Spring Sale!

Now through May 31st, we've got some special items on sale for our Mother's Day and Graduation Sale. Or you could be an early bird, come in for those pre-Father's Day low prices.

Select Wüstof knives will be 15% off regular price.
Also, while supplies last you will get a gift with a $50.00 purchase of Wüsthof products. A purchase of $100.00 or more of Wüsthof products will give you 10% off any in-stock cutting board of your choice.
Specifics will be forthcoming in the next post, or sooner if you are on our mailing list.

All in-stock manicure sets in leather cases by Dovo are now 10% off. Their normal prices range from $42.50 to $309.50.

Right now all of our reading glasses (+1.5 to +3.0) are $9.99. It should be noted that these should be purchased as a primary Mother's Day gift with caution. Only do this if your spouse has a sense of humor.

It happened in Chicago, part 1

Carl and Glenna spent all day running around the Lakefront building. They were there from 8:30 in the morning until 5 o'clock at night.
Most of their time was spent visiting various vendors. Carl tells me that he had identified 50 different vendors that he was interested in, but in the 8 hours they were there, he and Glenna were only able to see about 40. Most of those were brief visits, dropping off cards, picking up information; they spent more time perusing the booths of vendors we already, visiting with them and discovering new products.


The Shun booth was a big attraction, and not just because they had Alton Brown.(Of course Glenna got an autograph, are you crazy? His blend of cooking and science is irresistible.)
As we were saying before the digression, the knives themselves are lovely. Shun also had some awesome limited edition steak knives. It looks like other people thought so, too; apparently it was a bit hard to get a close look.

Sadly, Carl's camera hates the new computer, so we have a lot less pictures of the Housewares Show than we'd hoped to have. From what we have, you can get an idea of how crowded and busy the vendors room was. My feet would have fallen off from all of that walking around.

One of our favorite vendors, Dovo, was at the Show! Luckily, they had plenty of chairs, so Carl and Glenna got a bit of a rest. Dovo supplies all of our manicure sets and a large percentage of our sewing and hair scissors/shears, and individual manicure implements. Here's a picture of Anne Rothstein, Jens, and Glenna. Jens is a German representative of the company, who we get to see every so often. He travels around once a year with a huge bag of manicure sets, so that Carl can look at them before deciding what to order for the next year. Everyone in the store gets a chance to ooh and aah, it's always a lot of fun. Just hope that Jens doesn't test your German skills! (Mine are, admittedly, horrible.)

To be continued...

Holiday Gift Guide, vol. 2

Scissors, perhaps?
The Slip-n-Snip folding scissors are very useful things to have around and make a wonderful gift. As scissors go, these are some of the more child-safe that we sell, provided that child has enough strength to unfold (them and enough sense not to try and swallow them). A person can run their finger over the edge safely, and not have to rush for bandages. I used my pair mainly to carry for my knitting and embroidery; the Slip-n-Snips fit nicely in my pocket and I didn't have to worry about accidentally poking a hole or catching the yarn with sharp edges tumbling around in my bag. Comes in a gold gift-box. $7.95


On the other hand, if you wanted some folding scissors that are sharp and slick, these beauties from Dovo would be right up your alley. Unlike the Slip-n-Snips, these fold up in a way that protects the edges of the blade, as well as the points. Comes with a fitted leather sheath. $60.00


Kitchen Scissors are always useful. Our favorites are the Tricky 777s. This scissor comes apart for easy cleaning. It also makes it easier to use the scissors to curl ribbon. Other features are a cap lifter, bottle opener, jar lid gripper, and cutting notch. The notch works really well for cutting flowers, though it's designed for chicken bones. My mom prefers the red ones, because they're easier to spot on the counter. $34.95


Speaking of flowers, do you have a florist in your life? Or someone who does flower arrangements or wreaths and needs a good sharp pair of scissors that can cut things from slender stems to tough wire? If that's the case, then these forged shears from Cutrite would be ideal. We're not just putting this up here because it's a pretty picture that we were the hand model for, honest. $29.95