uncommon goods review + {giveaway}

(This giveaway is closed.)

First of all, thank you all SO much for the sweet well wishes and congrats on my blog’s fifth birthday this week — I seriously can’t even tell you how much I want to give you all hugs right now. My heart bursteth with loveth.

Second of all, the celebrating continues! Today I’m giving away another goodie for your kitchen/living needs, so get excited.

But let’s rewind a bit. It’s been a big week because we also made our annual visit to the Minnesota State Fair, a.k.a. our annual Put on Your Fat Pants and Eat All The Deep-Fried Things Because There Are No Rules Day. Over the years, Elliott and I have come up with a very streamlined system through which we are able to try as many new foods at the Fair as possible without having to keel over on a bench near the Tilt-A-Whirl and take a food coma nap. And I’ll let you in on our secret because we’re all friends here. It’s called: taking little bites. Revolutionary, I know.

We split everything and take just a few bites of each food we try, and then we either save the extras for later, toss the remnants (only in very rare cases, like with these deep-fried buckeyes that were delicious for approximately 1.5 bites and then tasted like a sugar bomb just went off in my mouth) or most likely, Elliott eats the rest of it. Because his stomach = bottomless pit. It’s amazing, really.

For someone who is usually anti snack-as-dinner, I actually really love the idea of eating little bites of a lot of different foods for dinner. We often do this in the form of a cheese plate at home, or when we go out, we like hitting up the small plates menus at our favorite restaurants. Tapas fo’ life, y’all.

So when Uncommon Goods, a company that sells environmentally and worker-friendly unique designs and handcrafted gifts, contacted me to review one of their products, I jumped on this swanky oven-to-table entertainment platter because a) oooh, pretty! and b) TAPAS. It was all I could think about.

What I love about this platter, in addition to the fact that it just looks really nice and fahncy for dinner parties and such, is that the removable soapstone surface can be heated to keep things like cookies and baked Brie and crostini warm, or chilled in the freezer beforehand to keep things like sushi, fruit and cheese cold for optimal serving. Pretty neat-o, right?

The platter is just one example of the awesome stuff they have on their site, most of which is made in the USA, half of which is made by hand and one-third of which is made with recycled or upcycled materials. I found myself ooohing and ahhhing over products like dessert and baking salts (yesssss), these state dish towels (adorbs) and this pretty lil’ soup mug. You can take a peek at their other gifts for men/dads here, their gifts for moms/women here and their personalized gifts here.

So in the name of blog birthdays, handmade goods, cutesy entertainment platters and little bites o’ delicious food, Uncommon Goods is giving away a $50 gift card to one lucky reader for anything on their site! To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below answering the question: What are your plans for Labor Day?

And for an extra entry option, you can sign up for Uncommon Goods’ e-mail newsletter here (leave an extra comment below indicating that you did so).

(Giveaway ends Thursday, September 4 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.)

Good luck! And don’t forget to enter the push pop giveaway, too!

Update: Janelle is our winner. Thanks for playing, everyone!

Disclosure: I received the entertainment platter from Uncommon Goods for review purposes only. All opinions are my own.