Trade Your DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books at Swap Tree!

Are your books just collecting dust on the shelves? Do you have piles of CDs that you never listen to because you got an Ipod? Do your kids have Nintendo DS games that they never play with for whatever reason? Does you family play with a only a handful of the WII games that you actually own?

If you've answered "Yes" to any of these questions, then Swap Tree might be a site for you. It's a website where you can trade your unwanted books, CDs, DVDs, and video games for others that you'd like instead. All you pay is the postage.

Once you establish an account with Swap Tree, you post items that you'd like to swap by entering in the UPC code and rating the condition. The next step is to list some items that you'd like. You do this simply by searching for the item by name and then clicking on a button to add it to your want list. Obviously, the more items that you list, the more likely it will be that Swap Tree will be able to make a match.

Swap Tree searches its database to see if matches can be made between its members. Swaps are not necessarily one for one swaps as you may send out an item to someone other than the person who will be sending you one. You also don't need to swap like items, I've traded DVDs for both books and video games. Swap Tree always has you authorize a swap, so you can decide if it's one you'd like to make.

Upon completion of the swap, you post feedback regarding the shipping speed, condition, etc., similar to how you rate transactions on EBAY. Although I've had no problems and have received all of my items very quickly, the site does rely on the honesty of others so I'm sure that there are probably instances where people have failed to send the item that they've promised to swap.

My experience with Swap Tree to date has been very positive and its a great way to clear your house of clutter, and get other things in exchange. Try it, I'm sure you'll like it!

Check out "Great Preppy Products" Blog!

My friend (and fellow Chickadee) Lisa has just created a great new blog featuring preppy products. She intends to spotlight great products created by mom-owned businesses in the hopes that by featuring their products on her blog, she will help to spread the word about the products and reach new customers.

Check out her site, Great Preppy Products, and see the great preppy products she's found so far. She just started the site recently and would love it if people would contact her and let her know about products to feature.

Sort Floor Books! 17 Books for $24.75!

It is safe to say that I am a delinquent blogger. The fact that I figured out again where to go to post to this blog is evidence that I have something worthwhile to share with you.

I had to tell you all about a great new website that I found for book buying. Miss E (who previously had no interest in reading) is now obsessed with the Rainbow Magic Fairies series of books, and since she's finally interested in reading, I decided to hunt down other related series (the Weather Fairies, the Jewel Fairies, the Pet Fairies, etc.) Trust me there's a lot of these books!

Well, I searched on-line and found a site called sortfloorbooks.com. They are a book wholesaler out of Massachusetts and sell books very, very cheaply. Plus, if you spend more than $15 you also get free shipping. I also saved an additional 10% since I found a coupon code on-line.

The site says that although the books are new, they are remainder books or publisher returns and may have black lines drawn across the spine to prevent someone from returning them to a book store. I purchased the lot of 17 books shown above for just $24.75. Only three had small black lines across the spine. Eight had pen lines drawn across the UPC code and six were free from any markings at all.

Although I was looking specifically for kids books this time, they have any type of book you could want. I'll surely be back again for books for me! By the way, you'll have so much fun searching for books that it would be wise to check your cart before you check out to make sure you don't have duplicates. I didn't realize that I had two of the same book in my cart, thus the duplicate copies of "Princess Ellie's Camping Trip."

All of the books are new and the minor markings are a small price to pay for the huge cost savings. Had I purchased these books for the retail price, I would have paid $74.83!

Clue Me In, Please!!

As you can probably tell, I am very lax in my blog posting. Now that's not that I have nothing to write about what with Miss A deciding on Saturday that it would be great to sign (let's say scribble) her name in black pen in 11 different places on the walls in my hall and in her bedroom. By the way, hair spray does a great job of removing ballpoint pen, you just have the indentations in the wallboard to worry about, LOL.

Well, for some reason today, my blog stats were on fire and 73 people have visited today already and the day is not over. Right after 9AM EST the numbers skyrocketed. I checked to see how people found me and it was all through Google searches for "preppy mom", "preppy mommy" and/or "Today Show." I'm assuming that my blog is not what you people were after, I'm just curious about what was said on the Today Show that prompted you to find me. Since I do consider myself to be a preppy mom, I bet I'd be interested in what you're looking for. And if shopping was involved, I'd be doubly interested, LOL. Can anyone shed some light on what everyone is looking for?

Skirts Have Arrived! Yippee!

