How To Do Mother's Day Like A Boss

How great are Moms? They deserve a lot more than one day a year to celebrate their amazing-ness, but alas, there is only one day. One day in May for you to show the person who gave birth to you how much you love her. Do you want to mess this up? You only get one shot, people. Lucky for you we have built a comprehensive guide for you to follow that will ensure your mother/mom/mum/mommy feels loved and appreciated. 

Best Brunch Spots

First things first, get her a delicious meal that will kickstart the day in the best way! Full disclosure Seattle restaurants will use this holiday to double the price of food and make you wait hours for a table, but remember, she gave birth to you so you have to do it.

Palisades: For the mom that likes a classic, beautiful restaurant. Palisades has a giant buffet and is located at an amazing location in Seattle with awesome views. Bonus? Everyone who dines on Mother's Day gets a free gift. Surprises are the best so call ASAP for reservations. 206-285-1000

Insider Tip: If the dining room is booked ask about the second buffet happening in the Alani Room.

Toulouse Petit: For the mom that wants a cool breakfast spot with some Southern charm. Toulouse Petit definitely shines in the breakfast department. Our recommendations are the Spicy Creole Hash and make sure Mom has a Katie Mae! Only downside? They don't accept reservations so you will want to plan to wait a bit. 206-432-9069

Salty's on Alki: For the mom that wants a traditional Pacific Northwest brunch. Salty's is such a great place to eat any meal, but they are famous for their brunch. We particularly love it for the fact that it is upscale dining with amazing food, but it is non-pretentious (think oversized fishing tackles and giant nets hanging from the ceiling). $75 for the full buffet. Call for reservations before they run out! 206-937-1600

Cutter's: For the mom that wants a hearty menu to chose from. Cutter's is located near Pike Place Market and has a view of Puget Sound with a great ambiance. The best part about this place is they don't skimp on the seafood. Bring your appetites and don't miss their crab cakes. Mmm good. Reservations available. 206-448-4884

Great Gift Ideas

Photos from Clay in Motion and Joanna Morgan respectively.

Next up you have to get the perfect gift. Homemade cards are encouraged, no matter how old you are.

Home Garden and Art is located in Greenwood and has all this unique and fun garden art made from metal. They have everything from roosters to goats to birdhouses. They are locally-owned and do custom requests! 

Clay in Motion makes these great "Handwarmer Coffee Mugs." They are beautiful and functional! Mom will love! You can also find them in the Made in Washington stores around Seattle. 

Market Spice has a lot of great items for moms who love to cook, but they also have an amazing tea collection and our favorite is the Cinnamon Orange Tea. Hint: It goes well with the Handwarmer mugs above. :)

Joanna Morgan makes beautiful, classic jewelry that she creates in her Seattle studio. We especially like her Signature Collection. 

Don't Forget the Flowers

Flowers at Pike Place are a cheap, but beautiful bouquet choice!

Young Flowers has gorgeous, modern, and artistic flower arrangements. They cost a pretty penny but are seriously worth it. Call to have them design your mom a custom, one of a kind arrangement!

Pike Place Market has amazing bouquets made from flowers grown from local farmers in Washington. They will definitely be on their best game on Mother's Day and their bouquets run on average $10 a pop. 

Juniper Flowers creates the most beautiful and unique arrangements, each stem carefully selected by the owner of the shop, Jean Louise. They also offer flower arranging classes, which are a fun, creative, and functional gift for a mom who enjoys gardening. 

And if you want to ice the cake and get her some sweets...

Salted Caramels from Fran's Chocolate say I LOVEEEEE you!

Fran's does stunning chocolates. We recommend the salted caramels.

Bakery Nouveau's macaroons will make your stomach angry you haven't been eating them every day.

April Fools Day: Take Me to the Magic Shop

Market Magic and Novelty Shop

The lower levels of Pike Place Market hold an amazing assortment of quirky shops you can spend hours exploring. In honor of this wonderful holiday, April Fools, we are profiling The Market Magic Shop, home to all your April Fools needs! 

