Pick Your Nose Cups are the best thing I’ve seen this week.

Who knows how to liven up a party? YOU do! Each of these photo-?realistic paper cups comes emblazoned with a new nose. When ?you tip your head to take a drink – voila – you get an instant nose ?job, and a chuckle from the crowd. Remember, never turn your nose ?up at a good laugh!

1. There are 24 12-oz. cups in each pack, evenly ?divided between male and female proboscises (errr, noses).
2. Packed ?in a nice clear box.

Sirtified, $9

St. Patrick’s Day is just 40 days away.  Get ready with this Paddy is My Homeboy Frosted Glass Mug, certain to delight your friends and bartenders.

Hand-Woven Table Runner by Frederick, South Dakota-based Annikki Marttila, a.k.a. Finnish Weaver on Etsy.  It’s on sale for $38.

I love table runners because they look nice during mealtime and non-mealtime alike.  They can be complemented by placemats, but that’s optional.  I love the colors in this runner; bright but neutral.

My aunt Peggy also lives in South Dakota, near the border with Wyoming, and is a talented weaver.  She gave me a beautiful grey rug on one condition: that I would use it.  She didn’t want me to keep it on a shelf to “preserve” it.  Its tag reads: “By Peggy and Her Sheep.”

CELEBER Soy Sauce Pitcher with Saucer from Ikea, $7.99.

I think it would be friends with Chicken Feet Salt and Pepper Shakers, don’t you?

Streamline Wine Cork Trivet is just $11 and puts to use wine corks you may want to keep to remember special bottles.  I think it would look nice on a table and is also functional for serving food from hot pots and pans.

“Dish Up” dinnerware by Chaiyut Plypetch will appeal to a variety of people:

1. Picky eaters.  No more sauces and juices colliding in the middle of the plate!

2. Space-challenged kitchen owners.  Dishes can be stored and stacked vertically.

3. Lovers of art and geometry.  The dining table is your canvas.

(Via Restaurant Girl)

Aren’t these beer bottle glasses awesome?  Greensboro, NC-based Bodhicitta (on Etsy) melts and fires glass bottles and recreates them into entirely smooth, reusable glasses for juice, milk, water, wine, soda… or beer, if you’re a thinking-inside-the-box type.

I’m not a beer person, but I love the colors and designs.  And little makes me happier than recycling via sustainable re-use.

I kind of want one of these chandelier decals above my dining table.

By Cincinnati-based Single Stone Studios on Etsy.

Gobble, gobble… no wait, that’s turkeys.

Cockadoodle doo!  But isn’t that just roosters?

(…Google search turns up Burger King Ad….)

What do chickens say?  How ’bout some salt and pepper?

Sigh.  A holiday away from New York should do me good.

Perch! Design via Cog & Pearl, $48

Hooray, a martini glass that still looks tres chic while being less prone to breakage, spillage and drink-becoming-likewarm-by-clammy-handage.

Charles & Marie, $55 for two

Giraffe-carved salad servers from Kenya.  Black and white.  Hand painted on bone.

Ten Thousand Villages, $38

Bring summertime back to the Christmas season by gifting Ants on My Cup and Saucer by New York-based artist Re Jin Lee.

Maybe it will keep you someone (we’re giving it as a gift, remember?) from overdosing on egg nog and cookies.

Etsy, $47

Aren’t these coasters fabulous? Made and sold by Florida-based CarolinaCottage on Etsy.

There are two types of people: those whose hands are very often cold and those who are lucky.

Poor circulation, genes, whatever the reason- when your hands are cold, and have been since 5pm or last Saturday or 1993, it’s nice to hold something warm.

I love mugs without handles because I can wrap my fingers around them for maximum benefit.

These were handmade by my friend Ingrid. She insisted I use them, not just set them on my shelf. So I do use them, and I just love them. I even put them in our (mini-)dishwasher.

There are two types of people: those who have bought merchandise at Starbucks, and those who haven’t… yet.

For anyone who frequents Starbucks, it’s bound to happen sometime. You’re in line, or waiting for the barista, and something surprisingly pretty and perhaps even mildly functional catches your eye. And before you know it, you’ve bought it.

I have in fact bought a lot of merchandise at Starbucks over the years, from travel coffee mugs and ceramic teacups to milk frothers and picture frames. (Really? Did I really buy a picture frame at Starbucks?) Given the fact there’s a website with online ordering, I must not be the only one.

These mugs are all part of the current offering. I saw them in person and they’re nice. I did not buy them, though. Yet.