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It’s that time of year again — the holiday season is ramping up, which means it’s time to think about gifts! For those that don’t know, I’m an enthusiastic gift giver — giving the perfect gift is more exciting to me than receiving a gift. I also like to spread my excitement around and help YOU ALL find the perfect gift for everyone on your lists. So here starts the latest round of Offbeat Home & Life gift guides.
Thoughtful gifts under $20 for EVERYONE on your list
So you can't afford to get your book nerd brother a first edition, or your travel-hungry friend his dream trip to Japan, or your whiskey-loving... Read more
For this one, we’re going through the “my favorite things” archive AND re-visiting some of the things I’ve featured on Offbeat Home & Life that are STILL my favorite things… and may soon be your [parent/friend/partner/child]’s favorite thing.
Get your shopping fingers ready, because there’s a BIG chance that you’ll find something you need for someone you love…
Cover Blubber is this awesome reusable, super-stretchy rubber wrapping material, intended to cover food and keep it fresh inside your refrigerator or freezer. In short: It’s the eco-friendly alternative to plastic wrap. Also, food condom jokes are fun. For reals, I ordered these for myself and they are awesome. Everyone who makes food will love these.
First you start with a $5 Mug Boss. Then you load the pockets with useful objects, which could be just about any small-but-useful object. My dad’s a tool-loving, Mr Fixit type, who lives in Texas. So I filled his with special carabiners, a Fisher Space .338 Bullet Cartridge Pen, and a pocket knife. I basically ransacked Think Geek’s tool section.
How cool are these microwave popcorn poppers!? I have one, and I use it all the damn time. Get them the entire Sur La Table Popcorn Gift Set and you have one very happy gift receiver.
It’s important to me to have a coffee maker that grinds and brews because I always buy my favorite coffee beans in a big ol’ bag, and I really don’t want to grind them all myself. So I asked my father, the patron saint of Consumer Reports, to do some research for me, and his results told him that by far the best grind and brew was this guy: Cuisinart DGB-700BC Grind-and-Brew.
In years past Offbeat Empire overlord Ariel and I have been silently participating in “cute gift off.” I’ve given her adorable and often Empire-related things like Mason Jar wine glasses, and a pillow shaped like a log. But the bitch totally topped my gift-giving one year with the “Unicorns in Space” leggings!
This is a linen tea towel with a picture of a cat with a ‘stache, wearing a suit and an eyepatch. I don’t feel like I need to say more than that.
Let me introduce you to one of my favorite products ever made: Sugru air-curing rubber. Sugru is hand-formable, sticks to almost anything, air-cures at room temperature, forming a strong, flexible silicone rubber seal overnight. And once it’s cured, it’s totally waterproof! It’s perfect for repairing things, or hacking non-broken things to make them even better.
I got this shower curtain and I LOOOOOVE it. I’ve had my eye on ModCloth’s Swell Acquainted Shower Curtain for months, but it’s always been sold out. (For obvious reasons of fucking awesomeness.) But now it’s available and even cheaper on Amazon.
Just about all the ladies of the Empire have, live, and die by their Fitbit Ones. Fitbit also has a range of other useful trackers to fit the needs and lifestyles of your favorite active (or need-to-be-more-active) loved ones.
How cute is this freaking frying pan? I’m sorry, I mean, frying panda. Apparently it’s not just a pretty face — this pan can handle whatever you can cook up, and has been handling my poor cooking for a couple years now. Plus she fits in perfectly with my animals-as-kitchen-utensils collection.
The Unemployed Philosophers Guild (best biz name ever) makes this set of eight melamine plates featuring freaking watercolor portraits of the planets in our solar system. These plates are also lightweight so that means you can bring them on your nerdy picnics this summer, or just use ’em at home to impress your guests. (Dibs on Uranus!)
I’m going to end this on my most favorite thing that I ever bought/featured: The Fuck Everything Comic Art Throw Pillow was made for me — she even looks like me! So I purchased it. It’s my spirit pillow.
Do y’all have a favorite finds from Offbeat Home & Life? What did ya get? What do you recommend?
Nooooo. That pillow is sold out! I lovelovelovelove it!
https://www.spitfiregirl.com/collections/at-home
~ was on a mission & found it!
To be totally honest, a lot of the OBH shopping posts are a little too far out (HA, offbeat) for my taste. Which, no complaints! Different strokes, y’all.
But Megan, DAMN, this list kills. If all your roundups are this good, I’ll be set for Christmas. Major XOXO for the mostly under $50 and wide range of gift-receivers covered.
