Recently in 100% Curiously Awesome Category

I'm sure the White House is impressive enough on a regular day, but during Christmas it must be particularly amazing to see all of the elegant holiday decorations. In Christmas at the White House by Jennifer B. Pickens, you can check out 500 photos taken from 9 different administrations.

This would be an awesome "coffee table book" to give someone (like me!) for the holidays. It's pretty pricey at $75.00, but it has over 400 pages of decorating perfection. Not wanting to flip through this book would be un-American. Just kidding! But still, I think it would be really interesting to see how different administrations decorated the same house differently.

The Foosball Coffee Table might not be the most sophisticated coffee table I've ever seen, but it definitely is one of the neatest. Foosball is fun and not everyone has a game room or a finished basement to store the table in, so this is a way to have a foosball table if you don't have a lot of extra space in your house.

Coffee tables aren't tall, so I understand why this isn't tall. But crouching down to play foosball is not ideal. Nonetheless, this table is still pretty awesome. At $499 with free shipping, that isn't a bad deal. Nice coffee tables without foosball playing capability can cost at least that much!

At first glance, they may look like regular old neckties. But in fact, the "fabric" used to make these Sonic Fabric ties is 50% recorded audio cassette tape. Yeah, I don't know how the heck they do it, but they've taken old mixed tapes and woven them into ties.

If that isn't awesome enough for you, these ties can actually be "played". Because the magnetic quality is maintained through the weaving process, you can still "hear" your tie by running a tape head over it. (A tape head is that little thing inside cassette tapes that touches the tape.) The designer says that when you do this, you're actually playing 4 or 5 strands of tape at once, or 16 to 20 tracks, so it kind of sounds like scratching a record backwards or radio static.

Needless to say, these are the coolest ties EVER, and the man in your life would totally love one. And if you don't have $90 to spare, fear not. The man in your life would also love any of these awesome gifts.

This beautiful piece - along with the iPhone itself - is going on my "I will buy all of these things when I have money to burn" list. It is yet another hand made gem I found on Etsy.

The wood is cedar, so you know it smells awesome. The design is simple, pretty - "nature chic", if you will. It is compatible with the iPhone 3g and all iPod devices. Except for the Shuffle. I have a Shuffle and nothing cool is compatible with the Shuffle.

It will set you back $78. Pricey, yes, but not completely unreasonable for a functional hand made piece.

I don't know why I love these so much. I mean, essentially, they are just rolled-up towels. But they're rolled-up towels that look like sweet little cakes! Isn't that enough to make them awesome?

Not only that, but the "cherry" on top is actually a magnet that you can use on your fridge. Finally, a bridal/wedding shower favor that isn't totally useless (like, for example, a plastic swan or baby basket filled with buttermints).

Another cute favor idea would be our Cupcase Cupcake Holders. You could bake a cupcake for each of your guests, place it in the Cupcase, and then tie a ribbon around it. Sweet!

This Labor Day weekend, we at Vat19.com wanted to celebrate all of the wonderful products that are produced here in the USA. So many of the things we purchase are made outside our country - the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the toys our children play with - that it's almost a welcome relief when you can get your hands on something made right here where we live. Vat19.com is proud to carry many products that are made in the USA - many of them by hand. Check 'em out!

Notebook & Pencil Socks
Let's face it, fun socks are, well, fun. These awesome socks that look like a pencil and notebook paper make the reality of going back to school not so harsh.

Big Belly Bank
The creator of this whimsical wooden bank started out by making them for his children. Good thing he continues to make them for us to enjoy.

Kitchen Goodies
Our Microwave Popcorn Popper is made in Vermont, and it pops a seriously delicious batch of popcorn. You can follow that up with some chewy brownies made in the Edge Brownie Pan, and maybe a frozen treat custom-made in the Slush Mug. Hey, sometimes you need a good calorie-fest.

Continue reading for more awesome American-made products.

I love baseball. I love shortbread cookies. So I imagine I would love Cooperstown Cookie Company's baseball-shaped shortbread cookies. Of course, I would only enjoy eating them if they came in a St. Louis Cardinals themed box or tin! For those of you who aren't aware, Vat19 is headquartered in St. Louis. And the Cardinals are HOT this year!

These would be a unique gift to send to a baseball fan. You can choose which MLB team you want on the packaging. Once the Cardinals officially make it into the post-season, I'm thinking of sending tins with the Cardinals on it to some Cubs fans I know just to rub it in. Hey, its just a friendly rivalry!

Have you ever had drinking chocolate? I'm not talking about what most Americans think of as hot chocolate, which is usually a powdered cocoa mix that you stir into hot water or milk. I'm talking real drinking chocolate, actual morsels of chocolate that you melt into hot milk to create a rich, smooth, velvety elixir. I drank it every morning when I visited Spain, and it was pure heaven...

Anyway, before I start salivating all over my keyboard, let's get back to the subject of this post - these adorable Cioccolato Mugs. With their unique European style, you can pretend you're enjoying gourmet drinking chocolate outside a Parisian or Italian cafe (even if you're actually sipping the powdered stuff at your kitchen counter). Plus, they come in this super chic hatbox, making them a great gift!

Psst... For more great gifts, be sure to check out Vat19.com.

We're so excited about the release of our latest product video that we decided to post it on our blog. We also got so excited we made an album cover for this destined-to-go-platinum single.

OK, here's the video:

Those aren't cookies. Those are iPod Shuffles disguised as those delicious chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla wafer cookies I so loved as a child. Don't they look awesome?!

But you know, it's almost cruel how realistic they look, isn't it? If I had an iPod Shuffle 3G, and it had one of these cases on it (preferably chocolate or strawberry), I would seriously be trying to take a bite out of it all the time. And I'd be severely disappointed when I tasted silicone and metal instead of yummy wafer-ness. Oh well, such is life.