One of the useful pieces of swag I took home from BlogHer last weekend was about a thousand individually wrapped “freshening teeth cleaners” from the fine people at Kimberly-Clark. The Dentaburst is a weird little cloth-feeling whatsit you slip onto your finger and use to rub your teeth, and it actually works really well. It’s all minty, so your breath feels refreshed, and it seems to do a better job than gum as far as making your teeth feel clean and non-filmy afterwards. A fairly handy item to have in your purse for those occasions — say, after a hummus-filled lunch — when you want to refresh your mouth but you don’t have a toothbrush handy.

Ballpark price: $2.99 for 12
Link: Dentaburst at Walgreen’s

The past couple weeks of my summer have been dominated by THIS guy: Crazy Frog (sample on Youtube). All the children love him, and I can tolerate him. We got the DVD from Netflix, and now the soundtrack to our lives is Axel F, Pump Up the Jam, and We Are the Champions.

Oh. Incidentally. The Netflix description refers to him as “anatomically-correct,” and a little research turned up the information that in some versions he is, um….Well, let’s just say that on the disc we got from Netflix, he is NOT flaunting his bits. (As he IS in the picture next to the YouTube video clip mentioned above.)

This is not what you might call educational television—but during the summer, I’m less particular about that. —Swistle

Links: Crazy Frog DVD on Amazon.com—but we got ours from Netflix: I don’t think it’s the kind of DVD I want to OWN. And here’s Wikipedia info on Crazy Frog.

I recently bought a piece of Etsy jewelry that I don’t think I’ve taken off since it arrived: a charm necklace from moppetsclosets, custom-stamped with my sons’ names. I bought the 3-charm necklace but asked for just two charms, one with Riley’s name and one with Dylan’s. The charms—small sterling silver discs—are wonderfully simple but very pretty. The chain that came with the necklace was decorative and very nice, although I swapped it for a smoother chain just because that’s my preference.

I seriously wear it every day. LOVE this.

Ballpark price: $29
Link: moppetsclosets hand stamped 3 charm necklace on Etsy

Hands down, this is my favorite tea. It’s spicy but not TOO spicy, a nice faintly-nutlike chai flavor that isn’t overwhelming but isn’t too faint. I make it with half milk, half water (microwave about 2 minutes until hot but not boiling), and some Splenda or honey. Mmmmm.

Plus, it’s the kind of tea bag that comes in the little individual paper pouches. I love those. You can mix them in a canister with other kinds of tea and not lose track of which is which, and you can tuck one into a snail-mail letter. —Swistle

Ballpark price: $2.50 (20 bags) at grocery stores

Congratulations to Amity, whose comment (#142) was randomly chosen by the random number-chooser thing! Enjoy your restaurant/theater gift cards, and if you get to see Hellboy, tell me how it was because god knows I won’t get the chance to see it before it comes out on Netflix HOT DAMN I NEED A BABYSITTER.

More giveaways coming soon, folks.