The Give Simple Blog

2009-06-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

Do you struggle to come up with just the right gift for Mom, your sister or a close friend? The simple solution is to think big picture. Look for something she will love that comes with multiple components. Once you try this, it becomes easy to think ahead so that Mother’s Day, her birthday and a holiday gift all fall into place. Or for your best friend, a hostess gift, her birthday, a holiday gift, a thank you, all become effortless.

Here are some great ways to make it happen!

French Bull Melamine: Pick a pattern, and you’ll have wonderful, useful, coordinating gifts to last for years! Start with dinner plates, add salad plates, bowls, tumblers, serving pieces, and apron, oven mitts, napkins, coffee cups – the possibilities are amazing.

Wild & Wolf Gardening Tools: I confess, this is the strategy for my mom, the depression era baby who hates getting gifts that are not useful! Start with the trowel / fork set, then the pruners, then the fantastic watering can. There is also a coordinating water bottle.

Thymes: Find the fragrance that suits, glamorous Gold Leaf, feminine Kimono Rose, energizing Eucalyptus, soothing Lavender, ocean fresh Azur. Then choose different products for each occasion. The can’t miss product: Body Lotion. Thymes ranked #1 among all body lotions in a recent AOL on line poll, and we could not agree more, their body lotion formula is the best hydrating, non greasy daily treat you can imagine. First gift body wash, body lotion. Second gift parfum. Third gift room spray and more lotion.

Lollia: With variations like Imagine, Wish, and Relax, this ultra girly Bath & Body Line makes a lovely gift. The can’t miss product: Shea Butter Hand Crème. Magazine Beauty Editors from Lucky to Allure to Self all agree, this stuff is amazing. We always give a large tube for home or office with the adorable Petite Treat tiny tube for her handbag. The other can’t miss product: Bubble Bath! Oprah magazine has recommended this not once, but twice. If she loves a bath, this will impress her.

Pine Cone Hill: Super Soft Robe for one occasion, coordinating cozy cotton or flannel pajamas for another occasion. And possibly a throw for her favorite chair.

2009-05-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

While the thermostat hits 90 degrees, we’re writing our first Christmas orders at Give Simple! You have to be a little crazy, or maybe just have a vision, to feel good about Christmas based on the current consumer shopping trends. I’ll claim a little bit of both. Plus, some products are a slam dunk. One of today’s projects was the start up order for Thymes Frazier Fir. My own personal favorite Christmas fragrance EVER, plus the best selling one in the country, it’s not so hard to say, yes, people will want their home to smell just heavenly again this year! Imagine the fresh crisp just cut fragrance of a Christmas tree, a Siberian fir tree to be exact. Then warm it up a little with heartening cedarwood and relaxing sandalwood… Ahhhh….. Don’t forget the room spray for Joycelyn (how does she use it up so fast?), and the elegant diffusers for the friends with fake trees!! Add on lots of the $11 votives, what a great little party favor!

Call me crazy, but I can’t wait for the holidays to get here!But I can’t indulge in my Frazier Fir obsession until we at least get past Halloween!

In the meantime, I will indulge in Thymes Azur, ocean fresh restoration for skin and spirit. For me, just looking at the ocean can lower my heart rate, ease my blood pressure, and soothe my very soul. Our bodies share the same composition of elements as the ocean. Thymes Azur feels like early morning at the beach.with a tranquil, marine fragrance of soothing white tea, water lily and sea grasses.

2009-05-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend is just around the corner. We’re getting into one of our favorite times of the year at Give Simple – Melamine season!! You probably had no idea there even was such a season, but trust me, our customers love this stuff, and they order TONS of it between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Email has been flying back and forth between our circle of friends for the last couple of days, drinks Thursday night, casual dinner and movie Friday night, sailing on Saturday, barbeque on Monday – who is coming to what, and what food are they bringing? And what fun and colorful tableware will they use?

Melamine tableware is the quintessential Give Simple product. It's colorful, practical, well designed and a great value. These bright colors let us change the look of the table in a flash, and nothing is too precious for little hands, or to use by the pool.

We’ve shipped French Bull to the rich and famous in LA, sent 300 Le Cadeaux plates to a wedding in Canada, and outfitted more Florida second homes than you can imagine! It’s really fun to see how customers mix and match this stuff for themselves and for gifts.

Melamine is a great product to give as gifts, especially the lines with extensive styles, like French Bull and Le Cadeaux. You give 8 dinner plates for a birthday, then 8 salad plates for a holiday gift, then a platter or serving piece as a hostess gift, then bowls as a thank you…. Pick a pattern and be set with gifts for your sister, or mom, or a close friend for the next year or more.

Get in the mood for summer and pick your favorite Melamine pattern. Give Simple once a year sale is in effect with 15% discount until 5/25 with promo code SUMMER. If only great style could be so practical and affordable in every aspect of life!

2009-05-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

With Mother’s Day past, Give Simple’s thoughts turn to Graduation and Teacher’s Gifts. We have lots of great items for these occasions. My favorite for graduation women is Dogeared Wish Necklaces. I sent my own niece one last year, and she LOVED it. The necklaces are something they will actually wear, and the sentiments are so well written. My second favorite is Lug Travel. Whether it’s car or airline travel, the Nap Sac pillow and blanket combo or the Puddle Jumper Overnight/Gym bag are so practical and will come in very handy for the traveler.

Girls are always easier than guys. I think for high school guys, Lappers from the college they will attend would be really cool. These non slip dining trays would be very useful for dorm rooms. For college grads, the stainless steel wallet gets my vote. Sleek and contemporary accessories make a great commemorative for this life achievement.

