BJ's Artful Shopper Blog

Credit card tricks: Auto pay in full

2008-01-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here's some information more people need to know about:

You CAN set up automatic credit card payments that pay your ENTIRE credit card balance.

The HOW TO is below....

Backstory:
I was ready to drop my credit card company because their website's only automatic monthly payment option was for the minimum payment. I wanted to pay the full balance automatically. I had called my credit company numerous times, asking if an automatic "pay in full" website option was available. Their response was, "No, but that is a frequent request."

I did some web research and found out that my credit card company DID have an automatic "pay in full" service all along but they simply didn't offer it online. Not once did the credit card company offer this service over the phone when I called to ask about the online payments, but that's another story.

How do you do set up automatic payments in full?
Some credit cards offer this option on their payment pages. If yours doesn't, call your credit card company and ask for them to send you an automatic "pay in full" form in the snail mail. The form (I haven't received it yet) according to other folks on the web, requires you to attach a voided check.

Research before you sign
I have learned that the "automatic payment in full" option may cost money. Fortunately, my credit card offers this free, as a "courtesy service."

Why do the credit card companies make this information so difficult to find out? Credit card companies make money off of missed payments and partial payments. They don't want to make it easy for you to automatically pay off your credit card each month. Then, more people would do this and they'd lose revenue.

Where did you find out about this?
First, I found this blog post where someone discusses the same situation. Then, I found this discussion on FatWallet.com.

Overhead Lighting: What's next in artisan-inspired home furnishings

2008-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I'm convinced that the big thing in home furnishings is (you read it here first) OVERHEAD LIGHTING.

Hipsters of the '00's agonize over their Benjamin Moore choice, spend hours on the DWR website and even source switchplates for their room makeovers, but when it comes to lighting, the s.o.p. is to grab some Target floor/table lamps and not to turn on the overhead. EVER.

Shoot, even design*sponge talks about their crappy ceiling fixture.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of way cool lights out there, but...

1. $ - Really hip lighting is expensive (just check out this other design*sponge post)
2. Installation - Painting is easy. Electricity can scare novices.
3. $ again = Most non-designer lighting flower hell
4. DIY - Fewer people have the guts to attempt to make their own milk bottle chandelier

So, my prediction is that, starting in '08, a few boutique houses and artists will begin offering great overhead lighting for decent prices AND the figurative lightbulb will literally appear overhead for middle to high-income 20- and 30-somethings.

Here's to wishful thinking!

Apartment Therapy overload

2008-01-01T12:27:00.001-08:00

Apartment Therapy, I love you and I hate you. You are my new HGTV, and, damn it, I like it. We don't have cable TV anymore, so I've started spending time with you, an edgier, quickly-updated home improvement timesucker.

You are far more time consuming than HGTV ever was, damn you, with your archives and links and photo galleries. When that fabulous House Hunters show was over, I'd just turn off the TV. But you, Apartment Therapy, you force me to click-click-click night after night, while the guy who sleeps on the other side of the bed has to suffer with his a pillow over his head.

You first sounded your siren song while I was down. I should have known enough to turn away quickly, but alas it was love at first sight. I was frustrated about the living room, how it was so long and so narrow and we had too much furniture...Oh, you've heard it all before.

You've taught me so many terms, given me virtual tours of so many houses, shown me that I truly am an incompetent interior decorator. And, for that, I am grateful.

So, as an homage to you, I have created something that is quite familiar with your genre - a list. A list! On the internet? Why, yes.

So, without further ado, a list I could have only put together after guidance from a wise teacher: Apartment Therapy...

Liz's list of annoying interior touches:

1. Chalkboard paint - It's so '96
2. Anything from DWR (Yes, we do own a set of lime green DWR armchairs but we did procure them at the warehouse sale tres cheap.)
3. Anything from IKEA
4. Those damn annoying (Well...I DO like the Keith Haring Blik ones) wall stickers - They're Holly Hobby wallpaper borders of the 2000's.
5. How IKEA chic has TOTALLY replaced Pottery Barn chic.
6. Clustered photographs on a wall (Silly me, I actually want to do this in our house)
7. Subway tile and built-in floor-to-ceiling shelving (Who am I kidding? i LOVE subway tile and built-ins)

And, while I'm on a roll

What I do like about Apartment Therapy:

1. Everything, even everything on the aforementioned "annoying interior touches" list
2. AT's love of small spaces, simplicity and/or sensory overload
3. The fabulous slideshows
4. The term BoMo - bohemian modern. This is the look I am still hoping to recreate in the guest bedroom...someday.
5. How AT allows me to live vicariously. I don't really need to spend hour upon hour leafing through the CB2 catalogue, soaking up design*sponge, attending flea markets and going trash picking when I can just spend time admiring the finished products on AT.
6. How it inspires me to fix up my place, which, after two years, doesn't feel as put together as our first home should. Perhaps AT's editors would find the moving box that's used as a coffee table in our guest bedroom to be a charming touch. I'll call the style BoNo: moving box nouveau.

