Sue's World

Having Fun in Ventura

One of my dearest friends had the week after Labor Day off.  We agreed to drive out to Ventura for a day to visit the thrift shops.  What?  How is it possible that I've never done this before? 

As I joked with hubby later, it was a good thing no one was tracking us via GPS, because it would have been suspicious that our first stop was at a motel in Ventura.  Yes, a motel.  At 10am.  It turns out she had stayed there within the last month and that they had a parking lot full of furniture to get rid of after a recent remodel.  She spied the piece that her daughter desperately wanted to get, but the piece that had supposedly been sold already.  I saw nice desk chairs and we went inside to inquire.  She got the piece of furniture that has all of the room numbers with room for the keys and such.  I got a nice wood chair for $15.  Bargain!  Next up was a quick stop at a bakery.  So far I'm into the trip for a whopping $16!

We went to a touristy shell store and I happily grabbed a few small starfish and sand dollars for the guest room decor.  Soon we were strolling in and out of the numerous shops.  I was surprised at how many true thrift shops there were.  They were clean and jam-packed full of inexpensive treasures and clothes.  We bought hardly anything but agreed it was well-worth it and we'd have to come back.  After grabbing a quick lunch we headed home. 

On the way home, we stopped at Cactus Mart in Fillmore.  I've seen it from the road for years but never had an interested in stopping until recently.  My friend collects succulents.  She has a lot of them and they are incredible.  I know Cactus Mart sold them and we happily strolled through the place, picking out extremely inexpensive and interesting succulents.  I bought 10 of them and parted with a mere $20. 

It was nice to spend the day out and about and fun to recount our bargains.  Looks like I will be starting a succulent garden too!

 

Delayed Gratification

As part of my overall plan to drop some pounds and add more healthy activities back into my life, I have been doing a bit of shopping and buying a couple of special things in a too-small size.  It's a gamble, but the things I've purchased are outfits I REALLY want to wear.  I'm even going to do some sewing this summer.  What a weird thing it is to buy something knowing I can't even wear it right now.  Hmmmm....

Visiting the Underworld of Infomercials

For reasons still unknown to me, I was up past midnight this last weekend glued to the TV watching the infomercial for the Swivel Sweeper.  Oh my gosh!  I need one.  I walked away from the TV before the price was shown and thought about how much I'd pay for one.  $40 is the number I came up with.  For $40 it would be worth it.  After more fantastic demonstrations showing the SS pick up all sorts of stuff (that I would never need it to pick up), the price finally showed.  Two easy payments of $19.99 plus shipping and handling.  WOW!  That's $39.98, in line with what I had in mind. 

But wait; there's more!  You get two SS for the price of one.  All you have to do is pay shipping and handling on the second.  At 12:15am, I went to bed.

Now it's Tuesday morning.  I waited three days before I went online.  www.swivelsweeper.com.  So I get two SS for a total of $39.98.  But wait.  Shipping and handling on each item is $14.99, so the first one costs $54.97 ($39.98 plus $14.98) and the second one is $14.99.  So suddenly my $40 SS is now $69.96.  Sure, I get two, but....

I am pretty sure it's not legal to make a profit on the shipping; I remember that from a previous job working for a mail order company.  But I think you can charge whatever you want for handling as long as you can reasonably justify it.  Either way, I'm turned off and won't be ordering.

I want that 1/2 hour of my life back!

The End To A FABULOUS Vacation

As some know, I took a break from my job in between positions.  It was a much-needed rest and I used every hour of vacation and the remaining personal day for the year I had (6 days).  Adding the weekends that came to 10 days off.

How do I summarize my time off?  Hmmm....I am happily tired beyond belief.  Seriously, I was ready to go to bed at about 6pm tonight.  I cleaned, I sewed, I gardened, I shopped, I read, I relaxed, I slept in (as late as 7:30!), I vacationed over the first weekend with my hubby up in Santa Barbara wine country, I tried new recipes, I sewed some more, I did craft projects, I made some cool things with clay, I planned Christmas gift, I decorated, and so much more.