I think teachers may deserve more thanks than people in any other profession. Their work is challenging and so important, yet they are generally poorly compensated. Just the situation that make a small Thank You Gift even more precious!! For teachers, Wild & Wolf water bottles go to the head of the class! New, different, pretty and practical. Love the gardening tools also, but not as universal as the water bottles. Another fabulous choice – Lollia Hand Crème. I think it is so impressive to give the big tube for desk or home, plus the tiny tube to slip in the handbag! Everyone who has tried this product adores it. For male teachers, the stainless steel V pouchis a nice small token.

With all bases covered for the end of the school year, can Father's Day be far behind?

2009-04-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Our first ever Give Simple Spring shopping event was this week, and we had a blast! Because we are an on line only business, it’s a little unusual shopping here. It’s an office and warehouse, not a store! We are really proud of our super cool loft space in a converted historical building near downtown Houston. We have a concrete floor, exposed brick and glass brick in the front, wood floors, a fireplace and huge factory style windows in the back, with an industrial high ceiling throughout. We have a full kitchen and a large bathroom since the lofts were originally residential. We use the black marble slab counter for a packing island, and store boxes to be recycled in the shower and tub! No wasted space here!

It takes about two full days to get ready for an event. We merchandise some key product categories in the conference room, and merchandise the shelves of the warehouse gondolas as best we can. We laid out jewelry and some accessories in my office. We have to make price sheets for all of the fixtures because our inventory doesn’t usually need prices.

What were the most popular items? Definitely melamine and handbags, just as we expected, and just as we focused our set up. We’re on our way to summer here, so we are already enjoying outdoor dining. While some friends added to their Le Cadeaux Italian “Pottery” melamine collection, several others were inspired by the buffet to buy Working Class Studio plates in 4 or 6 styles to mix and match.

Big Buddha and Murval handbags were a big hit, too. So many bright colors and great styles to choose from, and so affordable!

What did we serve? Famous White Wine Sangria fresh veggies, pastry cups with apricot chicken salad or tasty shrimp filling, and berries with crackers and four stunning cheeses. I like food to be easy to eat, so little bites are best.

2009-04-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

As we head toward Mother’s Day, things get a lot busier around Give Simple. Lots of great new giftables are arriving every day. What I am getting my Mom, you might wonder? She has a birthday this month as well as Mother’s Day coming up. I am pleased to say that I have the perfect gift already selected for each event. Like me, Mom doesn’t appreciate a lot of “stuff.” It is best if her gifts are useful. So I’m going for Wild & Wolf “Pretty Useful Tools", which is this British company’s claim to fame. This is a collection of sturdy and well made useful items that are delightfully girly. They have a clever way with words, those Brits! Wild & Wolf works takes inspiration for their prints from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which has inspired designers for over 150 years. The tools they have made using glorious William Morris patterns from the V&A won the UK “Gift of the Year” award. Now their clever and useful gifts are available “across the pond,“ and Give Simple is thrilled to offer them. (Plus I can never resist a charming accent!)

Since I know Mom does not read the blog, I will confess that she’s getting the trowel and fork set for her birthday and the adorable watering can for Mother’s Day. She’ll probably use the watering can ouside in her huge garden, but I’m thinking how adorable it will look just sitting in the sunroom when she’s not using it!

Thinking about what to get your mom? We’ve collected our favorite ideas in our Gift Ideas Function under Best Mother's Day Gifts

2009-02-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Gypsy Winter Get-a-way ROCKED!! Approximately 50 straight hours of girl time – what could be better? The first car of four was slow getting out of town due to an impromptu stop at Little Bigs, the hot new slider place in my Montrose neighborhood. (Is it a bad thing when the first stop on a road trip is .4 miles from the start?) We needed to try the mini burgers, double fried French fries and frozen sangria drinks for ourselves. Plus it was a glorious sunny day and we couldn’t wait to sit outside. Our review – YUM! Perhaps the best fries ever, tasty sliders, great ambiance, I would have traded the sugary drink for a beer, but the rest of the group approved the frozen sangria.

The Silver Spur, the house Anne found on line for our visit was FANTASTIC. Great two story country house with plenty of bedrooms, well equipped, and on pretty property. Lynne enjoyed her birthday surprise of cupcakes and Lollia Imagine hand crèmes and candles from Give Simple.

Once we were all settled in, the weekend turned into the usual Gypsy festival of laughter, eating fabulous food, drinking wine, games and chic flicks. A walk in the country and a minimal amount of shopping and gallery visits were squeezed in. Mostly, it’s about being together and hanging out. It is great to get all caught up on each other’s busy lives, but my favorite thing is the problem solving that happens over the course of the weekend. From relationships to work outs, to work related challenges, a lot is thrown out to the group for opinions, ideas and input. This is a very connected, bright and impressive group of friends that I am lucky to have. Not only do I listen to what they have to say, sometimes I take notes! They always jave great ideas for Give Simple.

I have always been a believer in getting away with the girls. You can literally leave your day to day life behind and focus on your friends and on yourself. Spouses, kids and jobs are left to fend for themselves so that we can get down to the essence of being women. I recommend the girl’s weekend as the ultimate bonding experience.

2009-02-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

Leaving on a Gypsy Weekend! Leaving Give Simple in capable hands, and taking off around noon. Four of us are going in one car, two following a few hours later. We’re headed to Round Top, a small Texas town known for a summer Antiques Fair, and Royer’s Café, where the pie is heaven and the help is surly.
Some “Budisms” from their website:
After 21 years, we’re still tellin em, “Sit down, shut up, and eat more pie”
Did you know that STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS?
Ya don’t drive this far not to eat pie!

