Making Your Garden Look Fabulous (for the green thumbless)

I have never had a green thumb nor will I ever, but I certainly do envy the people that do. I sincerely do not understand how one manages to keep their garden true to a Monet painting year round-- it will always be a mystery to me. As for my landscaping abilities... I don't have the time, energy, or talent that it takes to plant and maintain a sanctuary Esq garden.


Instead of fretting over the perfect garden - I use decorative accessories to not only jazz up my boring garden but also hide many of it's flaws. This Realistic Frog Figurine, for example, acts as a focal point for my garden. It in fact takes some of the attention off of my less than perfectly pruned bushes. It also suggests the idea that my garden is maintained enough to be inhabited by animals (little do they know...) My frog never needs to be pet, fed, or watered.. him and I have a fabulous relationship.

In addition to my green friend (who helps make up for my lack of green thumb) I also like to decorate for the seasons. No, I am not referring to the tacky blow up Santa and plastic deer- but rather, decorations like this tasteful Snowman Outdoor Garden Stake Serving as a taller focal point, Mr. Snowman also helps remind my garden gawkers that it is in fact winter and plants can't live in the cold! Sheesh.

For those of you that I will forever envy - my applause goes to you. Our garden decorations will only further beautify your masterpiece of a garden. These products don't have to act as a distraction method - it just simply works that way for my barren garden. As a peace offering to prove the lack of my animosity for your success I present you this Garden Tool Set ...but don't ask me how they work.

Holidays with the Family

With the holidays just around the corner all I can think about is the grueling preparations that need to be made. Much to my dismay my house has become the family venue for all of the major Holidays ie, Thanksgiving and Christmas. As much as I love having my family get together in the comfort of my own home, the preparation can be unnerving. Yes the cleaning can be rather tedious especially when you are making sure not to leave anything for the newest additions to our family to stick in their mouths. For me however, the next step is even worse; the food preparation and service. Make no mistake about it, my family is rather glutenous on the holidays which means lots and lots of food and drink.

Waiting for all of the dinner food to cook normally seems to last for eternity. Thus making my family's favorite part of the meal (beside the wine)the "pickies". Whether it be chips and dip, veggies, or cheese you can bet the my family will be wolfing it down until the minute we sit down at the dinner table - enter a necessity to our holiday celebration this Cheese Cutting Mariposa Bamboo Board w/ stored Wine and Cheese Tools This set is perfect for our family being that it combines two of our favorite things. It saves me a lot of stress on the holidays knowing that I already have the appropriate tools for my family's favorite "meal".

For those of you that enjoy your sit down meal more, we also offer many cooking aides to make your time in the kitchen as painless as possible. This Kitchen Meat Thermometer Digital Speed Read Instant Read ,for example, will ensure that your Thanksgiving necessity , the turkey, is cooked just right. Without this product my family has set may turkeys afire (one of the reasons why we have learned to love the pre-meal goodies so much). Along with the burnt turkey my family's Thanksgiving meals have suffered many casualties over the years including lumpy mashed potatoes, watery salad, and bland vegetables. As much as I love my family, none of us were blessed with the ability to cook. Luckily companies like Polder and MIU France have come to our rescue over the past couple of years by making products like this Potato Ricer which has saved my family from swallowing whole potatoes. We offer many products by MIU France and Polder for those of you who like to make your cooking experience a lot easier (or for families like mine make cooking possible).

...cheers to a stress free Thanksgiving and Christmas- well, maybe I wouldn't go that far

Travel with Organization and Class

Sitting at your desk dreaming about your next exciting vacation?... aren't we all. In fact it's been so long since we've had a vacation a trip to my in-law's house is even starting to sound appealing (just kidding mom and dad I love you). As exciting as the idea of a vacation sounds the preparation can be the pits. Even though the flight and hotel arrangements can be a nightmare, I have to admit my least favorite part of traveling is packing. Packing is one of the few activities that makes me loathe being a woman. Unlike men, we can't throw in some socks, underwear and a couple shirts and be ready to go. No, we have to pack our shower gels, hair tamers, cosmetics, bling, and the list could go on and on. Not to mention the dismay on our faces when we open our suitcase to spilled perfumes and foundations.

Well ladies, fear not--- Whitney Designs and Room it Up have come to our rescue. First and most importantly let's keep your jewelry (aka bling) safe and sound within your mess of a suitcase. I used to be infamous for eternally keeping one earring in hopes that the other would come back looking for its lost mate. Not anymore. Now that I have this Travel Jewelry Portable Roll Case none of my earrings have to go to bed alone at night. Featuring six zippered pockets this travel jewelery case solves one of our many packing woes.

In the case of traveling, cleansers and cosmetics us women always have issues with loose powders and liquid messes finding each other. The answer: a multi-pocket travel case that can keep powders and liquids contained in case of an inevitable spill. Cases like this stylish Cosmetic Toiletries Hanging Travel Case by Room it Up keeps your spilled messes from mingling with each other.

