Borders Bookstore

If you are a Borders Bookstore Rewards card member you are in luck today! Borders is offering 25% off one list price item until 4/2/09. Click the link below to download the coupon.

http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/coupon250331.asp?cmpid=SL_20090331_REW

You could use this discount to purchase a gift for yourself (nothing wrong with that!) or a gift for another-who doesn't need a good book? Also, don't forget about the magazine section and the bargain bin!

PS: If you aren't a rewards member...no problem! You can join at the bookstore for free!

HoneeBee Quote

"My dad gave me a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. He introduced me to it when I was younger" -Kate Bosworth

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic and while we all read it in school, it might be time for a refresher.

The Spotlight: Carol's Daughter

I remember reading about Carol's Daughter years ago, fell in love with Ms. Lisa Price's (owner) products and story so much that I dragged my friends to her first store (back then it was the only store) on a trip to NYC....Yup, me and some friends headed to Brooklyn so I could buy some Carol's Daughter! My friends had not heard about Carol's Daughter but happily joined me on the trip and I am so glad they did. I was able to pick up some great items and the store was super cute. Years later, Carols Daughter is booming with more products and key supporters like Jada Pickett Smith, Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige (see ad/catalog cover below). Carol's Daughter has various product lines for hair, bath & body, fragrance, skincare, hands & feet, color and men. Her products seem to be truly made with love.

Here's a blurb from the Carols Daughter website:
In the early 1990’s, Brooklyn native Lisa Price (a.k.a. Carol’s daughter) began experimenting with fragrance, essential oils and natural moisturizers to make gifts for her family and friends. Soon after she packaged her home-spun creations, word spread like wildfire and the demand for her unparalleled hair and body care products led to a highly successful mail-order and web-based business.
Nature, family and love are words that resonate for Carol’s Daughter and as business expands, Lisa makes sure that detailed care and attention is given to each product. Within every Carol's Daughter product, whether it's the Ecstasy Shea Soufflé or the Almond Cookie Sea Salt Body Scrub, the uniqueness of the name is an association with the familiar manner in which the products were born.

Source: www.carolsdaughter.com

Giftology

Below are gift stats that focus on the habits of women and shopping. Check them out!

• 28% of surveyed respondents admitted that they "recycle gifts."
• Women give Christmas gifts to more people than do men. The average difference is 12.5 versus eight.
• Women devote more time to selecting the appropriate gift, 2.4 hours per recipient versus 2.1 hours for male gift shoppers.
• Women are more successful in finding desired gifts. 10% of women's gifts were returned to the shop, as opposed to 16% for gifts given by men.

Source: flickr.com, marginalrevolution.com

HoneeBee Quote

This quote is from Heidi Klum on receiving a gift from her husband and musical artist, Seal....

"Seal got me a tennis bracelet, and he put it on me in my sleep. When I woke up to feed the baby, I noticed it"

How cute is that?

Source: People

Gift Tip #3

This Gift Tip is for the cooker in the family. This is a custom-made cookbook from TasteBook that can organize all written recipes, magazine-clipped entrees, and your favorite tasty treats that you come across on the Internet. Here's how it works:

Go to TasteBook.com and create a profile. Once you create your profile you can upload recipes to include in your book. You can create a theme (i.e desserts only, soul food, etc) for the book and you can also pull recipes from various websites such as HungryGirl.com or FoodNetwork.com. You can also include photos (some like to see if their dish looks like the photo) which can be uploaded just like the recipes.

Once the book is created online you can have a hardcover copy mailed to you (or gift recipient) in approximately one week.

This gift could be given to any foodie but to take it a step further it could also be used to capture old-family recipes and share from generation to generation. This could also be a great addition to a family reunion or as a gift to the historian in the family.

Bonus: The cookbook could be accompanied by a new set of pots and pans, kitchen utensils or an apron...anything kitchen or food-related would be a great bonus gift.

Bob Appetit!

HoneeBee Quote

Living artfully might require taking the time to buy things with soul for the home. Good linens, a special rug, or a simple teapot can be a source of enrichment not only in our own life, but also in the lives of our children and grandchildren.

-Thomas Moore

The Spotlight: Expressionary

Expressionary.com is an online store that features memo pads, cards, embossers and more. The company was established in Texas in 2005. They were recently named one of the Top 100 Retail websites from Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2009.

My favorite part of this website are the PSA Essentials Stamps collection. The stamps collection features hundreds of designs.