These girl’s weekends are a true treasure. I literally schedule the rest of my life around the dates so that I don’t miss one. These women restore my soul. Plus there’s always the possibility of laughing so hard that wine comes out your nose…

A few of my favorite things to take along on the trip
Pine Cone Hill flannel pajamas. From after dinner until after breakfast, this is the appropriate attire!!
M y usual armload of Metalsgirl Inspirational Bangles I’m wearing Love, Dream, Bliss, Grace, In Dog We Trust (an ongoing prayer for the comfort of my beloved Champ, 14 years old and hanging in there!).
Also wearing a hope wish that Robin, my friend from Dogeared tied onto my wrist in New York three weeks ago. Still hasn’t broken. I have hope that our country will heal out of this economic malaise, and we’ll come out more reasonable in our spending, but optimistic about the future. Also wearing my Dogeared Large Karma necklace–“what goes around comes around…wear your necklace as a reminder to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving."
In my bag, a belated birthday gift for Lynne – let’s just keep it between us about what it is! She’s going to LOVE it!

2009-02-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

Murval Pre-Sale is going on now at Give Simple, and we’re more excited than we have ever been about this event. It’s our third event, and in addition to actually having many of the items in stock during the event, the line LOOKS GREAT! There is much more color than in previous seasons, a request we made to Murval repeatedly. While we understand that black and brown always sell, particularly in the fall season, we felt like the color palette of the line was too bland. I hope we’re right, because by golly, we’ve got color!!
Murval Paris Handbags presented several color palettes, including orange with brown, green with brown, and pink with black. Fashion forecasters differ this season on pink vs. orange, but we’re sticking with our feeling for pink. That said, we’re also splashing in turquoise and aqua shades. Our primary push in Murval will be the pink palette. We’ve added black croco and white croco to what we think will be the real powerhouse combination, pink croco.
Because the prints are so good this season, we’ve done several totes in both colors. Andalucía, the collection inspired by the Tory Burch graphic patterns on nylon with clear vinyl overlay, we did in classic black and white plus pink and green. In the Paisley, we loved the pink and orange combo, but brought in the blue and green combo, too. The best print of all is the Vintage Toile, so we’ve got the full range of styles in aqua and brown, plus the top styles is the super preppy green and pink combo. These prints are SO MUCH better than last spring!!
I hope this is the season that our Give Simple shoppers fall back in love with Murval Paris Handbags in a big way – we certainly have!

2009-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

A new season at Give Simple, and we are thrilled to see all the great new merchandise rolling in! Among our new styles, one of the true highlights is Big Buddha Handbags. We were excited with our first viewing at Dallas market, because of the explosion of color and the extensive selection of materials used. By our second viewing in New York, we were ecstatic. Once again, Big Buddha Handbags is right on trend. The selection and the quality are nothing short of amazing. The shapes are right there with the top designer lines – a little bit of hippie chic, a little taste of ladylike, lots of zippers, expensive looking woven styles –who could ask for anything more? How about completely fabulous colors?

Despite some forecasters talking about orange as the color of the season, at Give Simple, we will be all about pink. Pink is more flattering and far more versatile than orange could ever be. Pink will accent neutrals, look great with white, awesome with brown, pop with other hot colors like turquoise and green, and be stunning with black. Never fear that you will look like Halloween, which can happen easily with so much of most wardrobes grounded in black.

Big Buddha definitely hit the colors that we think will help lift us all out of any winter or economic doldrums. Hot fuchsia, spring green, fresh turquoise, plus classic black, trendy white crinkled patent and a versatile year round shade of cream. It’s hard to pick just one, but at $85 and under, you don’t have to!

2009-01-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

Lots of new products are coming to Give Simple! We survived the bitter cold in New York and have come home energized with new ideas!! Several of our top suppliers had FANTASTIC new products, and we found some TOTALLY NEW things as well.

We had a chance to chat with Jeremy Bassan, the designer behind Big Buddha Handbags What a pleasure to talk about the trends with him, he is so young and enthusiastic. I love the way he comes up with new products as he is inspired, not following a rigid schedule like our other suppliers. We’ll have several of his new creations here in the next 10 days or so – I can’t wait!

French Bull was another exciting stop. They’ve added lots of new products, and Give Simple will add two new patterns for complete place settings this spring, Felix and Tapestry. We’ll also offer new napkins and table runners to coordinate with the terrific melamine items.

One of our additions from Dallas market arrived at Give Simple yesterday, and is already available on the website.
Thymes Azur This ocean inspired line of bath & body products is one of Thymes best sellers, and Michael and I both personally LOVE it. Since we’re sailors and SCUBA divers, anything associated with the ocean is magic in our minds! Thymes Azur is ocean fresh restoration for your skin and spirit. For many people, just looking at the ocean can lower the heart rate, ease the blood pressure, soothe the very soul. Our bodies share the same composition of elements as the ocean. Inspired by the natural rhythm and vitality of these life-giving waters, Thymes Azur restores skin and spirit with a synergistic complex of sea herbs, minerals and vitamins and the tranquil, marine fragrance of soothing white tea, water lily and sea grasses, popular with both men & women.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Stay tuned, many, many new things to come! All of our picks are top quality, well designed and reasonably priced. We can’t wait to share them all with our Give Simple customers and friends.

