12 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From Pearl Steak Knives to Beaded Grouses

This week’slineup of newly released products we’re particularly excited aboutincludes abedside air purifierfrom Canopy, someballerina pink luggage from Rimowa, and these rather attractive steak knives from Eric Wareheim’s collaboration with Made In. “Their handles are made from mother-of-pearl acetate, which gives them a classy look, and the blades are straight-edged to cut through meat without tearing,” says our senior kitchen and dining writer, Emma Wartzman.

Good news for toddler parents: There’sa new version of the Toniebox, the screen-free audio player we recommend for younger kids. Compared to the old version, this one lowers the recommended starting age to 12 months (instead of 3 years) and adds interactive games to the menu of what you can do with it. After testing it with her son, Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo says, “If you’re buying a Toniebox for the first time, I would absolutely get the Toniebox 2 for the new features — especially since it will still work with older Tonie figures.”

With a lid tall enough to fit a three-layer cake, the cake carrier used by Strategist contributor and cookbook author Casey Elsass fulfills its intended purpose and more: “I’ve used it to lock in a Bundt cake for travel, piled stacks of cookies to shepherd across the city — and I’m not embarrassed to admit I’ve packed up leftovers from a dinner party and used this as a gigantic to-go container,” he says. The trustycarrierhas gone to the beach loaded with sandwiches, and once, Elsass says, “we even turned it into a portable charcuterie board for a picnic.”

It’s right about now that Strategist contributor Kate Snyder’s “loafers, sweaters, leather boots, and summer-weight cotton all coexist in a glut of possibilities,” but this year, she’s adding something less expected into the mix:a well-tailored pair of pantaloons. After trying out pairs that were either comically voluminous, too pajama-y, or too sheer, she found a keeper in this snow-white cotton pair from theVermont Country Storethat’s “slightly cropped to an ideal length for layering, and complete with a darling self-tie ribbon detail at the hem.”

Given the slew ofgood-looking running shoesthat have hit the market recently, Strategist contributor and 17-time marathoner Ashley Mateo wanted to see which ones were actually built for races. While this pair from French running brand Satisfy “looks more like it belongs in a fashion editorial or skatepark than on your local track,” they felt soft, nimble, and stable during the six miles Mateo put them to the test on a rocky track. “It’s a shoe built for runners who want one do-it-all trail option — something that can cruise on a gravel road but still handle tougher terrain (like a streamlined Hoka Speedgoat),” she adds.

“One of my biggest fears in the world … is somebody walking into my house and then being like, ‘Oh, there’s an animal here,’” comedian Tefi Pessoa told us. But thanks to this high-tech litter box, she says, “When you walk into my house, it does not smell like cat or poop.” (And for what it’s worth, she thinks her cat is “perfect and gorgeous,” but she adds, “I’ve never seen a cat poop this big.)

After tracking his biometrics for the last 1,194 days,Dr. Brian Levine, the founding partner of the fertility clinicCCRM, knows he’s at his best when he gets “five and a half hours of sleep, an hour of exercise early in the day, carbohydrate-rich meals throughout the day and less carbs for dinner, and then three hours between eating and sleeping.” Sure, someBrooklinen sheetsandOlly sleep gummiesmake meeting his metrics a bit easier, but he says staying on top of it all comes down to this fitness tracker from WHOOP. “If it ever broke or got lost, I would replace it immediately. I feel lost without it,” he says.

When it comes toface wash, Strategist writer Tembe Denton-Hurst has a few nonnegotiables: “It can’t break me out, works even when the seasons change (my skin goes from normal to dry as it gets cold), and is fragrance-free and readily available.” Until recently, she called CeraVe’s Cream-to-Foam her Goldilocks cleanser, butPrequel’s moisturizing, non-stripping face washmade her realize she’d been drying out her skin and compensating with serums and creams. Six months later, she says, “I noticed my skin was generally happier. The little bumps underneath my skin were smoothed out and I didn’t have that tight, dry feeling anymore.”

With plenty of time to dig your holiday décor out of storage, there’s a newJohn Derian for Targetcollection on the shelves. This year, you’ll find some longtime favorites — including mushroom lamps, animals from nursery rhymes, and vintage Christmas-card–like prints — plus a reincarnation of the beaded turkey that always sells out, this time in the form of a beaded grouse (which are in the same family as pheasants and partridges, in case you were wondering).

Like many a Strategist staffer, newsletter editor Ashley Wolfgang has the (now mostly sold-out) J.Crew roll-neck onher Strategist Brain. While she found the women’s style to be too frumpy, and that the men’s, even the smallest size, made her “look like a child playing dress-up,” the children’s sweater in size XL turned out to be just right for her 4-foot-11 frame. “I liked it so much I have the other two colors, ivory and navy, on the way,” she writes.

Should you find yourself near the stove at, say, Locanda Verde or Bar Primi, you’d certainly see a little ceramic catchall full of this dried oregano. “It’s wild oregano that is air dried, and it usually comes from Sicily or Calabria or Basilicata,” restaurateurAndrew Carmellinitold us. “Sometimes, from my garden, we’ll dry our own oregano, and that’s fine and tastes good, but there’s something about the southern Italian variety that has this wonderful floral quality to it.”

“While the traditional Advent starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas, you won’t find many Advent calendars left by the end of November anymore,” says our writer Ambar Pardilla. And so, she rounded up all ofthis year’s best Advent calendars, including this one for “anglers of all ages” that’s filled with 24 different fishing lures, from minnow to crankbait to frog spoon.