Shopping Frenzy

I’ve been a bit spendy lately and I need to nip this in the bud soon since we have a couple bigger-ticket items coming up including a cabinet-mounted microwave (my 10 year old second-hand microwave is finally getting senile in its old age), a guest bed (most likely futon) and *shudder* I need to replace the filling that fell out, uhm, last year. Yeah.

Now, the things I’ve been buying aren’t big and most are necessary (-ish). So here’s where I’ve been spending my ill-gotten gains lately:

Work provided me with a Netbook. This is a LIFESAVER. My 17″ Macbook Pro is fantastic but heavy. I almost never take it out of the building because of the wear on my shoulders and wrists from carrying it. Teeny notebook? Fits in my bag. FITS IN MY BAG. The tiny touchpad leaves something to be desired, however, so I finally got myself a wireless mouse. This little cutie in fact:

I was a little concerned about the smaller size but I adapted very quickly. Not only am I no longer fighting with the mouse cord, but it is much lighter and more sensitive- smaller movements are a plus. I may seriously ditch my wired mouse at home. I love that the USB stick can fit inside the secret compartment (shh!) and my only wish is that the switch to turn it on and off (to conserve battery power) was slightly larger.

I also ordered a Gelaskin for the Netbook. I love the one for my work laptop. While I don’t own the equipment, the Gelaskin helps protect them, makes them pretty, and helps differentiate mine from the other however-many there are in my office. I should totally get a commission- I know of at least three people who now have them thanks to my prompting. I also love that it’s supporting artists and getting their work out and recognized.

(I suspect that my art choices may tell my coworkers a bit much about me, but I love them so!)

I finally got an extra accessory pack for my phone. The extra wall charger and car charger (I don’t have one) were the big motivations. This is especially important for traveling.

I also found a necklace I really liked on a crafting site that I won’t mention here *coughetsycough*. Unfortunately, it was a bit expensive, especially once I factored in shipping. Then a light bulb went off- for the cost of a ball of crochet thread and a new hook I could make one myself. So I am. I spent a couple bucks on the pendant I wanted and saved myself over $20. I feel a little like I’m stealing an idea, but I’m making it for myself. I’m also pretty excited about getting back to crochet. I enjoyed it but haven’t felt any motivation to do anything with it for a while.  I should really work on that this weekend.

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Shopping Online

While the subject is only loosely tied to purpose of this blog, dammit, it’s my blog and I need to grouse!

The last few years I have done more and more shopping online for various reasons. There are pros and cons to this process, but the issue that really irks me the most is inadequate description and pictures. For example: my travel mug is on it’s last legs and I need to replace it. I have been keeping an eye out for a while now, and while I thought my criteria were simple I have had a hard time finding anything that meets them:

• Insulated
• Must have a handle
• Slide lock
• No branding (I’m funny like that)

The problem is that online description tend to be sparse at best, and one picture of the side of the mug tells me little. “A great gift!” tells me nothing about the actual functionality. And really, is it so strange to want to see the top of the cup so you know what the slide lock looks like? (I tried four times to say “if it’s going in my mouth I want to see if first” and couldn’t think of a way to express it without it sounding dirty, so there you go).

This is an ongoing frustration, and I’ve been known to send notes of praise to online retailers who provide good descriptions and adequate pictures. I won’t buy something if I don’t know what it looks like- it’s easier to look somewhere else and that company just lost a customer. Having been involved with marketing products online in the past, I have very little patience for what I see as plain laziness. Some reseller sites charge more for additional pictures, but that’s no reason not to have complete item descriptions to compensate.

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