Market Magic Shop boasts the fact that it is the oldest magic shop in the Pacific Northwest and when you step inside you are greeted with framed photos of all the famous visitors from over the years. The shop is stocked with goodies for beginner and expert magicians and have quite a few trick items for your April Fools' Day.

Our favorite finds inside? The Encyclopedia of Immaturity (if you watch Modern Family, I think this book is probably in Phil Dunphy's collection), the balloon animal starter kit (we have always wondered how they make those), and the Elvis Fortune Teller (yes, he does sing). 

Every little thing she does is...

All sorts of goodies can be found at the Magic shop.

For $.75 Elvis will give you your fortune.

50 million fans can't be wrong.

"...beware of a young woman in a red sports car"

Ugly Baby and La Ru + Bunny Party

Ugly Baby and La Ru is a shop in Pike Place Market that is home to creative handmade gifts made by two talented artists: Rosalie Gale (the Ugly Baby part of the duo) and Lauren Rudeck (creator of La Ru). It is a great place to find gifts for children (think cute screen printed clothes, create your own sock monkey kits, and beginner sewing sets ) and adults (think t-shirts, fun greeting cards, and home decor), plus it's great simply because of that name. 

If you aren't in the Seattle area, you can shop for their goods on Etsy. Find them at Ugly Baby and  La Ru.

La Ru 

Ugly Baby 

We felt a little guilty when we first wandered in, I mean calling a baby ugly? Pretty low. But after asking the shop owners about the name we found out that the baby in the logo is actually Rosalie's husband, who has since grown into his forehead. Phew, now we can shop without worrying about the baby's self esteem. 

Ugly Baby and La Ru hosted a Bunny Party this Easter to support Seattle Animal Shelter and Special Bunny. Visitors got to play with bunnies and check out the Ugly Baby and La Ru workshop, where they create most of the items sold in their store. Going to be honest, we were the oldest people there to play with the bunnies, but that didn't stop us from crawling into the bunny pens and hogging a few of the fluff balls from the toddlers (adults are allowed to enjoy bunny snuggles too). 

Who doesn't want to go to a bunny party?

Friendly faces to welcome everyone to the Bunny Party.

Benjamin the Bunny

Ollie receiving a snack!

Alice loved having her ears rubbed. 

Check out the ears on George.

It isn't an Easter party without sidewalk chalk. 

We never miss a good photo booth and we DO love bunnies.

Seattle St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl

Rejoice, the calendar has brought around another holiday devoted to drinking. We will dye the beer green, and in some really Irish cities, we will dye large bodies of water green as well.* 

[Green heart + Beer mugs clinking]

If you are planning on going out and toasting a delicious green lager to your Irish brethren and St. Patrick for all he did** we have put together a downtown Seattle Pub Crawl that is guaranteed to show you a good time. 

First stop, Fado. 810 1st Ave. Seattle, WA 98104

Doors open at 7:30 AM for "Kegs and Eggs." If you aren't there with a beer in hand, well then you just aren't fully committed to this holiday. Live entertainment all day plus a cool atmosphere makes Fado one of the best spots in the city to "Paddy hard."

Next up, Owl N Thistle. 808 Post Ave. Seattle, WA 98104

Just down the alley is your next bar, Owl N Thistle. This one is the smallest and dirtiest, but that might make it the best. Live music starts at 1:30 PM, so mosey on over after you've drank your way through lunch at Fado.

End the tour at Kells. 1916 Post Alley Seattle, WA 98101

People come from all over the world for Kells' St. Patricks Day so be ready for crowds. The good thing is, everyone is usually drunk before mid day, so you are bound to make some friends! This party keeps going until the early morning so come prepared for a late night.

*Is that bad for the water? We always wonder but never want to be Debbie Downers on our Chicago friend’s Instagram posts, so we just always put the green heart emoji with a beer clinking emoji.

**Let’s be honest no one knows who St. Patrick is. Luckily we have Wikipedia. Keep reading, it gets really interesting when he banishes all the snakes from Ireland.