2009-01-24T13:01:00.001-08:00

We’re off to market again, looking for great new items for Give Simple. The Dallas market last week did not offer many great ideas. It’s an unfortunate fact that when the economy gets tough, innovation decreases. Some manufacturers can become risk adverse and focus on the “safe” core items that they have sold well for many years. This is a poor strategy because I believe consumers are looking for newness all the time. So we have to work harder to locate things that feel fresh and will inspire our customer to open her wallet.
It feels right to me that people should curb their spending. I would prefer that they shop more thoughtfully, choosing fewer products, products with real value. Some consumers have spent too much on liquidation sale items lately, with a laser focus on price, and perhaps without evaluating whether they even need another sweater, never mind that it is only $4.99. Through the Holiday shopping season, I noticed that Give Simple customers bought high quality practical items like robes, bath and body products and wallets in excess of last year’s quantities. Really new items like our cookbook kits (also practical) sold well, they filled a need that had not been met.
Sad news this week that two of our suppliers are going out of business. With a slowdown in consumer spending and some retailers going out of business, it does not surprise me that some suppliers will shut down also. We’ve lost our Domino necklace maker and the supplier of our Eco-chic shopping bags this week. Truly small business women, these women just could not get enough traction or volume for their business to make it pay. We’ll miss their enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit. And we’ll have to replace those items, which are logical to continue in our assortment.

2008-12-19T12:55:00.000-08:00

It’s been WAY TOO BUSY at Give Simple to even THINK about blogging until today. It is pretty weird, yesterday we were still swamped with orders, but today our customers seem to have all decided that it’s too close to Christmas to shop on line. On Monday, we’ll get a flurry of late shoppers who want express shipping (and guarantees that their package will arrive on time –as if it were within our ability to control the USPS) In fact, we’ve been absorbing the additional cost to upgrade every single order to priority mail this week, because we really want it all there on time.

I finally finished my own shopping today, really, really late for me. I’m usually super organized and early. I especially love little gifts for people who don’t expect one, like Sherry, our super UPS delivery woman. She always looks out for us, and she loves our dogs, too!

Every holiday, our customers surprise us by responding better than expected to some items. This year’s biggest hit? Stainless Steel Wallets! Big Buddha Handbags and Hobo Wallets were wildly popular, too.

Now that it’s all winding down, I have to say that we’re so fortunate to have had a good Christmas at Give Simple, pulling out a healthy increase to last year, with very little discounting. It might seem like a miracle of sorts in this economy, but I know it’s all because of our great customers and friends, who realize that a good value is a good value, even if it’s not 75% off!! The principles that we follow at Give Simple, selecting wonderful, well-priced products that are different and special, and giving fabulous customer personalized service are just perfect in today’s economy. We’ll always have great gifts at amazing prices, and treat all of our customers with great thoughtfulness.

Happiest of Holidays to all and best wishes for peace, love and prosperity in 2009

2008-12-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

I love finding cool new products for Give Simple. Truly new and innovative ideas are few and far between, though! I can’t tell you how disappointing it is to go to market and see so many manufacturers that seem to think a new color of their best item is enough to get customers excited. No, what I am looking for is the NEXT best item!

That is what gets me excited, gets the magazine editors excited, and makes our sales happen! About this time last year, a product came to us that I thought had potential. A few weeks later, I was sending it off to Real Simple magazine for their Mother’s Day Gift recommendations. That started the madness that was the Make Your Own Cookbook Kit .

For the first two months, everything went great. We sold hundreds and hundreds and had a great idea for an add-on item to go back and sell to the customers who bought the original item. I was amazed at the life of the product beyond Mother’s Day. Customers continued to buy as a result of the magazine placement all through May. Then one day when I went to reorder, I found out that the next production run had not been scheduled – Give Simple’s hot item was about to sell out! What!?! No more Make Your Own Cookbook Kit ?

Now it’s six months later, and the madness is about to start again, late enough in the season to be totally infuriating, but not so late that we won’t be killing ourselves to try to capture every last sale. This is exactly the sort of thing that can give us fits if the postal service or UPS screws up an order for one of our customers. They can’t run out and replace it, all they can do is torture us as if we personally failed to put it in their hands!

The good news is that the Give Simple customers will have an original gift choice, once again, not the same old thing you get at the mall. More good news, finally we also have Make Your Own Cookbook Copies. This little item doe not include the software, so it is a lot less expensive to make duplicates for your friends and family.

While I call it madness, I have to admit, I love having my conference room loaded with boxes to ship off hundreds of orders to customers. So let the madness begin!

2008-11-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

This week at Give Simple, it seems every other order is for Mudlark Stationery . The Isola Bella Stationery Set is featured as a last minute gift in the December Issue of Parent’s magazine, and their readers are coming to Give Simple to scoop us 3, 4 and 5 at a time. Parent’s says this is what your kid’s teacher would like to receive, but we think this beautiful set could be great for a lot of people on that list – office mates, your sister in law, your aunt, a favorite hostess… The Delphine Paris themed set is selling almost as well as the pretty blue and green Isola Bella, and Isadora, the purple/green/orange stripe is not far behind. This set is a great value, and we think the keepsake box is so pretty, that we would just tie a nice satin bow on it, and not even wrap it! Easy for you, good for the environment – hooray!

Mudlark is such a lovely company. They are as green as they can be, they design gorgeous products, they deeply believe in giving back, and they are just the darned nicest people – we truly love doing business with them.
Mudlark Skincare products are great, too. Their premium quality personal care products reflect concern for the natural world, with body-friendly ingredients formulated with great care. The quadrupled milled soap is not to be missed. It comes in a beautiful gift box, but I have been known to hoard it for myself!

I think I haven’t seen Charlotte, our customer service manager without a Mudlark lip balm in her hand in weeks. Even though it is not that cold here, as the weather cools, we all start to dry out. She loves this stuff!