WOOT! I love shopping for people shopping for people! 😉
Check out the archive gift guides past, they’re less weird then my decor roundups (no barfing dragon faucets) unless you’re looking at the gift guide for weird people: http://offbeathome.com/tag/gift-guides
I hope I’m clear though, that I’m happy there is a place on the internet snarklessly promoting barfing dragon faucets.
No worries, Carolyn! You’re totally spot on — my usual roundups get WEIRD like WHOA. But I know that… you know… your mother-in-law probably doesn’t want a barfing dragon in ANY capacity. And your little sister isn’t going to find that the stripper sloth shower curtain matches her Ralph Lauren bathroom. So the holiday gift guides are my attempt to reach less dragon-obsessed, sloth stripper-loving peeps.
(Aaaaaaand THAT was possibly my favorite comment I’ve ever written on Offbeat Home.)
I feel so lucky that my mother-in-law would probably *love* barfing dragon MANY things.
I seriously thought you had that pillow made for you cause she looks so much like you.
That guy I married thought the same thing. He came home, saw it on the chair, and was like “Who made this pillow of you!?” Mwahahahaha.
I bought the planet plates for my friend’s wedding gift, and his wife absolutely adores them! Definitely a crowd pleaser.
The Unemployed philosopher’s guild might be my new favorite internet place <3
Just found what to bring to the next white elephant party I’m invited to…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R59KV6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002R59KV6&linkCode=as2&tag=offbeatbrid0a-20&linkId=RXYOB4YGFKBMIFXY
We’ve had him on our fridge for years, and every single time we have someone over, even for a few minutes, Jesus ends up with a new outfit. Love the Unemployed Philosopher stuff!
Oh man, my youngest brother would LOVE this! I wonder if I can rig the Secret Santa so I get him (unlikely!), or if it has to wait til next summer for his birthday…
Somebody donated that to the Ministry Centre at a local Anglican college! It’s the best! (The chaplain there also gives out WTFWJD buttons — she enjoys it when people ask her “What does that mean? It LOOKS like…”, and she can respond, “yes, it means what it looks like!”)
Geez, I try to be good around the holidays & resist my love to tchotchkes & goofy stuff. But I totally want a log pillow now. The fuck everything pillow would have been great for my BFF (were it not sold out), but the log pillow is so me. Bonus point in that I could use it as a prop & be the Log Lady from Twin Peaks next Halloween.
I love the Unemployed Philosophers Guild! I have a great Shakespeare mug from them. 🙂
I’ve been trying to think of what to get my guy for Christmas this year AND THEN THERE WAS THIS POST. Now I can’t choose.
Ooh, let me know which one(s) you pick!
I figured he wouldn’t fully appreciate the leggings with space unicorns, so I went with the mustachioed cat tea towel. Because that’s so much less weird 😉
My boyfriend saw this and stated that we will be putting the Darth Vader toaster on our wedding registry.
http://www.thewirelesscatalog.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?ACTION=DETAIL&ITEM=VP8312&websource=GOOGLSH&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PLA&coupon_code=WIRGOOGLE7&gclid=CNi_x7Cuh8ICFQupaQodSJQAgA
As a reader, commenter, and contributor, I’m a bit disappointed that you are doing holiday/Christmas posts this early. Today’s ornament post really did it for me, but I don’t want to do a negative comment on a sponsored post, because I know that isn’t good for business. I’d think OBE, of all brands, would “get” the “holiday season” bloat and know to save this stuff for December.
Aw, thanks for speaking up, Rebecca! I get what you’re saying — holiday bloat is a THING. The reason I started featuring these earlier this year was based on feedback from last year where-in people were disappointed that they were posted “too late” to be able to get things ordered/shipped in time. So I thought I’d bump up the timeline on these bad boys.
In regards to the ornament post (thanks for leaving the comment over here, respect 😉 ), that sponsor custom makes all her pieces, so she requested to have her post run ASAP in order to give her time to get everything made for customers.
In other news: Not everyone has (or wants) all their holiday shopping done by the second week of November!??? Aaaaaand I just realized that my chronic earliness may apply to gifting too.
Megan,
Thanks for the reply. Perhaps there is a way to be self-effacing and post before thanksgiving thus triggering less of the holiday bloat sensation. But I get that you have a business to run and I don’t have to LOVE everything you do (and I do love most of it). I appreciate your thinking it through!
As a Dutchie who celebrates her main gift giving holiday of the year on December 5th (Sinterklaas) rather than the 25th, I appreciate the earliness too!