friday favorites.

here are my favorites for this week:

• sprinkles cupcakes. i love the concept of having cupcakes delivered. i think their flavors are really interesting and fun (mocha, chai, dark chocolate). what i don't like is that the (local!) delivery charge roughly equals the cost of the cupcakes themselves! $36/dozen.

• lavender. you may remember me mentioning eatwell farms before. one of the owners was so sweet and gave me a hydrosol for my dad while he was in the hospital. when i was trying to think of a "thank you" gift recently, a friend reminded me about them. they are a small, organic, independently-owned, family farm. i was able to call them and put together a wonderful gift for $50. plus, they don't charge shipping! my favorite items include lavender and calendula healing salve ($7, 1 oz.; heals cuts like nothing else), lavender and rosemary salt ($7 for 4 oz.) and their hydrosols to freshen the air ($7 for 4 oz.). they also offer fresh bunches in a box ($43) may through october. imagine receiving that? they were recently featured in fine cooking, too! yay for them! if you're in the bay area, check them out at the local farmers' markets.

• anvil paper. ok. i have a lot of wrapping paper. a lot. meaning that when i saw their designs recently, it took almost physical force to stop me from purchasing some. my favorites are geisha, champagne and octopi. and look at the other adorable stuff like the newborn survival kit! gorgeous design! i need to be reincarnated as paper. i couldn't even look at them to check the price. it was that bad.

• cool serving set. these are just beautiful. i like to have a mix of modern and traditional pieces. these would work nicely, thank you. $54.

• elegant binders. why did i just buy those disgusting white plastic three-rings that remind me of an office at two for $6? i need these, dammit and i need them now. sure they're four for $66, but my office would look fantastic. don't even get me started on the storage stuff. actually, just wrap up the entire site and put it in my mailbox.

photo credits: sprinkles cupcakes, eatwell farms, anvil paper, iikh, russell+hazel.