It’s time for my favorite new feature: Stuff We Like, a monthly round up of things that are interesting, adorable, entertaining, or giving us happy grins. As I said last month, here in the Hot Pink Palace, we’re constantly sharing gift ideas and clever things we find with one another, and it seems only fair we invite everyone in on the shopping fun, right?
Please note: some of these links include affiliate codes which send a percentage of your purchase back to the site at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
SO CUTE.
Countless items on the internet fall under this heading, but we’ve found a few that made us say, out loud by ourselves, “That’s SO CUTE.”
Elyse found these adorable Literary Origami bird earrings ($12), and I kind of want every item in the STC Handmade store now.
And in terms of adorable and useful, check this out:
The iEGrow LED desk lamp ($14) is rechargeable, holds pens and pencils, and lights up the desk wherever you need it to shine. It comes in several colors and, for real – how cute is that?
OOH FUN.
If you have Disney fans or LEGO fans in your house, well, maybe this set isn’t for them. Maybe this LEGO set is for YOU. Because Moana is awesome!
The Moana’s Ocean Voyage set is $28, and includes a voyaging canoe with sail and opening deck compartments, a small build of Te Fiti island plus Moana and Maui.
There’s also the Moana Island Adventure set ($25) that includes a tree house and a cave with Moana and her pet pig, Pua.
If you haven’t built with LEGO for awhile, it can be very meditative and soothing, especially if you (a) make sure they don’t fall on the floor (OW) and (2) make sure you have a glass of wine with you.
And if you need some serious LEGO time, you can get Ecto-1, the vehicle from the Ghostbusters reboot ($52), with all the excellent women plus a minifigure of Kevin, aka Chris Hemsworth, on a bike.
Maybe your goal is to collect all the Chris Hemsworth minifigures? That’s an excellent goal.
OOH PRETTY.
These are a bit of a splurge but wow, are they beautiful.
Agate coasters in assorted colors ($46) would make any beverage classy, right?
“What beautiful coasters! And what vintage are you drinking, there?”
“It’s prune juice.”
*impressed noises go here*
And if that set isn’t floating your boat, these are also gorgeous:
These blue agate coasters ($40) will also sparkle beautifully. And for a more meditative coaster (if you meditate on your coasters while you drink wine and build LEGOS and I hope you do AND that you invite me over because that sounds fun) these sandstone ones ($15) are kinda transfixing.
And suppose we don’t finish the wine. Ok, I know, that’s hilarious, but just in case, you know – humor me. If under some strange, bizarre circumstance we don’t finish the wine, we can use an…
OCTOPUS WINE STOPPER ($12) because WE CAN. Heck, even if the bottle is empty we can put an octopus wine stopper in it because we have one!
SO COZY.
Teatime! We’re going to need a kettle, right? A RED ONE!
The Ovente 1.5L electric kettle comes in a bunch of colors (I love the red!) and is only $23.
But say you need 1.7L? 1.5L is not going to cut it? We understand. There’s another beautiful red kettle:
This electric kettle is ALSO red, it’s from Hamilton Beach, and it’s $30.
And if you’ve got the kettle on, you might as well brew some tea, right? Of course! Look at these adorable teapot and cup sets:
Shoes on Her Mind Tea for One Set ($27)
Gracie China Tea For One ($18)
Tea For One – Red Gloss Finish ($11)
And, as I have learned, when you make tea, if you’re using a teabag in a tea cup, having something adorable to hold on to the teabag while it steeps is very important!
Like a Welsh Corgi.
Or a tabby cat.
And of course, to go with the tea, how about a candle? A CANDLE THAT SMELLS LIKE A BAKERY?
I’m going to need to lie down from too much awesome.
What about you? Anything fun, cozy, adorable or useful that you’ve found lately? Happy shopping!
My current favourite thing is the adorable bookmarks on the Etsy store Beyond the Pages. There’s lot of literary characters—Jane Austen, Harry Potter, Agatha Christie, etc—and TV show characters like the Gilmore Girls. I use mine to mark pages in my planner, and they’re so cute.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeyondthePages19?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=19820350
Those corgi tea holders are absolutely adorable. I don’t know that I *need* one, but my tea is going to seem lonely without it now.
