Forget about baking a batch of sugar-laden cookies. Your teacher deserves more. These gifts are sure to get you (or your child) an A+ on the next report card.

Really Smart Women Essentials: Show teacher how you really feel. Show her that she is a really smart woman and you appreciate her caring for your children all day long. This kit comes packed in a handled box (just slap a bow on it) and contains Smart Women Sticky Notes, a Smart Women Coffee Mug and a Smart Women Mouse Pad.

Feng Soy Diffusers: Diffusers make great gifts, they smell great and aren't a fire hazard so they are safe for a teacher's desk.

Russel & Hazel "Audrey" File Tote: Grading papers can be drag but when you have a stylish file tote on your side nothing can bring you down.

Coffee for One French Press: Coffee in the teachers lounge is the worst! Let teacher brew her own cup of Joe at the comfort of her desk with this handy Coffee for One French Press.

Cup Couture Cup Sleeve: For teachers who like to drink their coffee on the go what could be better than these? Make your coffee a little more exciting (and personal) with these awesome sleeves.

Chirping Bird Paper Clip Holder: Kids like noisy and colorful things, so this chirping bird magnetic paper clip holder will be the perfect addition to your teacher's desk.

Diamond Ring Paper Weight: Your teacher may deserve a diamond ring but let's face it if you could afford one you would buy it for yourself.

Cris Notti Eye Mask: After a long day of dealing with your kids, give teacher a break with these attractive eye masks. Add in some soothing scented oils to make this the perfect gift.

Built NY Lunch Tote: This will keep your favorite teacher stylish and out of the school cafeteria line.

Glasses Holder Necklace: Say goodbye to those ugly eyeglasses holders that the "nerdy" teachers wear. This eyeglass holder is creative and fashionable, an excellent gift for the visually impaired.

You're likely to see some style disasters around the office this time of year. Not that there's anything wrong with being festive, but trust me -- the blinking Rudolph sweater is best left in the closet.

But while most fashion foul-ups are easy to spot, others will sneak up on you -- especially as you're asked to socialize with co-workers outside the office (like at your annual holiday party, for instance). Dress too wacky, too sexy, or just plain bad, and the boss is likely to see a side of your personality you'd probably rather they didn't.

Follow these tips to make sure you don't find yourself applying for a new job in the New Year:

• Keep it under control-- dress up too much and it'll look like the office party is the only night out you've had since last year.
• If you want to show off, use your accessories (nice watches for guys, a stylish bag for the ladies).
• Stay true to your company culture. If you work at Google, I'm sure you can wear whatever you want. But if you're a Wall Street financial analyst, you'll probably want to err on the conservative side -- even if the invitation says "casual."
• Remember: just because you're not at the office, doesn't mean the normal office rules don't apply.

Essentially, be careful. Because your co-workers only see you in "work mode," it's tempting to go overboard with an outfit that says "this is who I really am!" But on Monday you'll be back in the office -- hopefully with no regrets.

Boys, sometimes it's not enough to be mocked just for your Mario tattoo or your elaborate Second Life family of friends and it's important to take that extra step of geekery in the workplace. Never fear, for ThinkGeek's 8-bit tie is here. It's exactly as it sounds: this is a tie made to look like it came straight from an 8-bit word. To maintain the 2-D illusion and avoid the rounded knot, the tie is a clip-on. It's hand-made from a microfiber material and goes for $19.99.

In theory, I think it's a cool idea, but I'm starting to wonder how I'd react if I really saw someone wearing this around the workplace. I suppose it depends on whether the workplace is super corporate or more laidback... or if the company's run by Wario.

The post-lunch afternoon meeting can be torturous. You're tired; your boss is boring you. Your co-workers are grouchy, and you've started to notice an ominous grumbling in your intestinal region.

You may not want to admit it, but we've all probably found ourselves in this situation before, and unless you're incredibly rude and/or work in the most informal office on the planet, you likely held it in and hoped for the best.

Then again, holding it in can only work for so long since when push comes to shove -- and you know what I mean by 'shove' -- gas has to go somewhere.

But fear not modest office employees -- those gassy sounds and smells can be absorbed by the GasBGon, a flatulence filter seat. GasBGon is a thin chair pad that uses high-tech carbon filter technology to muffle the evidence of a digested lunch gone wrong. According to the company, the GasBGon can handle up to 90% of the odors given off during the 14 farts that the average person emits during the day.

So, by all means, let her rip.

Despite being notoriously tough to walk in, the pencil skirt has been a wardrobe staple to many ladies since the 1950s. The skirt instantly creates a classically shapely silhouette, but, unfortunately, it seems to only flatter people who already have a small waist, curvy hips, and long legs, and it doesn't do much for the rest of us. In fact, everyone else is most likely better off in an A-line skirt.

There are few looks that can exist in the fetish world and be work-appropriate at the same time, but, for some reason, the pencil skirt manages to function either way. Online pin-up girls and Pulp songs glorify the restricting skirt, but Plain Jane from Accounting also likes to wear it with her cardigans. So, girls who invest in a pencil skirt have something suitable for the daytime and the nighttime with a quick swap of the top.