2008 trends

2007-12-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

2005 was the year of prefab hipster materialism (vespas and IKEA)
2006 was the year of shop local
2007 was the year of buy handmade
2008 will be the year of collaborative crafts

Google checkout is AWESOME (from the purchaser's perspective)

2007-11-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

My first experience with Google checkout was awesome. I bought a print from BlueFlipArt, which, I think, I found on Dooce's links list. (I haven't been able to find Dooce's links list since she redesigned.)

The process was TOO easy. I somehow - and this is the scary part - I don't remember when - I put my credit card info into GoogleCheckout. So, I picked the print I wanted (this one, in case you're wondering) and I clicked buy. The page changed to show me a total and to say that it was going to use my card with card number x and I clicked ok (or buy, or something like that.)

This reminds me of Amazon's 1-click shopping, pioneered so many years ago, but the beauty was that I'd never shopped at BlueFlipArt before and it already knew me. (Oh, and speaking of Amazon, I don't know when they redesigned, but for perhaps the first time EVER, Amazon is uncluttered. Of course, I'm having difficulty getting to them as of 3:20 p.m.)

I guess you could say the same about buying something via PayPal, which I also did this weekend, but for some reason, the PayPal process wasn't as quick or efficient. It was basically the same thing but a crappier user interface perhaps.

Honeybaked Ham and Biggs - a great combo

2007-10-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

Honeybaked Ham makes, among other things, a mean turkey breast. It's a great dinner treat and if there's any left, it works well in lunches, too.

Unfortunately, Honeybaked Ham's retail locations just don't work for me - I live in Hyde Park and scooting over to Kenwood by 7 p.m. isn't convenient.

So, perhaps it's for folks like me that Honeybaked has teamed up with Bigg's, my local grocery store. I am a loyal Bigg's shopper - there's something about Kroger that rankles me.

I know I'll be buying more Honeybaked products soon!

From Liz: Consumer Reports' faux pas

2007-01-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

I used to be a Consumer Reports devotee. We've turned to their ratings before making some of the biggest purchases of our life: our car and our daughter's carseat.

Now, I'm not so sure I can trust them.

I don't mind a rare retracted report. I was surprised, but what got to me is the fact they shoppped out the testing.

So much for my vision of the Consumer Reports organization, which I guess down deep I knew was too good to be true: people in lab coats and goggles carrying clipboards and peeking over bubbling Pyrex flasks.

From Liz: I love Dogbone Art

2007-01-19T20:19:00.000-08:00

Laura's Dogbone Art is cute done right.

She sells on Etsy, but check her out through her primary URL, Laurasdogboneart.com.

