Oh yes, we love our tuberculosis jokes in the Cupcake Factory (see: The Boy always shortened to TB on twitter).

I’m not actually suggesting you try to kill someone by infecting them with TB I’m making a very grown up suggestion (again) that you stop cluttering your friends and families houses gift shop trinkets and candles because you really had no idea what to get them. Instead you should be gifting consumables. Great gifts that will leave nothing but memories in the end.

Even in a recession many childless couples and singles are in a position to buy themselves whatever takes their fancy, they don’t need to wait for gifts or an increase on their credit limit, they just buy. But if they’re anything like me they’ll be buying chocolate, but never a box of the really good ones; the wine but nothing above $20; and the only foliage in the house is plants, not flowers. You see where I’m heading with this?

There is only one week till giftmas day! I know right, I have never been this disorganised before leaving on holiday in my life. I have 2 days to clean all my clothes and pack up my life for three weeks.

Just in case you’re a slacker like me this year here are some ideas for last minute gift buyers without a clue what to grab.

• Hampers Great for food lovers, fill a decorated box (easier to get rid of, and cheaper, than a wicker basket) with chocolates, olives, nuts, and sauces.
• Alcohol Be a gracious guest this holiday season and provide some lovely wine to drink. It doesn’t have to be too expensive, your host will be stoked that you appreciate them.
  Or if you have 17 year olds in your life you’ll go own in history as the best sister/aunt/mum ever if you provide the just under ageds with something that will get them wasted.
• Subscriptions Magazines, dvd rentals, cheese of the month. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
• Cleaning I would LOVE someone to come scrub my kitchen and bathroom – unless the recipient is a clean freak that doesn’t need a break in that department I wouldn’t worry too much about offending.
  Or you could offer to clean mum’s house in preparation for guests, she’ll really appreciate your help!
• Homemade treats Chinese takeout boxes can be bought for cheap and filled with homemade treats like sugar cookies, truffles, and fruit mince pies.
• Lessons Cooking lessons (available at every price point), language, dancing, photography. Won’t clutter the house but will stick with them for life!
• Tattoos What could be more special than paying for a much wanted permanent artwork that your recipient will carry for life? I say nothing.
• Body care While usually an intensely personal item if you know your recipient well, or spend a lot of time in their bathroom, you’ll probably know what products they use. Buy those. Moisturiser can be expensive yo.
• Geek stuff If you’re a geek you could create your bestie a site of her very own. Buy your travelling friend a subscription or renewal to Flickr so you can keep an eye on the snaps. Surprise your internet buddy with her very own .com so she can get rid of the blogspot part of her address.
• Vouchers If all else fails vouchers of any kind trump incense and ceramic kittens. Make it personal by giving a voucher to their favourite clothing shop, a meal at their favourite restaurant, or iTunes money for your music obsessed little brother. Other great vouchers include food, spa treatments, movie tickets, and those booklets from your boyfriend that you can use at any time and he has to do what it says.

What’s your favourite consumable?

Now that I’ve received my laptop and had a few weeks to play around with it it’s time to review…

My choice came with:

It’s working well. It’s fast but I haven’t moved anything from my old desktop PC yet. it’s a task I’m trying desperately to avoid but one I need to do before I offload it to my little sis when I visit over the holidays.

I opted for the Flamingo Pink colour which I thought may have been the worst shade of pink I’ve ever seen (not such a fan of pastels) but I took the risk anyway. It’s not my favourite colour but it’s ok. The coating is quite rubbery and collects greasy fingerprints like nothing else. The whole laptop does!

Please ignore the smudgy marks and look at the pink :]

I’m not a hardware geek and therefore this review won’t be written like one. I use my computer as a way to surf the Internet, write, watch video, listen to music and arrange my ipod. I don’t play games, I don’t code and I don’t set up fancy networks.

The screen
I wanted a 17″ screen so this laptop is more of a desktop replacement that a laptop (though I’ve been using it in bed which you can’t do with a desktop). So the screen is huge…and shiny. Looks pretty when it’s turned off, you can basically use it as a mirror. But when you’re trying to watch a movie it can be quite distracting. It makes the colours nice and sharp but if all you can see is your reflection that doesn’t help. This happens more on dark, especially black backgrounds. There’s no reflection on white backgrounds. The screen allows for a wide viewing angle.
Anything less than high definition video looks terrible.

Sound
I wasn’t expecting the speakers to do much because they’re built into a laptop, but the speakers on the Studio 17 are the worst I’ve ever heard! A quick search in Google tells me I’m far from being the only one that has had problems with these speakers. The audio constantly crackles and bass is non existent. I have discovered that turning off the wireless will stop the crackling and leave you with tinny sound instead which means you can’t watch a movie and download at the same time.
If you plan on using this laptop for any sort of audio have a good set of headphones or cables for your stereo on hand. There are two headphone ports available which is handy for sharing. The volume for the headphone ports is much higher than the speakers so remember to turn the sound down before attaching plugging your headphones in.

Vista
Everyone has an opinion on Vista so you’ve probably drawn your own conclusions already. I was less than pleased I couldn’t get XP but I’m slowly getting used to Vista. Constant checking that you do in fact want to open that website or install that program is frustrating.
Friends have commented that Vista Home Premium is much better than Vista Home Basic, so that is some consolation at least.

