Rubber Bands That Are Doggone Cute

Item: Animal Rubber Bands

Price: $4.95 (24 rubber bands)

Where to Buy: Brainchildproducts.com

Review: An office supply that's practical and cute at the same time?

These animal rubber bands are molded into the shape of dogs, cats, pigs, ducks, rabbits and turtles. Stretch them out and they look like a normal, albeit colorful, rubber band. Take them off your item and they revert to their natural animal shape.

How can you resist that?

Best yet, the purchase of these animal rubber bands is sure to help the environment at least a bit. Who's going to toss a rubber band in the shape of a kitty into the landfill?

Additional themed rubber band packs: basic shapes, zoo animals, and -- get this -- underwear.

Image from: Brainchildproducts.com

Have a Ball Making Ice Cream

Item: Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker

Price: starting at about $22

Where to Buy: IceCreamRevolution.com (link to Amazon)

Review: Making your own ice cream sounds like a good idea, but I haven't had great luck. It tastes fine, but I've never gotten the thick and creamy consistency that I prefer. I'd rather go to Dairy Queen.

Maybe I'm just impatient. I'm not sure the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker can change my core qualities, but at least it would give me something to do while I'm waiting for dessert.

Like eCreamery customized ice cream, I learned about the Play and Freeze on an episode of Unwrapped. Who knew the Food Network would become my go-to source for the latest in ice cream technology?

Add the cream, sugar and vanilla at one end of the ball, and ice and rock salt in the other. Then, as they say, have a ball. Shake it, roll it, whatever. Twenty minutes later: Ice cream.

The original Play and Freeze makes a pint of ice cream. Hungrier? Get the Mega ball for a quart.

Image from: IceCreamRevolution.com

I Scream, You Scream for Customized Ice Cream

Item: Customized Ice Cream

Price: $49.99 (half gallon)

Where to Buy: eCreamery

Review: I began to appreciate gourmet ice cream only after a trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont earlier this year. After I sampled the strawberry cheesecake ice cream at the end of the tour, generic five-gallon ice cream tubs were never the same again.

So it was with interest that I watched a rerun of the Food Network's "Unwrapped" focused on ice cream. One of the featured items: eCreamery's customized ice cream.

You not only choose from more than 60 flavors like avocado, saffron, cheesecake and all of the classics, but you also pick the percentage of cream (8, 12 or 14 percent) and and design of the packaging. You even get to name your own concoction.

Your sweet, personalized treat is delivered in 5 to 10 days.

The ice cream does come in under 50 bucks for a half gallon, but shipping is a pricey $30. Full gallons are $79.99, and mix-ins are $5 each, with a limit of two. Another option: Choosing two flavors intermixed for an extra $10. Blueberry Mocha anyone?

Old School with the Rubik's Cube

Item: Rubik's Cube

Price: $9.45

Where to Buy: Amazon.com

Review: I had all but forgotten about the Rubik's Cube. Then I got two reminders within just a few weeks of each other.

#1: I was on the subway and a man entered the train selling something out of bag. Usually it's some kind of booklet or piece of junk. This time it was small Rubik's Cubes for a dollar apiece. Demand was so high, he ran out of them and had to turn away at least one customer in our car.

#2: Jon Stewart razzed astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson of the American Museum of Natural History for completing the Rubik's Cube in the green room of The Daily Show. That guy's a genius.

So while I haven't picked up a Rubik's Cube in years (a decade? More?), I wouldn't mind trying. And I'm guessing you know a few people who would too.

Image from: Amazon

Duck! From Marshmallows?

Item: Marshmallow Shooter

Price: $24.95

Where to Buy: Marshmallowville.com

Review: Lots of leftover marshmallows from your Easter basket?

How about a healthier-- and much more fun-- way to get rid of a few?

The marshmallow shooter is safer than a BB gun and drier (although stickier) than a squirt gun. Your child will be the star of recess.

