Love-ly Cookies

Jungle Love Colossal Cookie

Wow, that's really a huge, tempting, sweet-looking cookie. The cookie weighs more than one pound (450 grams), and is hand decorated. Nice way to bring out one's wild side ;)

The giant cookie costs $34.95, and costs $48.95 if you include 12 additional mixed cookies.



Love Notes

Yes, these love note cookie cards are edible. They cost $14.95. Each fresh baked sugar cookie is covered in white chocolate, with a card design and border of candy hearts and sprinkles.

What's nice about this one is that there is an Edible Food Writer included to personalize your own special cookie card message. The gift box is tied with coordinating sheer chiffon ribbon. An optional, personalized (non-edible) gift card is included with the purchase.

Order early -- shipping prices start at $9.99, for 0-3 lbs gift items. You can check the shipping rates on each individual gift page before checkout as well.

Coincidentally, Presentville Gifts was established on Valentine’s Day 2005. Shipping is currently available in the USA only.

I'll look out for stores which have international shipping in the next few posts.

Unique Japanese Gift

A nice way to discover the exotic world of Japanese cuisine (sake in this particular case), is with this seven-piece sake set. The bottle measures about 7 inches (17.7cm) tall, and the cups are 2.25 inches (5.7cm) tall. The set is handcrafted in Japan.

AsianArtMall.com deals exclusively in Asian Arts and Crafts. Most of the products are directly acquired from the artists or production houses. This allows AsianArtMall to offer their items at affordable prices, without compromising on quality control. Some of the products are even custom made for the company, and only available on their website.

They have a special "For Her" section too, which features jewellery imported from Thailand, Bali, Japan, and China. Each piece is hand selected for its uniqueness.

AsianArtMall has full-time buyers which are located throughout Asia. If there's a product somewhere out there, they'll be able to find it.

PS: Sake Bar Hakkaisan is a place where you can read more about the art of drinking/appreciating SAKE.

Wilson Manor Crafts

Coffee Grinder

I was actually checking out the fountain pens of Wilson Manor Crafts, but I thought this was interesting too (by the way, the fountain pens are a favourite among collectors. There's also a complete line of fine handcrafted wood pens).

Buying whole beans is a great way to make fresh coffee every morning. Hand-grinding it makes it much more special. This functional coffee grinder will allow you to do just that.

The coffee grinder is made of cast iron and Hickory. The bottom drawer opens up to let you scoop out the ground coffee inside. The bottom of the grinder is lined with cork to provide a non-slippy base that will not damage table and/or countertops.



And if you know someone who likes to play darts (I was very into it at one time!), they're sold at Wilson Manor Crafts as well. These are soft-tipped Cocobolo darts for electronic dart boards. Weighing 20 grams each, the tips and flights are standard threaded, and come with three replacement tips. Supplies are limited. The darts come in a set of 3.

PS: Cocobolo is a prized wood highly favored for fine inlay work, and musical instruments like guitars and basses.

Shakespeare's Den

Smart Gifts for Intelligent People

I absolutely love this huge website (their storefront header is spiffy too!).

Shakespeare's Den can easily boast about having the largest collection of Shakespeare related gifts and merchandise, available on the internet.

Classics and hot favourites include The Shakespeare’s Quips, Cusses, and Curses Quiz Deck, and in fact, there's an entire section of products devoted to Shakepeare's Insults.

Here are some of the insults featured on the Shakespeare's Insults T-shirt:

* You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian!
* False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand
* Idol of idiot-worshippers
* I do desire we may be better strangers

The food products (like mints and teas) come in very attractive, charming packaging that any Shakespeare fan would appreciate.

You can even search for gifts based on the plays - Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, King Lear, and so on.

Gifts like the hilarious "To Pee, or Not To Pee" baby bodysuit is a simplified version of the epic quotation, suitably so for the much younger crowds.

Chocolate Pizzas

What caught my eye straight away: Chocolate Pizzas!



