I woke up in the mood to do some cooking, specifically the kind where I have to patiently cut up a bunch of things, so I seized that flicker of motivation. First I made another batch of baked oatmeal, which I love but it’s a lot of cutting and mashing and measuring; I put some dried cherries in it, because I remember I tried that long ago and it worked out well, and I cut those up a little too.
I was planning to eat that for breakfast, but while it was cooking I found I was more in the mood for savory/salty, so I made vegetable-heap breakfast instead. That’s another recipe that involves some fussing around with cutting boards: I had a new red bell pepper to process, and the grocery store didn’t have shredded carrot last time so I cut up some baby carrots.
I feel like I was going somewhere with this, but then I stopped and wrote an email to my mom, and now I can’t remember what I might have been about to say next, if anything.
Oh! I do remember! It’s not related to the cooking stuff, it’s about an online order. I hope you will not get (too) sick of me rhapsodizing about Target orders. I make Paul listen, too, and sometimes I make him listen to the same shopping story twice, saying “I know I already told you this but I just have to talk about it some more.” Supply-acquisition is just such a huge part of my life right now.
And I’m particularly wound up about it because I’ve had a really happy success, which was in figuring out how to send a friend a birthday present. In normal times I shop pretty regularly at TJMaxx/Marshalls/HomeGoods, and so in the month or so before her birthday I’d just keep an eye out for something (or several smaller somethings) I’d think she might like—but of course I can’t do that right now. When I was thinking about what I was going to do this year, it was shortly after we’d received our first Target shipment and I’d practically wept with happiness over it, so I wondered if for her birthday she might like a similar shipment. I didn’t fret too long about what specific things to send: I don’t KNOW what things she might be out of or have trouble finding or weep with joy at seeing, so I just aimed for the same kinds of things I’d ordered for my house, and I tried for a mix of useful/practical and treat/morale-boost, figuring that nothing was so expensive it would really matter if she didn’t need it, and also that she is a grown woman who is well able to find a use for (or donate) things she doesn’t need. Here’s what I chose:
(image from Target.com)
Hand soap. That seems to be low everywhere I shop, and it’s a basic supply that’s nice to have extra of anyway. I picked my own newfound favorite (Everspring Lavender & Bergamot) plus a bottle of Mrs. Meyer’s honeysuckle because at the time I was shopping the lilac was not available for shipping.
(image from Target.com)
Facial tissues. Again, seems low or non-existent everywhere I shop, and the site is limiting it to one box per order which makes it feel even more precious. Store-brand tissues are not something I would have thought to give as a birthday gift BEFORE this pandemic, I’ll say that.
(image from Target.com)
Hostess chocolate cupcakes. I don’t know what the birthday cake situation is going to be at her house. I thought about sending her a cake mix, but I don’t know her egg/oil situation, and it was dismaying to imagine her having a cake mix but not being able to make it into cake.
(image from Target.com)
Fancy birthday candles! To go in the cupcakes if necessary.
(image from Target.com)
Brownie mix. If she DOES have oil/eggs, she can make it. If she doesn’t, it’s not painful like a birthday-cake mix could be; she can just put it aside for another time.
(image from Target.com)
Kettle corn. I have had such a hankering for kettle corn these last few weeks. Fortunately I had several bags on hand when this began, but I went through those and have been looking for other ways to acquire it. My grocery store is out of the bags of it (and has been out of it for weeks—is everyone else craving it too?), so I ordered myself a box of microwave kettle corn to try it, and I got a box for my friend too so we can both try it.
(image from Target.com)
Beauty box. Target puts out one or more of these sample boxes per month and I often order one for myself. (If you think ahead, you can order an extra one each month for a number of months and make a nice gift out of that. I did that for Mother’s Day one year.)
(image from Target.com)
Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer. Not very expensive, so if she doesn’t like it, it’s fine. I got it in Plum, which is my own favorite. (It’s not as dark as it looks.)
(image from Target.com)
Tortillas. This has the highest potential for making her wonder what on earth I was thinking—but they are totally sold out at my grocery store and have been for WEEKS! And it was one of the things I was happiest to see in my first shipment. We are very fond of tacos.
(image from Target.com)
Pasta. This item, too, may make her blink. Store-brand pasta, what a special birthday treat. But again: sold out for weeks! and hard to get even online! For 99 cents, it was worth the possible outcome that she can’t find it either and will have that extremely happy feeling when she sees it. And if not: a box of pasta is not hard to use or donate.
I made Paul come over and look at the order right after I’d placed it, and admire each item. Then the next day I told him I was sorry but he was going to have to listen to more on that topic, and I told him more about how happy and satisfied I felt with the whole thing. Now I am telling you. Perhaps next I will email my mom about it.
Swistle, how have you been thinking about the ethics of buying stuff online? I have been trying not to buy anything non-essential online because I am worried about burdening the workers and the system that some people are depending upon for necessities. But I would really like to buy some non-essential fun things for myself. For example, I have conditioner, but I want fancy conditioner I can’t get at the grocery store. I have one Turbie Twist but I want two more. Must I wait until the crisis is over?
