misosouper, a shopping blog

In the last year I’ve ordered cards from Paper Culture for several occasions. A friend’s baby shower, birthday parties, Valentine’s day cards and of course our annual family Christmas cards. I love ALL of the designs from this cool new personalized card site. The designs of the cards are amazingly sophisticated and stylish. The best thing is that they will address and mail the cards for you. They will also add a personalized greeting, which by the way has sent many compliments my way. And yes, I am happy to take the credit!

If you are shopping for Valentine’s Day cards, Paper Culture will donate 100% of this year’s Valentine’s Day Card proceeds to Haiti Relief. This is a wonderful way to send a Valentine’s greeting to your loved ones and to help send relief to those in need.

Does your boring Moleskine come stuffed with 10 artist-designed postcards, 100 lined pages for journaling, and 150 blank pages for sketching, not to mention a lovable marshmallow man on its cover?

I think not.

Whip this Chubby Book out in public, and prepare to impress.

Gorgeous and easy:  my kind of gadget.  Discover more great tips at TheFind!

Now that summer is over and the kids are back in school, I’m determined to be organized for the busiest time of year. Along with fall and winter come multiple holidays, social events, birthday parties and then as soon as you can catch your breath Christmas has come and gone. No more attaching return address labels on our family’s holiday cards until the wee hours. This year I plan to order a personalized return address stamp. I found these self-inking customized stamps that will be my new personal-izing assistant! Not only can these be used for return addresses, and look great on the back flap of an envelope I might add, but they can be used to personalize note cards as well. The personalized stamps from Three Designing Women (love the name!) are designed to personalize blank note cards, wine tags, gift tags, notepads and calling cards. You can also use these self-inking stamps with your own blank stationery or stickers. I love all of the unique designs and cute, modern note cards. They have something for classic tastes as well as modern design fans. The stamps are available at the Neiman Marcus website and you can also find coupon codes for Neiman’s here.

Products featured above:
Three Designing Women Square Stamp or Round Stamp, $48.00 at NeimanMarcus.com
Three Designing Women Retro Stamper Note (green and brown design), $13.25 for 10 at papersyoulove.com
Three Designing Women Blue Stripes + Brown Floral notes – 1 set of 10 $22.50 at Finestationery.com

Granted, what’s local for me probably isn’t local for you; but the Orlando-area shop Luxe & Liberty is deserving of your attention, even if you have to order online instead of popping in to pick out a few choice gifts.  Organized around goods made in America, L&L stocks lines both little and big, from neighborhood artisans to well-known names like Calphalon, Amenity Home, and Pangea Organics.  (See?  I told you they were good.)

Here are my picks:

1.  Skinny Fish Artisan Stationary–produced in small batches by artist Shawn Laughlin; 2.  Leather Photo Album, in prismatic colors; 3.  Kalender Platter, trimmed in platinum and gold; 4.  Herb Bowl with Mezzaluna Chopper–one of those tools you didn’t even know you needed; 5.  Endangered Parrots of the World Chess Set–prohibitively expensive, outrageously fun; 6.  Crocus Rocks Glasses with 22K Accents–hello, hostess; 7.  Chiller Pitcher with Lid–a closed carafe that will keep al fresco flies out; 8.  Chick Chair; 9.  Balustrade Napkins–round and round the table they go; 10.  Aptos Collection Pebble Pendant; 11.  Amber Dard Hunter Rose Thermometer & Clock–outdoor temperature gauges are so underrated; 12.  Teco Art Pottery Orb Vase–lovely lines, from an exactingly reproduced historical collection.

Hurry!  Go!  Misosouper readers can enter LUXE09 at checkout to receive 20% off their first purchase.

The lovelies at Ginko Papers are the Lays potato chips of the stationery world:  you can’t eat just one.  Garin, the owner, sources most of her goods from Japan (how much fun does that sound?  “I’ll take 87 rolls of your squirrel packing tape, please…”), which gives them that fantastic aura of souvenirs from your (her) world travels.  And until Sunday, May 17th, use the code MISOSOUPER for 10% off your order.  I’m stocking up, and so should you.

1.  Tea Ceremony Eraser Set; 2.  Summer Fans Letter Set–oh, how I wish one of these would have landed in my dorm mailbox; 3.  Spring Envelopes and Stickers–I can only imagine the wonders my daughter will stuff in these; 4.  Smiling Latte Postcard; 5.  Shinzi Katoh Lion Notepad; 6.  the perfectly framable River Blossoms Postcard; 7.  Retro Travel Letter Set–vacation-ready; 8.  Pull-Out Squirrel Card; 9.  Mini-Capsule Colored Pencils; 10.  Matryoshka Doll Stickers; 11.  Blue Japanese Masking Tape–check out all the other colors and patterns!; 12.  Butterfly Birthday Card; 13.  Bus Pop-Up Birthday Card; 14.  Aquarium Card–sold out, but too great not to mention; 15. Stretching Cat Notepad.