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ASOS made my day
I received the most fabulous delivery the other day - a gorgeous crimson Grecian dress from ASOS. I have been looking for a dress for weeks that will not make my post-baby body look unflattering and that I can breastfeed from for my friend Linda’s wedding. I decided to take a punt on this dress in jersey material and am so happy it fits and it’s not black! Of course I may come to regret not buying a black dress when Benjamin vomits on me during the church service but I’ll make sure Mike takes a photo before that happens.
This is the third order I’ve made through ASOS and I am impressed. Since September 2011, the delivery of items is even faster now that they post from within Australia; my item only taking 3 or 4 business days to arrive. They also have a great returns policy with an Australian returns address so it won’t be expensive to post back your unwanted items.
Oh and did I mention free delivery? Oh yes, there are many upsides to shopping with ASOS. The other pluses include 1000’s of mens and women’s clothing items and accessories and great sales (some of which you can only access after making your first purchase). The sizing guide has been accurate for me - the items I have ordered so far have been a great fit. My only slight disappointment was with the maternity tights I ordered, the quality was fairly poor and they have disintegrated quickly.
While I have been mostly shopping from their maternity department, I look forward (nay, I long for) a day when I might shop again from the regular women’s department. Meanwhile ASOS will keep me looking good.
Here is the link:
The best gift
The best gift I received in December was my baby boy Benjamin Xavier.
The second best gift I received was this amazing baby hamper sent to me in hospital celebrating his arrival.
It was a feast for the senses (the gift not the baby). The package was beautifully wrapped and presented in a box too good to throw out. Inside the box, were handpicked clothes, toys and toiletries for the baby. The box also smelled of lavender. Mmm. Almost as good as the smell of my baby’s head.
This gift was sent through Babyboxes and allows the gift giver to choose from a range of wonderful gift boxes. Thank Cernz for this wonderful gift!
Here is the link:
Whitening that’s not frightening
So why did we buy teeth whitening products? I think it’s a combination of vanity and frugalness. We thought we would try some whitening products but neither Mike or I wanted to invest in a trip to the dentist and I had heard that whitening in the chair can make your teeth super-sensitive. No thanks!
We ordered 2 sets of Zoom whitening pens (4 pens in total) for $100 with $6 shipping from Whiter Smile. At the time I found a discount code floating around the web so it’s worth looking for one before you buy. We started off in earnest using them everyday but when I got pregnant I decided to stop and Mike got slack. He recently restarted using his pen which has prompted me to write this post. I wish I could post some dazzling before and after pictures to astonish you but alas the results have been difficult to demonstrate. I think if we were to buy again we might try the Crest brand which is well reviewed and is the most popular brand in the USA.
Whiter Smile also sent us a free gift of an additional whitening pen but Mike’s review is that it tasted like poison!
If like us, you are slightly vain and perhaps have drunk too much coffee and your teeth are no longer pearly white, it is a relatively inexpensive way to try and whiten your teeth by a few shades (nothing dramatic but also not painful!). Whiter Smile have 15% off until 31st Dec 2011 if you use the code “CHRISTMAS” at checkout.
Here is the link:
The (sometimes) frustrating business of online shopping brought to life by Google Analytics. We’ve all been there.
The fine art of finding online art
After finishing our renovation in June, Mike and I were faced with what seemed like endless amounts of blank, neutral-coloured walls. We both have a love of art, and knew a few good pieces would add some serious gravitas (Mike’s favourite word) to our lovely new home.
But selecting art can be a challenge. On one hand you have cliched, boring prints everyone’s seen a million times before, while on the other you have what people on our budget simply refer to as art that is “strictly aspirational”.
We knew we needed to find something, and were particularly keen to acquire a large “gallery-size” piece of artwork for behind our new dining table. I certainly didn’t think I would be finding artwork online, but I was proven wrong (happy to be wrong in this instance).
Because to our surprise we found what we needed on a website called Society6. Based in California, it’s a site boasting all types of artwork from artists located all over the world. You choose the size you want (most prints are available in several sizes) and the site will ship it anywhere in the world. We had the added bonus of getting free shipping the weekend we bought, and considering we were shipping home a 1m x 0.6m print, it saved us a lot on postage. We also bought a tiny print for our kitchen wall.
It took about 3 weeks for our art to arrive and came in a large cylindrical post pack. The quality of the prints exceeded our expectations. In fact the art store where we had the large one framed couldn’t stop talking about our amazing artwork. And it only cost $70 (the framing cost considerably more).
Be warned you could lose an entire day just looking at the website for Society6. At last look, there was about 2200 pages (pages!) of prints…
Another art website I like but have yet to buy from is 20X200. I get more emails from them but I don’t mind because don’t we all need a little more art in our life?
Here are the links:
