In My Bag

About a year ago I upgraded our bathroom to new towels and accessories. With the exception of the toothbrush holder and soap dispenser, everything came from Target’s Simply Shabby Chic product line.

One of the items I purchased was a twelve pack of Simply Shabby Chic shower curtain rings. They closed at the bottom to form a full circle of polished stainless steel, and were adorned with rows of large pink rhinestones. They were pretty and perfectly matched our pink flower themed shower curtain.

Fast forward to June of this year. The glue that holds the rhinestones onto the rings has begun to give way, because the rhinestones are starting to drop out. Currently, all twelve of our shower curtain rings are missing 1-3 rhinestones each. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. I never thought I would have to replace shower curtain rings so soon!

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ShopWiki.com can help you search for millions of products listed in different stores. I can tell you firsthand how frustrating it is to search the internet for a certain product and to get a price listing as well. Usually I use price listing/price comparison sites, but these are biased and it shows in their results — the listings always favor ad placements and paying advertisers.

Right now I’m looking for two things: strollers and Happy Heinys (cloth pocket diapers). I need a tandem stroller specifically, and Happy Heinys cloth pocket diapers for my son (have I told you how much cheaper cloth diapering is, and how adorable babies and toddlers look in cloth diapers and their covers?).

The listings at ShopWiki.com are nice. There’s a brief description of the product you are looking for, followed by results. In the event that you search for something that has subcategories (such as strollers; subcategories include tandem strollers, jogging strollers and carriage strollers), you’ll see pictures, names and descriptions that lead to the subcategory.

Individual product listings will include a photo, description, general price range, and a link to the stores that list that particular product. Above that link is a description that tells you how many stores carry the product.

Overall, I really like the setup and organization of ShopWiki.com, and I would definitely recommend them!

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I’d just like to take a moment to recommend L’oreal’s HIP eye shadow line. They have this awesome shade of steely aqua blue, and it ROCKS. It even goes with my blue eyes, and if there’s one thing I’ve been taught about eye color, it’s that you never want the same color for your eye shadow!

So, it’s September. And I am very, very happy about that. It means all the little twerps in the neighborhood are back in school, so there’s no incessant drumming of basketballs beginning at dawn, or the roar of the next door neighbor’s polaris rzr firing up right around nap time.

Peace and quiet at last. Of course, it won’t last for long, because before I know it the craze of holidays will begin — and Alyssa’s fourth birthday on October 27th will kick it off!

I can’t recommend the National Do Not Call Registry enough. It may take up to a month to get your phone number registered, but once it’s in, you’re good to go. At least once you’re hooked up with them you have the legal right to go after companies that call you without your express permission.

Speaking of which, I have two companies calling daily to offer me high risk life insurance and dish network service. But the pricks hang up before I can get to the phone to scream my head off at them read them the riot act. I’m going to have to manually call them myself on Tuesday to alert them to my registered status with the NDNC registry.

As much as I’m dreading it, my husband and I really need to rip apart our shed and put everything back together in an organized fashion. Since moving here a year and a half ago, we have simply been tossing things in the shed as we need storage for them, and not really being organized with how things are being put away. As it stands, a bunch of power tools and air tools are clogging up most of the shed, along with a bike, a few AC units, some yard tools, and a table and I think a few kitchen chairs. I’d really like to fix everything up.

So, I’m thinking utility shelves. A trip to Lowes is definitely in order. What do you think of these?

Last week I was asking on Twitter for a decent MP3 player that wasn’t such a resource sucking hog like iTunes. Klumsi recommended a Mozilla based program called Songbird. Songbird is built off the same platform as iTunes, but is optimized to be quicker, more efficient and kinder to a computer’s system resources.

I liked Songbird. Really, REALLY liked it. But there were three quirks that bugged me to the point that I sucked it up and made the switch back to iTunes:

• The playlist does not scroll to the currently playing song. If you want to view what’s currently playing within the playlist, besides looking at the media player section you’ll need to manually scroll to the exact line.
• Songbird by default does not minimize to the system tray. A plugin helps it to minimize, but then when it’s brought back up it’s beneath all other windows.
• Most music players will display what’s currently playing in the title bubble when you hover your mouse over the program name (when it’s minimized to taskbar or tray). Songbird does not do this.

Quirks aside, Songbird IS an excellent media player. Once it’s a bit more stable and ready for the mass public to enjoy, I will probably jump back to it.

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It’s back to school time, so that means it’s time to think about clothes shopping! I know, I know, back to school shopping is supposed to be about school items — backpacks, lunch boxes (well, if you’re in elementary school), binders, paper, pens, pencils, etc. But you and I both know that in reality, back to school shopping also includes a new hairstyle, new accessories and a new wardrobe.

If you’re like me and looking to save money, consider Heavenly Couture and their Discount Clothing. Everything on the site is $17.95 or less. And before you brush it off as just a bunch of cheap clothing, take a look for yourself at the nice selections that are offered.

Hoodies, sweaters, t-shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, even jackets and shoes… everything for less than $18! You see the photos; does that stuff look cheap to you?

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