The Swell line at Target is slowing taking over this apartment. First it was tall and short striped plastic tumblers to hold stuff in the bathroom. Then it was a striped plate and bowl to hold things in the living room. And some of those colorful rubber coasters. I was eyeing the serving tray, ice bucket, and those chair cushions. It was all I could do not to bring home the bathrobe and matching tank top. Things like this really get to me though. I think it's cute and all that. But it's not until I know that it won't be around for much longer -- and the stuff is usually pretty well picked over once I get there -- when the desire to own grabs me. All of a sudden I become a strange consumer monster - driving an hour or more to find a Target which has that $2 striped salad plate which I JUST MUST HAVE aaaaaaahh!! I'm not sure if this is amplified by my location in the people saturated Bay Area. But chain stores do seem to be a lot different around here, I seem to remember the Targets and Dennys in Ohio as nice, cheerful, clean places. Around here they are under stocked, overcrowded and after a trip to them I need to go have a lie down. It makes for exhausting weekend errands.

So I was all excited when the Lush store in San Francisco opened recently (420 Powell if you don't know already). A few people wrote to tell me the prices were kinda high, and I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, that won't stop me! But I finally made it out there last week and man, those prices. I mean I adore Sea Vegetable soap but I didn't end up paying the $10 for a slice. And $7 for bath bombs. Wow. I actually left without buying anything at all. By comparison the Lush Canada website (which will ship to you, and very speedily I might add) charges 4 to 5 dollars Canadian (here is a currency convertor for you) for bath bombs and $6.25 for a slice of Sea Vegetable - which is just over $4 US. I agree very much with everyone that says if you are a Lush junkie, ordering from the Lush Canada site can easily be worth the shipping costs. Otherwise, trying one or two things out would be worth getting them from the store.

I am completely charmed by the carrot box - a site devoted to plastic rings. There is even a news page.

Digs Magazine has up an article on using cool placemats instead of curtains.

So my Valentine's Day had some pink in it - I gave in and made Cosmopolitans. I was thinking about which flavors I like most and wondered if there were any ginger drinks. I've only found one so far - Whiskey Melba.

There is a magazine about shopping, there is a magazine devoted only to shoes, but is there a magazine which is just about that which gets me to buy magazines - bags? There should be.

Anna offers her favorite beauty products at just the same time I discover I am woefully sensitive to benzoyl peroxide. Last week after poking around the redesigned Cosmetics Cop I decided I had better add some sort of pimple fighter to my nonexistent skin care routine. I bought some Persa Gel (Clean and Clear's 10% benzoyl peroxide lotion) and after two nights of dabbing it on a few spots the skin in those areas began to swell and get dry and itchy one afternoon. By that evening whole parts of my face to which this evil concoction had not been introduced had followed suit, and by Thursday I was looking very much like a monster, an itchy, swollen, red, unhappy monster. I'm much recovered but still unattractively flaky. Either it was a rather enthusiastic reaction or I'm one of the lucky 1 to 3% of the population who should stay the hell away from this stuff. On that note, anyone have a non-benzoyl peroxide pimple fighter to recommend?

Happy Valentines Day! We're going to celebrate by staying home and watching movies in a complete vacuum of flowers or chocolates or anything red and pink.