1. Popcorn at the Home Depot
This might be the single most exciting development in customer satisfaction efforts I’ve ever been fortunate enough to be a part of. On Monday Brian and I went to the Home Depot to look at some storm doors, which is a thrill ride in and of itself, obviously. So imagine how jacked up we were (ok, I was) to discover a vendor handing out bags of hot popcorn right at the entrance to the store! No strings attached! Man do I love the Home Depot.
If more people walked around giving strangers bags of popcorn, and if we could in turn eat these bags of popcorn with no fear that the strangers had laced them with anthrax, the world would be a happier place. Also more buttery hands, which is kind of gross, but on the whole a happier world if you want my opinion on it.
2. 3 Sprouts Storage Boxes
I’m a huge fan of 3 Sprouts products. The toy storage boxes appeal to my sense of childhood whimsy and my anal-retentiveness, which is a tricky combo. They also satisfy my grand home design visions of having a cute and orderly play room, so that even if I can’t cook or clean properly, and even if I shrink 9 out of 10 sweaters in the dryer, I can still obtain a level of domestic success. These bins say “This is a house where form and function unite in perfect harmony.” Ok these bins don’t say jack shit, but they are really cute and they do hold a lot of crap that would otherwise be on your floor. So there’s that.
3 Sprouts makes equally adorable and handy laundry bags, toy chests, etc. I love the laundry bag especially; throwing soiled onesies into it is the highlight of my laundry experience, if I were forced to choose a highlight of that experience.
3. Maternity Pants as “Everyday Pants”
It’s hard to make out my pants in this photo, but I can assure you that they’re maternity pants
I cannot overstate to you how much I love my maternity pants. Historically I’ve been a great lover of “comfy clothes,” which, if I’m being honest and taking a real hard look at myself, I would have to admit are really glorified pajamas that I wear out to social events inappropriately. I find that the line between day and night wear is often blurred for me, and I don’t make much effort to bring the distinction into sharper focus.
So now take this strongly embedded love of comfort, and also make a mental note of the trendiness of Lululemon. Perfect storm for me. I take the Lululemon trend as social sanctioning of never putting on real pants, ever. Now, I can’t really afford Lululemon pants, but what I CAN afford is to use and reuse ad nauseam my maternity pants (in a variety of brands – I’m not picky here). Done and done. They have the “give” I’m looking for. They are generally black and as everyone knows black clothes never get dirty. And best of all they don’t require me to make the effort to deal with troublesome zippers or buttons. Who has time for that? Not this guy.
4. Suburban Snapshots
My college friend Jill (Hi Jill!) has recently introduced me (virtually) to her friend and former neighbor Brenna of the super funny and popular blog Suburban Snapshots. Brenna is a photographer and a mom and a humor writer. So am I! Although Brenna has like 10,000 Facebook fans which I don’t have but hopefully will someday, at which point I will become Brenna, like in Single White Female. Where was I? Ahh yes, check out the blog Suburban Snapshots! Brenna is also on Facebook (did I mention her 10,000 fans? Go ahead and jump on that crazy train).
Oh, and watch Brenna here for a taste of her moves (spoiler alert: She is basically Beyoncé)
5. Kidoozie Press N Go Inchworm
I have to give this little inchworm credit: it was able to do what no toy has done before it, and that is propel Nolan into purposeful motion. Previously, only Cheerios have been motivation enough to get Nolan’s haunches in motion, as you may have seen in the post Mobility, Thy Name is Nolan. But over the course of the past few days Nolan’s crawling mojo has kicked in, and he seems to be realizing that the world is his oyster, and that oysters taste better than Cheerios.
Anyway, this Inchworm
And there you have it folks! The week’s hot recommendations from this luke-warm mom.
Let me know what you think about these and other products we should all check out. (i.e. Tina, thank you for alerting me to the presence of baby knee pads for wannabe crawlers. Who knew there was such a thing??)
popcorn with anything is a great idea!
It’s certainly a great idea when paired with home renovation materials.
Love the bins! Would it be tacky to register on Amazon for Lily’s first birthday?
I just read a whole thing about registering for birthdays – the best suggestion I heard was don’t register, but you could have a “wish list” on Amazon or wherever, and IF someone asks what Lily would like, you could direct them to the list. Rather than sending out a thing saying she’s registered…
Why doesn’t my Home Depot hand out free popcorn? Alas, the store near me only excels in the surly employee department. But the hope of free popcorn will keep me going back. And I love those bins! So much cuter than the boring ones I have from Target.
Yes, definitely keep going back to Home Depot until you get the popcorn. It will be well worth it, even if it takes you weeks of frustration leading up to it:)
I LOVE THOSE BINS! I registered for some for my shower secretly hoping someone else would love them as much as I do and drop an obscene amount of money on the full suite. Because who cares if they’re actually full of anything – just having them on display would give that aura of “having my s— together” as a new mom right? Oh and that inch worm is now on the registry, ready for my giant ‘completion discount’ purchase – awesome find.
BTW – my friend Mer (who you featured in a fan photo recently!) introduced me to your blog and even though my kiddo isn’t going to make her grand entrance for another month I’ve been reading – and laughing – religiously. Your fame is spreading and I hope the riches follow soon!
Hey Jess! Congrats on the upcoming baby, and I’m glad you like the blog!
I would LOVE for someone to buy me the entire 3 Sprouts line of products. They’re all ridiculously cute. We also have the big whale toy bin (in addition to the smaller bins and the laundry basket). They’re the cutest storage bins I’ve seen.
Maybe just take everything else off of your registry and focus on that one product line only. Sure your kid may not have clothes, diapers, a stroller, etc., but your house will be dazzling.
We ended up getting the whale toy chest too… mainly because K was pulling pieces off from the nicer, wicker bin we had her toys in and the whale one was available on amazon prime, but I love it! I should have gotten the bins too… instead, I got plain (read: less expensive but much more lame) bins to replace the (you guessed it) wicker ones we had on our shelves… I thought our living room looked more “grown-up” before, but since the toy bin has a lid (which the wicker one did not) it does give the illusion of cleanliness while at the same time screaming “a baby runs this house” haha
Haha, so true, “A Baby Runs This House!” That should be the sign over our door. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves…. 🙂
I love those bins. Our house is full of shelves and bins, which apparently look like targets to babies. C pulls them off constantly. Cuter bins may be even more tempting.
We got our neice’s hand-me-down inchworm, I may have to give it a try this weekend with C. He pulled up for the first time last night and I got so excited. Even though he did it with an audience of younger babies who have been crawling and standing for weeks now. Ehh, I’ll take what I can get.
Haha, I love it! C wanted to show his moves off for the younger crowd. You really can’t blame him: there comes a time in every baby’s life when the embarrassment of not meeting a milestone that babies months younger than you are meeting just becomes too much. I think that, more than even the Cheerio, is what got Nolan moving.
I tried handing out popcorn to the people who visited my house one time and the UPS guy was very confused. It could have been the popcorn or my “everyday pants” which for me translate to “oops, where are they and what day is it”.
I bet you mis-read your UPS guy’s reaction – rather than confusion, it was probably something more along the lines of sheer unadulterated joy. Of course, I’m not a UPS guy so I can’t say for sure.
I love how Nolan is giving you the side-eye in the photo at Home Depot. He’s definitely plotting how to get your popcorn.
He’s always plotting how to steal my treats Melissa! Good thing his manual dexterity is so clumsy.