Nic Narrates

Nic’s Recession-Friendly Holiday Gift Guide

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Just a few odd, inexpensvie, and quirky ideas to share…

www.tastebook.com

Given my own proclivities toward cereal, I’d venture to say I’m not really the target market here, but GDF is quite the Cooker-Girl. In fact, she’s one the one who showed me how easy it is to choose your own recipes for the cookbook inserts, then coordinate photos and colors. Creative and useful for just under $20, and it can be added to at anytime. Not bad considering how most of us keep our recipes otherwise!

Aha! Take that!

The “Keep Your Distance Bug Vacuum” from Hammacher Schlemmer for $49.95. Certain to be a functional and entertaining way to gain the upper hand on pesky bugs and spiders. Personally, I’m the kind of girl who is so deathly afraid of spiders that I don’t even want to get close enough to them to attempt killing them. And if I miss or they jump- forget about it. I cede the room to them for the rest of the day.

With a cherry on top!

An apron that’s makes having cupcakes An Event. For $32, you can deck yourself out and whip up your own at home for the cost of a dozen at the local shop. A friend of mine is getting this apron paired with a cute cupcake cookbook- a themed gift in honor of a happy memory of sharing cupcakes from Magnolia’s on someone’s front steps in NYC.

Mighty Leaf your month!

Mighty Leaf’s web site now offers a recurring order program. When you’re giving a gift (even to yourself!), the program allows you to customize by product and delivery frequency, and provides additional free gifts and subscriber savings. My Mom’s a fan of the Vanilla Bean and now I can have a box sent to her each month.

Retro Coda Flip Mino Video Recorder

We’ve all seen the commercials by now….the one where the parents find out their kids are possessed by satan, the one where the dude sneaks up and scares the poor lady just trying to take her cake out of the oven (jerk!), the baby will cut a bitch one, or the one where the kid just twirls and twirls and twirlsbecause you can do that when you’re a kid and don’t have to go to your crap-ass job to write awesome posts like this one. Oh sorry, what we’re we talking about? Ummm….yeah- so this thing seems pretty awesome. For $150 you get 60 minutes of recording time with a 2 GB built-in memory. Not a lot, but if you want more, you’re going to have to pay a little more (or a lot if you want HD too). Battery is rechargeable, it’s pocket-sized, and if you go on CafePress, you can choose from over 16,000 designs or make your own. I like the irony of the “old is new” look personally.