Keys
Although I’m used to a much bigger keyboard this one is quite nice to write with. The keys are springy and fluid. It comes with a dedicated number pad as well!
The media “buttons” are located along the top of the keyboard like I’m used to but they are not buttons at all they’re touch sensitive! No longer will you have to put the food down so you can hold the Fn button and press the volume increase at the same time. All you have to do is hold your finger over it and the backlight will glow :D

Webcam
The camera isn’t fancy, it’s about all you can expect from a little lens placed in the top of your screen but the software is pretty cute. I can make steam blow out of my ears or cupid dance around my head in a few clicks of the mouse.

Battery
This laptop is large so I’m not planning on lugging it around with me. If I did want to I could get over two hours battery life from the fully charged battery. I didn’t upgrade the battery as I was not planning on working away from a power source for long periods of time.

Service
The service I received from Dell NZ/Aus was fine. I ordered online and for some reason they do not have online payment facilities though they take your credit card details when you place your order. I was called the day after I placed my order to check my details because I had entered the wrong expiry date.

Two days after placing the order I got an email saying I would receive it within the next 8 days and 7 days later it arrived in Wellington from Australia.

In all it’s a pretty laptop, it’s chunky and heavy and not the type of laptop you would get for travelling. Sound is shit but otherwise it runs nicely. :] At $2099 NZD including delivery it’s not cheap but it is one of the few 17 inch laptops available.

The shoes were a big hit on Saturday night which goes to prove my point – Screw Fashion!

It’s a point I usually keep quiet on the net while mixing with stylish, fashion week attending ladies…but now it’s out there.

It frustrates me that shops only are only ever stocked with the latest fashions, to the point where the only place I can buy a plain v neck t-shirt is an ‘old lady’ store. I would ♥love♥ to be able to whip up or modify to my hearts content whenever a new idea struck, unfortunately I was not blessed with any ability to draw or sew.

You wont impress me with the latest it bag or shoe because there’s no way I’m going to know who made it. I think harem pants are generally ugly and/or ridiculous. And I hate most of the shoes on the Sea of Shoes blog. That doesn’t mean that those things suck, it just means that I personally don’t like the style and I’m not going to pretend I do just because it’s popular or expensive.

If you want me to pay attention it has to LOOK good! And I only I can decide what looks good to me.

Excuse the hideous photos but I’m just too excited about my new backpack to wait and get pretty ones!

I’ve had the white skully bag for a while now and it’s starting to break and it badly needs a wash, and then, like a guardian angel a co-worker told me she’d seen a pink one at the shopping centre near her house and wanted to know if I’d be interested in something like that. Well duh?! pink & skulls & a bag, woohoo.

So there on my desk this morning was my new bright pink bag with 8 pockets (I love pockets) and a shiny chain dangling off it, she’d also chucked in a a pair of pink skully socks for good measure.

The good thing about being unusual and having a clearly identifiable “brand” is that people know what you like.

Now I just need this Loungefly handbag which totally matches my backpack and shoes and I’ll be sated for a few weeks.

Well, Lush, I do!

I just made a fantastic purchase from the lovely, generous ladies at Lush in Wellington. We went in because the boy needed more moisturiser and because we had a 10% off voucher I asked what would suit my currently dry winter skin too. I still have about a quarter of each of my Living Nature bottles left to use. But I like trying new stuff.
Tracey (the name on the receipt) suggested Baby Face or Ultra Bland as cleansers, Celestial or Skin Drink as moisturisers and the Breath of Fresh Air toner. Tracey tried them all out on the back of my hand so I could choose the ones I liked. The boy got a repeat on the Cosmetic Lad.

I thought I was just going to go for the Baby Face, and then I added Celestial to the list and then we were just $25 away from a free goodie bag that you get when you spend $100. So Breath of Fresh Air got chucked in, with the 10% discount voucher we were back down to $88 but because these ladies are so fantastic she left us have the goodie bag anyway.

The contents:

Amazonian massage bar worth $20
I Love Juicy 100g shampoo worth $13
Potion solid perfume worth $14.50 (my favourite perfume is still Lush’s solid Silky Underwear)
Karma Kream 225g hand and body cream worth a wopping $38.50

I opened up the Karma Kream a few minutes ago to use on my hands and I no longer think I need to worry about marrying my boy. I’ll marry the cream instead, it is SO delicious.

Thank you Lush. You will definitely be getting my return business!

P.S while stocks last you can buy a reusable bag with your purchase and save 20% off you total order!

O wow I did TERRIBLY with my resolutions last week! So, lets try that again…

This week:

♥ Play bass
♥ Clean all my junk off the dining room table
♥ Purchase a ‘cupcake eater’ item from Gala Darling’s webshop

My Misery shirts arrived on Friday.
They are even better than the ones I already own.

Generally I find it hard to find good shirts to wear because as the pants sit lower on the waist the shirts don’t tend to get any longer to cover up my hips.

These shirts though are a much more feminine cut. The neck is wider and they are longer! They actually sit well over my belt line even on the lowest of low jeans I own.
And as I already said I saved about $25-$30 on each of the shirts.

I’m going to be sad to see Misery Boutique gone.
Where am I going to find good black clothes now?