was fun to make and fun to give. i'm positive i ripped this idea off from someone or something else so please don't think i'm taking credit for being brilliant. do try and translate this kit making idea tho. if you are into something like knitting or drawing or cooking you can put together your own "make-your-own xxxx" kits based on that for people you think would be interested. i'm interested in learning how to knit so my boyfriend's mom put together a kit for e one year as a gift. it was great, big chunky needles, funky yarn and a learn-to-knit book were packaged in a Kate's Paperie bag, it was perfect!!! doing it yourself can save money, i'm pretty sure i didn't spend more than 10, maybe 15 dollars on my kit. btw Kate's is a great place to go for gifts on its own as well...

No Gift Guide Today

will be too busy. but please let me know how you think the Gift Guide has been going. if you like the products featured or if there are some products you'd like to see featured. if there is a gift, specific or not, you've been searching for and can't find maybe i can help

or just randomly comment

we love feedback here at saradani!!

happy thursday.

Holiday Gift Guide: Day 3; Warm n' Fuzzy

today's gifts are all about keeping warm as the chill sets in. maybe it's cos my heat was off last night that i'm feeling all about warm and warming gifts. or perhaps it's cos i'm warmed by the holiday spirit. whichever it is, saradani.com now presents to you:

Warm N' Fuzzy Gifts

Bucket Hat by My Perennial

these hats were too cute to pass up, despite their being a bit high up on the price scale. i'm pretty sure i like the bunny hat better than the dots hat. my perennial also offers berets, pillows, blankets and a host of other funky hand-made goods. be sure to check them out!
Price: $48.00 (bucket hat)

Dylan's Candy Bar Raspberry Hot Chocolate

one of my favorite shops in manhattan, seriously. i totally heart Dylan's to bits. i love the sensory overload: the colors! the candy! the smells! the sugar! although i could deal without that soundtrack, but whatever, it's still a great place. their hot chocolate is just as yummy as the other numerous treats they sell, and this is my personal fave flavor, but there are other to choose from. Check out the site for tons and tons of other gifts items too, like great gift baskets, for that special someone with a pretty big sweet tooth like me.
Price: $14.00

Flannel Pajamas

what would this list be without flannel pjs?? from september to april i literally live in mine, which is why i tend to buy at least one pair, if not two, every single year. i say screw all that frilly frou-frou lacey crap. who really sleep-sleeps in that shite anyway? we all know it's only on for a few minutes before it ends up in the corner so lets not kid ourselves. there is nothing more comforting in this world, nothing more cuddly, then coming home on a cold evening and snuggling into a nice fuzzy pair of flannel pjs and staying in them for the rest of the weekend. the perfect mate to a cup of Dylan's hot chocolate too. K-mart has some nice pairs on st a great price. pick up several now and I am sure the reciever of this gift (even if it's yourself) will love you forever!
Price: $16.99 (Kmart)
Price: $14.00

Holiday Gift Guide, Day 2

is not about gifts for the boyfriend. I'm quite bad at finding gifts for boyfriends. From now on, I'm just going to pop on things I like and would buy for myself or someone, and not make mention of age or gender. Again, I'll try and keep the things I post about in the affordable range whilst maintaining my standards of interesting and quirky.

Pretty Things & Smelly Things

Long Red Coral Pendant by Blend Creations

i totally fell in love with pretty much all the jewelry on the blend creations site. unfortunately, most of my favorite things are sold out. like the entire washi collection, so sad! and while these aren't the cheapest of presents, i think the prices are pretty reasonable for hand-crafted jewelry that's as pretty as this.
Price: $57.00

"Paper Lanterns" Asian Noteflats by The Paper Princess

i thought these note cards, or "noteflats" as it says on their site, were just goregous. delicate and pretty with a little playfulness thrown in. definitely a great buy. check out their website to see all the other really incredible, fantastically detailed paper products they have to offer.
Price: $13.00

Emperor of Ice Cream Butercream Bar from Lush

almost every gift from Lush would be a guaranteed hit, even for the boys in your life (be they friends, relations or otherwise) but this one gets special mention because it a) smells fantastic -- though not like ice cream -- and b) is named after a Wallace Steven's poem!!! def. extra points for the lit. reference alone. Their buttercreams leave your skin baby soft, even if they don't offer a good bubbly lather.
Price: $13.90 for a 7oz bar.

The saradani.com Holiday Gift Guide

tis the season and lately i have been building several "Gift Guide" mini-sites for clients who shall remain nameless. Needless to say, these clients are of the "blue-chip" varitey, meaning so far I haven't seen a guide yet that offers anything below 200 dollars and nothing remotely nice or something i would want to own or buy someone else, even if i did have the dollars to throw around. so i thought, if all these other people can make a gift guide, why can't i??? so this week i'll be posting about products i think would make great gifts and are off the beaten path (sometimes just slightly), are unique, interesting, and i'll try to feature things that won't break the bank. to kick things off lets start with three different gifts for the newest and tiniest member of yours or a loved ones family:

Gifts for Baby

kee-ka baby burp cloth and bib

kee-ka.com is a great place for cute, hand-made, organic clothes, blankies, bibs and more. They have a nice website as well and the prices aren't in the stratosphere. A great buy, esp. if you want to start the little nipper out on the eco-friendly path.
Price: $24.00

Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of The Cure

already featured in the New York Times these lullabye records (the Cure one is my personal fave) from babyrockrecords.com are a fantastic invention. I know from creating mix cds of rock and folk songs for my siblings to play in the car and at home for their little ones so they didn't od on Rafi or somesuchnonesense. Great for the new wave of hipster babies.
Price: $16.98

Baby Towel and Scrubby Set

apparently hand-made by artisans in Transylvania, Romania (ok, how cool is that?!) this set is dye free and made from a linen that is a combination of hemp and cotton, so it's earth friendly! (sensing a theme?). Featured on one of my fave sites, branchhome.com where you can find other great, earth-friendly, unique gifts for baby and more.
Price: $24.00


that's it for now. tomorrow: gifts for the boyfriend?