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Odds and Ends No. 9

1. BOOT SHAPERS. You guys, why did it take me 37 years to buy boot shapers? I formally bid adieu to the days of stuffing random cardboard or rolled-up socks or umbrellas in my boots in hopes that they stand up.

2. Spring has sprung, and it’s time to clean out my closet again. Just like Jessica, I am all about the closet clean up right now. Luckily, Christine at Boston Mamas has the best article on effectively cleaning out your closet.

3. MOUSSE. I’m telling you right now, if you have issues with your hair holding curl or falling flat mid-day, don’t be afraid of mousse! Forget the 80s stigma and bring mousse back into your regimen. Reagan from Hairdresser on Fire has a great post on her favorite mousses at Divine Caroline.

4. The winner from my Gilt giveaway is Laura.

Congratulations, Laura! I’ll be in touch shortly.

5. Wito hates green food, and I’m hoping for some commiseration at What in the Whoorld. (He keeps telling me that he will like vegetables when he is eight years old, so I just need to lay off.)

6. I love this post by Sarah Brown on home decor. Hilarious, so true, and made my husband fist-pump. Danielle Henderson’s quote could have come straight out of D’s mouth. Collect things that are meaningful to YOU. (For instance, a Hungarian spatula or a 20th century wash basin….)

7. Drumroll, please. For those of you who have Kindles and an Amazon Prime account, have you heard of the Kindle Lending Library? Greatest program EVER. (First things first, if you buy tons of stuff at Amazon, you simply must pay the $79 annual fee and become an Amazon Prime member. You get free 2-day shipping on almost everything, access to a bazillion movies and television shows streamed to your computer for free, and now, instant (FREE) access to Kindle books. It’s the best 79 bucks I’ve spent.) Anyway, instead of buying Kindle books, you can borrow one a month, with no due date. Amazon, I love you. (So does my lonely, dusty Kindle.)

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14 comments
  1. curlystraight

    March 25, 2012 at 9:32 am

    What boot shapers did you buy? I have been coveting them, but all the good quality ones are upwards of $30 or so and let’s just say that I have many, many boots and think it’s crazy spending $300 or more on boot shapers.

    I’m currently stuffing my boots with magazines, which kind of works. But some floppiness is still happening.

    • whoorl

      March 25, 2012 at 11:49 am

      The ones I linked to are the ones I bought. They work great.

  2. Ashley

    March 25, 2012 at 10:33 am

    Have you tried explaining to Wito that The Hulk (Superman and of course the fuel that Lightning McQueen uses) all consume green veggies? Not that it will work for sure, but if you explain that you just discovered that McQueen is soooo fast because his “organic fuel” is made from green veggies primarily. It’s pretty amazing actually :)

    We find that using our imaginations with our girls has worked wonders. We told them that quinoa was rice’s cousin and it wouldn’t be fair to like rice and not his cousin. One dinner later and they were hooked, same goes for bulgar and squash of course is awesome to eat because it makes us jump higher.

    And also, I never even thought about stuffing my boots – my bra yes, boots no. Awesome tip!

  3. Roxanna

    March 25, 2012 at 11:52 am

    I love that post on home decor. Thanks for sharing it!

    Also I love Amazon + Amazon Prime + Kindle lending library more than I care to admit. I know Amazon is upposed to be evil, but they are so damn convenient.

  4. Heidi/The Closet Coach

    March 25, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    I was on the hunt for boot shapers when I friend sent me a style hack blog post about using rolled-up magazines. I’ve had better luck with them than curlystraight. I think the trick is to get a magazine of sufficient thickness. A big, heavy mag rolled up has worked like a charm for me. Whatever the option, definitely the way to go instead of letting boots go all floppy!

    And an amen to spring closet clean-outs–or at any other time of the year. If you follow the 1×3 rule for new purchases (each new thing in must replace one old thing going out, and it should work with 3 other things in your closet), it’s a necessity!

    • whoorl

      March 26, 2012 at 9:42 am

      Love that tip, Heidi!

  5. Rachel

    March 26, 2012 at 4:43 am

    Here’s my dilemma with mousse: have very fine hair, but a lot of it, so I have always used mousse as everything else weighs it down too much. Problem is, I like to air dry my hair + use the mousse and my hair always ends up crunchy. What a problem, right? But do you have any suggestions to getting rid of the crunchiness? TIA!

    • whoorl

      March 26, 2012 at 9:44 am

      Oh, that’s tough. If you are going to air dry, be sure you aren’t using too much product. That’s almost always the culprit in regards to the crunchiness factor.

      Also, using your fingers a bit more to style during the drying process should soften the “crunch.”

  6. ambient

    March 26, 2012 at 9:20 am

    I drank the Prime Kool-Aid years ago when it was just the shipping deal, so all the recent add-ons are great…but I have gotten ZERO use out of the Lending Library. They say it’s 100,000 books, but there are a whole lot of books in the world. Nothing I want to read is ever eligible! (Also, a bizarrely high number are cookbooks. Tiny Kindle screen + dirty hands + electronics in the kitchen = who buys these?)

    I have noticed that there is a good bit of overlap between the Lending Library and the daily deal emails (where an ebook is reduced to $0.99 or $1.99). If you are interested in the daily deal but probably would only read it once, check whether it’s available for borrowing. Yes it’s only a dollar or two, but it’s still money saved. I also appreciate the full disclosure on their part — clicking on the daily deal first takes you to a splash page that contains yesterday’s price.

  7. summer

    March 26, 2012 at 9:45 am

    A while back I read somewhere that empty wine bottles work great as boot shapers. Would have never thought of that but *ahem* I had a few empty wine bottles around and wouldn’t you know it works like a charm!

    • whoorl

      March 27, 2012 at 11:22 am

      GENIUS!!

  8. Megan

    March 26, 2012 at 10:23 am

    Also, please look for Kindle books from your local library. Free with a library card.

    • whoorl

      March 27, 2012 at 11:22 am

      ALSO, GENIUS!

  9. Andrea

    March 26, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    I was just about to mention the public library option – but looks like someone just beat me to it, check and see if yours is online!