Whatever happened to the days when you just had a pile of building blocks and you used your imagination to build something? Now it’s all planned out and all you’re doing is putting it together – like a 3D jigsaw puzzle.

A few weeks ago now, I was at Coles and saw Season 1 and grabbed it. Oh my god, the show is hilarious!! It’s one of the best written comedies I’ve seen in a long time, and it’s a little scary that when they’re talking techy, I can understand most of it.

I just finished watching a couple of episodes in season 2 and noticed some product placement for one of the natural cleaning products we sell, Seventh Generation. I’ve seen it twice on TBBT now – the laundry powder (which we don’t sell) and the all purpose spray. I have also seen Seventh Generation on Desperate Housewives, Friends and a couple of other shows.

It’s nice to see natural products in product placement on TV shows. It shows a change in the tide when it comes to what kind of brands and products spend the big $ on advertising. Bring it on and slowly change the world!!

On the flip side, I was a little disappointed to see them drinking bottled water in the same episode. Now if only someone like Klean Kanteen, America’s first stainless steel water bottle manufacturer would shell out some ad dollars for a spot on a show like this too……

A 17 year old had been smoking pot for 2 years (around 400 times in total) and around half of those times, using a bong made from a plastic water bottle. Sometimes the bottle burned and the teen was nervous about getting cancer from the bottle as he’d only just found out that smoking was bad for you …..

Oh my god, I really don’t know where to start. 400 bongs in 2 years for a 17 year old. Let’s start at:-

• how did he pay for them?
• who was supervising this teen?
• what does 400 bongs do to a 15-17 year old brain?
• how pure or well grown was the pot?

My advice is simple.

1. STOP SMOKING POT
2. If you insist on continuing to do so, stop using plastic water bottles to make a home made bong. If you can buy pot,  you can go buy a glass bong you idiot!

As you know, I run an online store, and anything that makes online retail look bad really pisses me off.

Scoopon is run by the same people who run Catch Of The Day. I’m a Catch Of The Day customer, multiple times. I only ever had one ‘bad experience’ but that was with the product not the service. I bought a crappy USB turntable that didn’t spin properly and it was just crap. I returned it. They paid the postage and gave me credit for it.

I have used Scoopon twice now. Booked accommodation with one (no trouble booking it) and also bought a meal at The Orient in Sydney. Haven’t used that one yet, but I can’t see The Orient turning people away.

The list of complaints I’ve read about Living Social is mind boggling. Just go follow them on Facebook and read away.

Remember, if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. These sites are a graveyard for shitty stock that doesn’t sell and businesses throwing one last ditch effort at getting customers before they close their doors. Not all offers are like this, but many are, and it takes a savvy web shopper to spot the difference.

Proceed with caution.

Read more at news.com.au

Cheeki Water Bottles

I’m so glad I have staff!!

This week we received over 800 new sports lids for the cheeki water bottles that are going to be given away free with each regular bottle, so the girls had to not only count the lids, but now we have to attach them to the bottles!!

In other news, I signed up this week as an Enjo consultant. If you want anything, just holler. I can place orders for you or do a demo in your house. That’s right, invite your friends over and watch them clean your house It’s a neat trick!!

Myer can’t be doing it all that tough if they can afford to renovate ONE store at $225 million and still see a return on their investment. One would guess that Dick didn’t spend anywhere near that on their web site.

It’s not hard to see who the innovators are.

Also, a big congratulations to the two ad agencies that now get to suck oodles of money back of out them to re-make their marketing strategy. Now, if you had just told the truth the first time around ………….

Read more at news.com.au

Instead, I see the following:-

“As much as I know you’d like to stay in your Peter Alexander Pyjamas all day, I’ve heard about this amazing offer from Just Jeans!”

Underneath, a Just Jeans ad for $20 off Levi’s Curve ID.

Note to the marketing staff, unless you’d put it on a poster and stick it in the front window of your shops, this third party ad has NO PLACE in your newsletter or in my inbox. I’m guessing I’m not the only person pissed off by this advertising, and I’ll be unsubscribing now. I used to spend at least $200 a year with your company, however, for the past couple of seasons, not a huge fan of the new direction your range has taken.

I’m off to David Jones to grab some JAG basics to wear to bed, and if I want another pair of Levi’s, David Jones has a much better offer this month.

I have just written the following to Peter Alexander.

“Please remove my email address from your mailing list. If I want Just Jeans ads, I’ll sign up for them.

I tried to unsubscribe myself, but your system forces me to login to do this, and when I requested my password be resent, it didn’t come through.

This is a very poor piece of marketing and I am very disappointed. Would you put a Just Jeans ad up in the window of your store? I think not. So why are you sending it to me in a newsletter………

Joanne Musgrave”

Now let’s wait to see if they’re interested in trying to satisfy or convert someone who used to be a loyal customer and big spender.

When we just happened to mention Jaina turns 1 on 28th September, they said “So does Banjo”. We then discovered they were from the same litter and we hung around to chat and play for about half an hour.

I’ve been eating all kinds of things, organic cookies, organic chocolate, sweet potato chips, chocolate coconut butter and more. Whoever said ‘hippy’ organic food is all bland and tasteless hasn’t taken an eating tour through my warehouse!!!

The fun now starts with using raw ingredients in cooking. I have brought home a packet of Power Super Foods Organic Coconut Palm Sugar to bake with. It has a IG rating of 35 and contains 12 amino acids, and it tastes like sugar. Woohoo!!

As my naturopath says, it’s all about substitution. You can still eat sweet foods without them being bad for you. Swap out some cane sugar with coconut palm sugar and see what happens.