On second thought, maybe this is a toy that's best used at home.

The shooter holds up to 25 mini marshmallows, and they blast up to 30 feet away. Pretty powerful stuff for a mass of sugary goodness. The best part for moms and dads? The shooter is dishwasher-safe.

And maybe you should consider getting two marshmallow shooters. You have to defend yourself, right?

Image from: Marshmallowville.com

Step Away from the Waxy Easter Bunny

Item: Cruisin' Chocolate Easter Bunny

Price: $22

Where to Buy: Lake Champlain Chocolates

Review: I'm not one to turn down candy, even if it's a waxy chocolate Easter bunny snagged at the grocery store for a few bucks.

But if you want to get something truly special for the Easter basket, get thee to Lake Champlain Chocolates.

The chocolatiers have the classic white, milk and dark chocolate bunnies, but the cruisin' bunny is a fun and tasty alternative. No matter which you choose, you'll be happy. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

My husband and I recently visited the Lake Champlain Chocolates factory in Burlington, Vermont and had some of the best chocolate I've ever tasted. It's cliche, but their truffles really are to die for. I can't imagine that their Easter bunnies would be anything but.

Image from: Lake Champlain Chocolates

The Ultimate Easter Egg: Kinder Egg

Item: Kinder Eggs

Price: $29.99 for 24

Where to Buy: Dutch Market

Review: I was first introduced to the Kinder Egg in my high school German class. The hollow egg-shaped treat is made of milk chocolate on the outside, with a layer of white chocolate in the inside.

But that's not what makes the Kinder Egg (or Kinderei, as we referred to it in class) so special. The real prize is the toy inside the egg.

Each egg contains a capsule about the size of your big toe, and each capsule contains small pieces you put together to make your toy. It's all very Happy Meal.

Kinder Eggs aren't sold in the US, which makes it all the more special when you receive one (and all the more expensive to buy because of the shipping costs). The egg shape makes them a perfect addition to any Easter basket, but my stomach and I would happily take one at any time of the year.

Image from: Dutch Market

Throw Your Worries Away

Item: Worry Dolls

Price: $2

Where to Buy: Global Marketplace

Review: It's the first day of spring-- throw your concerns to the wind with worry dolls from Guatamala.

Legend has it that you tell one of the dolls a worry and then place it under your pillow before you fall asleep. While you sleep, the worry disappears.

I should try this more often.

With six dolls to a box, you can get rid of no less than 42 worries a week. What a deal! In economic times like these, maybe worry dolls should be a necessity right up there with food, drink and shelter.

Image from: Globalmarketstore.com

Classic Toy for the Young & Young-At-Heart

Item: Etch-A-Sketch

Price: $17.99

Where to Buy: World-of-Toys

Review: My end table has the obligatory pile of books for us or our guests to peruse in spare moments of boredom. But the place of honor at the top of that stack goes not to a book, but a toy: the Etch-A-Sketch.

Maybe location is why I have a special affinity for this toy-- the first Etch-A-Sketch rolled off a production line in 1960 in Bryan, Ohio, just one city over and 21 years before I was born in nearby Defiance.

But really-- who can resist trying to write their name in cursive, carefully turning the white knobs that at once seem too sensitive and not sensitive enough? I was never too interested in drawing pictures with the Etch-A-Sketch, but I was fascinated by the geometric possibilities. More than once have I filled the entire screen with lines mere millimeters apart, yet never touching.

The Etch-A-Sketch is a classic toy that doesn't go out of style. Introduce it to a child for the first time, or buy it as a coffee table knick knack for your sibling or best friend.

Image from: World of Toys

Moon Globe

Item: Moon Globe

Price: $49.95

Where to Buy: Scientifics

Review: I have no less than five globes.

OK, two of them are banks the size of softballs, but that's still a lot of globes for a small Brooklyn apartment.

