Janet @ Favorite Online Shops

Chore Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:06:00 +0000

I've been using Chore Wars as a way to help keep me on track for my fitness goals. It has pre-set adventures for house keeping and cleaning, but I created my own based on key fitness and health measures that are meaningful to me.

I've created adventures where I get XP for steps on my pedometer, eating my target calories, burning more calories than I consume, eating fruit, eating vegetables, logging my foods in a food journal daily, and more.

When I reach 1000 XP, I'm going to reward myself with a Zynga game card. I love playing Cityville and Castleville games and thought this would be a fun non-food way to reward myself.

I tried to create and score the adventures so that I could earn 1000 XP in about 10 weeks. It has really kept me motivated, and I think before I eat in terms of "if I don't eat this, I'll burn more calories than I consume, so I'll earn more XP."

Fairy Name Generator

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:39:00 +0000

My fairy name is Bindweed Goblinfly
She brings riches and wealth.
She lives at the bottom of tangled gardens and in hedgerows.
She can only be seen at midday under a quiet, cloudless sky.
She wears tangled multicoloured skirts made of petals and has gentle green wings like a butterfly.
Get your own fairy names from The Fairy Name Generator!

Kroger Free Milk and Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:53:00 +0000

From November 13th through November 26th, with the purchase of any four participating General Mills products, you will either receive free milk (up to $3; limit of 2) or to receive $3 off your shopping order**

I'm also sponsoring a giveaway of one $25 Kroger gift card (good at any of the Kroger. Co Family of Stores). To enter, just leave a comment below with your favorite General Mills product. The winner will be selected on November 20th. This is only open to US residents. The gift pack will be sent by MyBlogSpark.

I will need your email address so I can notify the winner, and you can leave it in the following ways:
1) enter it in your comment, but please use "at" instead of "@"
2) make sure I can send you an email via your blogger profile
3) send it me to me using this secure message form

Look for some of your favorite participating General Mills products like Cheerios, Pillsbury Ready to Bake Cookies, Nature Valley Bars and Fiber One Bars

Promotion varies in different locations. Please be sure to check your local Kroger Co. Family of Stores for specific deals and offers which include Kroger, Ralphs, King Scoopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith’s, Fry’s, QFC, Baker’s, Owen’s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Fred Meyer, Pay Less Supermarkets and Scott’s Food & Pharmacy

What’s better than being rewarded for buying your favorite products from your favorite store? Visit Kroger.com for more information and great ways to save and be sure to check out the Kroger Facebook page to join the conversation and share which General Mills products you’d like to stock up on during the promotion.

*Excludes General Mills meal and baking products including; Betty Crocker, Old El Paso, Progresso, Hamburger Helper, Macaroni Grill, Wanchai Ferry, Yoplait

**Promotion varies based on store location; check your local Kroger store for details (Cash Offer: Mid South, Delta, Mid Atlantic, SW Louisiana stores, Central Missouri stores and Dillons Missouri stores)

Disclosure: The Kroger gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by Kroger and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

UPDATE: I used random.org to choose a number, and the winner was 12 corresponding to Eliza's entry. The Kroger gift card will be sent by MyBlogSpark.

Weaving (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:16:00 +0000

For ages, I've wanted to try weaving with rags. So even though my clipped rug isn't finished yet, I decided to try making a loom.

In the book "Fabulous Rag Rugs from Simple Frames", there was a description of a loom made from dowel rods and plumbing fittings. So I bought 2 - 4 foot dowels and 2 - 3 foot dowel rods to make my loom.

Yesterday, I started warping it in a continuous warp. Next, I'll start weaving and take pictures as I go along. I have a bunch of rag balls made from strips (originally cut to make crocheted baskets).

Peeled Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:01:00 +0000

I've talked about Earndit before, where you can earn prizes and rewards for logging your physical activity.

I'd won a $20 gift certificate from Peeled Snacks before, and now they're upping their generosity and letting us earn up to 5 gift certificates.

Plus, they're sponsoring a challenge at Earndit where they're giving away several memberships to their Organic Fruit of the Month Club. But everyone gets a $5 Peeled Snacks gift card just for participating in the challenge!