Depending on how long your trip is, this case could double for cosmetics and toiletries. However, if you tend to err on the excessive side when it comes to these kind of things we would also recommend our Insulated Travel Train Case also by Room it Up for your bigger items.

You are now free to daydream equipped with all of the necessary, yet stylish organizers.

Be Kind to Your Shoes with Foot Petals

Record high temperatures have been gracing the east coast for the past couple of days. Although we love the wonderful spring-like weather in November, it makes us leery of the delayed inevitable; a not so smooth transition to the cold and snowy weather. Our answer? Prepare for the cold weather now despite the current temperatures. This way, we will not be so shocked when Mother Nature and Jack Frost decide to become chummy once again.

For the women who refuse to trade in their stilettos for our recommended Wooly Bully Boots we have another solution for you! Besides using your 4 inch heal as an ice pick (which I have found to work pretty well) we would like to offer a more conventional option. These Sole Stopperz made by Foot Petals will keep you from sliding around in the ice and snow. Not only will they add traction to your shoes but they will also keep you from falling on your butt and making a fool of yourself. Although considered an insurance plan for inclement weather, Sole Stopperz will also help you walk with confidence and poise in any type of weather. So if you are clumsy like me this product will save you from many embarrassing moments. '

In addition to Sole Stopperz, Foot Petals makes a fabulous line a other products that add comfort to you shoes and protect your feet from blisters. All of these things are imperative in the winter weather when feet tend to be dry and apt to discomfort. The Killer Kushionz variety of Foot Petals protect the entire bottom of your foot while making your day much more cushy and comfortable.

So I ask you again - please be kind to your shoes and I promise they will return the favor!

Keep your life organized with Day-Timers

It's November already which means that the New Year, year 2009, is right around the corner. It feels like just yesterday the mania over Y2K was hitting every news outlet possible and infesting our homes with madness. Yep, that's right NINE years later... here we are ready to ring in 2-0-0-9! What are your resolutions? One of mine is to actually take down my Christmas tree this year -- Yes, I know... I don't need to hear it from you too, I have heard it enough from my kids already.

Regardless of what your resolution is, we have the perfect solution for you to make it happen... organization, organization, organization. Keeping your life organized is the absolute key to all your resolution success. Planning and documenting your day makes it possible to figure out when you have time for this upcoming year's "promised" activities. Want to exercise more (don't we all)?.. Write it down alongside picking kids up from soccer practice and cooking dinner! Seeing it all on paper makes your day seem so much less overwhelming than you may think.

The good news? We can help you out with the organization aspect. Bad news? We can't help you with the exercise part (unless you plan on bench pressing one of our ironing boards, which I by the way do NOT recommend doing). Here at Shop At Clares we sell top of the line Day Planners ,made by Day-Timers,that will prove to be the answer to your organization woes.



All of our Day-Timers are of the highest quality made with leather. If you already have one of our awesome Day-Timers then you are already ahead of the game and only need to purchase the Planner Refills for 2009. Don't worry boys (or shall I say men) we offer a variety of colors and designs, white and plain being one of them.

Morale of the story? You can accomplish those challenging New Year's resolutions equipped with one of our handy dandy Day-Timers! I'm sorry, no more excuses.

Eco-Friendly Car Runs on Recycled Vegetable Oil

One of our favorite parts of our job is hearing customer's stories of how our business has enriched their lives. Sandie, a customer from Las Vegas, has provided us one of the most interesting stories that we have received to date. Sandie recently purchased a Sheepskin Steering Wheel Cover from our Wooly Bully line for her 1985 Mercedes Benz. She had problems finding a steering wheel cover to fit her 17" wheel, so she contacted us to have one custom made. Sandie explained that her steering wheel gets really hot in the Vegas sun and that a sheepskin cover proved to be the perfect fix.

Seems like a pretty mundane story right? Wrong! Although Sandie's car appears to be a normal ride, Sandie and her husband actually have joined the "go green" movement and converted their car to run on waste vegetable oil. In her email to us Sandie explained exactly how the process works. She and her husband were granted permission from 3 or 4 Asian restaurants to pump waste vegetable oil from their grease traps, as often as they want AND for free. (makes us wonder how much oil our food is actually cooked in when we eat out-YUCK). After filtering the oil to rid it of any impurities Sandie and her ride are ready to go go go. Amazingly the car manages an average of 20mpg and the only difference that she notices is a faint "deep frying" smell when the car is first started. Think of all the money Sandie and her husband save on gasoline alone! With all of the money their car saves them they could treat it to some more Sheepskin Accessories. After all Sandie, your car does deserve it :)!

We love Sandie's ingenuity and we are so happy that we could contribute to her cutting edge efforts to save the environment. We all could learn a little from Sandie's story and hopefully someday this will be a standard feature on new cars. Along with her informative email Sandie also sent us an important disclaimer to keep in mind if you decide to convert:

I guess our next question for Sandy is where she scored that awesome bumper sticker. I would almost switch my car's fuel options just to get me one of those :).