cedros productions

daddyo took an unintended break from employment this year so i haven't been perusing many shopping sites. there's nothing is more depressing than finding many a thing you can't afford, and frankly who really cares about all of the things that i love?
well apparently miss leena lou does, so girlfriend, this 2009 favorite things list is for you. i tried to find a slew of things that you, and those on your shopping list, would enjoy.

I love all things felted, ok maybe not all things, but you get the idea. spiderfelt has cute little felted balls with designs or letters. a funky take on the alphabet blocks and one that causes considerably less damage when it gets chucked at your head. humm, perhaps i can get everything in sam's reach felted.

i love these cards from Speckles & Weeds. they have super funny parenting cards (much like MA) but these are a bit more swanky.

i have a secret love affair with all things fred flare. the stuff is fabulous and i can always find something that reminds me of fourth grade. i'm hoping they'll be in my stocking this year.

i also love these bookmarks. cute gift to give with a book to your favorite librarian. hint hint

i long to quit my day job to become a baker. sadly, i'm not as good as one would need to be to actually earn a living making baked goods.
so i'll stick with the librarian gig and spend my free time drolling over sprinkles, cupcake cups and toppers at layer cake.

anthropologie is king of the display world

(check out the buyers new show on the sundance channel). they mange to arrange goods in such a way that you want to nibble each little item.
i love their housewares - check out these whiskey stones (these babies were so hot last year they were sold out for months). no need for ice cubes with these stones. of course for us ice cube eaters, these could cause a serious dental emergency.

the entire anthro kitchen area is filled with adorable aprons, dishtowels and things that make me drool. (leena, the monogrammed cocktail napkins scream ginny)

if you don't want to spend the money for stuff from anthropologie then send the crafty folk on your list to purl soho. they can drool over patterns for both fabric and yarn and you might get some groovy stuff out of the deal.

i have this thing for personalized items. i think it stems from my desire to have my name in lights, preferably in Vegas. maria shares my love so we may work some kind of mother/daughter gig opening for david copperfield.

kates bestowed this sweet stamp on miss moo for her birthday. you would think she had received the presidential stamp. the kid was stamping things like crazy with a look of total power on her face. i expect that's a bit what sarah palin would look like given the chance - although maria, at the tender age of 5, has superior grammar skills and a better fashion sense.

sarah + abraham make tons of fabola personalized items.

I think their water bottles are stylish and groovy.

They also do these cute little holiday stickers, return address labels, stationary and lots more. i love, love, love them and when i get my Vegas gig going i think i'll hire them to design my programs.

I have vivid memories of the

various groovy lunchboxes i had as a child. With the amount of passion I had for each one you would think my kids would have killer lunch boxes. think again. they have totally lame ones.
i know they would much prefer something divine like this sweet one from bluesky rocket. you can personalize one of their designs, or upload a photo of your child to be on the lunchbox. maria would keel over from sheer joy.

If you haven't been watching Glee then quite frankly, there is something very wrong with you. Soundtracks are available and you need to own these, both of them. My kids are already addicted. Moo's fav is "walking on sunshine" and sam's is "it's my life", not surprisingly mine is "endless love".

long before we had kids, daddyo and i took a cooking with peaches class. our fabola teacher just released this new cookbook called rustic fruit desserts. it's heavenly for all those who enjoyed berry laden baked goods.

The scarves from the sundance catalog are particularly lovely this year. I've placed my order with the scarf fairy, have you?
their jewelry collection is always dreamy. i tend to fall in love with the $200 necklaces, but apparently i'm supposed to use my salary to feed the family. whatever.
they also have a fun collection of ornaments (note the dog ones for all you dog lovers, or friends of dog lovers).

every year i do a cookie exchange with a handful of local cookie loving chicks so i'm always hunting for new recipes. my mom bought this for my sisters - but not me - we'll discuss that in another blog post, but i was given access to look at it and there are some great recipes. ever so slightly bitter about this so let's move on, shall we?

it's almost worth having another baby just so i can buy lots of onesies and shirts from little umi. they have sweet images of cars, flowers, animals on the front of the shirt and if you chose you can personalize them. sizes run from 3 months to 6 years. Great new baby gift

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i was introduced to O & Co a few years ago. Last year I had the pleasure of visiting their NYC location. they have interesting infused olive oils and vinegars. the basil olive oil makes a caprese salad utter perfection. their balsamic vinegar choices will blow your mind, as maria likes to say. Great for making your own salad dressing or marinades. They also have cute little sizes that are lovely hostess gifts.

