If you know a mom who is a member of a book club, this very cool Book Club Organizer is the perfect Mother’s Day gift! Not only is there space for book lists, group contact information and notes on the current reading selection, but is also includes very hip rating stickers, book plates, book marks and even pockets for clippings of interesting book reviews.

$18.95 Book Club Organizer

If you love to read, why not go the extra mile and start your own book club this year? Enlist a few moms (or dads!) you know and gift them each with a Book Club Organizer. Happy reading!

It’s Fair Trade Friday…

For centuries the Chinese have been using “Jing Gardens” as a method of achieving inner peace and tranquility. Jing is considered to be “a freely available, universal source of energy that is capable of unleashing an overwhelming sense of relaxation.” Boy, that sure sounds nice… And who deserves that more than a mom?
I think these gardens-in-a-can are so cute, and would make a great alternative to expensive cut flowers for Mother’s Day this year. After all, Mom gets to watch them grow, they won’t die within the week, and who knows… they might just come through on that relaxation promise. It’s worth a shot, right? (Might want to get one for yourself while you’re at it!)
Your choice of: Colorful Chili (Fortune Flower), Sunflower (Joy Flower), or Vinca Rosea (Essential Flower).

$11.50 each from GlobalExchange.com

There are so many amazing, hand-stamped silver jewelry pieces on Etsy by so many talented artists. Seattle-based BirthDesigns is one of my favorites. I love hand-stamped silver because there are so many options for personalization - some of the best, I think, are children’s names & birthdates or personal messages. Perfect for Mom, Grandma, and especially the wife! (Um, hint hint to my husband…) Plus this artist offers font choices and a very wide variety of jewelry choices - necklaces, bracelets, earrings, charms, jewelry for kids and even men too.

So go see for yourself! And be sure to order soon… they’re still taking orders for Mother’s day, but can’t guarantee shipping dates (unless maybe you upgrade to faster shipping).

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.