shopping

Great Places to Shop When You Don’t Want to Wear Pants

April 17, 2017 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Shopping online fills my introverted heart with so much satisfaction. I don’t have to drive, nor remember where I parked my car in a sea of blacktop and steel. Best of all, I don’t have to wear pants. It’s a win-win situation. Where can you shop online to find unique gifts that your family and friends will rave about? Here are some of my favorite shops where I can satisfy the most discerning soul and do it without ever leaving the house and sans pants.

Sugarfina is a gourmet candy boutique for grown-ups. I was recently gifted with quite a few boxes of their Champagne gummy bears that are made with Dom Pérignon Vintage Champagne and now send boxes “just because.” There’s also no scary pop from the cork. (I obviously have issues.) These unique, delicious sweets are the best of the best and are perfect for the pickiest palates.

Carrying on the sweet theme, Sucre Shop is another online shopping favorite. I like to have friends over for nibbles on occasion and my next gathering is going to be a pie tasting so I just ordered their Pie Set. After all, there is always room for pie.

Shopping for your favorite globe trotter doesn’t have to be difficult with Flight 001. They’re my go-to when I’m trip planning and want to pick up just the right thing. We live for the Spacepak space saving packers. I can fit more than a weeks worth of clothes into my carry-on using these packable cubes.

A post shared by Flight 001 (@flight001) on Mar 16, 2017 at 9:18pm PDT

I’m pretty sure that everyone I know needs a medieval cheese board from Kikkerland. Trust me when I say there is nothing more satisfying than cutting a big hunk of extra sharp cheddar with a double sided battle ax. Nothing.

I love Brutalist architecture and am pretty sure my friends should love it as well. There’s nothing better than sending them a set of charcoals and a Brutalist coloring book from DesignBoom. This first edition is limited to 500 copies, so get ready, set and click!

I visit Ban.do daily for a little virtual window shopping. Their products are so much fun, and the colors are make my heart sing. Thanks to their great taste, I’m the neighbor with the BEST pool floats.

A post shared by ban.do (@shopbando) on Mar 27, 2017 at 4:47pm PDT

Thank you for shopping with us — Email Marketing Gone Wrong

July 13, 2014 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Retailers are doing a great job of making sure we don’t lose our receipts and bulking up their email marketing lists by offering to send us our receipts electronically. For the most part, I love this format as I’m self-employed and I don’t have five billion pieces of loose paper all over my desk. My email hates me.

Currently, I have oh — never mind. I’m not going to shame myself by telling you how many emails I have sitting in my inbox. It’s enough to make you go fetal and suck your thumb. I could take a week off and still not be caught up on email. One day, I’ll have the funds to hire a personal assistant to help me clean it all up. I really think that’s what all bloggers want for Christmas — someone to handle the admin.

I digress. As someone who is a little (a lot) friendly to the environment, I don’t shop very often, nor do I like having so much paper floating around. Electronic receipts are great. I add them to my spreadsheet and BOOM! have everything filed away in case I ever need them.

What’s the catch?

My coffee grinder finally gave up the ghost on Friday after 13 faithful years. (I know — that’s just coincidental, I hope.) My husband informed me of this bad news and after deciding he wasn’t going to be a cave man and use my mortar and pestle to pulverize the beans into something brewable, informed me we were heading to our local store where you buy gadgety kitchen things. As the clerk rang up our purchase, she asked if we’d like to have our receipt emailed to the email address she had on file.

This is where I get twitchy with email marketing.

I promptly received the email before picking up the bag to head out the door. Then I received another one later that day thanking me for my purchase. Yesterday I received another thank-you email. Today I have received two emails saying “thank-you” and did you hear about our sales?

Have you ever seen Elaine do the dance in Seinfeld? That’s what all of those emails do me. While she’s experiencing some form of deranged ecstasy, I’m cringing and convulsing, shouting nonsensical things in this world of overwhelming e-paper.

If, perchance, you’re reading this email in San Francisco and work for this store where I have to stop myself from doing the Meg Ryan “When Harry Met Sally” Big O in the diner scene every time I walk through the door, read an email, or receive a catalog, please rethink your email marketing practices. I don’t want to unsubscribe, because your email and catalogs are my pronography (Gratuitous intentional misspelling for the filters.)

Christmas Week Madness

December 21, 2009 by Lisa Leave a Comment

It’s Christmas week and I am thinking about changing my name to “Serenity” as in “Serenity Now!” from Seinfeld. Why would a woman do such a thing?

Well, let’s see.

1. I just found out the email newsletter I have been doing hasn’t been received…by anyone. That is six weeks worth of work. I won’t name companies, but am looking for a new one to handle that end.

2. Christmas baking has yet to commence and I only have oh, 7 different kinds of cookies to bake.

3. Christmas shopping. Done? Who am I kidding, only myself if I were to believe it to be true.

4. Clean house? Umm…nope. It’s clean, but there is stuff to put away, laundry to be done, floors to sweep and God knows what else.

5. Wi-fi? I have none. I am working on that problem as soon as this blog is taken care of. No wi-fi means very cranky tween not having computer access while Mommy works on this blog post from her new desktop.

6. Christmas plans finalized? Nope. Not at all. Still have no idea when my Dad’s side of the family is getting together. Since our relationship is strained at best, they could have already gotten together and “forgotten” to tell me about it. I’m sad, but it happens in the best of families.

So, that is the Merry Madness that is in my home today. However, I am completely ok with it.

You know why?

Because it’s Christmas and it wouldn’t be Christmas without a little madness, now would it?

Posted via email from dailypinch’s posterous

‘Tis the Season….For Insanity

November 8, 2009 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I love Christmas. Let it be known now. I do. The lights, the smells, the mad rush to get it all together and spend a couple of terse hours with loved ones wondering if they are going to love your presents as much as you hoped and dreamed only to crush said dreams with a half smile that is obviously fake.

Why I am referencing “insanity” in the title of this blog post? There are several reasons. Probably more than several. Christmas is so commercialized these days. We barely celebrate Independence Day and if you are in the right store, you will find goodies put out to spread holiday cheer. What a better way to say “I feel so accomplished” than starting your Christmas shopping in July?

I was in Target today and right beside aisles of Christmas decorations, there was a whole section of Halloween goodies on clearance. I never saw anything that said “Give Thanks” in reference to the Pilgrims who valiantly came to these shores in order to escape religious persecution and helped found this great land I call my country and home.

Have we forgotten Thanksgiving entirely?

I know that it hasn’t been, but I have wondered if it is just an afterthought. That time of year that signals the mad rush to finalize your Christmas purchases.

Sorry if I sound so cranky.But, what happened to enjoying the Season? Spending time with family? Not going to the mall when it opens on midnight on Black Friday to push and shove your way to a harried frenzy only to grab the latest and greatest toy? I just don’t do it. It’s not worth it.

So here I am, trying to get ideas for the upcoming holidays. I know I should be coming up with this stuff, because, well, it seems to be what people want. My husband gets incredulous at hearing this, blathers for a few minutes (or a few days – he could either filibuster a piece of legislation or he should’ve tried out as Raymond in “Rain Man”) about how all of this holiday promotion shows how our holidays have no soul left, and that since people in this country are horrible at math and science, we’ve lost all ability to reason.

But all of his rambling does very little in the grand scheme of things. Targets, Gaps, Home Depots, and the malls are still going to put out holiday displays even though Halloween merchandise is still on the shelves and given what my blog covers, I still have to cover these things. But it’s hard to find inspiration when all you want to see and do is this: