Archive for the ‘Gifts’ Category
The Tipsy Grape Brings Friends Together Over Wine
Enjoying a bottle of wine is often a great pretext to spend time with friends. This can be as informal as just inviting someone over, as formal as a wine-tasting event, or just an evening playing games with friends. Whichever you prefer, thetipsygrape.com has a great selection of items to make the evening even more fun.
The Tipsy Grape is a website that specializes in every conceivable accessory for the wine aficionado. From etched wine glasses to books, and from creative cork screws to artistically designed wine chillers and coolers, The Tipsy Grape has it all. For the evening with friends, especially, they have a number of great ideas.
Wine tasting can not only be fun, but can also be a great way to discover new wines. The wine tasting kit from The Tipsy Grape comes complete with six numbered wine bags to hide each bottle so that no one knows which one is being tasted. After each taste, the participants use the included scoring pad to write down their notes about each bottle. At the end of the tasting the notes are read aloud, winners are chosen and the bags are removed to reveal which bottle was judged best.
Another fun choice is the VitiVini Trivia game. It’s fun to play, but the game was actually designed and developed by real experts as a way to teach virtually everything there is to know about wine, wine-tasting, and choosing the right wine for specific foods. Put your knowledge to the test, and increase it with VitiVini Trivia.
If you’re not up for the intellectually challenging trivia game, then there’s always Wine-opoly. Wine-opoly, of course, is based on the classic board game Monopoly, but instead of buying up real estate, players buy different wines and then add bunches of grapes and decanters to increase their value. Players have to learn to deal with proper serving etiquette and import taxes to win. While much less intellectual work than VitiVini, each Wine-opoly card does have interesting fun facts about wine.
The site has more fun stuff related to wine as well. For the well-mannered guest, there are a number of personalized wine gifts that you can bring for the host to show your appreciation. With all the fabulous items available from The Tipsy Grape, it’s easy to think that it’s all about the wine, but never forget that it’s really all about spending time with friends and family.
Finding the Season’s Hottest Toys This Christmas
If you’re a parent of small children like I am, you know how difficult it can be trying to find the right toys to put under the Christmas tree. Every year, there are a number of "must have" toys that all kids covet (remember Cabbage Patch kids, anyone?). Frequently, these popular toys disappear from store shelves weeks before Christmas as thousands of other parents grab them up before they’re sold out. As a parent, how do you know what the hot toys are and where to actually find them?
The British Toy & Hobby Association recently released their 2008 list of Dream Toys which includes separate lists of the top 12 toys for boys and girls. On this list, you will find the usual suspects like Littlest Pet Shop toys and Transformers, but others may be new to you and may provide you with fresh gift ideas. The list encompasses most age categories and can give you a glimpse into the minds and hearts of your children.
To make it even easier to buy the top toys this Christmas season, websites like Choosetoys.co.uk bring together a list of retailers who carry each of the toys and compare prices for you. You can choose a retailer and click through to purchase the toy online. A few days later, it appears on your doorstep. Compare that to the traditional Christmas toy shopping experience of fighting through crowds at noisy stores to reach half-filled shelves of whatever toys are left.
Choose Toys also provides discount codes for many of the online retailers they feature, to make sure that you get the best price possible. These discounts can be applied automatically during the check out phase of your online purchase. Although you will have to pay for shipping in most cases, saving on gas, parking, and time is usually worth the extra cost. You may even find a better price than you would at the mall.
Let’s look at an example of what you can find on Choose Toys. The top toy for boys on the Dream List is Air Hogs Radio Control Zero Gravity. The traditional way to pick this up for Christmas is to get in the car and travel from store to store, trying to find it in stock while fighting mall crowds. Choose Toys has gathered a list of four retailers who offer the toy. You can scan the list and find the retailer who has the best price, fastest shipping, and best return policy. They also list similar and complementary toys in case you want to add to your Christmas purchases or find a lower priced alternative.
There will always be new and trendy toys at Christmas that most children will put at the top of their lists, and now, with the internet and websites like Choose Toys, parents can grant these Christmas wishes with ease.
The Beer Mug, the Ultimate Artistic Expression in Glass
For hundreds of years, glass has been used as a medium for creative expression. Whether in the form of crystal vases, stained glass cathedral windows, blown-glass statuettes, or other forms of expression, glass creations have a unique artistic symbiosis with the light that can at times seem to bring it to life. In addition to its own beauty, glass allows us bring the outdoors into our homes with windows, skylights, and even glass door panels. For some though, there is no piece of glass that can match the simple functional elegance of a sturdy beer mug.
The classic strength embodied by the sweep of the handle somehow just feels right in one’s hand. the smooth sides at once reveal and contain the refreshing elixir that lies within. the perfect weighting of the beer mug provides a reassuring and manly heft, which allows one to confidently clink glasses in a show of hearty celebration without fear of broken shards or worse, a spilled drink.
Sure, there are those who prefer the simplicity of a pint glass or the sweeping grandeur of a pilsner glass, but these lightweight options don’t have the sheer mass required to hold a chill when frosted and maintain their content at just the right temperature required to bring out the best in a beer. the weighted bottom allows a skilled bartender to slide a draft down the bar to a thirsty patron even if he doesn’t have a second to spare in order to walk it down himself.
And still, there is some hidden magic in a waiting beer mug that remains mysterious and alluring. Many a man has heard a beer mug calling his name when entering a favorite pub on his way home from work. Some hear that same call upon arriving home. A man’s relationship with his beer mug can be an intensely personal thing, in a virile sort of way. Relationships are built on shared experiences and fond memories. Many men can think back to their favorite sports team winning the championship and recall the rowdy salute shared with a lifted beer mug. Or after that same team experienced a particularly gut-wrenching loss, it was man and beer mug commiserating with shared sympathy. For baseball fans and beer mugs alike, there is no greater let down than watching a pitcher with nothing left to give for his team.
For all this, the beer mug is hailed by many as the ultimate expression of the majesty of glass. If you are a connoisseur of fine glass like those I have described, or if you know one, then consider adding a masterwork to your collection. the only thing that could make a (full) beer mug even more beautiful is the recognition of your life-long commitment by having your name, or even your portrait, tattooed across the beer mug’s midsection, with all the precision of laser etched permanence. Visit glasswithatwist.com for more information about custom engraved glassware of all sorts.