Charitable Gift Giving

Here’s another fantastic product by Levenger. If the Thai Pad was a sofa for your iPad, you could consider this a sleeping bag for it.

This product is called a “Haiti PeaceQuilt”. It comes in red or green. Again, I love how this concept  take a centuries-old art and adapts it for the 21st century. The material is an amazing high quality, very sturdy and thick enough that it’ll protect your iPad from getting scratched and even from minor bumps and drops. If you, like me, are getting a little tired of the same, mass-produced, cheap quality made in China covers that companies left and right are churning out, this one is a refreshing change.

This beautiful, handcrafted quilt is unique (no two are the same). As you can see on the bottom of the picture above, the artist herself signs the quilt in thread, and you can almost feel the pride and joy of a job well done she must have felt at finishing it.

In recent years, the county of Haiti has seen some rough times, but it’s an amazing feeling to hold one of these in your hand knowing that a young woman in Haiti made it by hand especially for you. The women work under the auspices of humanitarian group Haiti PeaceQuilts, who works with about 100 women organized in quilting cooperatives around Haiti and instead of just giving them a handout, provides them training, materials, supplies, marketing assistance, and educational opportunities that allow them to produce things of real value and help end the cycle of poverty.

Purchasing one of these won’t just help PeaceQuilts continue it’s important mission. Levenger will also donate to the nonprofit Libraries Without Borders, which is also helping Haiti, to both establish and restore libraries in Haiti.

This and ThaiPad featured in the last post are among the most unique and useful gifts you can give to an iPad enthusiast. That your purchases will help those who need it only makes the gift more special. And not only will he or she thank you, so will his or her iPad. Here’s mine resting in peaceful slumber.

See Levenger for this and other great products.

I recently got an email from the folks at a company called OriginalBos (http://www.OriginalBos.com) announcing their new product called “Balls of Steel”. I couldn’t stop chuckling after seeing all the double-entendre in the email and on their Web site. To announce their product, their email and Web site used the phrase “the balls have dropped”. The product instructions include the phrase “take your Balls and gently place them in the freezer”.

To end the mystery, Balls of Steel are exactly that–balls of steel. Specifically, they’re a set of two stainless steel balls that you put in the freezer until they’re frozen (about 90 minutes). Then, you put them in whiskey, wine, or other spirits and swirl them around until the drink is the perfect level of coolness. This is much more preferable to putting ice in a drink, because ice melts and waters down the liquor. With these, your drink stays perfect to the last drop, as the balls will retain their coldness for a long, long time. And if you’re a teetotaler, you can still use Balls of Steel for your soda. Who likes to drink that last sip of tepid, watered-down Coke?

In other words, balls of steel are kind of a like a modern, hipper version of whiskey stones. But they make a much nicer gift. After all, who wants to get some rocks for Christmas? They come in a really cool gift box, and are the perfect companion gift if you’ll be giving someone a nice bottle of scotch or wine. So pass the stones this holiday season and get some balls.

All of the colorful wordplay has a serious purpose. 15% of all net sales revenue goes towards testicular cancer research. Testicular cancer isn’t something that men like to talk about, probably for a lot of the same reasons that women didn’t feel comfortable talking about breast cancer until recently. A lot of great charities helped remove the stigma and awkwardness for women through “pink ribbon” awareness campaigns, which undoubtedly resulted in saving countless lives. But testicular cancer remains largely an unspoken topic, even though it is the most common cancer in males from ages 20 to 39, and is highly curable if detected in time.

For each unit sold, OriginalBos donates a high percentage of profits to MD Anderson Cancer Center who is the country’s leading center for testicular cancer research and treatment. The company also using a additional amount to fund community building for those affected directly by testicular cancer and their friends and family.

I had a chance to check out my own set of balls. They come packaged in a beautifully designed gift box. The balls are actually smaller than I thought they’d be–they’re about the size of a big cherry or grape.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found inside. There’s a instruction manual (that, of course, says “Say Hello to your new Balls of Steel) that gives you specific instructions for how to properly freeze them.

There’s also a cute little felt carrying bag, as well as a cute little set of tongs. The tongs are extremely important, as you absolutely, absolutely need to take them out of your glass before you drink.

The round thing is a black wristband with the company name and URL on it.

And of course there are the balls themselves. They’re heavier than I thought they’d be so they can sink right down to the bottom of your glass and just roll around a little.

I had a little scotch in the house, but to test out the Balls of Steel I decided to drink my most prized possession: a rare bottle of Mexican Sprite (with real cane sugar vs. corn syrup) that I found in my local supermarket.

Here’s what the Sprite, a champagne glass, and the steel balls looked like.

