When Shopping Siren was but a shopping girl, she loved the back-to-school season. Should she get the Trapper Keeper with a tiger on it or the one with a hot-air balloon? The blue pencil box or the red one? Fat markers or thin? It was a shopping girl’s dream. But as important as those school-supply […]
bliss thru shopping
Bliss Thru Shopping: Read it, watch it, hear it! Our summer picks.
First, Bag Lady has to apologize, profusely. She didn’t tell you how amazing the Netflix series “Wet Hot American Summer” is sooner because she didn’t know. Maybe you don’t know, either. That ends now. The show — and Bag Lady’s insistence that Shopping Siren start watching it NOW. But she was in the middle of […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: Quick, the house guests are coming!
While folding laundry this week, Bag Lady couldn’t help but notice her kitchen towels had been gnawed on by hyenas. Like, a whole surly pack of them. There were inexplicable holes, ragged edges and tatters, so much so in one instance that the towel no longer met the dictionary definition of a towel but had […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: Tick off
Shopping Siren used to love walking through the forest. It was serene there, surrounded by the chittering of small woodland creatures, the heavy scent of pine, the dappled light that played through the trees. Then came the ticks. Now she finds parking lots serene. Or at least blood-sucker-free. Which is a kind of serenity, if […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: Back next week!
The shopping ladies are on vacation this week, woo-hooing at pool boys, scouring outlets for deals and enjoying a few amazing reads. Or, Bag Lady and Shopping Siren are, right now, ignoring a mounting to-do list, wondering if the lawn needs to be mowed (when does neighbor-shaming kick in? When the grass is 4 inches? […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: 10 bucks or bust!
As longtime shopping devotees, Bag Lady and Shopping Siren know there are a handful of universal retail experiences. The triumph of exact change. Marshalling every stealth-ninja skill you have to surreptitiously peruse the checkout lane tabloids (WHAT? Ben and Jen are done?!). Wanting to throttle the person who was in the dressing room before you […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: Geek chic
Shopping Siren is a geek. There. Someone had to say it. I am both a traditional geek (I get every science joke in “Big Bang Theory.” All. Of. Them.) and a nouveau geek (comes with a penchant for words like “nouveau.” Also, “penchant.”). It used to be embarrassing, this enthusiasm for things/ideas/entertainment that were less than popular. But now I […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: From creme to kale
So you think you know someone — like, know them pretty darn well — and then you discover that they, too, hate coleslaw. Then it just reaffirms that, yes, you were totally meant to be friends. Such was the case for Bag Lady and Shopping Siren, who bonded all over again over their mutual slaw […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: The bold, the bothered and the sleepless
There is no better way to pass 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. than with a ladybug in your smoke detector. The trick, I suppose, is not to figure out she’s there until 3:59 a.m., at which point you’re thoroughly wondering why your house hasn’t burned down already, because clearly, it wants to. That was our […]
Bliss Thru Shopping: Americana chic perfect for Mother’s Day
The sign out front, off Center Street in Auburn, says Bear Necessities Primitives. Online, it’s referred to as The Bear Necessities and Old Farmhouse Primitives, a sort of two-in-one combo. Call it what you will. It’s Americana chic meets 1800s rustic, minus the risk of cholera. In a great way. Located in a converted home […]