It’s time for another edition of our Smart Bitches Gift Guide. In Part 1, I highlighted bookish things, and in Part 2, I focused on comfort and self-care. In Part 3, I featured crafty things, and in Part 4, I showcased some cool products from small businesses that had been sent to me for evaluation. (I am still loving the deVine lip shimmers, and wear them daily.)
This week: things for the home, including kitchen, bedroom, living room, and anywhere else you like to be when it’s cold outside and you have nowhere you absolutely need to go. Woo!
It’s Pillow Time!
First up, a gift for yourself, and for your pet – in my case, the dogs. After waking up for several days with a sore neck and shoulders, I realized that my pillow was over a year old, and was no longer doing things pillows should do, like support my head while I sleep. When Hubby complained of the same, it was new pillow time.
But buying a new pillow seemed like ridiculous extravagance – until I realized I could use my old pillows to make a dog bed for the two canine Wendells. Seriously. Being able to turn our old pillows into a dog bed was what convinced me.
First, new pillows! A gift for yourself. Because sleep is SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT like whoa and dang and mon dieu. I read a lot of reviews and guides and ended up with these two:
The Xtreme Comforts Shredded Memory Foam in Regular ($45 | $50 | $55) – for people who sleep on their backs or sides.
The Xtreme Comforts Shredded Memory Foam in Slim ($36 | $41 | $46) – for people who sleep on their stomachs. Both were recommended by The Sweethome, which is a terrific site for homegoods recommendations.
Like I said, I stumbled over the price for awhile, despite clearly needing a new pillow, but after figuring out how many hours I spend using said pillow, and how much good sleep affects my day, I ordered one of each. Seriously, I love this pillow. It arrives all smushed thin in a vacuum-sealed pouch, and once you open it up, it starts expanding. The memory foam inside is very comfortable and because it’s shredded, it doesn’t create a hard block and a big divot (I’ve had memory foam pillows before that were one piece, and it wasn’t always comfortable, especially when the room is cold).
But wait! Additional justification to treat yourself to a new pillow? How about, “Make your dogs seriously happy!”
If you buy a dog bed cover, you can fill it with the old pillows, which means:
- You’re upcycling or recycling or tricycling the old pillows into further use
- Your dogs will seriously like it because after a year of use, the pillows will smell like you to extreme degrees
- You’ll be getting them a rather massive new bed for a relatively low price
The DIY Pet Bed Dog Pillow Bed Cover ($20 | $25) comes in a bunch of different colors, and in two different sizes. We put two king size pillows in the larger one, and they fit perfectly – and they’re pillows so it’s easy to squish them in to zip up the two covers.
We ordered the blue denim cover, and both dogs pretty much live on it all day. They love it. And it makes me embarrassing levels of goofy happy to see them curled up snuggling on the bed and rubbing their noses on it.
Seriously Good Chocolate Sauce
Now that we’re all well-rested with new pillows, dogs included, how about some chocolate sauce? I was sent a set of Willie Byrd chocolate sauces to try for the gift guide, and you guys, these are ridiculous.
There are four Willie Byrd flavors: dark chocolate, espresso dark chocolate, peppermint dark chocolate, and sea salt caramel dark chocolate, and each jar is $10. That may seem like a lot for chocolate sauce, but seriously, one jar is going to last you awhile.
In the jar at room temp, it looks kind of like chocolate frosting, but 20 seconds in the microwave turns a heaping spoonful into a smooth drizzle for ice cream or fruit. I also received the following suggestions from Scottie, one of the company owners – who is also a romance fan:
- We take a spoonful and add it to coffee or hot cocoa. Peppermint makes a fantastic hot cocoa!
- We use espresso drizzled over Taleggio cheese. Use it in place of honey
- We use caramel over crepes or waffles with sliced strawberries and toasted almonds.
- And ice cream is always an easy treat! My grandfather had coffee ice cream with the original “dark” but I like coconut ice cream with espresso.
We’re serving some of the sauces with Thanksgiving dessert, melted with fruit for dipping. I think my favorite thing (aside from the ridiculous deliciousness) is the company slogan: “Hide unless willing to share.”
Useful Things Around the House
I have mine in a corner in the kitchen near the recycling basket. When I sort the mail, anything that needs to be destroyed goes into the shredder. Then we dump the clippings into the recycling once a week. Less paper clutter, less worry about identity theft, and sometimes the kids fight over who gets to do the shredding – so it’s a bribe, too!
There are four measuring spoons – 1 TBSP/15mL, 1/2 TBSP, 1 tsp/5mL and 1/2 tsp.
And if you do a lot of cooking, I have the Cuisipro set of odd-measure spoons ($14), and they’re constantly useful.
Beware: OTOTO has an entire line of adorable office and kitchen items.
And speaking of more adorable…
And I’ve recommended these before, but we just added a bunch of the 2-cup size to our storage container collection to make bringing lunch to work and school easier, and every time I use them, I’m happy.
If you know someone who has been cooking more and trying to bring lunch to work, these would make a lovely and useful gift.
And Now, What the Actual Hell?
For those of you who celebrate Christmas, decorate trees, and need superb tacky and bizarre ornaments in your life:
I love the mermen, especially Mr. December, Mertini Merman above.
So who is on your list that’s difficult to shop for? Maybe we can help!