In addition to two normal-sized replicas of Earth: A moon globe. Until I met my now-husband, I never even knew such a thing existed. The moon globe was one of the few things I was truly excited about merging with my own stuff when we got married. (I wasn't quite as thrilled about the old Nintendo magazines he insisted could not be stored in the trash can, but that's another story.)

With only different shades gray, the moon globe certainly isn't as colorful as it's Earth counterparts. But it is surprisingly detailed and a thoughtful gift for a cartography-minded friend or relative.

Image from: scientificsonline.com

The Sound of Music: 1965 Best Picture

Item: The Sound of Music

Price: $14.99

Where to Buy: Amazon

Review: One of the most thrilling moments of my life? Boarding the van for a "Sound of Music" tour in Salzburg, Austria. Rare was the trivia that our tour guide imparted that I didn't already know.

"The Sound of Music" has been one of my favorite movies since around junior high. I even went through a phase when I watched the three-hour flick nearly every Wednesday night for several months while my parents and sister went to town and I had the house to myself.

While I don't watch it nearly every week nowadays, I do manage to squeeze in a viewing every year or two. I'll be the first to admit that some of the songs are more than a bit cheesy (The hills are alive? C'mon.), but I still can't resist the romance, the optimism and Maria's good nature. The movie was one of the major reasons I studied German in high school and eventually majored in it in college.

"The Sound of Music" not only makes a great gift for any woman who like movie musicals, but also it is a perfect introduction to classic movies for the young and uninitiated.

Oh, and the least magical moment of that "Sound of Music" tour? Walking into *the* church where Maria and Captain von Trapp married in the film and seeing a real wedding in progress-- while some Shania Twain song in German was being piped through the speakers. I never imagined that you solved a problem like Maria with Shania Twain.

Image from: Amazon

Pittsburgh Steelers Messenger Bag

Item: Pittsburgh Steelers Messenger Bag

Price: $39.95

Where to Buy: ThePittsburghFan.com

Review: What do you get the Steelers fan who has everything? How about something to put it all in?

True fans probably already have the hoodie, the hat, the jersey, the jacket. Go for something a little different with a messenger bag that's good for school or out on the town. (OK, maybe I wouldn't carry it on a first date or anything, but you get what I mean.)

I'm not a gigantic pro football fan, but I'll be rooting for Pittsburgh this Sunday during the Super Bowl by dint of both my uncles' and my husbands' uncles' mania. But if I was a big fan, this messenger bag would probably be toward the top of my wish list.

Image from: ThePittsburghFan.com

Arizona Cardinals Giant Musical Pez Dispenser

Item: Arizona Cardinals Giant Musical Pez Dispenser

Price: $24.95

Where to Buy: FootballFanatics.com

Review: Obviously you are not a true fan of your team unless you have a themed Pez dispenser. That's 13 inches tall. That plays music.

Obviously.

In honor of the Super Bowl this Sunday, I'm featuring a good gift for a Cardinals fan today. Steelers fans: Return here Friday.

Anyway, the Pez dispenser plays NFL sound effects and comes with 12 rolls of candy and a pair of batteries. What a deal!

If you're going for something silly that you're 99% sure the gift-receiver doesn't have, I think the Cardinals Giant Musical Pez Dispenser is exactly what you're looking for.

Image from: FootballFanatics.com

Rocko Flake Sled

Item: Rocko Flake Sled

Price: $12

Where to Buy: Kiosk

Review: When the snow falls white, crisp and clean, how often do you wish for a quick ride down the steepest hill in town?

With this perfectly butt-sized sled, you can stop wishing and start doing. It's small and flat enough to store almost anywhere- a kitchen drawer, a car glove compartment or maybe even a purse.

Forget the unwieldy large plastic sleds that you don't have room to store anyway. The Rocko Flake Sled is just right for any child living in a cold climate-- or the adult who wants to act like a kid, even if only for an afternoon.

Image from: Kiosk