Create and Share Your Looks on ShopStyle
For many women, shopping out in the real world is a social activity that involves a variety of human interactions. But with online shopping, it’s usually a solitary delight. But ShopStyle makes online shopping a social slice of heaven with a vast collection of shoes, handbags, clothing, accessories and more.
On ShopStyle, lovers of “pretty things” can create a profile and build their own stylebook. You can spend hours surfing around, favoriting all sorts of gorgeous and ridiculously expensive things that you’d want in your closet if you had an unlimited budget. From your stylebook, you can create individual looks where you combine specific items, that you can then share to ShopStyle groups and members. And if you’re really proud of your stylebook and looks, you can create a customized blog widget to share with your friends and readers.
Gone are the days of flipping through a glossy mag for fashion ideas–you can check out what people are pairing, mixing and matching on ShopStyle any time of day, any day of the week. While you’re browsing groups like Wear to Work or Express Yourself, you can rate members’ looks and save items from their ensembles to your own stylebook. It’s sort of a style-building collaboration, or having a patient, quiet, fashionable friend with you in the store.
If you’re in the mood to update your closet, get some new style ideas or pretend you can afford a huge and super-luxurious wardrobe, I’d suggest creating a profile and poking around the site. And once you join, follow my stylebook to see what looks I’m lusting after and share your must-have picks.
Happy styling!
Handbags, Really, Honey, I'm Buying This, Social Networks | Comments (5)Amanda’s Vay-Stay-Cay in a Tag Cloud
I was on vay-stay-cay for the past week, and it was just lovely and perfect and sweet. Thanks for asking.
Because you’re so darn cute, I’m going to cut you a break. In lieu of blogging about every little thing that happened last week, I’ll just share a Wordle tag cloud that highlights what went down from 10/25 – 11/2. If you need more though, and you’re my friend on Facebook or one of Greg’s contacts on Flickr, you can check out our photos–I’d say they’re worth a click or two. Even if it’s just for the dopey captions.
Back to reality, folks.
Update: Also, LOVE.
Amanda, Buzzing Bees, Honey | Comment (0)Today’s Honey: October 1, 2008
It’s been a while since we’ve had some good honey. I love this dance and song, so I wanted to share it with y’all. Emily Shock and Applause Studios are an inspiration–every routine tells a story in the most beautiful, intricate way. I’m Amanda Gravel, and this is what I like.
Song: Near to You by A Fine Frenzy
SM4SC & U
This week, my dear friend Rebecca Corliss told me a bit about Social Media for Social Change (SM4SC), and what the new organization is up to. I think it’s great.
SM4SC is an online grassroots movement started by Boston’s Gradon Tripp to rally social media participants and influencers in support of a common cause. We’re all using new media and marketing tools to talk about brands, products, services, business… The focus here is on social change and helping people.
Gradon and the group tell a pretty inspiring story: “SM4SC is powered by the influence that individual people have within their own online communities to work together and make something happen. We’re utilizing the communal nature of the Internet, which can cause a YouTube video or blog post to reach millions, to raise money for crucially important charities and help fix real-world problems.” Pretty refreshing stuff, don’t you think?
The group is hosting its first fundraiser event on October 10 to benefit Jane Doe, Inc. It looks like there are a few tickets left, so move fast if you want to attend.
How will you help?
Buzzing Bees, Events, Helping People, Honey, Social Media | Comment (0)Want! Villainess Killer Beez Soap
I love cool soaps. Love.
Sabon is one of my favorite stores on the planet–if you haven’t been in person, get yourself there and indulge in one of their complimentary first-timer well water scrubs. Now that I’m checking out Villainess (thanks @HollyGrande), I’m finding myself saying over and over “want” “want” “want.”
First on the list? Killer Beez soap:
Today’s Honey: July 31, 2008
I think this girl is a hoot. Today’s Honey video is in honor of tomorrow, which is National Girlfriends Day. Ladies, it can be tough being a girl sometimes, right?
