Holiday Gift Guide 2012 - For the Gay Girls in Your Life!

For Jessica Clark Fans

For fans of Jessica Clark she needs no introduction, but if you’re unfamiliar with the out, British beauty who’s starred in the film A Perfect Ending and who embodied the mythic Lilith on True Blood this season (a role that her pretty much in the nude for the entire run), there’s the Jessica Clark 2013 calendar to help you organize your days. That is, if you aren’t completely distracted by the jaw-droppingly hot photos. Find out how you can also have Jessica inscribe a personal message on your calendar. $25 - and totally worth it! Signed and personalized by Jessica $50 (and totally worth it!)

Whimsical Art 

When SheWired posted graphic artist Bronwyn Lundberg’s Lesbian Last Supper a few weeks back readers couldn’t get enough of the whimsical rendering of the most iconic lesbians of our time seated together at the table in a playful take on Da Vinci’s masterpiece. Now, you can buy prints of the illustration that features Ellen DeGeneres, Heather Matarazzo, Wanda Sykes, Rachel Maddow, Lily Tomlin, Melissa Etheridge, Rosie O’Donnell, k.d. Lang, Jane Lynch, Sandra Bernhard, Portia de Rossi, Linda Perry and Shane (as Judas). Digital print is high resolution and measures 17" x 9.3". All prints are autographed by the artist. $10 shipped to the U.S. and $15 everywhere else. 

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For the Ring Bearer 

Most of you may recognize Lauren Bedford Russell from her stint on The Real L Word’s third season this summer, but she’s best known for her exquisite, up-scale jewelry line Lyon Fine Jewelry. Lauren’s sterling silver Equality Ring makes the perfect, subtle but strong, statement for the out person in your life. $175 

Put on an Impromptu Puppet Show

By nature mittens are just more fun to wear than gloves. Now, the folks at Uncommon Goods have created the ultimate mittens that could also work in an impromptu puppet show. The Predator vs. Prey mittens will have your left hand fighting with your left. These handmade wool and acrylic mittens modeled off of classic enemies in the animal kingdom are warm, cozy and made just for adults who never wanna grow up! Six different styles include cat vs. dog, wolf vs. sheep, frog vs. fly, owl vs. mouse, whale vs. fish and lion vs. gazelle. $29 

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For the Indulger:

Hip (and Kosher) Holiday Nosh

Remember when Carrie and Miranda met for a cupcake at New York's Magnolia Bakery on Sex and the City? Since then the place has become a sweet sensation and tourist attraction with eight stores in NYC, Chicago, L.A., and Dubai. An indescribably yummy box of Buttercream-Drenched Dreidel Cupcakes or the Hanukkah Cupcakes combo (or even Cookies for Santa, a gingerbread, sugar, and snickerdoodle cookie collection) can be shipped anywhere in the US. $24 and up

Survival Booze

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, from one of the world's most renowned champagne houses, is the French company's famed yellow-label Brut in a limited edition box that looks like a bright yellow sardine can (it's an insider nod to family origins). The sardine can makes it OK to put this in your emergency survival kit. $105

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The New Connoisseurs

Coffee is so old-school, the new gourmands are experimenting with tea. Enter the Artisan's Blending Kit, created by Ahmed Rahim, CEO and chief alchemist for Numi Organic Tea, who is known for his mastery of tea blending (e.g. Chocolate Pu-erh, Rooibos Chai, and Basil Mint Pu-erh). The kit comes with an assortment of organic teas, herbs, fruits, flowers, and spices plus a handmade glass teapot and a recipe book that'll have you experimenting with blends from your own imagination. $39.99

Better Than Cheese of the Month

A membership to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society opens the door to a whole new world of whiskey, where members are granted access to the largest and finest array of single-cask, single-malt offerings available to humankind. It also includes an exciting program of whiskey-tasting events across the U.S. and admission to the society's three fabulous Members' Rooms in London, Edinburgh, and Leith, Scotland; a keepsake membership kit; Unfiltered, the society's magazine; and approximately 90 single-cask offerings to choose from. Society whiskeys are available exclusively to members and are not sold in retail liquor stores. $229

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Booze From the Ghostbusters Guy

Crystal Head Vodka is cool: it's named for an archaeological mystery that spans from American Southwest to Tibet; actor Dan Aykroyd and partner artist John Alexander thought it up; it's made with water from a cavernous aquifer in Newfoundland and filtered through diamonds; and it comes in a bottle that looks like a actual crystal skull. It's won some awards too. $49.99

A Shot at Love

Make your next drink a literary one with the Great Drinkers, shot glasses with notable quotes from famous drinkers, including queer (or adjacent) lit figures like Oscar Wilde, Lord Byron, and Dorothy Parker. If you're feeling dangerous, the Mug Shots set consists of six arresting shot glasses with America's most infamous bank robbers and gunmen, such as John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd. $15.95

