It’s the last day in the office before our summer vacation adventure, and I am thinking about which Give Simple products will make the trip.

Travel items, of course! We have our Nap Sacs, the nifty pillow + blanket combo. These will keep us warm and comfy on the plane, and are also germ free. I never trust that airplane pillows and blankets are clean enough, that is, if you can even find them. The pillow is also very handy for hotel rooms, where you might want a little back support in a reading chair. If you travel with Nanook of the North, like I do, who insists all hotel rooms be at 60 degrees, the blanket can come in handy, too!

Of course a fashionable and durable BigBuddha Handbag comes along. No worries when stuffing it under the seat in front of you!

Tepper Jackson passport covers & luggage tags are great.Makes it easy to tell which big black dive bag loaded with gear is the one you want to drag off the carousel.

Lollia Relax hand crème for the plane can be tucked inside a Nap Sac. Thymes Azur body lotion and body wash, to bring the feel of the ocean inside.

Can’t wait to take off in the morning!!

Do you struggle to come up with just the right gift for Mom, your sister or a close friend? The simple solution is to think big picture. Look for something she will love that comes with multiple components. Once you try this, it becomes easy to think ahead so that Mother’s Day, her birthday and a holiday gift all fall into place. Or for your best friend, a hostess gift, her birthday, a holiday gift, a thank you, all become effortless.

Here are some great ways to make it happen!

French Bull Melamine: Pick a pattern, and you’ll have wonderful, useful, coordinating gifts to last for years! Start with dinner plates, add salad plates, bowls, tumblers, serving pieces, and apron, oven mitts, napkins, coffee cups – the possibilities are amazing.

Wild & Wolf Gardening Tools: I confess, this is the strategy for my mom, the depression era baby who hates getting gifts that are not useful! Start with the trowel / fork set, then the pruners, then the fantastic watering can. There is also a coordinating water bottle.

Thymes: Find the fragrance that suits, glamorous Gold Leaf, feminine Kimono Rose, energizing Eucalyptus, soothing Lavender, ocean fresh Azur. Then choose different products for each occasion. The can’t miss product: Body Lotion. Thymes ranked #1 among all body lotions in a recent AOL on line poll, and we could not agree more, their body lotion formula is the best hydrating, non greasy daily treat you can imagine. First gift body wash, body lotion. Second gift parfum. Third gift room spray and more lotion.

Lollia: With variations like Imagine, Wish, and Relax, this ultra girly Bath & Body Line makes a lovely gift. The can’t miss product: Shea Butter Hand Crème. Magazine Beauty Editors from Lucky to Allure to Self all agree, this stuff is amazing. We always give a large tube for home or office with the adorable Petite Treat tiny tube for her handbag. The other can’t miss product: Bubble Bath! Oprah magazine has recommended this not once, but twice. If she loves a bath, this will impress her.

Pine Cone Hill: Super Soft Robe for one occasion, coordinating cozy cotton or flannel pajamas for another occasion. And possibly a throw for her favorite chair.

While the thermostat hits 90 degrees, we’re writing our first Christmas orders at Give Simple! You have to be a little crazy, or maybe just have a vision, to feel good about Christmas based on the current consumer shopping trends. I’ll claim a little bit of both. Plus, some products are a slam dunk. One of today’s projects was the start up order for Thymes Frazier Fir. My own personal favorite Christmas fragrance EVER, plus the best selling one in the country, it’s not so hard to say, yes, people will want their home to smell just heavenly again this year! Imagine the fresh crisp just cut fragrance of a Christmas tree, a Siberian fir tree to be exact. Then warm it up a little with heartening cedarwood and relaxing sandalwood… Ahhhh….. Don’t forget the room spray for Joycelyn (how does she use it up so fast?), and the elegant diffusers for the friends with fake trees!! Add on lots of the $11 votives, what a great little party favor!

Call me crazy, but I can’t wait for the holidays to get here!But I can’t indulge in my Frazier Fir obsession until we at least get past Halloween!

In the meantime, I will indulge in Thymes Azur, ocean fresh restoration for skin and spirit. For me, just looking at the ocean can lower my heart rate, ease my blood pressure, and soothe my very soul. Our bodies share the same composition of elements as the ocean. Thymes Azur feels like early morning at the beach.with a tranquil, marine fragrance of soothing white tea, water lily and sea grasses.

Memorial Day weekend is just around the corner. We’re getting into one of our favorite times of the year at Give Simple – Melamine season!! You probably had no idea there even was such a season, but trust me, our customers love this stuff, and they order TONS of it between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Email has been flying back and forth between our circle of friends for the last couple of days, drinks Thursday night, casual dinner and movie Friday night, sailing on Saturday, barbeque on Monday – who is coming to what, and what food are they bringing? And what fun and colorful tableware will they use?

Melamine tableware is the quintessential Give Simple product. It's colorful, practical, well designed and a great value. These bright colors let us change the look of the table in a flash, and nothing is too precious for little hands, or to use by the pool.

