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Best Customizable Accessories

Ruggedapparel.com

This Longmont-based company makes highly durable, colorful bracelets, lanyards, key chains, pet collars, leashes and more out of high-grade, made-in-USA paracord, a nylon rope favored by the military. Not only outdoorsy-stylish, they double as survival tools: Each item can be unwoven into several feet of cord, for those occasions when you wish you had a lariat, sling or some emergency tie-down gear.

Best Day Spa for Your Buck

Havana Health Spa

The Havana Health Spa doesn't mess around: $18 gets you in all day and $45 gets you a thirty-minute body scrub that's not for the timid. The discreet, no-frills rejuvenation center in a strip mall has separate men's and women's hot tubs, cold tubs, saunas, steam baths, mud rooms and poolside vanity stations for all your primping needs. Enjoy a clarifying face mask or deep-tissue massage before finishing off your day of beauty with a quiet retreat in a room full of energizing crystals. Or get a protein fix from the hard-boiled eggs cooked fresh in the sauna while you wait. Nudity isn't required, but be prepared: This is an old-school day spa, and the nakedness is abundant.

Best Denver Public Library News

Increased hours

Passing those ballot measures really works! Rather than having to cut back — something we’ve become increasingly used to — the Denver Public Library was able to extend its hours in 2013 at most branch libraries, including guaranteed weekend and evening hours at several of them. In addition, the central library reinstated its Saturday-morning hours. The reason: the passage of Measure 2A, which increased revenue for DPL. Our libraries are a precious resource; this is the kind of open-door policy we can really get behind.

Best Dessert to Make Your Southern Grandmother Swoon

San Antonio Fresh Mexican Bakery and Juice Bar

The San Antonio Mexican bakery's shelves are heavy with panaderia offerings familiar to denizens of the western U.S.: fruit-filled empanadas, shell-shaped conchas and torta-worthy bolillos. But transplants from the American South will gravitate toward the homey pecan-paved tarts, miniature relatives of the familiar holiday pies lovingly baked by grandmothers from Atlanta to Austin. And these are tarts guaranteed to make any granny swoon: The aroma of brown sugar and sweet, toasted pecans is overwhelming from the moment you open the paper bag. In the right hands, the alchemy of butter, sugar and pecans makes for a magical dessert that translates to bliss in any language.

Best Dog Portraits

Robert Gratiot Fine Arts

Denver has a surprising number of talented pet sketchers, but the canine portrait work of Robert Gratiot, who teaches at the Art Students League of Denver and has exhibited widely, is in a class of its own. Working in oils from a photograph, Gratiot can produce a study of your best friend that, like his much-praised still lifes, manages to be both hyper-real and painterly — but never cutesy. Framed in oak, the results are doggone marvelous.

Best Eclectica

Jolly Goods

Nicole and Simon Woolsey-Neech, a young couple with modern tastes, have created a primer in homey hipster interior design out of this unassuming Tennyson Street storefront that's a little bit cozy cottage and a little bit retro space-age. Inside, you might find a child-sized diner-style table and chairs or a package of wooden chip clips hand-painted with pooch designs; jewelry ranges from recycled bike-chain bangles to bright enameled blossoms by Doozie. And for the beer aficionado in the house? How about one of HandySam's wall-hung bottle openers decorated with vintage beer cans that catch the falling caps? As HandySam Creations crows on its Etsy page, "No man room is complete without one."

Best Farmers' Market

Mo' Betta Green MarketPlace

More than anything, Mo' Betta's Beverly Grant and her greens-loving son, Reese, want to make fresh foods available in the food desert of Five Points. But they realize that it doesn't hurt to throw in a helping of fun and community spirit alongside the local produce bins and healthy-foods resource tables. Live music and DJs are standard at the twice-monthly market, as are cooking demos and free tastes. This year, in the interest of spreading food justice, Mo' Betta, which partners with the GrowHaus, will be adding a second location, on alternating weeks, in the hospital zone at 20th Avenue and Ogden Street. The Welton market opens on June 15 and the Ogden addition on June 22; both will continue through October.

Best Farmers' Market Vendor

Red Wagon Organic Farm

Midsummer: At the Red Wagon Organic Farm stand at the Boulder County Farmers' Market, someone is handing out slices of sweet melon, and several varieties of cucumber — smooth and warty, long or stubby as a big toe — are carefully arrayed on counters, along with bunches of slender, multi-colored carrots. Everything gleams under a gentle misting of water. You can try, but you won't find a blemish on any of the tomatoes or a speck of grit in a bunch of chard. You might think the zucchinis have been polished by hand, one by one, and here's the thing: They have. Wyatt Barnes and Amy Tisdale have been running this farm for nine years on thirty acres leased from the county, and they are both perfectionists. They select their produce, whether heirloom or mainstream, for taste, and sell it in pristine condition at the Boulder and Longmont markets and at their own farm stand. Their dedication to an organic and sustainable lifestyle extends to paying workers a fair wage and helping and supporting other growers — which means their CSA (details of which can be found on the website) includes pork, beef, mushrooms and fruit as well as their own vegetables.

Best Fashion Swap Shop

Birds & Belles Boutique

Kyla DeTienne has a good thing going at Birds & Belles. Her concept of buying and trading better used garments is a modern take on the resale model: Bring in your still-stylish, in-season, stain-free trade-ins for cash on the table, or take store credit — at a rate of 50 percent above the straight buyout price. It keeps the clothing moving in and out, making for new surprises every time you shop. DeTienne also supports local artists by carrying some new merchandise, including hand-painted bags and upcycled assemblage jewelry, further lending a funky vibe to the neighborhood boutique.

Best Fixie Fix

CoCo Bikes

CoCo Bikes was started by a few friends in a Denver garage in 2011 and has since become the go-to shop for customized fixies. CoCo builds its own line of frames bearing the company logo, but it also rebuilds and refurbishes older bikes, providing the best of both worlds for customers, especially when it comes to practicality and price.

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