As with any vacation, I enjoy it to the full extent, but as soon as I prepare for the return home, I mentally start to check back into my other life, my work life.  So I am ready to go to work tomorrow and take on a new challenge (New position!  New bosses - 2! New Hours - 32! Same company!).  If I'd have had another week to be home, I would happily have continued with my projects, but I uncharacteristically put everything away and am ready for work.

That said, I have a special drawer for in-progress projects.  They will get worked on, at the very latest, next Friday.  This week marks the start of my new 32-hour work week (and associated pay cut, my standard disclaimer).  I have Fridays off.  I'll talk more about them later in the week because I have plans for those days.

Back to the vacation.  I didn't finish decorating the "vacation" guest room, but I have picked out a dresser and bookcase.  If hubby approves, they will be purchased soon.  On a fluke, my brother is taking all of the old furniture.  It's still decent but I've had it for 25 years and the room isn't the same style.  For the room I made a couple of wooden signs, made some ceramic fish (can't wait to get them fired!!!!) and put together a couple of candle holders complete with sand and shells.  Oh yea, I also make a cool collage by taking a beach-y frame and putting a piece of sandpaper as the background for a bunch of shells (all but one were collected by me in 1998 on a business trip to Florida).  Guess what the sandpaper looks like?  Please tell me you guessed correctly.  I have bedding, a bed, and other accessories to start the room off right.

Some will be surprised how little gardening I did.  I do that regularly; I wanted this time to be about things I never take time to do.  I still trimmed up the side yard (including the trees) and tidied up the front.  I planted Fall flowers in the flower bed up front:  salvia, marigolds, and mums.  I have one 2' sunflower plant which I moved into the middle.  It looks cute.  With this weekend's rain, planting Fall bulbs is probably in my plans this next weekend.  Sweet peas are already about 3" high from my recent planting.

I won't talk about sewing much or crafts.  Let's just say some people might get hand-made Christmas gifts.  And speaking of Christmas, last year I promised my mom a medieval dress.  We selected the pattern, fabric and trimmings this past week and I'll start sewing that soon.  It's going to be a super-cool dress!

I went through months' worth of old magazines to cut things out to file and store.  I got ideas for projects and meals.  I also spent time on culling through recipes and trying a couple out.  An herb-crusted salmon dish was a disaster (the crust overpowered the fish, and the fish was overdone) as was a cucumber salad that I almost gagged on.  Both of those recipes hit the trash can.  But today's Spicy Beef Stew (a la Paul Prudhomme) was a gem.  Easy-to-make and extremely delicious with a nice spicy kick.  To boot, I made it for lunch so there was no cooking dinner tonight. 

The house is clean (upstairs could use a touch up this week), clothes are washed, dishes are put away, and I'm a happy domestic camper.  I planned the meals for the week and bought the groceries and did some prep work (Tequila Lime Chicken is marinating!). 

This break was everything it should be and more.  The icing on the cake was a call from Joan.  She's still hoping to plan a visit this Fall.  That would be awesome!

So now it's a question of sustainability and making a few other changes.  I have to get back to the gym...let's leave it at that.  I need to make time for the things I enjoy doing.  I needn't list them; I already did!  The one thing I would have liked to do is socialize; meet some people for lunch.  But that's what I can do Fridays going forward, right?

Okay...8:40...sleepy...remember to put the sheets on the bed before you've passed the point of no return...coffee is set-up and ready to brew tomorrow...car has gas in it...leftovers are ready to be taken to work...I'm good to go!

Shopping Online: Mini-Blinds and Shades

I can’t write about my online shopping adventures without mentioning www.justblinds.com. It sounds crazy to buy blinds online.  But I have to pitch this place.  I have purchased blinds from this store for two homes and two offices. 

I don’t even remember how I came across this place.  And to be honest, I don’t even remember right now where they are.  But they’re fantastic. 

Why I love them in a nutshell:

• Site is easy to use
• Find the product you want and they’ll send you free samples.  You can get as many as 10 at one time.
• Price is very, very good
• Shipping is free unless you have gigantic blinds
• Blinds are custom-made to your specifications (measure wrong and you’re in trouble!)
• Blinds are produced and shipped quickly
• You get everything you need (except tools) to install your blinds.