We’ve shipped French Bull to the rich and famous in LA, sent 300 Le Cadeaux plates to a wedding in Canada, and outfitted more Florida second homes than you can imagine! It’s really fun to see how customers mix and match this stuff for themselves and for gifts.

Melamine is a great product to give as gifts, especially the lines with extensive styles, like French Bull and Le Cadeaux. You give 8 dinner plates for a birthday, then 8 salad plates for a holiday gift, then a platter or serving piece as a hostess gift, then bowls as a thank you…. Pick a pattern and be set with gifts for your sister, or mom, or a close friend for the next year or more.

Get in the mood for summer and pick your favorite Melamine pattern. Give Simple once a year sale is in effect with 15% discount until 5/25 with promo code SUMMER. If only great style could be so practical and affordable in every aspect of life!

With Mother’s Day past, Give Simple’s thoughts turn to Graduation and Teacher’s Gifts. We have lots of great items for these occasions. My favorite for graduation women is Dogeared Wish Necklaces. I sent my own niece one last year, and she LOVED it. The necklaces are something they will actually wear, and the sentiments are so well written. My second favorite is Lug Travel. Whether it’s car or airline travel, the Nap Sac pillow and blanket combo or the Puddle Jumper Overnight/Gym bag are so practical and will come in very handy for the traveler.

Girls are always easier than guys. I think for high school guys, Lappers from the college they will attend would be really cool. These non slip dining trays would be very useful for dorm rooms. For college grads, the stainless steel wallet gets my vote. Sleek and contemporary accessories make a great commemorative for this life achievement.

I think teachers may deserve more thanks than people in any other profession. Their work is challenging and so important, yet they are generally poorly compensated. Just the situation that make a small Thank You Gift even more precious!! For teachers, Wild & Wolf water bottles go to the head of the class! New, different, pretty and practical. Love the gardening tools also, but not as universal as the water bottles. Another fabulous choice – Lollia Hand Crème. I think it is so impressive to give the big tube for desk or home, plus the tiny tube to slip in the handbag! Everyone who has tried this product adores it. For male teachers, the stainless steel V pouchis a nice small token.

With all bases covered for the end of the school year, can Father's Day be far behind?

Our first ever Give Simple Spring shopping event was this week, and we had a blast! Because we are an on line only business, it’s a little unusual shopping here. It’s an office and warehouse, not a store! We are really proud of our super cool loft space in a converted historical building near downtown Houston. We have a concrete floor, exposed brick and glass brick in the front, wood floors, a fireplace and huge factory style windows in the back, with an industrial high ceiling throughout. We have a full kitchen and a large bathroom since the lofts were originally residential. We use the black marble slab counter for a packing island, and store boxes to be recycled in the shower and tub! No wasted space here!

It takes about two full days to get ready for an event. We merchandise some key product categories in the conference room, and merchandise the shelves of the warehouse gondolas as best we can. We laid out jewelry and some accessories in my office. We have to make price sheets for all of the fixtures because our inventory doesn’t usually need prices.

What were the most popular items? Definitely melamine and handbags, just as we expected, and just as we focused our set up. We’re on our way to summer here, so we are already enjoying outdoor dining. While some friends added to their Le Cadeaux Italian “Pottery” melamine collection, several others were inspired by the buffet to buy Working Class Studio plates in 4 or 6 styles to mix and match.

Big Buddha and Murval handbags were a big hit, too. So many bright colors and great styles to choose from, and so affordable!

What did we serve? Famous White Wine Sangria fresh veggies, pastry cups with apricot chicken salad or tasty shrimp filling, and berries with crackers and four stunning cheeses. I like food to be easy to eat, so little bites are best.

As we head toward Mother’s Day, things get a lot busier around Give Simple. Lots of great new giftables are arriving every day. What I am getting my Mom, you might wonder? She has a birthday this month as well as Mother’s Day coming up. I am pleased to say that I have the perfect gift already selected for each event. Like me, Mom doesn’t appreciate a lot of “stuff.” It is best if her gifts are useful. So I’m going for Wild & Wolf “Pretty Useful Tools", which is this British company’s claim to fame. This is a collection of sturdy and well made useful items that are delightfully girly. They have a clever way with words, those Brits! Wild & Wolf works takes inspiration for their prints from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which has inspired designers for over 150 years. The tools they have made using glorious William Morris patterns from the V&A won the UK “Gift of the Year” award. Now their clever and useful gifts are available “across the pond,“ and Give Simple is thrilled to offer them. (Plus I can never resist a charming accent!)

Since I know Mom does not read the blog, I will confess that she’s getting the trowel and fork set for her birthday and the adorable watering can for Mother’s Day. She’ll probably use the watering can ouside in her huge garden, but I’m thinking how adorable it will look just sitting in the sunroom when she’s not using it!

Thinking about what to get your mom? We’ve collected our favorite ideas in our Gift Ideas Function under Best Mother's Day Gifts