I can’t wait to see what surprises our customers have in store for us this week – there is always something new that they teach me. What will the Turkey Weekend surprise be?

2008-11-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

I am so ready for the holiday season to get going!! All the great stuff is here, and the traffic on Give Simple is starting to pick up – double to triple what it was in October, easily – but I’m ready for a full blown frenzy!! This is a really fun time of year, because customers get so excited about the amazing finds. We also get tons of new customers as people search the web for gifts. What are the top searches that lead people to Give Simple? Big Buddha, Murval, French Bull, Niven Morgan, Thymes, Dogeared Jewelry, Pine Cone Hill and Melamine top the list right now.
With the Live Chat feature much more prominent on the site, we’re getting more direct contact with customers, which is always interesting. Some days we feel like 411 operators. Customers are so happy to get a live human, that they think we are all knowing! And we do work extra hard to answer all of their questions with a smile. Even if it’s 15 minutes while someone tries to decide if they should buy pink or turquoise (They’re both great, just pick one!)
Lots of people seem to think that we make everything that we carry. After a life in retail, this amazes me! If only I really had created all this fabulous stuff…
The most curious inquiries come from people who claim they are retailers. “I have a boutique in Arkansas (or a Hair Salon in California) and can you please tell me where to get the handbags you sell?” Give Simple has spent 4 YEARS scouring the markets, stores and the internet to find the carefully edited assortment for our business. “You’ll have to figure it out for yourself” I tell them (kindly I hope)
Every day there are more chat questions and more and more packages going out the door. The really serious shopping begins next week with Thanksgiving. So my wish for shopping to escalate to the point of frenzy may be granted very soon!
A note on last week’s Big Buddha blog: My friends are too funny. At the end of the blog, I said I couldn’t wait for all of us to carry the same bag to a party –AND THEN IT HAPPENED!! On Wednesday, Brenda and Annette and I all carried the Big Buddha Gigi to our book exchange group! Our outfits were quite different from each other, but we all looked smashing, darling. All the women agreed that these bags are so great, especially for the price. Plus Brenda had to open the other three bags I was delivering so that everyone could ooh and ahh. All the women agreed that these bags are so great, especially for the price. Yes, that is one of the perks of hanging out with me, if you order something on Give Simple, I will bring it to you if we get together. Several friends now time their purchases to get delivery. Others still like to pick up so that they can see the new treasures at the office.

2008-11-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

Don’t you just love it when your fashion instincts are great? I have to brag a little. On Wednesday, Whoopi Goldberg raved about Big Buddha Handbags on The View. Of the 5 handbags on the show, 4 are available on Give Simple! I do get a kick out of selecting the hottest styles, so this really made me smile.

The Big Buddha Handbags that were on The View that are available on Give Simple are:

The $80 Tyler Handbag, an oversized tote silhouette with a great urban vibe, thanks to the gleam of the darkened, gunmetal hardware on the handle rings and round buckles. The crinkle texture is right on trend in the silver gunmetal color. This bag has a flat, sleek silhouette, but can be expanded by adjusting the large round side buckles and smaller buckles on the sides at the top. Our stylish neighbor Debbie bought this bag, and as soon as she got it, ordered the same bag for her daughter in New York. How many women are lucky enough to have moms this generous, and with such fabulous taste, too!

The $75 Margo Snake Texture Handbag was my original favorite in market. I love this one so much that we have four colors! Pull together your look with the Margo bag, featuring double drawstring ties on each side that make carrying all of your everyday essentials a cinch. This snake embossed bag has a subtle sheen. The View chose to show the color of the season, purple, as did my wonderful friend Gayle.

The $85 Lauren Bag is featured in our Christmas Great Gifts flyer. Talk about a WOW bag! This combination of the hobo shape with brown and berry snake print could not be more perfect. This bag is an attention grabber, and yet the color combination seems to flow with so many items in our wardrobe. Multi colored snake will be a hot trend all the way through 2009.

The $70 Miranda Quilted Patent Handbag is the best bargain in the bunch. This bag goes from day to night and pairs perfectly with jeans or dresses with its ladylike look. It converts from the bucket shape to a flowerpot shape with a clever interior clasp, and includes a shoulder strap, which makes it an extremely versatile bag. Plus there is a BONUS gold metallic cosmetic bag.

There are a lot of inexpensive handbag lines out there. Very few have the fashion flair of Big Buddha. In many other lines, the colors are off, or the silhouettes are dated, or both! Most brands in this price range are not as well made as Big Buddha either. Big Buddha designs reasonable quality bags that are right on trend, and look like they cost a lot more than they do.

Honestly, there is a big difference between most $300-$400 handbags and a Big Buddha handbag. This is not the handbag you might want to carry if you work in a conservative field, where your colleagues or clients judge you by your clothes and jewelry. In the fashion business, where it is all about style (and increasingly about “Recessionista” bargains!) I have no hesitation about wearing my Big Buddha with jeans or with a designer outfit. In fact three of my friends now own the bag I carry the most often, the Gigi Snake Hobo. I can’t wait for us all to show up at the same party!

2008-11-07T09:38:00.000-08:00

Recent articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have examined the enormous change in consumer shopping habits. Both articles say that fashion customers who are price conscious are calling themselves “Recessionistas.” How clever to take necessity and call it something chic!

“In an economic climate in which buying a handbag with a four- or five-digit price tag is starting to seem gauche, the free-spending style hounds formerly known as “fashionistas” are rebranding themselves, “ says the Times. While I do know people who quite recently purchased four-digit handbags, I can’t imagine doing that myself. In fact, on Give Simple, we’re very proud of our two-digit handbags! You can get a lot of flash for your cash with Big Buddha and Murval, and feel guilt free!