At Three Chickadees, our skirts have finally arrived! We have been working for several months getting the skirts just to our liking and we just received them from our manufacturer last week. I photographed them and loaded them on the site on Saturday and the two styles are selling at pretty much the same pace. (I have a fondness for the wrap skirt as I'm not a shirt-tucker-inner.)

We started with some sketches and samples late last year and then went through two revisions before we decided on the versions that we have. The Bourne is a traditional button fly, front zip skirt and the Sagamore is a wrap skirt. In case the names are familiar but you don't know why, they are named for the two bridges that give you access to Cape Cod.

Depending on the success of these skirts, we may add other clothing products, probably capri pants and dresses for ladies; and skirts and shift dresses for girls (after all, I have two, LOL!) So far in three days, we've received requests for larger skirt sizes, bermuda shorts and madras tote bags. Let me know if you have any other suggestions. I'm keeping a list.

I've already got some great ideas for next year's fabrics. We'll probably keep the patchwork madras, but I have a great idea for two other fabric types that I've never seen done before! Preppies will love them!

Officer Webkinz, We'd Like to Report a Robbery!

WANTED: WEBKINZ THIEF!

It all started innocent enough...

For Ms. E's 6th birthday, I bought her a Webkinz. Although she had never mentioned them before, I knew they were all the rage with kids about her age and I wanted her to be in on the fun. When she opened her present, she did not look at all thrilled with the pink poodle stuffed animal - - the fuschia Crocs were more to her liking. My 7 year old niece recognized the Webskinz tag immediately and excitedly explained about the virtual world that came along with the stuffed toy.

Miss E was definitely not addicted as some kids, but she decorated Pinky's room and bought her a wardrobe of clothes and an adjoining yard. She enjoyed playing some of the arcade games and loved shopping in the W Shop (my shopping addiction is apparently a dominant gene, LOL).

I liked the real life aspect of the virtual world where you need to feed and care for your pet to keep it healthy and earn money if you wanted some to spend. In addition, the website appeared to be safe as only specified phrases are allowed to be transmitted to others and you can't even communicate with someone else unless they authorize it. Philantrophy is also promoted as you can gift items to others via e-mail. My niece apparently has quite a future in philantrophic endeavors as she gifted Miss E numerous things including a swimming pool and a color tv.

Well, all was right in Webkinz World until this weekend, when Miss E logged in and discovered that she had been virtually robbed of all of her virtual possessions. Pinky was safe and unharmed but everything was gone except for the wallpaper and flooring in her room and the pool in her yard. All of her Webkinz cash was gone except for a lowly $9.00.

I'm assuming that she must have innocently told one of her friends her password thinking it was her ID, and another evil, sociopathic, future criminal classmate heard her and wrote it down. Then that evil, sociopathic, future criminal classmate probably logged in as her and gifted him or herself all of Miss E's things.

It's a sad commentary on today's society that this would happen in an innocent child's game, but maybe Webkinz World is more real than it appears - - it has a criminal element just like our world. I've now changed her password to something that she doesn't know, so hopefully this won't happen again.

And there is somewhat of a silver lining to this whole experience. After Miss E told her friend, Nicole, about the robbery, Nicole gifted her with a new Ballerina bed so that Pinky wouldn't have to sleep on the tile floor. Good prevails in Webkinz World! And wait until my very philantrophic niece gets wind of the crime!

Friendly Little MADRAS SASH Contest!

Chickadee Lisa and I were chatting today about what delinquent bloggers we've been lately and we decided to liven up our blogs with a good old fashioned contest!

While Chickadee Melissa is away for the week, Lisa and I are giving away free madras sash belts to anyone who purchases at least $125.00 from our website, www.threechickadees.com from now through Memorial Day, May 28, 2007. To take advantage of this free offer, you must enter one of two specified phrases in the gift message section.

Now here's where the contest part comes into play. Lisa thinks that she can give away more sashes than me, but I say, "Don't count your chickadees, before they're hatched!" To get a free madras sash, just enter "KAREN'S FREE SASH" in the gift message section of the payment screen. Be sure to let me know which one of our madras sashes you'd like to receive, and I'll be sure that you get it along with your order. (The one pictured here is our Oyster Cove sash.)

Also, since I need to give away more sashes than Lisa in order to win, please spread the word about our friendly little contest. I'm not sure how many people read my little blog, so feel free to post the details on your own blogs or just e-mail all your preppy friends.

Spending $125.00 at Three Chickadees to get the free sash will be really easy. Just yesterday, we added some great new seersucker belts (with more to come soon), and I'll be making some seersucker headbands for the site as soon as I finish this post.