Review: NOVICA

Because we lack space in our house, I don't get the chance to collect treasured knickknacks during our travels.   When I think of souvenirs, I think tacky refrigerator magnets and shot glasses.  Face it though, I'm 11 years post college not in college anymore.  I'm an adult with a husband and a toddler and a mortgage and my taste in memoirs and collectibles needs a touch of sophistication.  Enter NOVICA.

From their website:

Our Mission

We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.

At the deepest essence of our philosophy, we want to create a bridge between you and the many talented artisans across the globe.

We want you to know about who you're buying from. We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it.

In the spirit of the Internet, let us bring you together.
NOVICA. The World is Your Market.

Basically, from wherever my laptop is currently residing in my house the comfort of my tidy and orderly home office, I can browse the globe for unique gifts, home decor, jewelry and more by artisans worldwide.

The NOVICA website is fairly easy to navigate - I am able to browse by category, and further break down my choices by style, material, color and even price.  I especially appreciate that last option - it allows me to avoid even looking at anything too expensive for our budget.  I have a feeling it's going to be difficult to choose just what to order from among my favorites.

 

If I wasn't a Florida girl (where it's perpetually 1,000 degrees) and it didn't make me so itchy, I might purchase one of these gorgeous wool scarves.  I certainly wouldn't be able to make one on my own with the Knifty Knitter.  Okay, I might be able to make one, but it wouldn't look like this.

Hand knit Alpaca wool scarf - Andes

I typically don't wear any jewelry other than my wedding ring, however the simplicity of this sterling silver charm bracelet really caught my eye.

Sterling silver charm bracelet 'Angel Heart' - Mexico

I do have a bad habit of collecting handbags, but sticking with the same one for daily use.  This one inspires me to switch things up.

Cotton batik shoulder bag - Chocolate Bouquet - Bali & Java

NOVICA has recently launched a new home-based selling company, NOVICA Live.  Just like me, I'm sure you find it difficult to press the "confirm order" button during online shopping when you don't have a product in front of you to see with your own eyes or fondle handle to get a feel for the quality and craftsmanship.  NOVICA Live solves that problem by "bringing handcrafted items into homes across the nation, creating a unique, interactive shopping experience through fun, lively home parties".  Consider becoming a NOVICA Live consultant if you're looking for an innovative way to earn or supplement your income.  Starter kits are only $199 and include more than $400 worth of samples and $150 of business and presentation materials.  If you choose to apply, please be sure to indicate that you heard about NOVICA Live through this blog - http://mungeeandme.blogspot.com - in the 'additional comments' section (Thank you in advance!)

To keep up with NOVICA, “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Disclosure: I received an online gift code to shop at NOVICA and share my experience.  No further compensation was received.  All opinions are my own.

Shopaholic

I just found out about this site today - Heartsy ... It's like Groupon or LivingSocial, but it's for Etsy.  Hide your wallets, friends, this could be dangerous!

How cute is the little Heartsy monster?!

New York City! - Part 1

Sunday - 6.27.10

This time a week ago, I was on a direct flight to New York City (rather I was when I started writing this post at 9 am on Sunday).  It was the first time I've traveled by plane since my honeymoon in March 2008.  It was also the first time I was away from Mungee for more than a few hours.

My best friend is a category manager for a major grocery store chain, and therefore attends several food-related trade shows a year.  She's invited me to go along on this trip previously, however, there's always been something preventing me from going.  Last year I was 34 weeks pregnant.  The year before that, I think the trip fell during DH's birthday weekend.  A few months back she emailed me and said, "You're going with me this year.  Mungee will be almost 11 months old, so you'll probably have her weaned by then, or her Pa can give her some formula".  I nervously excitedly booked a ticket.

We arrived at the airport and immediately made our way to the taxi line.  Neither of us checked luggage so we avoided the baggage claim area altogether (definitely a smart move).  We got to the hotel and our room wasn't ready yet, so I changed outfits in the bathroom (I'm resourceful like that).  We made our way to a kosher restaurant (oh, did I mention that my best friend keeps strict kosher, so NYC is like a smorgasbord for her - we have ZERO kosher restaurants where we live).  Aforementioned kosher restaurant was not where it was supposed to be and we didn't have the map of other nearby kosher restaurants with us, so we wound up a little behind schedule and had less time available to spend way too much money in browse around F.A.O. Schwartz.  That was probably a good thing.

