Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Shopping for a cause...

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Can't believe it's December tomorrow.. that gets me to thinking about Christmas, and of course Christmas shopping!

Since I don't really do the Black Friday thing (too many crowds for me) & I haven't really gotten the Cyber Monday deal down,  I've decided to find ways to make my Christmas purchases actually give back.



So I did a bit of research and found some great shopping sites (some I've used before) that donate a portion of their sales to charity:

This is a great site. It lists various websites that donate part of their profit to charity. I've actually purchased from some sites like the Hunger Site and the Breast Cancer Site (where you can click to give too!).

I love the idea of the "One for One" movement - for every pair of shoes you buy, one is given to a child in need through a charity organization. What a great cause. Though I'm not particularly a fan of the original style of TOMS shoes, I see that there are so many

Similar to Toms' movement, Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses for every pair that's purchased. They do this through charity organizations like RestoringVision.org. Can't wait to buy a pair of Warby Parker glasses for such a great cause.

I'm still learning about this one, but I believe you register with a charitable cause (you can add your own, very cool) and then going by through the iGive site, you shop on brand-name shopping sites like Barnes & Noble, Gap, Best Buy. Sounds like a wonderful site that I may register for right now..

I'm sure there are so many more sites and organizations that do the same. Hopefully these sites will inspire me to buy gifts for my family & friends while being able to help people in need =)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Busy bee.. possible blog changes..

First off, Happy Veterans Day! Thanks to all our troops, retired & active, who have served our country..

It's been a busy few weeks since I've returned from my trip to Las Vegas with the family.. we had such a great time! Plus, I have friends coming to visit this weekend so I've been spending time cleaning & fixing the apartment up.. so I haven't really had the time to sit down and blog.

Anyway, so I think I'm still not 100% satisfied with the look & feel of my blog.. probably why I haven't made it public (i.e. posted on Facebook or given out the link)

It looks like I may re-vamp things a little bit. I've been thinking of creating a totally new blog, one dedicated solely to food & cooking. I've only published a few posts on this blog and 2 of them were recipes. So I'm thinking maybe this one will be more of just random things that inspire me & personal stuff.. the other dedicated to food =)

A real update to come soon!

In the mean time, I've been on a decorating kick in my apartment. Here's some cool ideas I may try to use..

(Photos taken from Better Homes & Gardens - bhg.com)

pretty & functional night stand

creative way to store & display jewelry

I'd probably use this to store make-up brushes


cute idea!