And as if that isn't enough to envy the lucky ladies who look good in the ultra-flattering pencil skirts, the piece is ridiculously easy to find. The tough part is getting one that feels good and fits your stride. Really, they're a pain to walk in if you buy anything even remotely too tight, so be sure to strut around about in the dressing room before making a purchase, all right? However, Victoria's Secret sells stretchy pencil skirts and, from the looks of the picture on their website, Giselle is able to move her legs quite comfortably. Hmm.

Sure, how you look is important. Your clothes, your hair, your overall sense of style -- these things matter. But if you really want to stay current as the ranking social maven in your office, you'll need to get hip to the slang.

But why be content with latching on to whatever popular phrases all the other staff are using, when you could start your own linguistic trend?

For that, you can turn to geeksugar, and their growing list of new terminology for your everyday corporate endeavors. My personal favorite is "Xerox Subsidy" -- a euphemism for stealing free photocopies from your place of employment (probably 'cause I did that with reckless abandon at my last job -- shh, don't tell).

And, just to get in the spirit, I'd like to make a couple of my own additions to the list:

Speared: When you get caught in a conversation with the crazy, white-trash receptionist who just can't seem to get it together, no matter how many times she goes to rehab. (As in, "Sorry I'm late, I got Speared.")

Cougared: A Top Gun reference. When a work-obsessed colleague as been "holding on too tight" and "lost the edge." (As in: "What happened to Tim from accounting?" "Dude, he's on leave -- he Cougared.")

The workplace can be a real mine field when it comes to clothing etiquette: is it acceptable to wear t-shirts? Can you wear open-toed shoes? Does casual Friday mean jeans? Is it okay to dress better than your boss?

Huh? You've never thought about that last question, have you?

Unlike the pay scale or the benefits package, there is no established hierarchy when it comes to clothing. But what happens if you do actually have nicer clothes than your boss? Are you just asking for trouble?

My answer is that it probably depends on the boss. Some care, some don't, and the only way to know the difference is to see how it goes. (If it doesn't fly, you'll know soon enough!)

For instance, I once had a female boss with a serious emotional hang-up about women who were younger and better dressed than she. And she didn't just resent us or say belittling things, she actually paid us less! It was seriously messed up, yo, and might I add, probably illegal. (Don't feel too bad for us. In retaliation, we penned a well-circulated anonymous blog on her "Rodeo Clown Chic" fashion sensibility. Trust me, we got the last laugh.)

Granted not all bosses would behave this way, but the experience left me convinced that dressing down in the workplace was good for self-preservation.

What do you think?

Earlier this week, Hilary Alexander wrote a piece entitled, "What? You're going out in that!" which takes a serious look at the what people should not wear to the company office party. Since many of us will soon be facing the miserable but compulsory event known as the holiday party, I thought I'd mention some of her helpful ground rules.

Don't do the following:

• Wear a new pair of high heels –blisters are not a good look, nor are bare feet on filthy pavements
• Show too much cleavage – leave that to the celebrities with a line of bras and knickers to push – and don't expose too much flesh either. Less is more when it comes to what you show your colleagues
• Wear anything see-through – everybody has camera-phones these days
• Try to out-dress the boss's wife; he might appreciate it, she won't
• Wear festive red – you don't want to compete with the decorations
• Squeeze into something that doesn't fit. Remember, you can't hold your tummy in all night
• Dress up like the Christmas fairy – leave that to the tree. So no tinsel, no Christmas tree earrings, no Santa hats or reindeer-horn headbands

These seem reasonable enough, don't they? The only thing that I would add to the list is "Don't drink too much!" No matter how smashing you looked, what everyone will remember is the table dancing and the shameless flirting with the guy from accounts receivable.

Are you trapped in a bland little cubicle eight hours a day? Chances are, you spend more waking hours at your desk than anywhere else. So why not make your work space as pleasant and personal as possible?

Cube Chic, a new book by interior designer Kelly Moore, has plans and instructions for making your cubicle into a stylish little room you'll be happy to spend time in. The author thinks of the cubicle as a blank canvas, and an opportunity to prove to yourself (and your boss) what you're capable of. Good news is that the book is only $16 so you'll have plenty of money left over for supplies.

Via: Uncrate

When I first heard about the British shoe retailer Office, I immediately envisioned frumpy, comfort pumps and stacked heel loafers. But thankfully my imagination was wrong. Office is much more Lulu Guinness on a dime than it is Naturalizer in the boardroom.

I'm particularly fond of the Antwerp Bow Point shoes in Cracked Gold. Because I'm a sucker for flats generally and metallic flats particularly, these seem like the kind of shoes I could wear with about half of the outfits in my closet already. The great thing about this site is that even though the prices are listed in British Pounds, the sale pages are linked to a currency converter, which can tell you exactly how much the shoes would be in American dollars. As I've explained before, turning pounds to dollars is a calculation that stumps me, so I appreciate the help.