Were you turned off by Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe? Most of my friends certainly were. We all can understand how she might have needed to spruce up with a couple of new suits and a few bright jackets. But how can you call yourself a “hockey mom” in a $4000 Valentino jacket?

Probably the first of my friends to start seriously cutting back did not even have an economic necessity to do so. Joy just decided she didn’t need any more stuff, and would try to make it through the Spring 08 fashion season with almost no new clothes. I think she made it with only a few casual tops and some fresh white pants. Now she’d on the same mission for Fall. She did have to have the Give Simple Triple Multi Chain Necklace from Stein and Blye, and that a $55 necklace has given her a wardrobe lift without guilt.

I blogged about the updating my wardrobe on the cheap before my trip to New York a few weeks ago –I didn’t even know I WAS a Recessionista! Cool! Right on fashion trend yet again!

“Cheap is cool,” says WSJ. “Splurging doesn’t feel as good as it used to.” This is creating some interesting consumer behaviors, like dialing back luxury shopping, entertaining more at home, and shopping in your own closet for new looks.

This plays right into the Give Simple philosophy. When the founding sisters started the company, they knew their customers, many of them young, hip moms, did not need four-digit handbags, they needed affordable, quality, fashion right and unusual handbags, jewelry and gifts. We have continued that philosophy as we have grown and expanded Give Simple. With most items well under $100, we’re right where consumers want to be. Hurray!

2008-10-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

The Holiday candles are here!! Holiday candles are a Give Simple “Stock Up Gift” – something you can give to multiple people on your holiday list, a pretty gift that is easy to give and easy on the budget. This is perfect for teachers, neighbors, co-workers, hostesses or an unexpected guest. Also a lifesaver for the inevitable “Oops, I forgot to buy you a gift” scenario that we all have gone through!

I know, it seems early, but trust me, some of our Give Simple customers start asking in October, will you have that Christmas candle again? They are asking about the Michel Design Works Comfort and Joy candle. Customers LOVE this candle and buy multiples year after year. It is a soy candle, hand made from renewable resources, and burns for 40 hours. It is beloved for the traditional cinnamon spice fragrance, but also for the beautiful packaging. The pretty red and white brocade pattern is repeated in gold on the glass candle container inside. No need to wrap, this candle is ready to give!

For those with a preference for a more green Holiday scent, we’ve added Thymes Frazier Fir, which smells like a big fresh Christmas Tree! Our market sources tell us this is the best selling holiday candle in the country. Mountain fresh and glowing, Thymes Frasier Fir helps set the mood for those moments that make the holidays so special. Beautifully boxed and ready to give, candle comes in a pine needle patterned decorative glass container. Perfect for those of us with artificial trees. Ours is 8 years old, which makes us quite green, but I do miss the delicious pine smell! This year, I'll use the Frazier Fir room spray, or as I call it, "Chrismas in a can," as well as the candles, no wait, maybe a diffuser... Too many choices!!

At any rate, our fulfillment center smells like Christmas now, so I am already in a festive mood!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-25T12:44:00.001-07:00

I love New York!! Especially in the autumn. We don’t have autumn in Houston, in fact we just have two seasons, summer and not summer. Here in New York,the air is cool and the sun is warm. The leaves in Central Park are transitioning to their annual riot of color, and look like they will be perfect in a week or two.

I am visiting the city with my Women’s Initiative friends from United Way, a girl’s weekend for 15. One of our activities was visiting the Hearst Tower, the greenest building in New York, and also the Good Housekeeping Institute. While I was aware that Good Housekeeping Magazine has a huge circulation, I never thought I would have much interest in reading it. In fact, I always thought it was something my mom’s generation reads. But I was incredibly impressed by seeing the labs at The Good Housekeeping Reseach Institute, and meeting the publisher of the magazine, Pat Haegele, and the head of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Miriam Arond. The tests they do on products of all kinds not only to determine the best products, but also to ascertain the truth or lack of truth behind advertising claims is quite remarkable. Like consumer reports, only far more focused, and free on line. Wow! If you are not a subscriber, you should be!! They will be launching a Green Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval soon, and I look forward to that very much. I love the idea of getting the facts on all those green claims!

The tour of the Hearst Tower was fabulous also. I love the way the original façade of the building was preserved, but the immense gorgeous, modern tower rises from it. The huge lobby water features are amazing, as is the 80 foot mud “finger painting.” It is impressive when a company creates a headquarters building that is an example to others on recycling, energy conservation and green thinking in every way.

Of course, no matter where I go and what I do, I am looking for ideas that make sense for Give Simple. It would be amazing to have the Good Housekeeping Research Institute evaluate our Make Your Own Cookbook kit when we get the new version.

Give Simple does work on being green, in our smaller business way. We don’t have a catalog, so no waste there. We re-use every possible bit of packing material and all of the boxes we can from our inbound shipments. We buy cornstarch packing peanuts, which dissolve in water. This visit makes me want to push our entire building to recycle, as we do in our nearby neighborhood, or at least to check with the city and see if they will pick up just from our own part of the building.

Fashion flash, what are they wearing on the street in New York? Lots of flat boots with tights and little knit dresses or short skirts. Most handbags I have seen are patent, lots of croco patent, lots of large bags. Purple, grey and of course predominantly black clothing. Long scarves looped around the neck. Bloomingdale’s Soho: Chain Jewelry, Clothing in purple, teal and fuchsia with black, lots of grey. Lots of sweaters, dresses. Tons of boots and booties.