Three Squares

2006-08-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Three Squares
I couldn't pass them up. Hot pink, embroidered fabric, origin unknown. In each, a spiral of life, with delicate spring green accents along the edges. They had been cut from another fabric, maybe a garment, maybe a quilt. They were absolutely irresistible. But why, my husband asked, mystified by the way in which I was drawn to them. "Look," I said, after dragging him into the funky fabric shop in Taos, New Mexico. "What do you suppose they are?" It was a rhetorical question. All the while, my hand was searching though my purse.
He shrugged, mildly irritated. "Why do you care? Why does it matter?"
"Well, someone, somewhere, made them. Perhaps they made more than these three. They beg to be considered."
"You could say that about most anything," he stated, more irritated, and now claustrophobic. "Carburetors, for instance. Wheel bearings" Each to his own.
The tiny shop had fabric racks on every wall, while the middle of the shop was crammed full of buttons and threads, and quilt squares, and books and needles and every sort of sewing paraphanalia, displayed like a bazaar at the Kasbah. "Anyway, you don't even have a sewing machine. I can't get you to mend my socks or sew on my missing buttons!"
"That is an entirely different thing," I retorted, finally locating the outlines of my wallet. "Look, if you're uncomfortable in here, why don't you go across the way and look in the antique map place? I'll catch up with you in a sec. This place feels like Shangra La to me. I feel the need to roll around in here a few minutes more, soak it all up, touch everything, examine it all once more, to remember it forever. Go, go go! I know you hate it in here. Go!" And so he did, a knowing look on his face. He knows me so well.
I went back to the sales desk, and pulled out my wallet, and, darned, bought these three beautiful hand-embroidered squares. For what? Who knew? It was like true love. One glance, and you know. I just had to have them. They slid into my big purse so nicely, flat against the side.They were mine now. I know I glowed in a way that had nothing to do with the stuffy little shop's thermostat. There were three possibilities in my possession, and I was gleeful. My friend, the sculptor Stewart Fink always says that two is a question and three is an answer. They were, indeed an answer.
Today, I had to sew on a button, and there they were. My three little pink squares. I had almost forgotten about them. They are as ravishing today as they were then. But something has changed. Now, there is Anna, our fabulous grandbaby, only three and a half months old. Who knew she was coming back then? So now, the squares are going to be for her. They'll be pockets or decoration on some beautiful outfit. It's a matter of gilding the lily, of course, but, I knew they'd be just the thing some day! Shop on!

Shopping Good Health

2006-08-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

I feel like today, I made a smart decision. It was the day of my yearly mammogram. This is always a nerve-wracking day for me. My appointment was for 2:15. Like a good girl, I arrived 15 minutes early, so that I could fill out paperwork, etc. But when I arrived, the office was bursting at the seams.

The waiting patients were squirming, drumming their fingers, and otherwise looking angry and impatient. I asked around. Turns out there was a good hour's wait! After being told at the window that they were way behind because they were short-staffed, I asked if I would be seen within the hour. No one could assure me that I could. In fact, when I looked at the list, I noticed five other people signed up for 2:15, too.

Then the woman at the window brightened--"Oh, you're next" she said. I looked. I was not next, I was three people away from being called--just to register, not for the mammogram. "Sorry," I told the lady at the desk. I'll have to pass. This puts me way behind schedule." And so, I left.

Forgetting for a moment about the inconvenience to my schedule, and the poor scheduling and the bad business practices, what concerned me was something far more important. I didn't want my mammogram performed by someone operating under the pressure of an out-of-control day. When my mammogram films are read, I want them read not in the crush of overscheduling, but with due consideration.

So I walked out. Sure, I'm as impatient as anyone. Too many doctors overschedule, presumably to deal with no-shows. My rule of thumb is to wait a half hour and then to walk, out of simple scheduling problems. Sure, I get angry when the medical profession implies that their time is more important than your time. But this was a quality control issue. Don't you think?

A Brand New Shopping Blog !

2006-08-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Artful Shopper Blog! For starters, let me introduce myself. I am BJ Foreman, and I'm a life-long shopper. Never you worry about how long this life is, just know that I consider myself a shopping expert.

A few years back, I was "The Artful Shopper," a weekly columnist at the Cincinnati Post, writing about new products and services, and examining the way in these were delivered by merchants. After a while on this side of the fence, I found myself on the other side! Through a family tragedy, I became president of Boris Litwin Jewelers, a fourth-generation Cincinnati business. To be honest, I wasn't a rank beginner. I had helped my dad and brother as a teen, in college, and even when I was a full-time journalist, if they needed help at lunch or on weekends. For many years, I fence-sat, juggling my journalism side and my retail side.

Finally I fell off the fence and was a retailer full-time. In the nine and a half years I've been carrying on the family's traditions, I've brought new twists of my own, too. I'd like to think that the values I prized as a shopping columnist, I have brought to our already well-regarded shop.

The shocker for me was the very bad manners of shoppers towards our business. Also, after becoming what I think is a sensitive retailer, when I am the shopper now, I really want be treated well by the businesses I patronize.

And so, I decided, with urging from my internet-savvy daughter, to take my applause and gripes to the internet, to spread the news of great stories and to warn of bad service and lousy shopping manners. I hope you'll visit this blog from time to time, and let me know your opinions, too. Tell me about great new products, times when you are pleasantly surprised by service. Maybe together we can make a difference in the way things are done! Thanks for visiting!

BJ Foreman