Our Top 10 List for Your Mother-in-Law

Mother-In-Laws.  So hard.  So hard. I can feel heads nodding all around the South as you read that truth.  To help you out, here is my top 10 list.  Most are local to Nashville, but a couple are available online.  And, any of these Nashville stores will take your order by phone if you are part of our growing readership that lives somewhere else.

image courtesy of funny site Post Secret

1) Hand-made Ceramic Bowl. Available in Nashville exclusively at Digs: $85.  This is the perfect size to hold a side dish on the dinner table, a pile of soaps in the powder room, or placed stylishly atop a stack of large books on a coffee table.  Digs Interiors also carries serving platters far larger (up to $350) in this same line as well as sauce bowls for just $25. (Digs JUST moved and opened next to the Crowe’s Nest on Bandywood.)  Allison Evans

2) Nashville by Design: Architectural Treasures. Bob Schatz’s latest book full of his fabulous photography.  Text by Christine Kreyling; With 170 pages and 244 color photographs, this book will not just lay dead on a coffee table.  It will be picked up, loved and possibly dog eared with time. Available at Caldwell Collection: $48.95

3) Cashmere. Cashmere anything, but how about cashmere slippers?  Bluefly currently has brown, grey and black by Kashmere for $60.99 reduced from $120.  MIL doesn’t need to know you bought them on sale.  Available in s/m.  White + Warren makes some eco-cashmere slippers and they are the cutest slippers featured here.  These are not dyed but retain the beauty of natural cashmere.  Available from SimplySoles.com for $175 in small, large and x-large, but sold out in medium.  However, medium is the only size available at the White+Warren Website — so we’ve got you covered!  Restoration Hardware may be the steal of day with their Cashmere Slippers on sale for just 34.99.

bluefly $60.99

White+Warren $175 eco-cashmere

Restoration Hardware $34.99

4) Sour Cream Caramel Cake. There are some that truly don’t need anything else,”stuff” wise, but they always love yummy treats.  What could be more tasty than a Leland Riggins Caramel cake?  Website states that 48 hours are needed to make the cake.  As the Holidays approach, I’d order a week out just to be sure.  Cakes can be shipped….$39.  Leland Riggins’ Dessert Designs

5) Terrarium. How pretty is this?  Includes all the plants inside and you don’t have to have a green thumb for these plants to thrive.  In fact, ideally, they will thrive without anything beyond the initial water as they make their own little eco-system in there!  20″ x 10″ this terrarium is quite large- don’t let the picture fool you $145.  AshBlue

6) Painting. A watercolor painting of the family, or the grand kids, by Susan Underwood.  These faceless beauties are total steals starting at $135.  See below.  Aren’t they great?  Email her your photo (check website for details) and get her your check by Dec 12th and you can give your MIL, or your own mom, a special piece of original art that she will surely love.  I’m actually ordering one of my husband with our son for his Christmas present.  I hope he doesn’t read this and ruin the surprise.  Ask Susan to open a paypal account so we can all pay online.  But a snail mail check is worth the time to get one of these lovelies ordered: www.susanwoodardwatercolors.com

7) Low Country Candle. From Spruce, in Brentwood.  Candles are a hard one for our mother-in-laws as the packaging is usually tiny and we want our gifts to be a bit bigger unless it is cashmere or jewelry.  These candles come boxed in a rather large and beautiful box.  I put my iPhone in the picture below so you can get a better sense of the box size.  Scents include: Spanish Moss (my favorite), Gulah, New Orleans and High Cotton.  Super eco-friendly and burns for 100+ hours. $50.  Low County Luxe Candle

8) Party to Go Tote. From Custom Embroidery.  This tote solves all the problems of how to carry loose items in the car in an organized fashion with no broken bottles!  Get it monogrammed for MIL to know how much you love her.  $30 includes that monogram.

9) Clarisonic. Skin Guru Tracey Harris introduced me to the Clarisonic and my skin has thanked her ever since.  Available at many local stores including Trace Skin Care, Maxwell Aesthetics and The Cosmetic Market. $195.  Clarisonic.

10)  Ornaments. Set of four glass ornaments, each encasing a different feather;  available at AshBlue for $24 each, or $96 for 4.  These just ooze “special”:

Happy Shopping!