Celebrity sighting: Kristen Scott Thomas at my favorite after theater restaurant. After 200+ trips to New York, I still get a thrill when I see the star of the Broadway show I just saw walk in to the restaurant where I am having dinner.

Central Park was lovely, we saw two shows, walked all over Soho, went to the Top of the Rock (observation deck at Rockefeller Plaza) with a first time visitor to New York, had great meals -- I do so love New York.

2008-10-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Why we LOVE lunch totes

Lunch totes are like a trip back in time to when you had a lunch box, except now you’re in charge of what it looks like. No more hiding your Josey and the Pussycats lunch box in your junior high locker so you can take a paper bag to the lunch room! My mom bought that thing about 2 years after I asked for one, and then insisted I take it to school each day, ensuring ridicule by my peers! Now, I can choose leopard print or rainbow flower neoprene or hot pink with lime handles – a wide range of looks to match my outfits!

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that more working adults than ever were taking their lunch to work, primarily to save money. As gas prices went up, first people gave up their daily Starbucks fix (remember the 600 stores they closed across America?) The next move they made was to stop eating out at lunch.

I have brought my lunch to work almost every day for many years. The original reason was to be certain that I actually got to eat. For years, I had a very hectic work life, with back to back meetings and piles of work. While I could send my assistant out to pick something up, it was not a great use of her time. So most Mondays, I carried in fresh flowers, fruit, and other items to sustain my energy through the week. Eating light and healthy breakfasts and lunches also helped offset the many business dinners and Friday and Saturday night date night, which always involve eating out.

These days, I come to work with lunch tote almost every day. I have more time to make delicious homemade soups and salads, which really help me keep my weight down. So I can eat healthy food, and the time I save gets me out of the office earlier at the end of the day.

Our best selling lunch totes at Give Simple are from Murval. Murval develops cool fabrics and fun prints, and then translates them into clever totes and functional bags of all kinds. Their insulated totes come in leopard, giraffe, polka dot, leopard, and argyle patterns. A new addition is Built, with their fabulous neoprene lunch totes. French Bull patterns on neoprene? Sign us up!! I only wish I could get them to make me a custom wetsuit in rainbow flower! Neoprene is PERFECT for lunch totes because it is lightweight, rugged, and insulating! Simply brilliant. Last week, we added bright and fun Lunch totes from Milano at the amazing $14 price point.

So you see, it really is possible to save money, watch your girlish figure, and look great while toting your lunch to work. So many lunch tote choices at Give Simple!

2008-10-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

My friends are asking me even more these days, “How can I reconcile the desire to be stylish with the necessity to be frugal? “ Shop at Give Simple of course! While I can’t address their clothing needs, I can suggest something that honestly has always struck me as brilliant – Buy fabulous accessories that are priced right, plus some great tops in the hot colors of the season (purple, fuchsia and teal for Fall) and magically, your black pants, your simple skirt, your favorite suit can all look fresh again.

I myself used this strategy this week at Banana Republic, where I bought sweaters in you guessed it, purple, fuchsia and teal, that will update the wool clothes from “The Archives” aka the depths of my closet for a weekend trip to New York. I’ll throw a Big Buddha Snake Texture handbag, heap on some Stein & Blye chains with Semi-precious stones, and their fabulous cuff bracelets, and I’m ready to hit the big city.

I’ve always collected beautiful pants and skirts mostly in black from the designer sale racks. While I don’t need the Armani suits any more, those well made black bottoms will survive as wardrobe staples for years to come with careful care and continuous updating with new tops, shoes, handbags, and of course jewelry.
This Saturday afternoon, I’m planning to do my semi-annual closet flip, where summer goes to the back and winter comes forth. This includes shoes and bags too. I also empty all of my jewelry out and look for what hasn’t been worn lately, or can be combined with something new. Because big jewelry is especially in style, combining several necklaces in a layered look is great fun right now. Wine helps in this process, and if I can get a girlfriend to come over and critique, even better.

So what should you buy? First, a great handbag that is NOT BLACK! It is a season of color, and while yet another black handbag may look elegant with last year’s clothes, a colored bag gives you much more bang for the buck. Something about the way Big Buddha designs their bags is just so of the moment, so trend right, that I just LOVE them. And at $70 to $80 each, you’ll feel oh so virtuous!

Second, BIG JEWELRY. If you really feel uncomfortable in big jewels, maybe you can’t go there. But upsize a little, please! The easiest way is with a bigger necklace. You can stick with your stud or hoop earrings if you like; the fashion interest is at the neck or at the wrist. I come from Texas, land of big hair and bigger jewelry, so I wear a big necklace and 20+ Metalsgirl bangles, or a big cuff with no problem. I love the Stein & Blye jewelry. It is costume, but with semi-precious stones, and designer inspired. I actually had to give a friend the Triple Multi Chain Necklace right off my neck at a wine bar on Wednesday night –it’s that fabulous. And at $30-$60, again, so much bang for the buck! Their cuff bracelets are real attention grabbers, too. And $35-$60 can’t be beat!

So live a little without spending a lot! Update for Fall with a new bag and some new jewels, add some colored tops, and feel pretty and virtuous at the same time.

2008-10-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

It’s such an exciting time of year at Give Simple. Every time the UPS and Fed Ex delivery guys visit, it feels like Christmas! What’s in all those boxes they just dropped off? TONS of new and wonderful products, that’s what! New items we discovered at market months ago are just starting to arrive.

