I will have to admit this: I am not the best cook in the world…actually, I’m pretty much the worst cook in my family. In my defense, my family is made up of some pretty wonderful cooks so it’s not all too bad to be the bottom rank of the totem pole in that scenario! I am making an effort to become a better cook/chef/baker with some trial-and-error recipes and of course if I come across one that is easy to make and even easier to eat, I will definitely pass it along to you! There is one thing that I do know how to do and that is to find adorable things to use in the kitchen (even if I haven’t the slightest idea what to do with them). I have searched around on some of my favorite sites to bring you six items that are great to have around in your kitchen, but also adorable to look at! It may not be that important to a person who doesn’t think twice about the appearance of their vegetable peeler, but for a girl who lives a “mature but cute” life…these details do not go unnoticed.

1 I love the fact that the tea kettle is a brightly painted strawberry, but I also love the little banana on the lid knob at the end of the spout! This is definitely one of those tea kettles that you keep out on display even while it’s not in use so you can get tons of compliments on how cute it is! Of course, it is a Japanese design (pretty much all Japanese design is adorable) and it is an enamel tea kettle which has many benefits such as keeping your water hot longer, odor resistant, and can be used on all heat sources: gas, electric, etc. I definitely love the fact that it is an enamel kettle because they are durable; your tea kettle will be precious and tough all at the same time! You can find this item as well as some extremely adorable animal tea kettles at Wishingfish.

2 Yet another great item from the cute design styling of Japan is this Panda Bear Skillet, found at Fred Flare. This is another item that is fantastically adorable but is equally as durable, so you can trust that it will be cute and function properly for quite a long time. I think that probably the best thing about this skillet is that you can fail at making scrambled eggs, but still feel good about yourself when you see that little Panda face looking back at ya! The cuteness doesn’t stop at the skillet itself; the top of the glass lid has a little panda face on it, too!

3 If money wasn’t an object, I can safely say that the majority of my kitchen tools and gadgets would come from Anthropologie and I currently have my eye on this Fresh-Squeezed Juicer! This juicer comes in three different colors: mint, blue, and orange, with all of them being equally as adorable as the other. I think that this is a great idea to have on hand because you can not only directly squeeze the juice from the fruit into the pot via the juicer connected at the top, but you can also then turn around and serve your fresh-squeezed juice in a very pretty presentation. This is just one of the really delightful things available on their website, so you should take the time to look at everything and fall in love with the items one-by-one, just like I have!

4 Last year around Christmas, my boyfriend and I were shopping around and I spotted this unique bird vegetable peeler and to my surprise and delight, I opened it up on Christmas Day! This peeler is just one of the many precious gadgets brought to us by Boston Warehouse and their AnimalHouse kitchen line. They have supplied an animal shape for what seems like every possible kitchen gadget from a piranha pizza cutter to a swordfish bread knife and everything else in-between. Like all of the other items on my list, this veggie peeler is sturdy and multi-functional, as the beak is the peeler and the tip of the beak is a potato-eye remover. I can speak from experience by saying that mine is wonderful, durable, and dishwasher safe (wahoo)!

5 Speaking of eggs, here is the perfect tool to get you inspired to make the best damn eggs in the land! This stainless steel egg spatula is not only a great price, $5.95, but is also strong and of course cute (or else it wouldn’t be on my list!). You can find this spatula at Bibelot as well as a diverse collection of other unique kitchen gadgets at great prices. It was actually really difficult for me to just pick one item off of their website as there is just so much to choose from, but with my last reference to eggs and my constant battle to make the perfect sunny side-up egg, I just had to pick this spatula. I will more than likely ask for this for Christmas, so friends and family that read this…hint hint!

6 There is pretty much nothing else cuter than a cupcake with a cherry on top and if you turn that into a cookie jar, then you have this delectably sweet item found at Urban Outfitters. A cookie jar isn’t really something that you see too often on kitchen counters anymore, but I remember my mom having a really scary looking bear cookie jar that was always such a tease to our guests as they’d reach in with hopes of retrieving a cookie and end up hitting the bottom of the ceramic with their fingertips. If you do get this cookie jar, make sure that you fill it with cookies as not to disappoint your guests who see this adorable jar and already get a sweet tooth just by looking at it. I can think of so many people that would love to have this in their kitchen, and I’m sure you can too (even if that person is yourself)!

All of the websites that I listed for each item has a lot more cute stuff available; it was actually really hard for me to just pick one thing to showcase, so make sure that you check those websites out! I’m always looking for new things that are adorable, but functional; I think that it’s a waste of design if you have something really darling and it doesn’t even work well enough to use it. If you come across any more cutesy kitchen gadgets that meet the necessary balance of cute and functionality (not to mention reasonably priced), share the love and tell me what you’ve found!

Here’s to having cute kitchen gadgets that make you smile even when you’ve failed miserably at making scrambled eggs!

-M.