Urban Basket Case

I love these helmets from Nutcasestore.com. Street and water varieties come in fun, vibrant floral patterns for men and women. Hula Lounge retails for $75 and is meant for water sports. The rose and black hibiscus styles are for street wear and retails for about $50.

Now I just need a bike. We've been promising to get ourselves a pair for years and we always cite storage issues and a million other excuses not to. I think this is the summer of biking. I'd like to pick up the black hibiscus variety for my foray into a bikathon. And by bikathon I mean a trip down to Rockaway Beach, Queens for a lazy afternoon followed by pina coladas at a local beach haunt.

Just in case you don't want to flush with just normal, average toilet handles. Or you live in a 300-square foot studio apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and you want to pretend that the East River is a beach-side oasis. Or you were inspired by a recent day at Rockaway Beach at the tip of Queens and you need to capture that beach magic year-round...

If you answered in the affirmative to any of the above, check out these sailboat and seahorse toilet handles. Comes in refined, satin pewter finish and easy to install. These are for front-mount toilet handles only. Retails for $45 a piece at UnCommon Goods.

Before Urban Basket Case was a gift basket and lifestyle blog, it was an online retail shop. Set up smack before the recession. Not to mention I had no idea how to run such a business. I had inventory, I shipped things, I sent my customers cute notes. And I loved the creative end of it, primarily writing up the copy and picking out the products. But keeping up with shipping, my storage space, fulfilling orders, and doing it all myself was completely overwhelming.

But I did learn a lot along the way. Including how to get creative with my inventory options and still keep costs low. I had a wholesale certificate and business license, but I needed some funky 'filler' items that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I needed to stock my business with cheap inventory that didn't look cheap. And I needed them in quantities of about 20 while I was growing my business. Many wholesalers require you to buy in large bulks, which can be a strain on resources if you just don't have the means to sell it.

So I had to take a look at what I needed and figure out a way to get it. I looked at eBay wholesale lots, but found them impractical. Who needs 1,000 pairs of jeans drop shipped to your apartment? No one.

I stumbled across My Wedding Favors and realized how ideal they were for fillers and party favors. They sell individual items up to large quantities of everything and the more you buy, the less each item costs. They also don't take up much space.

For my business, I used miniature lanterns for a garden motif basket, pink polka dot manicure set, peas in a pod salt and pepper shakers, and tea cup candles. I stuffed them in baskets called "Bun in the Oven", "Mums the Word", and bridesmaid gift baskets. You can use them for party favors, stocking stuffers, or small retail items.

My Wedding Favors also changes their inventory frequently. I like these 3-D palm trees that can hold candies or other small items. Their pocket sized girls photo album is also a great item for a wedding shower. If I was going to do it again, I'd probably pick up these Asian themed candles and develop an exotic travel themed gift basket. Some wedding favors are covered in bridal oriented motifs, but you can always ditch the packaging or look for something transferable to your event. They also have a coupon code here:

Enter coupon code SAVE5 to receive 5% off of your order.

Enter coupon code SAVE10 to receive 10% on orders over $150.

Enter coupon code TAKE25 to receive $25 off orders over $200.