Things You Never Knew You Needed, pt 1

So last year Carly did this thing on her blog where she posted finds from the mountain of catalouges that started showing up in her mail daily. I remember thinking, wow.. who gets that many catalouges? I realize now that I have no time to flip through them and they are piling up in my magazine/catalouge basket.. that I DO! So, in the spirit of not having anything worth blogging about.. I give you the first installment of things you never knew you needed. Today I received 3 catalouges in the mail. LLBean, Young Explorers and Bits and Pieces.

First up is Bits and Pieces. This is an interesting catalouge filled with all sorts of those wooden puzzles that you put together and they stand on their own and create some sort of shape. (I think this is where they get their name from. I could be wrong, it is Friday after all.) They also have glow in the dark puzzles but I can't fathom exactly why anyone would want one. I honestly can say, that there is nothing in here that I would either want, or would want to gift to someone else.. but there are a few cool things worth mentioning.

First up is the cat serenade statue. I just think this is funny. I love the looks on the cats faces an can only imagine what they might be singing. I think if I was one of those people who had statuary in their gardens, I might actually purchase or ask for this, but as it is.. I am not. That's not to say that I don't have statues in my garden, because I do. All of them except for St. Joseph feeding the birds were gifts, and even that was a gift I just asked for it. Ok, moving on.


I think this is clever. In fact, I think my FIL would love this, but he's trying to cut down on clutter in his life and so I will not buy it for him. It's a puzzle in a bottle. It is called Bottled Frustration (dude, can I bottle mine up, I think I might need a jug. You have to figure out how to free a marble from the bottle, and then once you've got that worked out, you have to figure out how the hell to execute it. I don't have a very clever brain. My brain tends to be more creative and as of such, this would drive me right out of my mind. Mr. Man however would probably have it worked out in an hour.

Young Explorers is a cool catalouge. They promote themselves with "Educational Toys Specialty Toys & Games Creative Award Winning for Science Math and More" They actually sell lots of things that my children have owned over the years such as Spa Science, which I blogged about here, The Perfumery, the B.F.F. (Friendship Bracelet Wheel, which Ms. Thang just finally got into and decided that after owning it for a whole year she loves and it was a great gift), and the Water Symphony dolphins amongst many more. Seriously, they sell great stuff. The best part is that quite often kids are learning and they don't even know it.

If you have a boy, or a rather disgusting girl (and I mean this in the best way possible), this book is a sure fire win. Mr. Man has this book, Oh YUCK!, that he got it from my SIL H, along with a Yuck Kit, which I believe she bought at the Discovery Store, and he loves it. He has read it cover to cover several times, and loves to read us bits of disgusting information. Some of it is quite fascinating, and then again some of it will make your skin crawl.


I love the idea of this Paper Recyling Kit. It speaks to both the "greenie" in me, and the side of me that used to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy with Mr. Man when he was little. I can still sing the song, and yes I know all the words. (hush, I know there weren't a lot!). Anyhow.. I've made paper before and it's quite a cool process. I like how they give you shaped molds and directions for different kinds of projects. Very cool.
Ok, well I think that is all I have the desire to blog about. There are many more cool things at the Young Explorer's website. Seriously, all ages from infant to even young teens are covered and the quality of the items is really excellent.
LL Bean isn't even worth mentioning because they send 50 catalouges a year, and ya'll probably have one or five already.