someone with a sense of humor.

Ceramicist Laura Zindel's tarantulas, various beetles, bees, dragonflies, snakes, and moths grace platters, mugs, dishes, and vases. They are surprisingly beautiful. We found them at Mud & Metal. This little guy is $55 and perfect for sugar.—JED

Look for a bunch of stores to, well, pop up in Harbor East during much of December. Dresscode by Gita, Patrick Sutton Home, and Di[e]ce (pronounced “deece”) will set up temporary digs in the bottom of the Legg Mason building at 199 International Drive. Dresscode owner Gita Chowdhury proposed the idea of the pop-up shop to Michael Beatty, President of H & S Properties, after seeing them all over London and New York. The idea being that a pop-up shop gives a customer a small taste of a shop that isn't normally in their neighborhood. Gita thought that Harbor East would be a great pop-up location for her Cross Keys jewelery boutique. Michael really liked the idea and they figured the holidays would be the perfect time to do it. Gita's been working with Michael's wife Natalie Beatty on transforming the very bare space—so, they've kept it minimal: hemp, natural colors, metals, wood, and corrugated cardboards. You can visit Gita's blog at dresscodebygita.blogspot.com to follow the...

Today is Cyber Monday—the kick-off for online shopping. Folks use to wait until Monday when they were back at work on their high-speed Internet to order goods, according to NPR. (back before, you know, we had Internet on our phones.) I'm hoping to do a good portion of my shopping online or at local shops. I love the holiday buzz at the malls but hate fighting for a spot. Plus, freezing my butt off between shops in Hampden or Federal Hill or Fells is part of the fun. In honor of Cyber Monday I'm posting five of my favorite online places to shop. And starting tomorrow I'll offer one gift suggestion a day—that didn't make it into the gift guide—that'll get you through Chanukah, Christmas, or whatever you celebrate.  And please—send along your favorite web sites too!

1) etsy.com

2) curiosityshoppeonline.com

3) orkposters.com (e-mail and tell them to do a Baltimore poster)

4) fredflare.com

5)...

Refined Chicago-based jewelry artist Carla Reiter will be in town this weekend to exhibit her pieces at the Walters Art Museum's Jewelry Fair, which runs Friday-Sunday. Known for her elegant and ethereal hand-knitted designs, Reiter will be marking her third consecutive appearance at the event. The designer, who often fashions darkened silver, gold, and copper into her original pieces, originally trained as a sculptor as the University of Indiana. Today, she works out of a small studio in the Windy City where she creates all of her unique designs by hand. "I'm not an artist who is directly inspired by nature or architecture or anything like that," explains Reiter. "I look at all kinds of things and they percolate around in my head and then I get an idea to make something. I get interested in a particular shape, or a stone of some kind, and I want to see what it would look like on a body. It always comes down...