If you’re in the market for a cute gift for a cool grandma this Mother’s Day, Good Granny/Bad Granny is a great choice. It’s a humorous book for Grannies which would also be a perfectly acceptable bedtime story for them to read to the kiddies.

With the help of cute illustrations, each page has different scenarios of grandmas with their grandkids, explaining how Good Granny would act in a certain situation, and also what Bad Granny would do. (Vacations: “Good Granny would take the kids to Disney World and let them hug Mickey Mouse” … “Bad Granny would take them to Vegas and teach them how to play the slots”.)

Do you know a Granny like that?

$9.95 at Amazon.com

Looking for a unique gift for Mom this Mother’s Day?

I love the gift baskets from Global Exchange, each of which is made up of goodies from fair trade artisans from all over the world, and stuffed into a handmade basket that can be used again and again.

This Mother’s Day Gift Basket contains fair trade dark and milk chocolate, Code Pink tea, a handmade Tunisian mug, a Bolivian banana leaf gift box, bath bags, and a Chinese garden-in-a-can, all inside a Kaisa grass basket from Bangladesh.

Their other gift baskets are equally cool & unique. My other top picks are the New Mom
and Chocolate Lover’s (yum!) baskets. And don’t forget that maybe the best thing about these baskets is that they’re fair trade, so your purchase helps less fortunate people around the world earn a fair wage and support their families.

Also be sure to check out Global Exchange’s selection of fair trade coffee - always a great treat for any coffee lover. You could even pair it with one of their handmade mugs for a quick & thoughtful gift.

Global Exchange Gift Baskets - from $54.

It seems like a lot of people are making blankets out of old baby outfits lately, or at least attempting to. And why not, when it’s such a great way to preserve the memories of your little one at their littlest? It’s so much more creative than just saving treasured outfits in boxes where no one can see them. That’s why I was excited to find this kit, which includes a template and detailed instructions- giving me hope that maybe I could tackle a project like this without screwing up and destroying my son’s little clothes I love so much. Um, yay!

The kit comes with everything you need (sans your special fabrics) to make a great quilt yourself, including white minky squares, hanging loops, batting, backing, and even pins. A great weekend DIY project, right?

$28 from uncommongoods

Mother’s Day is May 11 this year and it’s coming up fast! One of the best things about Mother’s Day - besides that Mother of the Year Award I’m working on - is finding great little gifts for all my Mommy friends…it’s a great excuse to reward all the moms you know with something special just for them.

The perfect little gift this year? How ’bout the wonderful products over at Body & Mind Time…this stuff is great and I’m raving about it! Body scrub, bath salts, linen spray, bath oils and foot scrub are some of the delicious items that make perfect Mother’s Day gifts.

And the best part? These products are ALL NATURAL…that’s right, no nasty additives or synthetic yuck in there. Instead, they use pure essential oils to create magical scent combinations like Lavender-Chamomile-Orange (this scent lulls my infant daughter to sleep almost immediately — Happy Mom’s Day to me!) or Lavender-Geranium…yum. These products are individually hand-made, not mass-produced and because they use only ingredients found in nature, everything from Body & Mind Time is 100% safe for moms and babies.

So give a mommy the gift of indulgence, something just for her to enjoy this year. Body & Mind Time offers affordable individual products — may I recommend their linen spray? I just LOVE linen spray! — or beautifully packaged gift baskets designed to pamper. It’s a simple, yet effective way to show someone you appreciate all they do.

One of our personal favorite brands of safe cleaning products, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, is now offering starter kits that come packaged in cute reusable canvas tote bags. Featuring their new Basil scent, the starter kits include everything you need to, well, get started cleaning or doing laundry naturally.

Not sure about doing your housework with basil-scented cleaners? The other scents in these products include apricot leaves, parsley, and eucalyptus, which combine to make it cool & fresh smelling. Another cool fact: basil is an herb known for it’s nerve-calming effect. That has to sound enticing for any mom cleaning house!

All of the cleaners are great- both of us here at Looking For Penguins use them daily, so we can personally attest to their effectiveness and the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re using non-toxic products around your kids.

One of their most exciting products is the biodegradable dryer sheets (included in the laundry kit) that are made from paper and only vegetable-derived softening agents. I point that out because traditional dryer sheets are filled with all sorts of nastiness. These sheets, however, soften, reduce static, and, naturally, smell wonderful because of essential oils.

Another great perk of this company? Sign up for their emails (about new products & sales) and they’ll email you a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $25.

Basil Starter Set & Basil Laundry Starter Set - $29.99 each from Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day

Just want the great tote bag? It’s just $9.99.