I'm not in any way affiliated with Earndit or Peeled Snacks - just a happy customer spreading the word

ReminderFox

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:09:00 +0000

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across ReminderFox which is an add-on for Firefox browser. It's a reminder program that lets you manage lists of reminders and to-dos.

It pops up in a small box on your screen and "reminds" you that you have something to do that day. You can hit the Snooze button and the reminder will go away for a specified amount of time. Then you mark the to-do as Complete when you've finished it.

You can set reminders to repeat at certain frequencies. I just set one to remind me to clear out my email Inbox every month since it gets really full.

New Blog Template

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:21:00 +0000

I'm having a blast customizing the new blog template for my Favorite Online Shops blog. I finally got brave enough to try a new template so that I could change the layout to 3 columns. It was so easy to do. I should have tried this months ago.

The only teeny speed bump was finding out how to center the header, but a quick search gave me the exact code that I needed and step-by-step instructions on how to place it. It worked beautifully.

Eventually I'll change this one, too. I'll play around with different formats and see what looks best. Now that I know how easy it is to experiment. Or I might keep the same layout and just update it a little.

Convert Tealight Tart Burner to Flameless

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:25:00 +0000

I recently joined Scentsy since they've changed the activity requirements. I love tart burners that melt wax, but I've been wanting flameless ones that use either a light bulb or a warming element.

I have a gazillion of the tealight kind and they make great decorations. So I was trying to find a way to convert my tealight tart burners into flameless. I searched all over the internet for some kind of small heating element and couldn't find anything.

	I decided to dig around the hardware store and found a candelabra clip socket in the lighting area at Lowe's. Since it has a 1" diameter, I got a 1" washer to fit into it to make a stand.
	Here's the clip with the washer over it.
	Here is the assembled stand with a light bulb inserted.
	Here it is in the tart burner cavity. The socket is rated up to 75 watt bulb. I needed a 60 watt bulb to melt my Yankee Candle tarts easily. A 40 watt bulb would work, but it took a long time and didn't have great scent throw.

I haven't tried soy tarts yet with this converted tart burner, so I will report back on that after I try them.

I am a Scentsy consultant, but I'm not affiliated with Lowe's in any way

Thunderbird

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:52:00 +0000

This weekend, I started having problems with my Outlook Express mail client and lost about 10 days worth of emails. Knowing that OE isn't supported any longer, I figured that it's time to bite the bullet and change email clients.

Since I love Firefox, I decided to try Thunderbird. It has some really amazing features like the option of separate Inboxes for each email account. It was very easy to setup, start using, and migrate all my email from OE. Plus for every feature that I wanted, I could find an add-on that someone had written.

It's so much faster than OE. Granted, I save TONS of emails and use folders for storing emails, so I'm sure I was reaching OE's capability limits. But Thunderbird seems so much more forgiving.

I'm a Thunderbird Community member and the link is my referral link

Customer Service - Kohl's

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:05:00 +0000

I had another wonderful customer service experience at Kohl's.

I'd bought 2 denim skorts for the summer in my usual size. I wore them once and they stretched so that they were too big. I was disappointed but tried washing them, hoping they'd shrink. But they didn't and they were still too big.

So I thought I'd try to see if I could possibly exchange them, not sure if I could since I'd already washed them. The customer service clerk at Kohl's was wonderful. She took them back as defective and let me exchange them for the next smaller size, which fits beautifully.

I'm not in any way affiliated with Kohl's - just a happy customer

Notes from the Universe Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:45:00 +0000

I've posted about the Notes from the Universe by Mike Dooley as being very motivational for me. Plus they're wacky and alot of fun. Plus, they're free!! (I have a gadget on the lower right hand sidebar of the blog that displays daily NOTES.)