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A Mixologist's Fave

Ketel One Vodka is still crafted in the Netherlands from small batches using traditional copper pot stills, like the original copper pot still, Distilleerketel Number 1, after which Ketel One is named. It's these copper pots you can thank for the unmistakably cool and silky feel of Ketel One (and maybe the fact that the distillery is over three centuries old now). $23

For Stocking Stuffers:

Toys With a Twist

A naughty toy or two will make for great gifts for the bedroom. Ladies will giggle over the Alice in Wonderland-inspired Kinky Kat Waterproof Vibe. Throw in some sustainable Please Cream lube and you've got a party. Available at Good Vibrations. $8 and up

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40 Is the New 30

If you've got the dough, join women and men alike lining up for Nuvosa's Deep Wrinkle Remedy Serum, which uses hyaluronic acid technology plus DMAE and Coenzyme Q10 to ease wrinkles and fights free radicals. $98

Smells Too Good to Eat

Aubrey Elizabeth Apothecary makes Hand-Batched Soap that looks incredibly like sushi, Oreo cookies, cinnamon buns, zombie hands, and grenades, to name a few. But her black and silver fireside-scented Gun Soaps are the perfect gift for the hipster or gun nut on your list. $6.50

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Stash Your Cash

Pop culture lovers are still clamoring for Mighty Wallets, the funkiest way to carry cash and cards. With themes like Star Trek, the Warholesque Campbell's Soup, 3-Ring Binder, and comic book heroes, you'll want more than one. $15

Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates

Tried and true, but Norman Love Confections' limited edition holiday handcrafted chocolate flavors (eggnog, s'mores, white Christmas) are like delicious little art pieces. No wonder Anna Paquin and Colin Firth are fans. $13 and up

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For the Do-Gooder:

Play With Your Food

This whimsical and stylish Silver Flying Saucer Bowl turns everyday meals into out-of-this-world feasts. It makes for a great space-age centerpiece or a fruit bowl extraordinaire. Or try the cheeky stoneware Warm or Cool Face Mugs, which hold beverages up top and have a special cubby for your favorite nibbles below. Uncommon Goods, which sells wares by artists and designers around the globe, is an eco-friendly company that donates a portion of each order to one of these nonprofit organizations: American Forests, AmeriCares, City Harvest, and Tori Amos's Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. $300 and $35

Adoption Minus the College Costs

Never seen a manatee? The slow-moving, affable creatures are endangered, and many are injured or killed each year by boats. What better gift than adopting a real Florida manatee from the Jimmy Buffett-founded Save the Manatee Club? You choose who to adopt (read all about Squeaky, Rocket, and Annie online), and your money helps fund efforts to protect the popular endangered marine mammals and their aquatic habitat. You'll get an adoption certificate, photo of your manatee, a membership handbook, and subscriptions to the club's newsletters, which feature reports on the manatees in the adoption program as well as other interesting information. $25

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Helping Women Help Themselves

When you buy one of the intriguing handmade Rwanda Path to Peace Baskets at Macy's, you'll get a great gift and also make an impact on tens of thousands of lives in that country. Macy's initiated its Rwanda Path to Peace project in 2005, providing a real, sustainable income to rural women who had never before earned money (most of whom were widowed through genocide, and many of them HIV-positive). Each bundled sweet-grass basket comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity, and the artisans receive half the wholesale price for each item sold. $50

Geek Chic

We Can Be Heroes: Justice League Action Figure Box Set from DC is the perfect gift for that superhero in your life. It features seven Justice League icons: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg, and 10% of every purchase of this set benefits DC Entertainment's giving campaign, which is saving lives as well. $96.99

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For the Health Nut:

Get Introspective

The iHealth Wireless Body Analysis Scale records weight, body fat, lean mass, muscle mass, bone mass, body water, visceral fat rating, and more, and it automatically detects who is using it so up to 20 different people can share a single scale and track their results on their mobile device (which you can then take in and show your doctor, trainer, or someone else you want to brag to). $69.95

Shake That Booty + Your Own Personal Trainer

Want to dance like Travis Wall? Naturally, a video game can help. The Hip Hop Dance Experience is the latest must-try installment in the chart-topping dance game franchise, and it works on the Nintendo Wii system and Xbox 360 Kinect. $39.99

With the Nike+ Kinect Training for Xbox 360 you can have a personal trainer at home for one flat fee instead of having to hoof it to the gym every morning and fork out a lot of cash each month. Too sophisticated to be called a video game, this Nike+ program offers elite-level coaching, a workout plan you can personalize (and it evolves as you do), and the ability to work out with other friends who have Xbox Live. Real-time feedback tells you if you’re doing the movements right (just like a in-person trainer would, although you won’t be tempted to fall in love with the Nike+ Kinect Training program). $49.99

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For the Traveler:

The Need For Speed

Got a car-loving adventure-seeker on the list? The Audi Ice Driving Experience offers a winter wonderland in Scandinavia. Your special someone will brush up on their extreme driving skills in Sweden and Finland, where they’ll practice drifting and slaloms while driving a range of challenging and varied courses in some of the most awe-inspiring settings on earth. $4,000 and up