I really love some of these bookish earrings… http://bookriot.com/2017/02/07/30-pairs-excellent-bookish-earrings/
Totally want the Moana Lego set!
We have the Ovente kettle and love it. Water heats in almost no time and you get a light show while you wait for it to boil. Off to buy the cats for my tea mug.
This entire post made me happy.
Perfect timing, I’ve recently decided I really need to start drinking tea. I have a electric kettle for coffee but the top broke recently and I’ve been looking at new ones and couldn’t decide. Thanks!
Also…I really want to suggest a tea post, for beginner’s, I feel like there would be a ton of great suggestions. It’s really hard to decide where to start.
@Olivia: we can totally do that. Stay tuned – we’re working on it now! Thank you for the suggestion!
My mom used to make ceramic tea for one teapots. I decorated one with little footprints all over it. I have had that teapot for well over 35 years now.
I love the tea post idea!
I drink organic Chai Tea from Bulk Herb Store that I highly recommend. A little heated lowfat milk and Splenda brown sugar…yum! I have to have at least a cup everyday. They make a Red Rooibos Chai for a decaf that I just received so I am not up until the wee hours reading because I am too wired to sleep.
https://www.bulkherbstore.com/black-spice-chai-tea-1-2-lb
They also have a sample collection of their teas. I love the Rise and Shine tea. I haven’t tried any of the others in the sample yet but they smell delicious. Also with the samples you get enough of each one to make about 6 or more cups of tea (depending on how much you use.) I have ordered with BHS for years and recommend them.
https://www.bulkherbstore.com/tea-sample-kit
I have the Hamilton kettle, because I love red appliances and it’s really great. I often use it to heat water for cooking too because it’s faster than the stove (or even getting hot water through my aging pipes to my kitchen sink).
Also, I’m pretty sure I need that kitty teabag holder.
And for Lego fans (or those with kids who are), there are numerous Lego sets from and based on THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE. And quite a few of them are under $20, so they may be a good way to find the figures one’s been looking for. (I don’t know how many folks are looking for Lego figures of the Calendar Man or Scarecrow dressed as a pizza delivery man.)
Ooh, speaking of tea: the Bluebird Tea Co. Mixologists: http://bluebirdteaco.com/uk_en/. They’re based in Brighton in the UK, but as far as I’m aware they ship quite widely internationally. And their blends are A+. Dozy Girl genuinely helps me sleep better, and Vicky’s Sponge Cake and the Birthday Cake teas are delicious.
I love the idea of a tea post. Don’t forget the tea cozies. There’re bound to be some really cute ones out there.
I’d love a tea post, too, although I confess that I’m about as bad about tea/tea paraphernalia as I am about books. (Which means I have way more tea, tea pots, kettles, mugs/cups, etc. than is anywhere near normal. Then again, I passed normal years ago for lots of things and don’t even bother looking back anymore.)
This is a kettle that you can adjust for different temperatures for different types of tea. (A gift from my wonderful sis.)
https://smile.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CPK-17-PerfecTemp-1-7-Liter-Stainless/dp/B003KYSLNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487201932&sr=8-1&keywords=cuisinart+water+kettle
And this is a bit of sheer indulgence I bought for myself. (It’s currently on sale–they’re usually about $40 more. There are also other brands–Cuisinart, Mr. Coffee, etc.)
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003LNOPSG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
[…] “Stuff we like” from Smart Bitches. […]
I got the Ovente in pink for Christmas. It’s so cool and stylish.
The agate coasters are lovely, but they appear to be simply slices of agate. I’m pretty sure you could pick out your own for under five dollars apiece at any rock shop. (You do have rock shops right? They’re all over the place in New Mexico.) Without some kind of nonslip, absorbent backing, they’re not really coasters, they’re just pretty rocks.
A post (or multiple) on tea would be great.