500 Bonus Points at DSW!

Sweeeeet... I may need to make a little trip for shoes this weekend!

According to a snazzy little DSW email: Earn 500 Bonus Points on every purchase (May 22-26, 2008), when you shop with your membership, in stores or logged-in online. (Excludes gift cards.) Please allow 2-3 weeks for your points to be posted to your Points History balance. If you return merchandise purchased during this promotion, bonus points will be deducted.

Ebates, eh?

So I wandered over to Barefoot in the Park in my RSS feed yesterday and caught her post on Ebates.

How have I missed out on this cool little service? Basically, you shop through Ebates - they get a commission on what you purchase - and they split it with you. Plain and simple. (They even tell you up from how much %-age-wise what the commission is!)

There's a bunch of choices in each category (apparel, electronics, pet supplies, etc.) and bonus for my little household... Nascar.com is included. (I mean shoot, if the BF is going to keep buying enough Nascar stuff to keep the entire industry afloat... shouldn't we enjoy a little kick-back along the way? ;-))

I was hooked when the "daily double" was double the rebate from RalphLauren.com - WHOO!!

Here are some of the features mentioned in my welcome email after joining:
Take full advantage of your Ebates membership with these top navigation tips:

Search - Find popular Stores and top Products quickly

All Stores - See all 800+ Stores at Ebates.

Coupons & Specials - Browse hundreds of great Coupons and Deals—updated daily!

Favorite Stores - Save and quickly access your Favorite Stores.

Saved Coupons - Save Hot Coupons and utilize reminders so you don't miss out!

Customer Care - Contact Ebates anytime with your questions or feedback.So join up with me - we both get a $5.00 account credit when you use this referral link to join... nice!

Every Girl Loves...

...the Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale!!

Which, by the way (as a friendly reminder), started today :-)

No pushing and shoving... remember to play nice girls!

Bras: 25-50% off - over 100 styles
Clearance: bras $12.99 and up, panties $3.99 and up
Bonus: Free shipping on orders $100 and up - use code SEMISALE at checkout!PS: Up to 50% off on clothes too with the Semi-Annual Clothing Sale... I think I even saw a swimwear category!

With the free shipping, it sounds like online will be the way to go for best selection rather than fighting the crowds and mess at the mall. (Cameron Village has always been my favorite over any mall location because it's selection is less picked through and has WAY less traffic!)

Ooh! Lots of Free Shipping!

What an exciting email inbox for a Monday!

From Victoria's Secret:

::2 days only - free shipping with only a $25 minimum purchase!
::Must be from their "Destination Summer" which includes: dresses, tees, swimwear, glasses, and more!
::Enter SUMMER25 at checkout... ends 5/13/08!

From J.Crew: ::Free shipping on anything you wish!
::$100 minimum gets you free shipping using the code SUMMERTIME at checkout.
::Expires on 05/14/08 at 11:59pm!

Wilson, NC's Own Belle & Co.

I stumbled upon belle & co after looking at this morning's N&O (see my post about this) and noticed that you can, in fact, find Jack Rogers sandals and cute handbags outside of Raleigh!

I visited the website (with a black and white damask print background... one of my FAVORITE prints right now), which looks to be the creative efforts of the shop owner herself.

I am always VERY impressed when I see others take these important (but sometimes oh-so-pricey) marketing utilities into their own hands (a enterprising business girl after my own heart)!

Here's the story behind belle & co from their website, I can't wait to one day stop on my way through Wilson to check the boutique out in person! "Belle's boutique opened April 24th of 2004 thanks to the hard work and dedication of the owner, Steadman Lanier.

Steadman decided to start her own business after finishing her MBA at East Carolina University. She and her husband moved back to her home town of Wilson, NC where to her family's dismay, she decided to open a clothing store.

She was convinced that though they live in a small town, people still enjoyed the latest fashion trends... Which is exactly what you will get at Belle's along with so much more. Steadman is devoted to making sure all of her customers leave happy. You will find her there most anytime and if you are lucky, you might even spot her precious cocker spaniels, Bud & Belle!"I'm also a big fan of shop owners who let their pups accompany them to work. Delta and Tank love hanging out with me all day, too.

"Essentials"

The N&O has this special advertising section on the back of the Life, etc. section - "Essentials" - that is home to a really cute display of advertising of (you guessed it) essentials from lots of local retailers.

I rarely actually read the physical paper (yay for online editions and RSS feeds) because of all the awful news that can put me in such a sour mood... but a few of the advertisers caught my eye. I really liked seeing some of cute options that I would have thought could only be found in Raleigh/Charlotte/Wilmington can be found in smaller towns like Tarboro and Wilson.

I'll add the actual ad pictures once the N&O's portion of their site dedicated to their print ads decides it wants to behave. It won't load at the moment... grrrr.

