Category: Shopping

1. Philosophy Tinted Moisturizer – I wear practically 0 makeup. It doesn't seem to work for my skin and it takes away precious minutes from the scant sleep I do get, so this and some lip-gloss are about it for me. It's very light, not greasy and sort of evens everything out. Also SPF 15 – very important.

2. My Bag – I have been loving on my Sherpani Lily bag for a long time now. It is very cute and it holds everything I need – a lot of stuff. I tote around all of the normal purse essentials (including water bottle) as well as my DS, work papers and sometimes my netbook. On the weekends and evenings I drop in a diaper and bottle and a few wipes for the kids. I also recently acquired a KEEN Twenty-six, which is about the same size (a bit bigger) and I am loving it too. I also have to give props to my two favorite weekender bags: Sherpani Meridian and LeSportsac Large Weekender

3. Heart Rate Monitor – I have the cute green FT40 from Polar and I love it. It tracks workout time, heart rate and calories burned and holds those workouts for review. You can download the data to your computer as well.

4. ING Direct – ING Direct allows you to open an unlimited number of accounts with them and transfer in $$ automatically. So we have about 8 different accounts, all ear-marked for different purposes (Christmas, kids' college, etc.) that we automatically add to on a monthly basis. It takes the discipline out of saving money.

5. Etsy – From jewelry to amazing artwork for our house to gifts for loved ones, I always love to turn to Etsy to find something fun and unique. It's also great to support independent artists … and I get packages in the mail!

6. Netbook – I am digging on my baby computer. It is light and nice to carry around the house and perfect for web surfing and looking at recipes in the kitchen. We also use it to Skype with family in Nashville and it is the perfect size for Tabby (though I notice ASUS now carries a Disney princess netbook). Also love it for on-the-go at the gym or (theoretically anyhow) a coffee shop.

7. Squeezebox – two (really?) Christmases ago, Matt and I gave each other a Logitech Squeezebox. It has been one of the best purchases we've ever made. It brings your MP3 collection from your computer to your stereo system. It also plays internet radio like Pandora. Super simple and works great.

8. Ceramic Planer – I bought this ceramic planer (a small hand-held scraping/planing tool) on a suggestion from some blog I read and I've always been glad I did. It's made of ceramic and is very gentle on surfaces (unlike a metal blade) and it will take up just about anything off the surfaces in our house without damaging them.

9. Nikon D200 – This sucker was pricey, but I have loved it. I hardly want to be bothered with a point-and-shoot. The best thing about it is its lighting fast response. I hardly ever miss a cute shot because of camera delay. I also love having a variety of lenses to play with.

10. Eat.Shop.Denver – I love this little guide of locally owned, off the-beaten-path shops and eateries. It is fun to try out new places and we've found some of our favorites in this cool little guide. Guides are also available for many major metropolitan areas (NYC, San Fran, DC, KC, Seattle, LA). And I will be picking up guides for my fave cities as I get back to traveling more.

11. I also love comments … so delurk! It's national delurking day, or so I'm told.

Not that raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and and such aren't great …

The Kelty Deuce Coup that we bought at a garage sale has, unfortunately, seen better days. It isn't a bad stroller, but it has one major flaw, namely that I must put my hands at shoulder height to use it. This makes running with it nearly impossible. At first I was blaming my lack of running experience for my inability to push the sucker more than a block, but after pushing my friend's BOB Revolution, I know this isn't the case. I could've pushed that guy all day.

Well maybe not ALL day. The sun was some kinda fierce. Anyhoo, so we're in the market for a stroller. Blah. I mostly hate the idea of the ginormous price tag associated with relatively decent jogging strollers. Then there was the two-vs-one thing. We only have one kid right now. We'd like to change that sometime in the future, not right now, but y'know … sometime in the future. But you look sort of ridiculous toting around a jogger meant for two with just one. I tried to put Loki in the other seat, but he took umbridge with the idea (go figure). Last but not least, I really hated the idea of a huuuge double-wide jogger that is so expensive, and yet I can't even take it anywhere else because it won't fit in my car and it won't fit through doors. That is the one thing I dislike about the BOB. It's large and in charge.

Enter Phil and Ted. They have some of the most unique joggers I've ever seen, mostly double-decker joggers! I saw one of these at the Zoo and I thought it was great. I chatted up the mom about it and she confirmed it was a hit for them. Reviews have also been excellent and it meets most if not all of our criteria. 1. Color (also comes in Camo pink that I adore, but Matt wouldn't be caught dead with), 2. adjustable handle for 5' nuthin me and 6' him, 3. room for two AND you can take off the back seat when just one is along for the ride, 4. pivoting front wheel, 5. narrow width, 6. good storage (though this is somewhat diminished when baby #2 is in the back) … very nearly perfect. But oy. That pricetag. I will be saving my pennies.

I just placed my first order with Diapers.com. A friend of mine had read about them in our local paper a few months ago. They have the most competitively priced diapers available. I was interested at the time, but Tabby was going through different sizes too fast to make it worth it to me, but now that she's pretty solidly a 3 and staying that way for a while yet, I decided to go ahead. I was getting a decent deal, paying around 35 cents per diaper at Babies R Us or Target. But the diapers I ordered at Diapers.com are 24 cents per diaper!!! Even the expensive enviroment friendly diapers from Seventh Generation were cheapers on here than the Target ones I was buying. Plus, free shipping on orders over $50 and 5% back in credits on orders over $75, and I hit that with two boxes. Anyway, if you're interested, you can use my referral code, JENIX378, and get $5 off your first order. Cuz, y'know, ever penny … blah blah blah.

Emma posted about what she wants for Christmas and the post was so excellent, I decided to steal the idea and tell you about my Christmas list.

* a few boxes of Celestial Seasonings English Toffee Tea … cuz I love the stuff, I'm almost out and I can't find any ANYWHERE
* a little snow, but not too much
* a charging station cuz my nightstand area is a big ol' mess (like this one)
* pretty much any of the jewelry that Sundance sells
* someone to figure out how to use voice-activated dialing on my phone and then show me, cuz I don't have any more time to rifle through the crappy crappy manual
* gift certificates to Ann Taylor Loft
* ditto Old Navy
* a few naps … is that so much to ask?
* our house on the market (with minimal effort from me)
* to figure out a great gift for Matt that he isn't expecting that doesn't cost like $800 … cuz he screwed up the one idea I had
* for the shopping to get finished and be wrapped while I'm like … sleeping or something
* a macro lens for my (our) camera
* a couple new (and cute) travel mugs cuz black & silver ones I have are boring me to death

Sometime a few months ago, the LCD cover on our camera broke off. It's not a vital part, but it's protective, so I wanted to replace it. Then when we were hiking in the river near Zapata falls, I lost the lens cap. We keep a UV filter over the lens for additional protection, so once again, not a huge deal, but I wanted to replace it.

I got online and found that the pieces themselves weren't that expensive, but that they weren't available from the same merchant, so I'd have to pay double shipping, bringing the total of two relatively cheap items well over $40. So I decided to pay a visit to Wolf Camera. Continue reading “Attention Customers: GO AWAY”