Here’s what I’ve ordered:

Wood blinds for a giant living room window (3 panels on one header so the three sections operate individually)

Wood blinds for a giant slider

Wood blinds for two office windows

Wood blinds for three office windows

Mini blinds for three rooms (five blinds)

I haven’t paid a dime for shipping (I had one blind produced 1/8” of an inch more narrow than I needed to avoid paying shipping!), all were better than expected, and I purchased over a span of a couple of years.

The very best experience?  I painted a room a really odd chocolate mousse color.  I ordered samples of a few mini blind colors and unbelievably one matched EXACTLY!!!

If you’re scared about making such a precise purchase online, write to them with your question or call them.  They’re very friendly and helpful.

One hint about ordering online:  there’s a spot on the order form for writing text.  I use this field to identify the room/window the blind is for (e.g. “east facing bedroom window”).  The packing slip contains this information so the pieces are easy to identify.

One last hint:  measure a couple of times.  And measure each window in a couple of places.  Think your windows are perfect squares or rectangles?  Dream on!

Shopping Online: For The Record

I love shopping online.  All of the experiences I write about are real and you can tell which are my favorite online stores.  These are based on my personal opinion and I don’t expect everyone will always have the same experience as I do.  As with any other shopping, it’s “Buyer Beware”.

That said, I can’t help but write about my best experiences.  They reference companies that I think do a great job. 

Shopping Online: The Bad Stuff

Shopping Cart?  Poof!

One of the most frustrating experiences I’ve had shopping online is loading my (virtual) cart and then accidentally closing my browser (closing the window with the online store thingie on it…).  When I go back to the site, everything I had in my cart was gone.  Some sites, like JC Penney’s, allow you to save a cart.  It emails the information to you and you can resume shopping again.  Otherwise:  1) Don’t close your browser, or 2) When you have a full cart, print the page with your cart.  If you subsequently lose the cart, at least you have a print out of what you had in it.  You can also hit the “Print Scrn” button and paste the image into a document.

Out Of Stock Stuff

I hate shopping on a site, getting all excited about stuff, and then finding the stuff I want is out of site.  The smart sites (like Overstock), really don’t show you stuff that’s not in stock.  If you’ve bookmarked an item that’s out of stock, at least the product page tells you that it’s out of stock.  Sites like that have real-time (or near real-time) inventory tracking. JC Penney and Chadwick’s are examples of sites that have a horrible way to handle out of stock stuff.  They show you the item and show you all of the options, but when you try to add something to your cart, it tells you that the item is out of stock.  That is, if you’re lucky.  I recently had an experience with JCP where there was no message but the item never went into the cart.  Grrr!

Shipping Charges

If I’m shopping a site for the first time, one of the first things I do is look for a link that tells me what the shipping charges are going to be.  I’d rather know up front so I can make a decision about whether or not to start a shopping trip.

Missing Images

Ever see a box with an “X” in it where the picture of the item is supposed to be?  Grrr…how can I buy something when I don’t know what it looks like. 

Registration

Registering on a site can be both a blessing and a curse.  Sites that require you to register usually have the benefit of online order tracking.  You can check back and, in some cases, actually track where you’re package is.  That’s cool!  And it’s nice to be able to go back into old orders to see what you purchased.  The downside is that sometimes you miss the fine print and opt-in (blindly sign up) for mailing lists and so forth and then proceed to be inundated with mail you don’t want. 

Lousy Searching

Some companies are really lousy at keywording their products and it just about takes a magic map and a torch to find what you’re looking for.  What I really hate is when I find something by happy accident and can’t find my way back again after that!  The solution?  Bookmark the pages of stuff you know you want to get back to.  (When I bought my china buffet, I bookmarked the page so I could easily find out when it was back in stock.)