So here's a few of those businesses for my traveling and business girls who don't stay in one place all the time! The Wild Hare
Ladies' Apparel & Accessories
412 Main Street
Downtown Tarboro
252-823-7002
(No website turned up in a google search... how sad!)

belle & co
Wilson's Trendsetting Boutique
The Shoppes at Brentwood
2801 Ward Blvd, Ste 3A
252-291-8869
http://www.belleandco.com/After checking out the website for the above mentioned belle & co, it's clear that it's totally home-grown, but I LOVE an enterprising DIY girl! I think I'll dedicate an entire post to belle & co after this one!

And back in Raleigh - I never knew you could shop online with Nowell's (our local Vineyard Vines menswear retailer)! I guess I'm not big on menswear though. I clicked through and took a look... it's actually QUITE impressive.

Nowell's
1632 N. Market Drive (near the Kanki off of Wake Forest Road!)
919-876-4115
http://www.nowellsonline.com/

Monday's Retail Update!

As always, thanks to Sue Stock for the retailing report and to Ashton Smith for reminding me to read it :-)

The most important (and relevant) info this week: In Raleigh's Cameron Village, clothing boutique White Horse Black Market will open Monday.Yessssssss! Now I get another opportunity to avoid Crabtree Valley Mall like the plague. :-D

Free Shipping from J. Crew!

I just signed up for something with J. Crew yesterday and in appreciation they sent me an email with a code for free shipping for any order over $150 at jcrew.com - valid until Thursday, May 15th.

I know I'm not spending $150 on jcrew.com before then, but I figure if there's any of my loyal readers who have had their eye on something... why not share?!

So, first person to comment or email telling me that they are definitely going to use it (don't waste it!!) will get the code sent to them!

Let me know :-)

The Day We Have All Been Waiting For...

You can now shop online with DSW. Yes - that's right - online. I'm just hoping the same deep discounts that can be hunted through in the back of the shoe warehouse retailer can be found online.

I still can't put in to words how thrilling it was when Katie and I found the most fantastic gold and silver flats for $8.00 and $11.00 (respectively). I still wear mine ALL THE TIME! The best part? They had a pair of each in our sizes. Now THAT was a shoe hunting expedition that resulted in pure success.

I'm also really excited about being able to add to my DSW frequent shopper points AND redeem them online. For those of you who have seen the shoe fruits of my addiction in my closet (and my attic - where the furry boots live in the summer and the open-toes in the winter), you know this might get very dangerous for my would-be savings account.

PS: Free standard shipping or better - NICE!!! The website details include this info (and more):

DSW Premier Rewards Members - Free Next Day Shipping with Any Purchase - log in for offer code and details.

DSW Rewards Members - Free Standard Shipping on Any Order - log in for offer code and details.

Non-Members - Free Standard Shipping on Orders of $50 or more through May 14, 2008 with promotion code FSHP50."Source: My 04-30-2008 DSW Rewards eNewsletter that hit my inbox this afternoon.

Another Cool Shopping Treat from LifeHacker...

From the LifeHacker RSS feed today... Shop It To Me Is Your Web-Based Personal Shopper

Very cool. I have a baaad habit of spending hours looking for something - only to forget about it after I move on to something else. And then I've lost it. I really like the idea of having the net searched for me and a little digest emailed my way. Talk about convenient!

Here is how LifeHacker describes it: "Web site Shop It To Me scours the internet for sales on brands you love and sends an email digest of the latest deals. When you sign up, you tell the site exactly what to watch for. You can watch for specifically men's or women's clothing, favorite brands, and even the types of clothing you want to monitor (shoes, swimwear, etc.) in your sizes. Once you sign up, you tell Shop It To Me how often you want the email digest of sales, give it your email address and zip code (so it can watch for local sales), and you're done. The site's biggest drawback is that it's all email-based, so you can't check up on your sale watches whenever you want, but it still looks like a service that may be able to save you some cash as you start to fill out your summer wardrobe."Whoops! Almost forgot the link: ShopItToMe.

LifeHacker.com's Top 10 Amazon Shopping Tools

I'm not a HUGE Amazon.com girl myself, but I do have to admit it's one of the easiest to use and when I'm not looking for something very particular by name, but instead I want to see a selection of products at once... it's definitely one of the most efficient sites for doing so! If I employ some of the following tools... I just might become an Amazon regular!

So, here's LifeHacker's Top 10 Amazon Shopping Tools (I'll link to those I think are the most interesting/fabulous, and anything else... just hit up LifeHacker's list to click-through: 10. Never be empty-handed on special occasions again with the Amazon Gift Organizer
9. Search Amazon via voice call with Jott
8. Browse the deep discount bin at JungleCrazy (I don't hunt, so the thrill of finding something awesome when you're discount shopping fills that void in my life!)
7. Buy from your phone with TextBuyIt
6. Find hidden discounts with DealLocker
5. Snag items with free shipping (Free shipping is the icing on the cake for me!)
4. Get money back on price drops with RefundPlease (Now that's just cool.)
3. Get free shipping by padding with filler items
2. Get up-to-the-minute price and availability alerts
1. Cut down household shopping needs with Subscribe & SaveAnd seriously, check out the original LifeHacker post to read the description of each of the Top 10. Maybe the cell phone shopping will be your fancy even if it's not mine!