 

We had to leave the toy store to make our way to see these guys:

Have you seen them?  It was a great show, but the theater was small - as in, your knees were in the neck of the person in front of you. I'd recommend seeing it in a bigger venue.

After the show ended, we cabbed it (I'm SO New York) back to the hotel and changed for dinner with my friend's colleague's vendor.  We ate at Solo, which is located in the atrium of the Sony Building.  Solo is a swanky, upscale kosher restaurant.  It was absolutely delicious.  As I usually do, when other people are paying I ate way too much.  Normally I take a picture of my meals at fancy restaurants but I didn't want to seem like a dork unprofessional since this was a business dinner.

After dinner we walked around Times Square and visited Hershey's, the m&m's store and Toys 'R Us.  Did you know there is a full-size Ferris Wheel there?

Here we are in Times Square.  

(One of the rare occasions I wear my hair down)

 

P.S.  I am actually taller than my friend in real life.  Yes, it was necessary to mention that.

 

  

Image Source

By this time, it was after 11 pm.  We headed back to our hotel, where we met up with my friend's colleague and a couple of the people we had dined with earlier.  They were having a drink and shooting the breeze, but we were too tired to hang for very long.  We went up to the room to turn in for the night.

New York City! - Part Two - Coming Soon

An Anomoly or a Break for Mommy?

I'm hesitant to say anything for fear that it may have been a fluke, but yesterday, Mungee took two 1.5+ hour naps in her crib and slept through the night.  DH put her to bed (which is spectacular since I've been nursing her to sleep for months) so I could go to the 2nd Annual National Mom's Nite Out at my local mall.

I met up with my mom and we sampled some items from the few vendors who were set up in the center court of the mall.  It was hardly transformed into "mom central" as the event listing had put it.  I had planned on going by myself, which would have wound up being pretty boring, so I'm lucky my mom decided to meet me there.

What trip to the mall would be complete without some retail therapy?  We headed to NY&Company, which is having a 50% off the entire store sale through this weekend.  I tried on several pairs of shorts and some camisoles (mine are all way too short and ride up over my post-baby blump  - bump, lump, whatever you want to call it).  After picking out what I wanted, my mom suggested we ask the cashiers to hold it so I could go check on another size.  She took the clothes to the checkout counter and I went to the front of the store to look for another pair of shorts.  When I came back up to the counter, she was buying my clothes!  "Surprise!  Happy 1st Mother's Day!"  "Thanks Mom!"  To which she replied, "Now let's go get my gift :)"

Mom wanted a new bundt cake pan (boooondt cake - quick, name the movie!), so we went to Williams-Sonoma, where we sampled virgin (boo) sangria and lemon cupcakes.  They had a pretty nice bundt pan, but my mom felt bad about asking for it since it was a little pricey.  I said we'd go look somewhere else and if we didn't find another one she liked we'd come back for that one.  We did wind up finding another one for much less, but it looked and felt like it should cost much less.  Back to Williams-Sonoma for the pricier, yet much better quality pan.

Mom's night out turned out to be a nice night hanging out and bonding with my mom.  It wasn't what I envisioned when I initially asked DH for a break ... it was better. 

On an unrelated note, I found a booger in Mungee's belly button when I was changing her diaper before her morning nap.  I am not even going to try and figure out how that got there.

Setting Off the Sprinklers

A while back, Mungee set off the sprinkler system at JCPenney's. 

Well, sort of.

Before I figured out when Mungee needed to take a nap in the morning, Mondays were our "mall day".  She typically would fall asleep in the stroller after we walked around for a while.  Since we would spend several hours at the mall, I needed to nurse her at some point.  I found a large dressing room at JCPenney and the feeding commenced.  

This particular dressing room had a loud chime to alert the salespeople whenever a customer entered or exited.  Just as I felt my milk let down, the chime went off and Mungee quickly detached from my breast to check out the noise.  I looked down and saw what appeared to be a thin white hair on my nipple.  I proceeded to pick it off, then realized that it was actually milk spraying out!  I couldn't help but laugh.  I had been nursing her for at least 6 months at this point and this had never happened before.

As Mungee becomes increasingly curious about the world and is easily distracted when she's nursing, this has happened several more times.  It's usually when I'm trying to watch TV or when her Pa enters the room.

Nursing moms, tell me about your breastfeeding snafus.  We've all had at least one.