Wednesday, November 24, 2010

New recipe and a deal!

My boss retired two weeks ago and we had a party for him at work. He loves breakfast pastries and other sweets, so I took the opportunity to try a new recipe. November's new recipe is Muffins that Taste Like Donuts! I won't put the whole recipe here since I got it from Tasty Kitchen and they do a great job of giving you the recipe there. And if you haven't check out Tasty Kitchen before, do so. It's a great site for recipes and it's run by one of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman.

Sadly, I did not get any pictures of mine, but I assure you they turned out well and were very tasty. They tasted a lot like my local supermarket's donut holes, which I love. I will definitely be making these again.

Now for the deal! If you haven't heard already, Amazon is offering $3 towards mp3 downloads. Just enter the code, GET3MP3S right here. And this week, Amazon is offering 5 albums everyday for just $1.99. They change everyday, so be sure to check them out. They also have tons of FREE mp3s that might interest you. Downloading mp3s from Amazon is super easy and they go right to you iTunes.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Online Shopping Exclusives!

As you know, I love a good bargain. One of my favorite ways to find a good bargain are online sample sales. I belong to numerous sites that offer clothing/accessories/home goods to members at a fraction of the cost and they are often designer goods! I thought I'd share with you today a list of sites that I belong to along with links to sign up yourself. These sites are great sources for holiday gifts, so check them out daily as their sales change!

ideeli - clothing, accessories, cosmetics and travel

HauteLook - clothing, accessories, beauty, travel and home goods They are having an Urban Decay sale tomorrow that I cannot wait to see.

One Kings Lane - home goods

Beyond the Rack - clothing, accessories, home goods and travel They have a great Melissa & Doug sale right now that runs until Tuesday. I love Melissa & Doug toys.

Gilt Groupe - clothing, accessories, home goods, travel, and gifts

Swirl by DailyCandy - clothing and accessories They have a holiday shop full of fun and unique gift ideas.

the Foundary - home goods

The Mini Social - kids' clothing, toys and accessories I can't wait to have kids, so I can buy all the great stuff I see here!

Totsy - kids' clothing, toys, accessories, baby care items, educational materials, maternity items They are also having a Melissa & Doug sale!

Zulily - kids' clothing, toys, accessories, baby and maternity items They always have a lot of seriously cute stuff. It's hard for me to just look right now!

Those are my sites for now! I'll let you know if I discover any new ones and feel free to let me know about your favorites in the comments!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Brides Beware, Target Registry Sucks!

My number one piece of advice for brides? Don't register at Target!

Prior to my engagement, I loved Target. I shopped there at least once a week even if I didn't need anything. They have good deals and I love their clearance. Naturally, when it came time to register for wedding gifts, I was excited to register at one of my favorite stores, Target.

(FYI: I work retail. I do not work at Target. I do not work for any of Target's competition. This is completely unrelated to my work other than I expect good customer service as every consumer should.)

My then fiance and I headed to our local Target one day in January to register for fabulous things for our new house. We started our registry, got our scanner and spent the next hour or so wandering the store scanning items we wished to own.

When we arrived home, I excitedly located our registry on Target's website so that I could link to it on our wedding website for our guests' convenience. Imagine my surprise to discover several items we most definitely did NOT scan during our trip to the store. BABY items. I am so glad that I discovered the errant items and was able to delete them before any of our guests got the wrong idea!

So, I fixed the mistakes, kept an eye our registry, added and deleting things as needed. I had my bridal shower in May and I had a lot of fun watching our registries and trying to guess who bought us what.

Unfortunately, I did have to return a couple items after the shower due to some miscommunication. I had gift receipts and the items still had all of their original packaging still attached and intact. Simple transaction right? Not at my local Target! The girl working at the guest services desk preceded to accuse me of using the items I was returning and made a big deal about taking them back. I remained polite and calm and gladly took the in store credit given because I loved Target and knew I would use it.

Luckily, we did not have to return any items to Target after our wedding.

Fast forward to about a month after our wedding. I receive an email from Target congratulating us on our wedding (4 weeks later) and informing us that we would receive a (one time use) coupon for 10% off to help complete our registry. Well, cool! We received several Target gift cards and I had my eye on a few things off our registry that we didn't get. I though I'd just wait for the coupon and use them all together!

As of Friday, we have been married for 5 months. I have yet to receive that coupon. And I have yet to use any of our Target gift cards.

I wrote to Target through their website to let them know how disappointed I was in my experience. That was 1 month ago. I have yet to hear from them.

The moral of my story? Don't register at Target if you want to be able to return things or complete your registry.

I am not the only one to have these complications. I highly suggest reading wedding message boards to hear about others' experiences with Target. Weddingbee and The Knot are good places to start.