Fun Hostess Gift Ideas: Literary Tattoos + Greeting Cards

I always try — and often fail spectacularly — to have a little stash of fun gifts on hand to bring for hosts or to wrap up for someone or other at the last minute when the mood strikes. And sometimes, like when we popped into The Bennington Bookshop in Bennington, VT a few weeks ago and sheepishly bought more novelties than books, I choose to keep a few of them for myself.

Here are a couple of favorites from that trip, which are also available online.

Literary tattoos

Literary tattoos! I have to admit I’d basically spent an entire year looking forward to nabbing these Jane Eyre temporary tattoos on our trip to Bennington, ever since Addie had picked some up for herself during a piano camp town outing last summer. I knew I could find them elsewhere during the year, but somehow it began to feel like a nice little ritual to wait for Bennington, so I did.

You, on the other hand, can find them here or maybe at your local independent bookstore.

Ideal Bookshelf greeting cards

Not to be outdone, how great are these Ideal Bookshelf greeting cards? This illustrated collection of cookbooks overlaps so heavily with my own that I couldn’t walk away without these cards. I figured that was a minor accident of fate occurring along the hippie-hipster continuum, and it was nice enough to share. But holy moly, you guys. At Ideal Bookshelfyou can have your own actual book collections turned into pins, paintings, postcards and more. Basically as long as your merch starts with a P, they can make it happen.