My sister gave me one of her iGO power adapter sets. These are great if you travel a lot and you also have many electronic gadgets. If you do, you feel the pain of packing a sack of power adapters, yet still managing to have forgotten the one you need at home. I would travel with, at the bare minimum, my laptop, my blackberry, my personal mobile and my ipod. I also have a Nintendo DS, and a bluetooth headset (a small Dell pocket PC also, but who uses those anymore?). For short travel (under 4 days) I would just pray my ipod would last, my DS usually would last, my phones? No way. When I still had my razr, I would carry the Razr power supply that would also charge my Blackberry and headset, so I would travel with 2-3 power adapters, plus my big, heavy Dell adapter for my big, heavy laptop. I only had one power adapter for my DS and I would not always have it packed. I do have an older adapter for my ipod that lived in my travel bag, so that was no problem, and with the plethora of Motorola products in the house, finding a spare adapter to charge the phones and headsets was no issue. It was just a lot to pack. I have been lusting over one of these kits for some time, but I just couldn’t justify the cost. My sister gifted me one of her sets, though so all I needed to do was buy up all the “power tips” I needed. The adapter kit she gave me also has a car adapter as well so now, road warrior that I am, I can also charge all these in my van. I can finally charge my laptop in my van! Say it with me now! Anyway, I am telling you this because at iGo they are offering free shipping with any order. Of course a percentage off the top would be nice, but free shipping is free shipping after all. Saved me the hassle of having to run around trying to find all the tips myself. I’ll report back and let you know how all that worked out.

Second deal of the day! Invisible shield. I have been lusting after these for awhile also. I wanted on for my DS and my ipod, but my DS is all scratched to Hell and I don’t really care so much. I have a case for my ipod, and faithfully using Brasso, I have been able to keep the shiny back nice and shiny, but I did want one of these. They are expensive! 20 bucks for full body protection, yikes! Well, when we got out new phones I decided it would be nice to have the screen coverage on them since phones have such large screens these days, so I headed over to Zagg, home of the original product and they are having a secret sale over there! You don’t even notice until you click on your shopping cart, no you have to actually go into you cart, and you see the discount. I got 30% off plus free shipping! Talk about savings, I went ahead and got the two screen protectors for the phones plus my full body protection for the ipod. Score! That was a great deal. If by chance you mosey over there and don’t see the deal, email me and I’ll send you a code for 20% off.

Third deal of the day, also a biggie! MAC cosmetics is having 25% off on thier site! Wow, you know times are getting hard when MAC is giving discounts. The code is vaild until Friday, Jan 9, 2009. The code is MACFF9 and that code will get you the 25% off. My cart was 72.50 before the discount and I got free shipping plus he 25% off, so it was a very good deal. The Dame Edna collection is out right now, and the Blonde, Redhead and Brunette is launching on Friday, so you can wait until then if you want. I wasn’t so interested in the new one (I refuse to buy yet another Mineralize Skin Finish that I will use a few times then never again), but I did get a lipstick from the Dame Edna collection, in Kanga Rouge.

and I also go the Penultimate Liner from the Chill collection

.

I got a few other items as well, so I am looking forward to getting those bargain goodies.

So there are a few shopping ideas for you if you got some holiday cash lying around, or if you got a nice, new shiny electronic and you want it to stay that way, head over to ZAGG, and if you are a road warrior head over to iGO and get a power adapter kit. Until we meet again.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Shopping deals!

People accuse expensive shops of this atrocity. Well, maybe I just don’t shop at those places, but for Me Ann Taylor and Nordstrom’s are pretty expensive. Granted I don’t go shopping at Dior or Chanel so I can’t tell you how their ready to wear sizing is arranged, but I will say with some degree of confidence they don’t use generic American sizing at any rate.

Recently I found myself at Target looking for emergency clothing. You know, some socks, underpants, camisole, shirt and pants. I found everything but the pants. I have been buying tops at Target for years. I do not think I have ever purchased a pair of fitted pants there and I now realize why. Target does “vanity sizing”. Instead of calling it vanity sizing, I am much more comfortable calling it demographic sizing, because that is exactly what it is. The store looks at it’s demographic and chooses sizes accordingly. Let me explain. Let’s say I normally wear a size X at Nordstrom. If I try and buy size X at Target I need a size x-2. Yes, TWO sizes smaller than my X. I find a decent looking pair of pants in size X, then I go and try on the pants in size X. Ugh, no, ne, niet! They are huge and too long. The too long I can appreciate as I am short and most pants if not labeled petite will be too long, but the too large I don’t quite get. These are a size X, they should fit or at least come close, right? Alas, no and I’ll tell you why.

Stores tend to have a certain demographic. Some stores, like Macy’s, JC Penney’s, etc. have a very wide demographic and some stores, Bebe, Forever 21, Chico’s, etc have a narrow demographic. You’ll notice, however that even when you go to Macy’s you’ll find a part of the store “in your style” and these clothes will fit more or less to your particular idea of what your “proper size” is. This means that when I go to Macy’s and shop in the INC section, I can fit a size X. if I go to the Juniors section, I fit a size X+2. I could not tell you what size I would be a Bebe, but if I had to guess it would be a size X+1 or 2 (and much too long). Old navy puts me in a size X-2. This is very frustrating! This seems to plague women only. A man can walk into a store with his “measurements” and buys clothing that will more or less fit. Men’s dress shirts come in plastic packages that they may not open in most stores! Yet they take these shirts home and they fit! Amazing, this would not happen with a women’s shirt, though it would be nice.

What this demographic sizing means is that you find a store you are comfortable with and where you know what size you wear and that is where you shop. You are a busy woman and you just want a new pair of pants already! You try on the pants in the new shop and they don’t fit, argh! You try on another and that one doesn’t fit, then you leave in a huff, going back to your old standby shop, even though you really wanted a more updated look than your old standby can accommodate.

You’ve all been there and I think the only way to really work around the issue is that when you go into a new shop you must talk to the sales associate. I know this is a hard thing to do, but they usually know how the sizing in their shop works and if you talk to them about your current size, measurements, fit you want they can usually get you in te ballpark rather quickly, and definitely more quickly that you could.

What if you’re looking at Target? Sorry, you’re on your own.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Vanity sizing or the myth that propagates