The Scammers

The internet has its fair share of creeps and thieves.  I recently got an email from eBay telling me my account was being suspended and I needed to provide information.  I’m more savvy than the average internet user (I spend a lot of time on the internet and have worked for dot coms for the past six years) and was a wee bit suspicious.  I went onto eBay and found a link that discussed the very subject.  I forwarded the email to eBay and it was confirmed that a creep had sent it out in hopes of getting my personal information (including username and password).  The email looked very official with the eBay logo and all.  But the kicker was the return email address.  It had eBay in it, but with a bunch of other stuff.  And the email, though sent directly to my email address, had the text “Dear eBay User” instead of my name.  Be wary and be careful. 

The Returns

This is true of all mail order, but the bad thing about having to return something online is paying for return shipping charges that aren’t reimbursable.  I was charged $2.95 to have my Overstock china buffet shipped to me.  It weighed something like 75 lbs.  I can’t even imagine what it would have cost to return it.  The good news is that if you buy from places like JCP, you can actually return online purchases to the local store so you pay nothing to return it.

Shopping Online: Your Favorite Stores At The Mall

A lot of retailers have websites.  Many of my favorite brick-and-mortar stores have websites that help me out a lot.  (Brick-and-mortar is another way of referring to stores that have a physical location, the old fashioned way to shop.)

I have come to the point in my life where aimlessly wandering around the mall is something to be dreaded nearly as much as my semi-annual trip to the dentist.  First of all, the stores I frequent are spread out over several shopping areas.  Second of all, I get easily frustrated when I don’t find what I want/need.

Here’s a recent example of how a brick-and-mortar store’s website helped me out.  JC Penney ran an ad for some pants.  I went to the store and tried on a couple of pairs.  I purchased two.  I would have like to purchase them in two other colors but the store didn’t carry my size.  Rather than rush all around to find the pants at other stores, I went online.

I searched the product name (if you know the product number, you can use that too).  I found that shopping online I could purchase the pants in the color/size I wanted and that the pants were also on sale.  The downside?  I had to pay $10 for shipping.  But it saved time and gas and possible disappointment in not finding what I wanted at another store.  It was well-worth it.

I also find that stores like Target (www.target.com) carry things online that they don’t carry in their store.  That’s a real plus.  Just browse around the categories and you’ll find a huge selection of stuff.  You can tell when an item is available exclusively online because the product page tells you so.

One convenient feature of shopping online with a favorite local retailer is that you can often return unwanted items to the store so you don’t have to pay return shipping costs.  I’ve purchased online from Kohls a few times (I paid nothing for shipping with a $75 order) and have had really good experiences.  Sort of like my experience with Penney’s, I’d fallen in love with a pair of shoes at Kohls (that were on sale) but they didn’t have them in my size.  I got them online at the sale price.  And didn’t waste time running around.

The last big plus is the convenience of browsing online and then going into the store just to get what I found online.  I can shop during my lunch hour at work or in the wee hours of the morning when no store is open. 

Other places I like to shop (I’ve never made an online purchase from any, but did plenty of research and purchased things subsequently in the store based on what I found online.)

www.lnt.com (Linens ‘N Things)

www.bedbathandbeyond.com

www.homegoods.com

www.costplus.com

www.pierone.com 

www.walmart.com

www.joann.com

www.yankeecandle.com  (you’d be surprised how many people are selling Yankee Candle stuff on eBay!)

Shopping Online: Keywords

When you’re shopping online, it’s important to use the right words when you search.  (This is true of anything you do online, including research).  The trick is to find the right combination of words to get you exactly what you want.  I actually keep a few lists of keywords that I use when I search for artwork, for example.

Use too few words and you get a bunch of garbage.  Use too many words and you get nearly nothing.  But it doesn’t take long to get things just right.  (And yea, I do this at my job so I know a thing or two!)  Search for something vague like “shopping” and you’ll be inundated with a bunch of useless junk.  Search for something too specific (“size 0 jeans gap store”) and you either get nothing, or stuff that’s not useful. 

The latter is a result of some search logic that lots of search engines use.  If they can’t find anything with all of the keywords, they give you results that contain any of the keywords.  So for my example, you might see results that only contained “size” or “0”.  Garbage!!!