This is a great personal gift for the person who has everything and I would also think it would be a thoughtful gift to a new homeowner. Actually, I know it would be-I gave one to one of my best friends upon the purchase of her new home. She loved it. She said it "made it (her first home) official". How great is that?! What an impactful gift. I gave her the address stamper along with an assortment of greeting cards to make th gift complete. Below is the style I purchased for her:
Here's the one I got for myself:

Now in case you want to get one for yourself or someone you care about, here's a deal from me to you: Use code: MOM40 to receive a whopping 40% off your Expressionary.com purchase and free shipping. The promo code can be used until May 12th.

PS: Don't forget Mother's Day is coming up.

Happy Shopping!

Parking at the BWI Marshall Airport

This never happens...a deal at the airport? See below for a parking pass. Happy flying!



If you cannot download the coupon click here: http://www.bwiairport.com/en/parking/information-rates/parkhappy




BONUS: Once on this site, you can register for free & frequent deals at BWI Marshall’s Express Parking, Hourly and Daily Garages and Long Term A and B.




Fun Facts about BWI:
-In 2001 BWI named the fastest growing airport among the 30 busiest in North America.
-The food and retail concessions program at BWI Marshall is again honored by industry publication Airport Revenue News with the 2007 award for "Best Overall Concessions" in the medium-sized airport category.
-Over 21 million commercial passengers flew through Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in 2007. This traffic figure, an increase of 1.7% over 2006, represents a new all-time record for BWI Marshall.

Papyrus Online Sale

Papyrus is conducting a one day TODAY! Go to papyrusonline.com for 25% off any and everything on the website.

Papyrus products include wrapping paper, gifts, stationary and they are most known for their greeting cards. The Bella Pilar cards are amongst my favorites. I have included one of their cards below. Cute, huh?

Interesting facts about Papyrus

1950: Company founded.
1965 - 1989: Company facility in Oakland, California. Housed warehouse, product packaging and all administrative departments. The original facility in Emeryville was burnt to the ground in 1965.
1973: Papyrus was established in Berkeley as the first retail store.
1982: Dominique Schurman joined the Company and worked over the years in many capacities.
2004: Papyrus store system totaled 140 stores with major presence in all key metro markets.
2006: All brands unified under the Papyrus brand.

Follow HoneeBee Gifts Blog....and leave comments

Here are the step-by-step directions to follow HoneeBee Gifts blog. Following the blog, basically means being a "friend" of the blog and receiving updates via e-mail when a new post/message is added to the blog. The average update is once a day.

Here are the easy steps to follow HoneeBee Gifts blog:
1. Log on to honeebeegifts.blogspot.com
2. Click the FOLLOW button on the right-hand side of the blog
3. You have four options to follow the blog. You will need to add your current e-mail address. You can choose Google (aka GMail), AIM (aka AOL) or Yahoo. If you have your own website or blog you can use the "Open ID" button and add in your own website address or blog address.
If you d0 not have a Google, AIM or Yahoo account, you can sign up for a Google account. The link is below the Open ID button.

Extra note: You can also leave a comment on my blog and I appreciate all feedback. You can do that by visiting the blog at honeebeegifts.blogspot.com. In each post there is a "comments" link in the left hand corner. Just click that and a box will open to leave a comment. You can also click the envelope icon to send the blog post to another e-mail address.

Below is information about HoneeBeeGifts Blog. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions, ideas, and kudos. I welcome it all!
-Simone


Abut HoneeBee Gifts
HoneeBee Gifts is a business that offers creative gift concepts and exceptional ideas to celebrate moments that mean the most to you through gifting.

HoneeBee will help you pick the perfect gift, whether by recommendations via this blog, our very own personalized gift questionnaire or "matching" the perfect gift to the event/holiday you are celebrating and the person receiving the gift.

Each gift handpicked by HoneeBee will make your friend, business associate, loved one, etc feel exactly how you would feel when receiving the perfect gift. Just imagine that feeling!

We at HoneeBee hope that you sign up for this blog, get ideas, comment and share with friends. It is our pleasure to give you the buzz on what's happening in the gift world.

When the gift is a ring

Maybe it's a wedding...maybe its not but at some point you may want to purchase a ring for a friend or loved one. It could be a friendship ring, engagement ring or a ring to mark a special occasion such a graduation or a Bar Mitzvah.The hardest part of this is finding out the ring size of the recipient.

According to jewelry designer Silvio Hidalgo, who has had celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mandy Moore wearing his rings, suggests wearing a ring of a known size and asking the recipient to try it on (" I love my new ring. I bet it would look pretty on you."). And remember...if you have taken all the routes to try to find out the ring size to no avail, take an educated guess as rings can always be sized later. In the end, the recipient will be excited and happy that you thought of them! In case you want to see Hidalgo's work below are a few of his special pieces. Beautiful aren't they?