also on the kitchen front is the g spout. the idea of something that attaches to a pan to help you pour is brill, but the name, well... let's just say the excitement christmas morning would reach a whole new climax if this gift was opened in the right company.

i've been eating aebelskivers since i was a wee lass. my dad made them in my grandma's cast iron pan. i have that pan and continue to make them for my kids. i've been pondering a new pan, but my DNA repels me from the swanky new non stick pans featured in william sonoma.
i was quite pleased to see that ingebretesens (fab MN store for all things nordic) was selling a new nine hole cast iron pan.

i broke it in during the aebelskiver smackdown this year and give it five stars. these babies are super easy to make and even more fun to eat. if you buy the pan, let me know, and i'll email you my favorite recipe.

I'm a sucker for cute stationary and pretty much everything from this etsy shop is divine. now to find the time to sit and write notes to people.

we got dumped on with snow last year and when i dug out my winter boots i found them to be a size too small. i blame sam and will deduct all future shoe purchases from his college fund.
given the piles of snow i opted to buy a new pair of boots. i chose some boots from keen, which is kind of buying local as they are based in pdx. these boots are warm, waterproof and have killer traction. they come in five different color choices if this one doesn't float your boat.

I have a small obsession with stones. they remind me of lake superior and lutsen, which makes me feel serene and happy. vivaterra has a ton of groovy stone items, from this mat, to beautiful candles to fountains.

The soda drinkers on your list will flip for this cool gadget. You can puncture the top and insert a straw. I'm not sure how useful it is, but don't the bottles with all the straws in them look cool?

Check out this funky piece of tinfoil.

It is a reflective sheet that clips onto almost any chair. it curves down behind, and partly under the chair, and reflects the radiant energy from the fire toward your bottom and back.
Made of a durable reflective laminate material for long life. Great for campers and cottagers, also good in front of wood stoves or heaters in ice fishing huts, or so the website reports. as long as it doesn't hamper my s'more making it's fine with me.

I love the textiles from new house textiles. Beautiful table linens and kitchen towels. the only bummer is that they are based in the UK so shipping may be expensive and take some time.
check out their herring print - that's my fav.

sam the man is obsessed with all things truck. i can't remember who introduced me to this website, but i love the variety of images available. they've got stuff for rockers, truck lovers, space dudes and many more.

i was working phone reference when a mom called in looking for information about a local company who produces cardboard houses and rocket ships. i found color me house and passed along the info, but not before i drooled over the rocket ship. I want one for myself. The rocket is also available at green party goods and theirs looks to be for bigger kids.

we all know our kids are the next Leonardo da Vinci, Jasper Johns, or Mary Cassatt. Here's a cool way to show off their artwork in style with a tshirt me kit. as an added bonus putting the artwork on the shirt gives you more room on the fridge.

I hope there are a few things in this mish mash of items that will make your holiday shopping tres simple and fun. for more ideas, especially for adults, check out the NY Times gift guide.
I also have some book recommendations that I'll pop in the mail to you this week. Make sure you buy some for yourself to enjoy on your tropical vacay.
happy shopping

i'm not sure i know anyone who grew up loving their name.
my full name is a mouthful and barely fits on the standardized test forms - the true test of any name. i longed to be named anne - short, simple, and all the letters easily fit on the form.
after a few decades of torture for having a moniker that rhymes with barf, i finally love my first name. i have always loved my middle name, it's my maternal grandmother's maiden name and i share it with two of my cousins. i never had a huge attachment to my last name and thought that if i married someone named stewart, or washington, it would be fun to change it.
but i was married later than your average gal, and by the time i got hitched i had become rather fond of my full name. my father was also dying and i wasn't interested in parting with anything that connected me to him, so i opted not to change my name.

my choice was not a rejection of the cedros name, or me trying to prove anything. i actually quite like the name cedros. I'm proud to be a part of the cedros clan and am delighted my children have the same last name as some pretty spectacular people.
i'm also proud that i have my own last name, one that forever binds me to my sisters, mother, father and my brilliant engineery cousins (aka the smart flottens). i love it when i meet someone, introduce myself, and find that they know someone in my family.

some people get that we are a dual name family, others don't. to some, my last name is always cedros, and i appreciate their love and inclusion. to others, i'm a flag waving flotten - no matter how you pronounce it. at this point i don't much care what people call me, but i do find it comical when people aren't sure what to do with a two name family.
oddly enough the two places that have the hardest time are the dry cleaners and moo's school. for some reason both places have me listed with a hyphenated name. can you imagine me trying to cram that long name in those little bubble dots on the standardized test form?