Things You Need to Know About

Make sure your husband/kids/person-who-wants-to-spoil-you-as-you-deserve is reading this over your shoulder, OK?

In service to my dear and faithful readers, I'd like to present the following list of Mother's Day gift ideas. If  you're not a mom (yet, or ever) or your significant other believes, horrifyingly, that Mother's Day is simply a consumeristic invention designed to sell Hallmark cards, maybe, just maybe, you just need to treat yourself or a mother in your life.

But first! Something FREE you need to know about:

Becky Higgins is doing a giveaway every single day in May where professional photographers all over the country donate their services to capture you and your beautiful family on film. Or megabytes. Or whatever the thingamajiggies are in those big honkin' digital cameras of theirs. Check it out, and be sure to check back in every day for a photographer in your area.

Now. Consider the following.
1. A listmaker. List PlanIt is the place to download templates for every possible, imaginable, type of list you could ever dream of making. Paper or digital, your choice. I dare you to try it out and not feel more organized. I gave my sister a membership for her birthday. She's now completely in control of her life and happy beyond her wildest dreams. (Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch. But still.)

2. An apron. A CUTE one that gives you that je-ne-sais-quoi as you sashay around the kitchen as you undoubtedly do. If the gender politics of your husband presenting you with an apron as a gift give you the heebie-jeebies, check out the selection at Anthropologie and you might reconsider. My sister gave me one for my birthday. I'm now completely in control ... Oh, never mind.


3. A personalized necklace. All right, it might be too late for this Mother's Day, but I don't mind admitting that I've shed some slobber over the handmade creations at The Vintage Pearl and Lisa Leonard Designs (from which the photo at left was taken), among others. They'll engrave the names of your kiddos or whomever you love onto sterling silver lockets. Gorgeous!



4. A rosebush or other flowering plant. This is the gift that keeps on giving, year after year. I'm totally in love with the one surviving rosebush in my back yard. And if you don't have a yard, you can grow one in a container on a patio.

5. Dark chocolate. A couple weeks ago, my father-in-law presented me with two bars of dark chocolate for no particular reason than paternal affection and belief, I suppose, that raising his grandchildren requires extra fuel now and then. In my book, that made it Mother's Day already.

6. A book. Stephanie from Keeper of the Home has a brand new book out, available as a digital or hard copy, all about eating Real Food on a Real [read: tight] budget. (Like, for those of us who can't quite manage to sign over our firstborn to Whole Foods.) It's wonderful. Check it out.

Of course, you can never go wrong with a handmade card. Never ever ever.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!