In the Spa category, there are two fabulous lines that are new to Give Simple.
Thymes is a long time successful company that makes wonderful body, bath and home items. Made with essential oils and natural ingredients, and artistically designed and packaged with hand-touched details, Thymes products pioneered an entirely new category of botanically based Bath & Body products. They have grown a lot, but Thymes is still a company that is run by and for women. And to this day, everything Thymes does – every single collection they create, every fragrance they develop, every formula produced, and even the packaging they design – is done with women in mind. This is their motivation for coming to work each day and the reason why Thymes is still going strong after more than 25 years in the business. Their master perfumer creates signature scents that are fresh, inspiring and distinctively Thymes. Their chemists are all women, giving them invaluable insight into what other women look for in skin and body care, making them uniquely able to develop products that meet those needs and desires. I am enjoying the Eucalyptus soap these days. Amazing how one bar of soap, just sitting in the shower can make the whole master bath smell fresh!

Our other new spa treat is Lollia. Where Thymes is clean and fresh in their packaging and scents, Lollia is over the top girly. Satin robe, marabou trimmed mules, light the candles, champagne in hand girly. Rich floral fragrances and ornamental packaging work together to transform your mood to the ultimate in femininity. Magazine editors rave about Lollia products. O, the Oprah magazine, is excited over the Relax and Breathe bubble baths, Lucky says the relax hand crème is pure heaven, and Self calls the Wish Luminary candles gorgeous and dreamy. Makes me want to pop a champagne cork and jump in a bubble filled tub!!

2008-09-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Two weeks after Hurricane Ike, and we still see lots of problems in Houston, both short term and long term. We still have friends without power, which is hard to believe. There are still traffic lights outs. In almost every neighborhood you can see piles of debris, ranging from just tree branches where there was no flooding, up to sheetrock and carpeting where the water rose too high. One of our sales reps lost her entire house down at the beach, nothing left but pilings, and it was her home, not just a vacation getaway.

Our big hearted city will feel the effects of this for months to come. Most of the people we know here in Houston have insurance and resources to get their lives back to normal. What scares me is the potential downward spiral an event like this can cause for the working poor, those families that live week to week, many on hourly wages. If you can’t get to work, you can’t get paid, you can’t buy food, you can’t pay the rent, you can’t afford gas, you lose your job, and the nightmare just keeps getting worse. I’m a big believer in community services that help people like this, who are working hard to get ahead, and just need a hand to get back on track.

I am grateful every day to live the life I live, and have the family and friends I have. After a little bit of inconvenience and expense, we are back to normal. Now is a good time to think about if what we give is equal to what we have been given. I always think I must have been very very good in a previous lifetime! So I’m going to dig a little deeper to see what else I can do to give more. It's the right thing to do, plus I want to keep my good karma going!

2008-09-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

What is it like to ride out a hurricane? SCARY! Houston experienced a direct hit from Hurricane Ike yesterday. You might think that since we live in an at risk city, that we would be old pros at this, but Houston has not experienced a direct hit in 25 years. So it’s a risk, not something that we view as a real possibility.
So what do we do when there is an imminent threat? We secure our 34” sailboat as well as we can. We make sure we have lots of bottled water, batteries, and non perishable foods, move absolutely everything out of our yard, fill the bathtubs with water and wait. We call our friends, especially the single ones, to make sure no one is weathering the storm alone.

Ike came ashore in the middle of the night, really creepy timing. We turned out the lights at 10:00. Our phone lines went out at 11:59, our power went our at 12:35, and at 1:15 the alarm on our house started beeping every 17 seconds, driving me over the edge until I figure out how to disarm it. Once the power was out, we could hear the frightening power of the wind in all its tortured fury as it tore around our house. This caused our thunder phobic rescue dog, Cody, to try to climb in bed with us. At 70 lbs of slobbering, shedding terror, that is a very unwelcome idea. Off to the workout room he was escorted, where he could safely huddle in the closet among the athletic shoes. It’s very hard to sleep with that howling wind, so we tossed and turned the rest of the night, wondering which of the 90-100 year old oak trees in the neighborhood would go down, and trying not to think about flying projectiles shattering our gorgeous floor to ceiling windows.

I tried not to think too much about Sea Breeze, our poor boat, tied up in Seabrook, on the edge of Galveston Bay, or about Give Simple. You have to separate your possessions from what you really cannot afford to lose, your family and your friends.

Give Simple is housed in a 1930’s printing factory building that was converted to lofts in the 80’s. It’s a very cool old building that we love having out fulfillment center and office in. But when you’re thinking about protecting your inventory from a hurricane, the sky lights and big industrial windows lose their charm. In the end, you pick your server and all of your other computer equipment up off of the floor, say a little prayer, and lock the doors.

Saturday morning, getting the dogs to go outside in torrential rain with sporadic wind gusts was a challenge, but we could see the storm was abating. Our pool was barely over the top, and out front the curb was underwater. We lost an ornamental tree in the backyard, and hundreds of small branches from the ancient oaks littered our yard and pool. Our neighbors were fine, just all without power. We daring drove the 1.3 miles to the office to find no damage, just a little water here and there, but also no power. All we could do was go home and clean up our property, and wait.

Sleeping without air conditioning in 85 degree weather is not pleasant. When it starts raining and you have to close the windows, the real perspiration begins. A sink bath does not really help all that much.

Later on Sunday, Charlotte, our intrepid customer service manager, who had regained power at her house, came over to bring us her battery powered TV. Then she went by the office where she found not only a bag of ice in the freezer, but power on!!

Give Simple was saved!! Our customers would feel barely a blip as we could fill orders and ship, although we are unclear on whether we’ll have normal USPS and UPS pick up and deliver tomorrow. Still, a big load off of our mind.

Now, we just need power back at home, and we need to drive the 40 minutes down to Seabrook to check on our boat. Not so bad, but I NEVER want to do it again!!