It’s always good to have a bag or two in a bright color for whichever look you’re putting together, but this spring bright colors are particularly useful for the boho look.  I absolutely adore The SAK Eco Harmony bag, which combines a slouchy, relaxed woven look with eco-friendly construction.  The bag is made from bamboo yarn, and has a recycled cotton lining.  It looks great, too -  the decorative wooden zipper pull is a really nice touch.  This bag is big enough to carry everything, but it’s not so huge as to look like a beach bag.  Great basic choice for the spring.

With many states enforcing a ban on hand-held phones while driving, hands-free devices have become more common place.  Even if your state doesn’t enforce the law, a bluetooth device is much safer and more convenient in and out of the car.

The Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset by Plantronics offers a sleek design and advanced technologies to keep you clearly connected with ease and comfort.

The simple one-touch controls allow for ease of use while dual-mic AudioIQ² and WindSmart technologies ensure clear conversations even in harsh conditions.

Features:

• A single charge provides up to five hours of talk time and 168 hours (one week) of standby
• Dual-mic AudioIQ² technology simultaneously captures your voice and cancels background noise for superb call clarity
• WindSmart technology provides three layers of protection against wind noise
• Carrying case recharges the earpiece and triples talk and standby time
• Patented gel ear tips offer a secure and comfortable fit
• QuickPair technology makes it easy to connect with virtually any Bluetooth-enabled phone

A stylish case keeps your device safe while not in use.  Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset retails for about $130.

Having children doesn’t have to mean having a huge mess all of the time.  Yes, kids are messy.  Luckily though, there are products that can help reduce some of the messes children make.  When we got new carpet in our basement we vowed never to let our kids have snacks downstairs.  That rule didn’t last long.  It morphed into something like “only dry snacks like cheerios and crackers”- nothing a vacuum can’t handle.  Those things still make messes but something called a Munchie Mug helps keep snacks from getting spilled (or dumped) on the floor which means less clean up for Mom and Dad.

Munchie Mug features:

Fashion For Relief™ is Naomi Campbell’s spectacular charity fashion show. This year the event is back for 2010 and will be hosted by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. The best part is that 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit CARE, a leading humanitarian organization. The runway show and auction will benefit CARE’s aid in rebuilding Haiti’s healthcare system for mothers and children.

Fashion For Relief™-Haiti NYC, 2010
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Bryant Park, New York City
Friday, February 12th 2010
7:00pm

Buy your tickets now and support this worthy cause today. You can also make a donation for CARE’s response to Haiti here.

The donation is tax deductible and 100% of the event ticket sales will benefit CARE.

There are so many electronic devices and remote controls to go along with them these days that it can be hard to keep track.  With Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote, you won’t have to! Up to 15 devices can be controlled with this single remote which can be programmed to work your TV, DVD player, Xbox (or other gaming devices), audio receiver, even your ceiling fan.  Online guided setup walks you through step-by-step to ensure optimum functionality.  Even after setup, this remote continues it’s ease of use.  Select “Watch Movie” and the remote will turn on only the devices needed to their correct settings.  If for some reason it doesn’t work, just press the “help” button which will run through a series of yes or no questions until the problem is solved.

Features:

• Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery with Sleek Recharging Stand
• Contoured Design that Fits Comfortably in Your Hand
• Sculpted Buttons with Backlighting for Easy Navigation, Even in the Dark
• Intuitive Color Touch Screen for Easy, One-Touch Access to Your Entertainment

Logictech Harmony One Universal Remote retails for about $200.  A great price for a remote even grandma can use.

Check out this plus-sized chiffon-hem dress from Japanese brand SmileLand – it’s cute, it’s great for spring, and it has that distinct Japanese street style look about it (really cute!).  You might have to study the very complicated sizing chart to work out which size you need to order, but this dress is a very loose fit, so the sizing should be pretty forgiving if you get it slightly wrong.  This is a great dress to wear with tights and boots!

There’s something so cute about kids in pajamas.  Maybe it’s that we know that some peace and quite is in the foreseeable future.  Or maybe it’s just that they look so sweet and innocent all snuggled up in a cozy pair of pjs.  Footed sleepers, especially the fleece ones in the winter, are great for the cooler seasons.  That is, until your child is potty trained.  After that, no matter how cute they look, they just aren’t practical anymore.  Then it’s time for big kid jammies!  Don’t worry- they will still look adorable in a pair of pajama pants with the matching collared button down top (like the Star Wars ones from Pottery Barn pictured above).

Snuggle up with your kids and enjoy some quality time with them before bed- they’ll be all grown up before you know it!

Now, I’m not saying I’d wear these to a social event, obviously, but as far as going out to run errands is concerned, you can certainly put together a decent-looking outfit with these Merona microfleece pants from Target.  At $15, they’re a steal, and they look and feel a lot nicer than your average sweat pants.  Best of all, they’re warm – a lot warmer than the thinness of the fabric would indicate.  Don’t be fooled by the fact that they’re polyester, because these look great and will keep you warm until spring starts rolling in.

There’s deodorant everywhere in my apartment. A stick in the bedroom, a stick in the kitchen. What’s with all the sticks?

There’s Body Glide (a runner’s best friend, I’m told) and headphones, months of unopened mail and Netflix DVDs strewn haphazardly about.

And I must say, I’m left feeling a bit, well, disheveled. As much as I don’t want to be a maid, or a nag, I also don’t want to live in the messiness.

The perfect solution: this beautiful Apple Bucket Basket. It’s cute, and it hides all the teeny, tiny toiletries and other things that would normally cause a fight. So now, instead of random objects every which way in the apartment, or me moving things so that the boy can’t find them, all he has to do is put them away in their proper place, in the great little Apple Bucket Basket. Yet another domestic problem solved.

Luckily there’s a fashionable way around the problem, thanks to Kenneth Cole – these Midnight Rain rubber boots.  Aside from protecting up to the knee and being 100% weatherproof, they’re also very nice-looking, not just in comparison to other rubber boots, but in general.  As a bonus, Kenneth Cole are donating all the net profits from the sale of these boots to the Foundation for AIDS Research, so you can do a good deed while getting a cool pair of black boots for the late winter weather.