Mike is now offering a challenge to get more Adventurers to join the club and get the free daily notes. Here's what we get if we reach certain milestones:

If we reach 500,000 subscribers, every subscriber will get "Notes from the Universe" Screensaver Download
750,000 subscribers, every subscriber will get "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Life" 14 Hour MP3
1,000,000 subscribers, every subscriber will get (for the first time in TUT history),NOTES on weekends

Daily Feats

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:23:00 +0000

Dre Moran of Earndit.com suggested DailyFeats, and I've been exploring it and think it's wonderful. It's a cool, free, new site that rewards you for all your positive actions, including exercise. You manually check-in "feats" which are actions. There are multiple categories for health, learning, family, etc. You get points for actions and then you can actually trade them in for rewards.

The site is still relatively new, but I'm really enjoying it. It helps to reinforce and reward all the positives that we do daily. I just reached my first reward level so I'll be selecting a reward and will let you know how the process goes.

The site developers are actively seeking input and are making changes, so it's fun to give input on what we'd like to see.

I'm not in any way affiliated with Daily Feats

Customer Serive - J C Penney

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:57:00 +0000

I love shopping and getting bargains and using coupons, and I had a memorable experience the other day at J C Penney.

My family and I were stocking up on socks since they were on sale. But we had coupons for $10 off a $25 purchase, which amounts to big savings.

The wonderful cashier split our sock purchase into 4 transactions so that we could use the coupon 4 times and save even MORE money on top of the sale prices.

She was so cheerful and kind and pleasant, so here's a big pat on the back to JCP for their wonderful customer service

I'm not in any way affiliated with JCP

Customer Service - Rite Aid

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 01:57:00 +0000

I had a wonderful customer experience at Rite Aid yesterday. I was browsing the store and saw there was a mail-in rebate if you bought 2 of a Rite Aid brand personal care product. I thought that was pretty cool, so I looked on the shelves and only found 1 available.

I asked for some help to see if there was more in the store room, but there wasn't. The very helpful man (who happened to be the store manager) let me have 1 of the name brand items at the same price as the Rite Aid item so that I could have 2 in order to get my rebate.

Not only did that save me money, since I was able to use my Rite Aid card to save the additional 10% on the Rite Aid brands, but now I'll be able to get my rebate, too.

Needless to say, I walked out of the store feeling great and valued as a customer. You bet I'll remember that experience for a long time.

I'm not in any way affiliated with Rite Aid

Robert Wilson

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:48:00 +0000

While browsing the W's in my library, I found this series of detective mysteries by Robert Wilson.

They're set in Seville, Spain and feature detective Javier Falcon. I really enjoyed this character. His first case involves unearthing some family secrets, so it's very psychologically layered and suspenseful.

The second book picks up almost right where the first ended, so it assumes that you're already familiar with some of the peripheral characters. Then I was pleasantly surprised that there are two more books in the series.

Customer Service - Aeropostale

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:13:00 +0000

I like giving kudos when I get customer service that makes me feel good, so I want to say "Thanks" to the Aeropostale folks.

I took my son shopping for clothes to get him ready for college, and Aeropostale is one of his favorites for shirts. We had some $10 off $50 coupons that I wanted to use. I asked the clerk if I could ring up in separate transactions so I could use 2 of the coupons. She was so gracious and helpful, and helped me maximize my savings.

I'm not in any way affiliated with Aeropostale - just a happy customer

Earndit

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:01:00 +0000

If you remember, I have a FitBit pedometer which wirelessly uploads to the web. Recently the FitBit developers released an API so that other developers can access the FitBit users' data (with our permission, of course).

The cool programmer guys at Earndit can now use our FitBit data to award us points based on our activity levels. Other tracking devices can be read, too, including Nike Plus, Foursquare, Everytrail, and Garmin Connect.

Sponsors have donated prizes that we can redeem for our points. Just recently, I was the winner of a month's supply of Greek yogurt from Stonyfield Farm. Today I got my 30 free yogurt coupons!!

I'm not in any way affiliated with Earndit

Richard Montanari

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:41:00 +0000

While I was browsing in the "M's" at my library, I stumbled on this series by Richard Montanari.

It's set in Philadelphia and features detective Jessica Balzano (who is a mom to a toddler and is a prize fighter in her spare time) and Kevin Byrne (who has a surprising talent that I won't reveal). It's the classic pairing of the new, fresh rookie and the seasoned, seen-it-all veteran.