Out With The Old...

I came across this in Sue Stock's "Taking Stock" blog from the N&O today... and it's quite possibly one of the funniest (and most clever) "shopping" websites I've ever seen! Selling Off Those Gifts From Your Ex...

"This New York Times story was my chuckle of the day... Two ladies in Los Angeles started up a Web site called ExBoyfriendJewelry.com, where people can sell all those unwanted gifts they have from ex-boyfriends. The catch: you've got to tell the story behind the piece on the Web site when you list it for sale."Classic.

Bag Out In Style at Whole Foods

In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, I thought I'd post this green fashion show!

Directly from the Big Boss "Boss' Planner" (email Big Boss Sales Manager Jonny Johnson and let him know you want to get on the list to receive your Monday morning scoop on what's going on w/ the Boss brand every week!):
*Bag Out In Style @ Whole Foods*

When: Tuesday, 6-8 p.m.
Where: Whole Foods Market, Raleigh
Admission: FREE!

"As of Tuesday, April 22nd, Whole Foods Market will no longer offer plastic bags in their stores (see my original post on this)! To celebrate this joyous occasion, they will be holding a fashion show with designs made entirely of plastic bags! This should make for a good time. I will be down there sampling out some our fine BIG BOSS BEERS to make the occasion that much more fun! I look forward to seeing some of our customers out to support a business who is progressive and moving in the right direction. This is a great opportunity to come out and BE LOCAL." - Jonny

New Boutique on the Block!

I am very excited to check out this new shop opening up that was included in Sue Stock's article in the N&O yesterday! "In Raleigh's Five Points neighborhood, Hayley's is open at 1803 Glenwood Ave. in the building that used to be Posh, selling women's clothing and accessories. Owner Hayley Cushman said she focuses on finding unique items that won't break the bank.":-)

Back to Bedding

Apparently, bedding is the new pink!

From this weekend's N&O, more on how to keep a fabulously comfortable bed and how to select the right sheets for your bed in the article "Make Your Bed Well":

Shop Smart
Everyone thinks about thread count when sheet buying, but that's only one factor that makes for comfortable sheets. Here are seven more sheet-things to know:

1. The sheets that feel the softest are the ones that are made with the very long staples of Egyptian cotton, says Joanne Walgren, owner of Sue Bearrie Fine Linen & Fashion Boutique, in Colleyville, Texas.2. Good-quality sheets are also made out of Supima cotton, a trademark name signifying the fabric is made from the longest fibers of the American-grown Pima cotton. Supima is less expensive than Egyptian cotton, although it often is just as comfortable.3. "Easy-care" sheets are polyester and cotton. They aren't as breathable as plain cotton, which means you are more likely to get too hot at night.4. "Permanent Press" or "wrinkle-free" sheets can be 100 percent cotton, but the Environmental Protection Agency says they are treated with formaldehyde to discourage wrinkling. The chemical is associated with breathing difficulties and certain cancers, the EPA says."5. Percale or sateen sheets describe how the sheet is woven, says Mary Ella Gabler, founder and CEO of Peacock Alley, a Dallas-based fine linen purveyor. Percale is lightweight and crisp, a summertime favorite for many. Sateen sheets are softer than percale and slightly heavier weight.
6. Bamboo/cotton sheets vary in softness but are comparable to good-quality cotton sheets. Another comfy choice: Jersey knit sheets that feel like your favorite old T-shirt.
7. Take the advice of L.L. Bean when buying flannel sheets. They should be brushed on both sides for softness and of 5-ounce-weight cotton to be thick and warm.

Take Care
Sheets and pillowcases can quickly lose their softness if laundered in harsh laundry products. Here's the method fine linen sellers recommend:
Machine wash in warm water on gentle cycle.

Use a mild detergent. Ivory or Dreft, found at grocery stores, are recommended, as is the higher-end Le Blanc Linen Wash at a cost of $30 for 64 ounces in lavender scent, blue violet or unscented.

Chlorine bleach breaks down fibers. Use an enzyme-based stain remover such as OxiClean instead.

Don't use fabric softeners. They coat the fabric, which ultimately causes the fabric to lose softness.

Air drying is ideal, but it's OK to use a low setting and take the sheets out before they are completely dry.The article starts by describing different concerns with thread count (pointing out that anything over 500 is worth really nothing more than bragging rights), but read the whole thing for more info on down products (and what features to look for in down products for those who suffer from allergies), tips from Yves Delorme on how to put together a great-looking and truly comfortable bed, and more.