Some online businesses are better than others at proper keywording.  eBay is actually one of my favorite examples of a good search experience.  Most sellers really know how to keyword items so that buyers find them with a variety of terms.  Use common words where possible.  It’s smarter to search for “car” than “automobile” in most cases (though smart companies will use both words just in case).

I like looking for seasonal art.  I look for “snow art’, “snow print”, “snow painting”, “winter painting”, “winter art” and so forth.  I don’t search for “paintings with snowflakes” or “art with kids wearing mittens”.  You’d be surprised as the convoluted way people search for things.

Some search engines or websites also don’t account for people spelling things incorrectly.  Some do.  You really learn by trying and adjusting your search behavior based on the results you get. 

Now if you’re not shopping online, and need something locally, add geography terms to your search:  “shoe store los angeles” or even “shoe store 90069”.  Some search engines might recognize “shoe store la” as meaning the same thing as “shoe store los angeles”, but it’s smarter to spell it out or use the zip code. 

Shopping Online: eBay Nirvana

A lot of people complain that you really can’t get good deals on eBay anymore.  Bah!  Bargains aside (there are plenty), you can find things on eBay that you just can find elsewhere easily.  What makes eBay great, in part, is the gigantic user community.  The fact that buyers and sellers rate each other lends credibility to purchases.  And with a few tips and tricks you’ll be well on your way to being an eBay junkie.

There are essentially two ways to purchase on eBay:  auctions and “Buy It Now”.  An auction has a set start date and end date.  And the buyer submits bids on the item.  A big trap for some with auctions is that one’s competitive nature may kick in hard enough to force one to pay more for an item than one should.  I can safely say that’s not happened to me.  I’m a good shopper; I generally know what something’s worth, though I admit I will pay a good price for something that’s unique that I can’t find elsewhere.  But I have my limits and I stick to them.  Some sellers offer “Buy It Now” and it’s just as it sounds.  There’s no bidding.  The BIN price is what you pay (plus shipping). 

I always check out shipping charges on an auction.  In some auctions there’s a shipping calculator.  You punch in your zip code and you see the shipping options and charges.  I generally dislike auctions that leave shipping charges as an unknown.  If I really like an item, I will email the seller with my zip code and ask about the shipping. 

Keep in mind that some things weigh a ton and shipping them is out of the question.  If someone is selling a dinette, for example, they may state in the auction that the item is for local pick up only.  READ THE ENTIRE AUCTION INFORMATION BEFORE YOU BID!

I always read the seller’s feedback before I bid on something.  The number in parenthesis after their screename is the number of individuals who have provided feedback.  If you click on that number you can read what people are saying about them.  You can the judge whether the seller seems trustworthy or not.  Remember you’re still purchasing from an individual or company, not from eBay.  And it’s definitely buyer beware.

I will submit questions to the seller on occasion when I really want to know something.  For example, I wanted to purchase some mats for some artwork.  One was listed as being 16x20 with an 11x14 opening.  But since I knew they cut their own mats, I felt fine asking if they’d cut a custom opening.  They were more than happy to at no extra charge and I have wonderful (and incredibly inexpensive) mats as a result.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I did sign up for Paypal which makes purchasing very easy.  Basically Paypal works with eBay.  You open up a Paypal account and provide a credit card or debit card number.  And then when you go to pay an eBay seller you can use your Paypal account.  (Read seller’s accepted methods of payment first to make sure they take Paypal).  That way you’re not giving your credit card number to a seller but they get the money instantly and ship your stuff fast.

I always leave feedback for a seller after I receive the item.  And then they usually will do the same.  If something is wrong with your shipment, contact the seller first.  People get bad reputations for leaving negative feedback for stupid things.  The eBay community really regulates itself and takes care of crummy people.

I’ve made over 50 purchases with eBay, from artwork to fabric to a hockey puck from the town in

Switzerland

where my dad was born.  It’s a great way to find interesting things at reasonable prices.  In some cases, I found stuff I’d never be able to find in a store.  Not everything is cheap, so know what something is worth…TO YOU!