The 7 Things Guys Don’t Have to Do:
Bringing Healthy Back: beYOU.tv
I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen. Let’s call it 98% of my day. And that time is spent sitting, probably slouching, and sometimes eating. Now that I’ve admitted I’m a complete slob at life, I’d like to talk about a site I just joined that may change some of that.
beYOU.tv is one of the rare healthy places on the Internet that isn’t all talk. It’s the kind of site that teaches you about fitness, encourages you to better yourself, and gives you tools that’ll get you off the couch and toning yourself up. It’s one part fitness and wellness motivator, one part social network, and one part health resource. The more I’m peeking around the site, the more I like their style.
In the past, during my brief, half-assed attempts at living a fitness-oriented lifestyle, I had used FitDay.com to journal my caloric intake and output, and avoid entering the weight data that pretty much never changed. I found the site useful, but it wasn’t motivating and it wasn’t serving as a place for me to find answers to questions or learn new ways to spice up my workouts. beYOU.tv has that. The site encourages you to “Be Healthalicious!” which to be honest, makes me feel like there’s someone on the other site of my computer who wants me to feel good about myself. I think this is a fantastic tag line–it isn’t telling me to shed pounds, it isn’t saying to look a certain way–it’s telling me to feel the way it feels when you’ve gotten into a healthy routine. And that’s a great feeling.
One feature I find really cool is the variety of workout videos available on here. You can check out tons of workouts, from bootcamps to pilates to ab blasts to dance routines and pretty much everything in between. I like that it isn’t a one-size-fits-all site, and it gives you lots of different ways to kickstart or refresh your workout routine. I’m the kind of person who gets bored easily in the gym, so this feature is right up my alley.
Another great aspect here is the beYOU.tv Magazine. For a fitness imbecile like me, it’s great to see advice from a bunch of different people in a forum where anyone can comment and have a voice. Articles range from “Change Your Mood with Food” to “Fit, Not Frail: Exercise as a Tonic for Aging,” and it’s set up in a way that isn’t intimidating or inaccessible. The focus is on improving life, and I think that’s sexy.
A few more cool things about beYOU.tv: it has listings for more than 100,000 fitness centers so you can find a place to work out, and you can download any of the videos and store them on your iPod or other mp3 player, hook them up to your TV, etc. Plus, aside from all the great workout videos, they have cooking videos for a healthy diet, too.
Look, we all could probably stand to stare at our computers less and live our lives a bit healthier and more active. Look at Jason Falls–his twit2fit lifestyle change project is totally inspiring! So, that’s it–with inspiring people and a motivation resource center at my fingertips, there’s no excuse for me not to get healthalicious. I am in no way about to blog what my scale says each morning, but I hope some of you join me in checking out beYOU.tv and maybe get a little healthier because of it.
Let’s bring healthy back.
Honey, Social Networks | Comments (9)Minutes…
This is the only time you’ll get these minutes. Are you doing what you want, or at least what you need to do to get where you’d like to be?
Social Honeycomb Helps the Honey Bees
Back in April I posted about the Help the Honey Bees campaign from Haagen Dazs. After I posted, I went out looking for the special ice cream I had read about on their site that supposedly was the key to my helping out the bees. I couldn’t find it anywhere! Totally discouraged, I guess I put it out of my head and hoped that somewhere, someone was eating that bee-helping flavor.
Fast-forward (because life is a cassette tape) to a couple days ago in my local Shaw’s Supermarket where I picked up a pint of Haagen Dazs Orchard Peach Sorbet. I love peach-flavored treats, so I just grabbed it and went on my way. Cut to last night when I was indulging like a peach-addicted maniac, when I noticed I had purchased a pint of Help the Honey Bees sorbet! Social Honeycomb <3 Bees and Peaches. I explain (with Santogold- Creator playing in the background):
And here I am eating my sorbet, rambling about how I love the flavor of peaches and how good it feels to help the bees (ignore my laptop fan going crazy near the end):
P.S. I’m not drunk in either video.
P.P.S. Help the bees.