I was amazed at how quickly the balls cooled my drink down. Just a couple of swirls and it was ice cold. I was a little tempted to be lazy and to drink it with the balls in there, but that would have been a good way to shatter my front teeth or my glass or both. I’m glad I read the manual first!

At $19.99 this is a great Christmas gift for anyone in your life who enjoys their hooch with its full flavor and not watered down. And every time you use them you can it’s a great opportunity to bring a little more awareness to the fight to end testicular cancer.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking after reading the title. What self-respecting person would give someone pens, pencils, and staplers to their loved ones for Christmas? After suffering through boxes of cheap ballpoint pens from the likes of OfficeMax and Staples over the years, that’d be worse than putting a bag of coal in someone’s stocking (I seriously had one pen from Staples break in my hand as I was writing once, and I’ve lost count of how many pens have exploded or run out of ink only a few weeks after getting them).

But there’s a new office supply store in town that is changing the game. It’s called Poppin, and it is quite literally changing the way people think about office supplies. Unlike mass office supply stores where products are mass produced as cheaply as possible, Poppin pens and supplies really look like works of art. Don’t believe me? Compare this set of yellow office supplies from Poppin…

…with a your regular, run-of-the-mill office supplies.

No comparison, right? And if you were opening a present on Christmas, how cool would it be to get a brand new set of modern-looking, color-coordinated pens, scissors, a stapler, a tape dispenser, a desk set, notebooks, and other office supplies in your favorite color? It’s a great way to start out the New Year right, especially for someone whose desk looks, well, like mine.

My life Lisa’s favorite color is blue, so I got her a blue ruler, a blue tape dispenser, and a blue pen, all of which she loved (lest you think I’m a cheapskate, earlier I also got her a nice engagement ring in a blue box, which kind of put a damper of the rest of my spending for the year). The possibilities for gift giving increase when you consider you can combine colors–if you know someone going to college, give them an assortment of product matching their school colors. Of if you know a baseball or football fan, give them products in their team colors.

Prices at Poppin are a little higher than cheap mass-produced merchandise at big office stores, but my philosophy towards spending has always been this…be cheap on the things that you don’t use a lot, but when it comes to things you will see and use constantly every day (like a car, a mattress, and a cell phone) spend a little more and get the best. I think the same applies to office supplies. yes, $7 for a ruler might be a lot, but when you consider how sturdy this ruler is, how stylish it is, and that it’ll last you probably for the rest of your life, it’s not a lot at all compared to the thin plastic one I got from Staples that crumbled when I stepped on it!

What I love most about Poppin is that they seem to love what they do, and it comes through in their products. What I also appreciate a lot is that they do a lot of charity work. In fact, everything you purchase on the site, including the Pencils of Promise Bundle shown above, will help out the great charity Pencils of Promise that helps build schools and promote education in areas of the world with the biggest need.

Well, each year I like to highlight Christmas Cards you can buy where a portion goes to charity. Here are the top ones I found for 2012:

The National Wildlife Service is always one of the more popular charities I highlight here, as you can support Wildlife & Nature Through Your Christmas Card Purchase.

This year’s collection of cards is as phenomenal as ever, with a great selection of wildlife photography, beautiful scenery, inspirational prints, and photo cards.

What’s more, they’re also offering the ever popular “Gift-a-Tree” cards where a tree is planted for every card sold.

 The Sierra Club also has a variety of Christmas cards with stunning nature photography of beautiful winter scenes and wildlife.

Check out stunning and eye-catching cards such as Nature’s Details showing a close-up of beautiful frost-covered leaves, Brown Bear with Cold Feet which is a hilarious shot of a giant bear keeping his feet warm, Sierra Club Atlantic Puffin showing a Puffin flying though the air in all his black, white, and orange glory, or Grand Canyon Holiday Cards, which shows a stunning view of the Grand Canyon.

These are absolutely amazing, but hurry because they tend to sell out very quickly.

ASPCA Christmas Cards feature adorable cards picturing 5 unique photos of actual dogs and cats that were rescued by the ASPCA, long with their stories. 40% of the purchase price goes directly towards supporting the ASPCA.

And of course no holiday would be complete without UNICEF Christmas cards. Every UNICEF card supports UNICEF’s efforts to save children’s lives around the world.  They are beautifully illustrated and many cards have special features, such as displaying their message of holiday cheer in multiple languages.

There are also cancer charity Christmas Cards from The American Cancer Society that again are beautifully illustrated and help support the fight against all kinds of cancer.

Finally, some of my favorite cards each year are in support of the St. Judge Children’s Research Hospital. Cards like the one you see to the left were drawn by actual patients under St. Jude Hospital’s care.

There are of course other great charities selling Christmas cards, but these are some of the the best of the best. But hurry, as quantities are limited.