Sidenote: If you are purchasing a ring online or overseas you can go to gem-fashion.com and they have a ring size converter on their site. It allows you to put in the US size and it will convert that size to reflect the sizes used in other countries. It takes out the guesswork if you are going an unconventional route to ring buying.

Interesting fun facts
*60% if women's ring fingers are between a size 6 and 7.
*Actress Rosario Dawson loves to buy rings as gifts

Keep this in mind when looking for a ring
Whether you are looking for a ring for yourself or to give as a gift, it is important to find a size that will fit you correctly. The perfect size is when the ring feels comfortably on the finger, but it is a little hard to get off. This allows pleasant wearing without the risk of losing the ring. While you don't want the ring sliding off your finger, you also don't want to it applying too much pressure. What you are looking for is a nice, snug fit. To get a snug fit, the ring should just fit over the largest part of your finger - that is typically your knuckle. And, you should also know that your ring size generally increases with hot outdoor temperatures, with high humidity levels and with a diet high in salt. So, keep these facts in mind as you determine the right ring size.



Sources: In Style Magazine, HidalgoJewerly.com, Gem-Fashion.com

HoneeBee Quote

HoneeBee quote of the week:

I went window shopping today! I bought four windows. -Tommy Cooper

Gift Tip #2

According to Wikopedia, a coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom.

They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for portability. Subject matter is generally confined to non-fiction, and is usually visually-oriented. Pages consist mainly of photographs and illustrations, accompanied by captions and small blocks of text, as opposed to long prose. Since they are aimed at anyone who might pick the book up for a light read, the analysis inside is often more basic and with less jargon than other books on the subject.

A coffee table book would make for a great gift but you need to pick topics that have range...most importantly the book must fit the personality of the friend/receiver. Off the top of my head I know I have friends that like fashion/shopping, wine, travel, cocktails or icons in a certain genre. These coffee table topics are "safe bets" and could fit many personalities.

I would encourage you to check out bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, Borders and Books-a-Million for coffee table books. Going online is another option too.

Whatever route you decide, it is best to get and store until the gift is needed. It's much easier to have such items on hand than to have to search for an item at the last minute....although we never wait to the last minute to buy that special gift, right? :)

Here are the coffee table books* that I currently have on my ottoman:

-I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America-- By Brian Lanker

-Southern Weddings: New Looks for the Old South-- By Tara Guerard

-Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See--Edited by Bill Shapiro

Earlier in the post, I mentioned "safe bets" and while these books are a bit specific you can tell that I enjoy being inspired, that I have a connection to the South and that I love love and unique books. This glimpse at my coffee table books should give you a better idea of what to look for when purchasing coffee table books for your friends, family and whomever you decide to make smile with a personal gift.

Happy Gift Giving!

*Images from amazon.com

The Spotlight: Compendium

I received a Franklin Covey leather planner from an old co-worker and included in there was an ENJOY card from Compendium, Inc. I decided to check out their website and have since brought various products for myself and friends. The friends I have gifted these items to have loooovvved it. Below is the Gratitude postcard I received (Thanks, Kara!) and other items you can find on the Compendium website, http://www.live-inspired.com/ On the site you will find gift books, journals, stationery, desk accessories and home decor that are inspiring and beautiful.

Compendium is a Seattle-based company and continue to grow their product line daily. Their site is extensive and how can you not love a company whose vision statement is "live inspired"?

Nordstrom Shoe Sale

Sale Alert: Nordstrom is currently having a shoe clearance sale in stores and online for women, men and kids. I guess they are making way for new inventory. I perused online and there are flats, sandals, boots and more that are 33-40% off the original price.

I saw a pair of hot Steve Madden Mellisa Black Platform Sandals on sale for $64.90 (original price $109.95). I'm just saying...

The Spotlight: Pink Sugar Dots

You know those fantabulous products that you need to have but never knew it...until you see it? Well, The Spotlight will feature these items. These are products that I have fallen in "gift love" with and have the obligation to share with you!

The first spotlight is the stationary of Pink Sugar Dots (http://www.pinksugardots.com/) and I found them online this past summer. Sorry for the delay in sharing but the time is right!

Pink Sugar Dots features note card collections for the fantabulous. Delina Breeding, owner of Pink Sugar Dots creates paper goods for the fashionable and free-spirited. She includes calling cards (aka business cards), invites to birthday parties, bridal showers and general cards for a special note.

Here are a few examples:


The prices are reasonable and listed on her website. Check out her creativeness and support a local artisan. Her cards are truly works of art.