So far, I've read two of the series and I have more on my shelf to read. Montanari has me intrigued with the characters and I want to see how they develop and what happens in their lives.

Harker Moore

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:45:00 +0000

I found this 2-book series by Harker Moore while browsing my local library shelves. I can only find 2 books written by this author, and I wish he/she had written more.

The main character is a Japanese-born detective so he brings a different perspective to the typical detective scenario. His wife was born blind and she intuitively sees.

I kept waiting for the author to bring more of the Japanese childhood views into the novel. When he did, I liked it, but I felt he/she could have done more with that.

Also, with his wife being an intuitive. I really, really wanted the author to develop her character and have her give valuable input into the cases based on her visions and feelings.

I refer to the author as he/she since I couldn't find any information on him/her. I got the feeling that this is a pseudonym for an author wanting to explore a new character and not wanting to write under their "known" name.

Customer Service - AA Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:47:00 +0000

I had a fantastic customer service experience with AA Aquarium this week. I had bought a Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer for our fish tank since we had algae bloom that we couldn't fix.

The UV sterilizer worked amazingly well and cleared the tank within 5 days. The UV lamps are supposed to last 3 - 6 months, but we decided to run ours continuously. So the light indicator went out, meaning that you're supposed to change the UV lamp.

We did, but the light indicator still did not come on. So I contacted the AA Aquarium folks and they promptly sent me a new control box for the unit. I installed it yesterday, put in the "old" UV lamp, and it's now working great.

I always appreciate a great customer service experience, and I'm a huger fan of AA Aquarium now.

I'm in no way affiliated with AA Aquarium. Just a very, very happy customer of theirs.

Big East Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:33:00 +0000

All I can say so far is, "WOW!!" I'm having basketball withdrawals this afternoon since I've been watching all 4 games each day. Today we're down to 2 games, starting at 7 pm tonight.

I almost feel that the NCAA tournament is a let down after the Big East tournament. This feels like the teams are playing for the national championship. The games have all the drama and excitement.

What a week, though. With controversial finishes and last minute buzzer beaters, it's been tremendously exciting so far.

Jeffrey Ford

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:26:00 +0000

I recently finished "The Shadow Year" by Jeffrey Ford. It was unforgettable in a really quirky way. I already want to read more of his books and wish that our library had more of them.

It is an unconventional mystery story with some supernatural elements. But it's an engrossing story of childhood as well, so it was very touching.

His other books look intriguing, too. I have received one of them from Paperbackswap and will see if I can find the others.

The Paperbackswap link does include my referral id, and if you join using my link, I get 1 book credit

Boston Celtics Trades

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:13:00 +0000

I'm just a basketball fan and don't follow the NBA religiously. But I really like the team chemistry of the Boston Celtics (at least as it appears outwardly. It may be totally different than it appears to us fans).

So I'm confused about the trades from yesterday. From looking at the sports analysts, I'm not the only one. This close to the playoffs, it doesn't make sense to make such drastic changes.

But I hope Danny Ainge is looking in his crystal ball and sees something for the future. Maybe it's one of those "this will hurt now, but will be better in the long run" deals.

Jack McDevitt

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:41:00 +0000

I love books about time travel, and this one was great. It had so many time travel loops going that it was mind-blowing.

The story is that Shel and his friend, Dave, journey through time in search of Shel's missing physicist-father.

The book's ending was wonderful, too. I was telling my kids about it the other day. We were discussing undiscovered literature and how would you know if you stumbled on a "new" play or manuscript by a famous author. And that's all I'll say so I don't give anything away.

Removable Wall Decals

noreply@blogger.com (Janet) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:43:00 +0000

My current project of interest is finding some kind of decoration for my great room. I'm interested in removable vinyl art, so I don't have to nail a gazillion holes in the wall.

I found these wall quotes at Kohl's, and I'm sure other places have them as well. I'd like to try them and see how they look over doors and over my sofa.

I'd also like to find a beach scene wall decal, maybe 3 feet by 3 feet for my bathroom. I've been scouring the search engines but haven't found yet. So I'll keep looking.