Ha ha! Like I’d know!

It is very tricky to buy a Valentine’s Day gift for a guy. (Unless you don’t celebrate it, or think it’s a dumb holiday, in which case it’s not tricky at all.) I’m sure there ARE a FEW guys who enjoy getting flowers and chocolates and sentimental love notes. But in general I think a lot of us are stuck: it’s a holiday about sentimental/romantic love, and the established gifts are things that most guys are not keen on.

When we try to write them a hundred little love notes, or tell them what they mean to us, we’re giving them what WE’D want, not what THEY want—and that’s pretty much the opposite of romantic. (Many of us wouldn’t want the flowers or the chocolates or the hundred little love notes either, but that would be for another post.) I still remember the total failure of the Valentine’s Day symphony tickets I got for my high school boyfriend. “We get to dress up and go listen to romantic classical music with grown-ups!” He probably felt about that the way I would have felt if he’d gotten me a set of socket wrenches.

The goal, I think, is to find guy-romantic: not “Fine, let’s go make out in the car, then,” but something that actually shows some of the romantic spirit.
Read the rest of this entry

What I like about Valentine’s Day clothing is that a lot of it can be worn all year. Many little girl clothes have “Love” or hearts on them ANYWAY, whereas only Christmas outfits have Christmas trees.

Heart tights (image from OldNavy.com), sizes 0-6m - 4T/5T.

Read the rest of this entry

I don’t usually focus on one particular shop like this, but Lands’ End is where I happened to be browsing when I saw that there was a deal for $40 off purchases of $100 or more, plus free shipping over $50 (code ILOVELE with pin 3316, through tomorrow night). So I scrambled to make a list of the deals I found, in case you want to get them too. (Lands’ End didn’t ask me to do this, and they’re not giving me anything for it.) (Well, except the order I ordered, which I paid for with money so they will give it to me as per the usual store/customer relationship. But you know what I mean.)

Boys’ 5-pocket corduroy pants (photo from LandsEnd.com): $14.97 down from $29.50; sizes 8, 14, 16, and 16 slim; colors khaki and brown. This whole thing started as a quest for size 16 boy pants, and this is where I found some. Rob already has a pair of these and they look great, so I ordered a couple more pairs.

Read the rest of this entry

I think of October as long-sleeved-shirt weather, whether or not the weather cooperates, and so this is when I’m digging out boxes of handmedowns and sale set-asides, seeing what we have enough of and what we might need to buy.

Penguin Heart tee (photo from TheChildrensPlace.com). I bought this for Elizabeth this year. She loves penguins, she loves purple, she loves cuteness—it was pretty clear it was going home with us.

Long sleeve penguin graphic t-shirt (photo from LandsEnd.com). I think we might need this one as well. (She’d prefer it in the pale pink version, but I like the green even more.)
Read the rest of this entry

For the last year or so I’ve been wearing a men’s watch. I’d needed a watch, but hadn’t found any watches I liked; the men’s one was 75% off and it had three programmable timers, which is perfect for making sure I don’t forget my choice of three important daily schedule things. I bought it as something to fill the “Until I Find My Perfect Watch” gap, but then I kept wearing it and stopped looking for another one.

I’d imagined that this large men’s watch made my wrist look small and delicate in comparison. Then I saw a picture of myself wearing it, and realized that instead I look like a woman wearing a bulky and kind of ugly men’s watch. The quest is BACK ON.

Geneva Platinum Polished Swirl Cuff Watch (photo from Target.com), $19.99. This claims to be platinum, so I assumed that meant it looks silver, so I thought the picture must be a little off—until I found the one that really does look like silver, so I assume this one is more gold-like (which I’d prefer, as long as it’s light/realistic rather than the more usual hard bright brassy fake-gold color). I’m not sure if this style would bug me or not: I’m accustomed to a strap-style instead of a bracelet-style. And it’s only available online, so I can’t go try it on.

Women’s Croton Gold Bracelet Watch With Flower Dial and Tiger Eye (photo from Target.com), $79.99. This one is my style (I like gold, I like brown, I like flowers), but it’s more than I want to spend, and it looks completely decorative: no timers to alert me that oops, a child is still eating breakfast and the bus is coming in 2 minutes.
Read the rest of this entry

My nephew was born yesterday, which puts me in the mood to discuss baby stuff. I was mooning over baby clothes and noticed that all the cute HATS are coming in.

Raccoon hat (photo from TheChildrensPlace.com), $7.95. When it came down to the final decision I’d almost certainly get the bear, but it’s nice to have a novel choice!

Owl hat (photo from TheChildrensPlace.com), $8.95. This time I’d choose the owl over the bear.
Read the rest of this entry

William, Robert, and Elizabeth have all been invited to a birthday party this weekend, so I need to come up with three presents for a 10-year-old girl. I could use a hand, if you have a minute—and then we’ll have this later as a reference for the next time we need it!

She likes cats, and she likes anything cute or fuzzy. She likes Phineas & Ferb, and SpongeBob Squarepants. She likes crafts. She plays soccer. She’s William’s age and grade and is mostly William’s friend, but she plays with everyone when she’s here.

Normally I aim for about $10 for a party gift (in this case, from each of the three children), but I’d be willing to go a little higher.

First candidate: Aurora Plush Fluffee Fluffy Tails (photo from Amazon.com), about $9.00. Most households already have more stuffed animals than they can handle—and yet, the sight of this cat reduced our household to “OHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!”s of cuteness.
Read the rest of this entry

One reason I love “saved items” area of online shopping carts is that it takes me a long time to decide to spring for something. Well, or else it doesn’t, like when someone mentions something and I have it on its way within 2 minutes. But MOSTLY I have to think for awhile. Here are the things I’m currently thinking about:

I am on a bit of a break with Postcrossing, but I suspect I’ll be going back to it. I already have way more postcards than I can possibly send—but Pantone color-chip postcards (photo from Amazon.com) are making me very tempted.

Read the rest of this entry

My mother needs to choose a gift for a 15-year-old girl who likes lip gloss, jewelry, her pet beagle, and Harry Potter. My mom is not fond of choosing gifts and I am, so I’m helping. And I’m posting, because if I’m doing the legwork anyway, it might be something you can use if you have a similar mission and would like to save the research time for something else.

Harry Potter Charm Bracelet by Islandgirlzjewelry on Etsy. I like the way it’s pretty and colorful even when you’re too far away to tell that it’s Harry-Potter-themed.
Read the rest of this entry

Easter dresses make me happy to have a daughter. (Easter sweater vests over short-sleeved t-shirts make me happy to have sons.)

Floral Ribbon Dress (photo from TheChildrensPlace.com), sizes 4-14 (similar dress in 6m-4T). The Children’s Place always has nice “coordinated sibling dresses”—although if I had two girls, I think I’d want to use the opportunity to choose TWO of my favorite dresses instead of just one.

Tulle-Layered Dress (photo from OldNavy.com), sizes 6m-5T. I was surprised at how few DRESSY-dresses Old Navy had.
Read the rest of this entry