Roberta's Chocolates are handmade by Colorado's premier chocolatier. In addition to delightful chocolates, Roberta's Chocolates also carry a wide variety of unique confections including scrumptious candies, smooth creams, covered nuts and luscious truffles.

There's also a sweetheart fun-fondue set, which can be found on the MadeInColarado website. The set includes recipes for Chocolate Fondue, Salsa Cheese Dip and Hot Artichoke Dip.

And of course, you can satisfy your sweet tooth over at the gourmet food section. Some items: critter candy, snow snacks, chocolate wine sauce. Don't forget the Colorado Premium Habañero Hot Sauce too!

Cape Cod Potato Chips

Cape Cod potato chips stand out as old-fashioned, premium kettle cooked potato chips with a crunchiness and hearty potato flavor.

The nice thing is that this brand of chips isn't saturated with additives. Some brands of potato chips have loads of salt and dreadful MSG (monosodium glutamate, a food additive which can trigger headaches and other symptoms in some people. Myself included!). Cape Cod chips aren't soaked in oil either.

At first, I used to think that some of these "premium" brands were only marketing themselves as premium, so that each product item could fetch a higher price from us hapless consumers.

However, after a few years' worth of being slightly more aware of the food I'm actually eating, I think sometimes the higher price IS precisely because the product is of a higher quality than some other mass-produced brands. You spend less to buy stuff like that, but time-honoured traditions and care that goes into making a product (whatever it is), are compromised with mass production.

Whenever I want a good packet of chips - not just to munch on while zoning out watching TV - I'll find myself cruising the potato chip snack shelves of grocery stores, then stalling as I consider which new type of chips of Cape Cod's I'd try, heh.

I liked the Sea Salt & Vinegar packet (some might find the bite of vinegar a tad sharp. I find Sea Salt great on food though). The Cheddar Jack & Sour Cream tastes zingy. And of course, their good old Classic chips can be counted on.

Towering Gift

Why not give this elegant chocolate tower for Christmas? It's beautiful to look at and it's filled with goodies - goodies like chocolates, pretzels, popcorn, brownies...

Those with a sweet tooth will find themselves spoiled for choice at Presentville. Some of their mouth-watering confectionery creations include chocolate-covered Oreos, giant fortune cookies, and chocolate pretzels (ooh!).

The Pop Art gift tower is another eye-catching set, which is packed full with solid milk chocolates, a decorated star cookie, gourmet caramel popcorn, crunchie nut mix and brightly wrapped fruit flavoured hard candy.

Their novelty items include cookie bouquets, and I think I'd have a hard time finding someone who didn't enjoy them. There's even Happy Studying and Keep Smiling bouquets for school-goers. Even the most studious of us could do with sugary pick-me-up goodliness from time to time.

I also liked the Happy Anniversary cookie basket - truly a great way to treat your special someone that you care for. There's a large butter crème frosted cookie that's iced with your personal message too.

Presentville's corporate and business sets are fine ways to show a customer how much you appreciate them. Some of their luxurious wine gift baskets are hand delivered. Many of them include crackers, cheese, candies, nuts, seafood, confections, teas, or coffees. Salivating yet?

Jam & Jelly

http://www.chathamjamandjellyshop.com/

At this shop all jams are hand made. They even hand pick all the local fruit to make sure their products are of the highest quality. A perfect gift for jam and jelly lovers.

And if you happen to be in their neighbourhood (Cape Cod, MA), you can even drop in to sample the jams and jellies - at least 75 different varieties are available for tasting at any one time.

Mmmm......Chocolate!

Sooner or later I knew I'd get to chocolate....delicious, mouth watering, chocolate! Yummy. And that includes fudge, truffle, candy.........made fresh in a candy kitchen. Order yours at
http://www.villagepeddlervt.com/

Haunting Halloween

Still not too late to grab these goodies for Halloween.

And don't forget those tote bags for the kids to go trick or treating!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Available at http://www.cookiepots.com/Halloween_treats.htm