The Best Kind of Baggage

In his collection for Heys USA, Brazilian-American neo-pop artist Romero Britto has released the perfect gifts for trendy travelers: a collection of luggage that’s hard-sided, lightweight, and emblazoned with Britto’s signature blend of cubism, pop art, and graffiti. $200 and up

Wearable Maps

DesignHype’s MetroCuff series let you navigate public transportation inconspicuously while wearing the subway routes for New York, Paris, London, Chicago, or Milan on your arm. Meanwhile, Uncommon Goods’ Crumpled City Maps have the streets of NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, and Tokyo printed on durable material that’s waterproof and rip-resistant and can be pocketed, tossed into a bag, or slung around your body. $37

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A Car of One’s Own

Move over, Scions and Subarus, there’s a new car making gay waves: the Chevy Volt, one of the most awarded cars when it was launched in 2011. As it offers options of both gas and electric power, the average Volt driver fills up the gas tank about once a month (or every 900 miles). There’s also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can travel a total of 380 miles on a full charge and full tank of gas. Sounds like a Christmas miracle. $31,465 base

For the Homebody:

Table Settings

Outsider artist Angela Rossi uses recycled, abused, and forgotten items to create hip, quirky, and often hauntingly beautiful Altered Antique Plates with cultural icons (Patti Smith, Pee-wee Herman), animal-human hybrids that are kitschy and classy all at once, vampire girls, tattooed ladies, and Victorian gay zombie couples. $45 and up

Spiked Drinks

Got a farmers’ market lover on your list? The ingenious Aqua Zinger and Citrus Zinger let you infuse water with fresh fruit, herbs, and vegetables – pretty much any flavor you can imagine – with no mess. There’s a Vodka Zinger too. $16.95 and up

Desserts on a Dime

There is no better way to make everyone smile than with the Zoku Duo Quick Pop Maker, which freezes ice pops in as little as seven minutes on your countertop without electricity. Zokuheads are already trading recipes for striped pops, yogurt pops, treats with candy and nuts, and (available for the first time with a home pop-maker) different-flavored core pops. $36.95

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Light Up(cycle) the Room

Break the Record’s totally unique and rocking retro Cassette Tape Night Light Lamp is made from repurposed cassette tapes (can’t stop loving the ‘80s Classics). At night, the effect is beautiful and hazy, like a modern lava lamp that’s calming and mood setting, if you know what we mean. $48 and up

For the Techie:

Gaming On the Go

The MOGA Mobile Gaming System brings console-quality gaming experience to Android phones and tablets with the first full-featured controller designed specifically for mobile devices. Pocketsize, portable, with tons of downloadable games, and connected via Bluetooth, the MOGA might just change how you play. $60

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Move Over Annie Leibovitz

There is nothing to dislike about the new PEN E-PL3 Olympus Camera. It offers the world's fastest auto focus (you can take up to five photos a second), takes 12.3-megapixel images, has face and eye detection to adjust focus (face detection can capture up to eight faces at once), six in-camera filters, and a hi-res three-inch articulating LCD screen that makes it easy to shoot from any angle. Even better: It creates 3D images as well, and with the PENPAL attachment, you can wirelessly email or post photos. $599.99

Control Issues

Logitech has cornered the market on useful and cool tech products (Got kids? There's a washable keyboard out this year!), but the new Logitech Harmony Touch has got to be the most universal. The Harmony Touch is a universal remote control with a 2.4-inch color touch screen that controls up to 15 devices (TV, Blu-ray/DVD players, Xbox/Wii, etc). You can organize up to 50 favorite channel icons right on the remote, it sits in a recharging station so you don't have to deal with that last-minute battery scramble during Pretty Little Liars, and it's compatible with more than 225,000 devices. $249.99

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Best. iPhone. Accessory. Ever.

Love your iPhone but hate typing on-screen? The Illuminated iPhone Slide Out Keyboard, which pairs with your phone via Bluetooth, is the answer. It's an iPhone case with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and illuminated keys. A built-in battery only needs to be recharged after six hours of continuous typing, and it has a lifetime guarantee. $79.95

Sharing Photos Old School

Anyone who grew up with Polaroid cameras remembers the excitement of instant photos that they offered. Waiting the 60 seconds for the film to dry to reveal your image was excruciating. Well, Polaroid is back with an even better option: the new Z2300 Instant Digital Camera, which has an integrated ZINK printer that lets users instantly capture, edit, and — in less than a minute — print full color, 2X3 inch prints. The Z2300 has a 10-megapixel-image sensor and a pretty big (3 inch) LCD display that help make it easy to review images and video. Best of all: that ZINK technology the printer uses is ink-free paper with embedded dye crystals; prints are created by heat activating them. $198

With additions from Tracy E. Gilchrist. 

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