Yes, I have been thinking about it, and can’t come to any good conclusion overall, or for everyone: it’s so complicated, with so many layers and factors. For myself, I’m using Target orders mostly to enable me to limit grocery store trips to only once a week, which is easy for me to make a decision on: less time in the store / fewer trips to the store / less burden on local resources in short supply / one of the safest and lowest-contact methods for everyone involved. But as you see, I’m also not limiting it to pure necessities, which gets into trickier waters.
I think you are ok to order those few things! And like Swistle said if it helps you reduce in person store trips, all the better.
I’ve struggled with this too. But the problem with waiting until the crisis is over is that the crisis won’t be over for months or years. It’s hard to know what to do.
I just placed my first Target order this week! They didn’t have everything in stock, but really the whole thing went very smoothly.
This is a lovely, thoughtful birthday present and my strong guess is she will be delighted! Even if some things make her head tilt sideways in confusion, I imagine it will be DELIGHTED confusion at this surprise package of essentials and treats. Many of those are not things I would buy for myself, but to have them surprise delivered to me in this time of prolonged uncertainty and hunkering down – well, this is not the first time I’ve wished we were real-life friends, but it certainly WAS one of those times. Well done!!
Man, how I would love to both send and receive a package like that! All hail, Target! I’m in Canada, and Target’s attempt in our market crashed and burned so hard, and I miss it so much! We live close enough to a US border that we visit occasionally, sometimes (let’s be honest – usually) only for a Target run. Those were the good old days! Online ordering is a crapshoot here right now, with weeks between placing and receiving the order, so we definitely aren’t using it for anything remotely essential (although my kids and their dwindling melty bead supply would argue otherwise), so I am fully jealous and wondrous at your Target stories! Especially, too, since Am@zon Canada has garbage pricing and selection, and extremely sketchy employment practices.
Your daily postings are a serious bright-spot in these pandemic-times. Thank you.
“Perhaps next I will email my mom about it” put such a big smile on my face on a day when I’ve done nothing but grouse and scowl.
Me too!
I am not At Jazz Fest in New Orleans and even though no one else is either, I am still grumpy. Plus it is raining here and COLD (esp. compared to NOLA which on paper looks to be in for delightful “It would be Jazz Fest except for this wee tiny snafu” weather. ) And I have been growling all day for this and “other pandemic, no one leaves, which exacerbates this“ reasons.
And BAM. I smiled.
My mother, sister, aunt and I were supposed to be in New Orleans, too. One day at Jazz Fest, and the rest touring and spreading my (other) aunt’s ashes. Instead, my mother is home alone processing the loss this morning of a friend of 45 years. This is perhaps the most personally pissed off I’ve been at the virus. (Not the shelter in place order. I support that. Just at the universe for screwing with us like this.)
Please don’t stop waxing rhapsodic about your orders. I’m supposed to finally get an order of soft pants today and I’m beyond excited. It’s taken almost a month and our weather is garbage this week so getting soft pants is making my day (week?) I could talk about my incipient order of soft pants every hour if it wouldn’t make everyone else in my family insane ;-)
This is the content we are here for! Also, I didn’t know Target did a beauty box!!!!
I give the Target beauty boxes two thumbs up! It’s fun to try new products I would never purchase on a whim, and they are so affordable that I have sent them as fun happy mail to nieces. I love them!
Care packages are the best. Let me share what I recently sent to my sister in law, who is a nurse in NYC (!). Medium Priority Mail box of : Easter wrapped Hershey kisses, a box of Banza chickpea pasta (she is gluten free and that stuff is damn convincing), Tajin seasoning (so good on corn), an open box of procedure masks from when hubby had pneumonia a few years back, a very colorful cloth mask I sewed, and some drawings by my five year old. I think she liked it at least as much as I liked making and sending it.
We can’t really get groceries online here, only click-and-collect stuff from the stores. But then, we don’t seem to have as much stuff missing from our shelves as you do, so I suppose it balances out.
Post idea I want to put out there: I know this is early to talk about Mother’s Day, but non-essential items aren’t shipping until mid-May, so if I want to pointedly direct my family’s attention to any links it had better happen soon. I have NO IDEA what to ask for, so any fun-yet-practical ideas for things that might be available in Canada would be great! I’m legendarily hard to buy for as I don’t really go for jewelry or even have pierced ears, and I’m not a candles or soap kind of person, and this year I’m on a diet so sweet stuff won’t work as well as usual.
Thanks to you though, Swistle, I think I know what to get my own mother, and it’s the toucan shears that you previously recommended. I bought them for myself for Christmas and my mother admired them…
Ooh yes, can we have a swistle’s mother’s day shopping post?
Yes to this! I would love a Mother’s Day post of gift ideas. What should we be ordering for our selves right now, to ensure on time shipping and a better than horrible day stuck at home, being forgotten. Im always interested to see how your Mother’s Day goes, I’m in the same boat of neglectful celebrations. Why do I already feel disappointed? Trying to not think about it.
Mother’s Day in the US is only two weeks away, I think! My husband said he already ordered something for me. I guess he got the hint last year when I asked him very specifically for something in February (sent links and all) and he never ordered it so I got it for myself a couple months later.
What I got were digital versions of profile shots of my kids, made into those old-style black card-stock portraits? If you know what I mean? Very inexpensive on Etsy to have the digital images made, then printed at Office Depot and bought some cheap frames on Amazon. I know this isn’t practical per your request, but I love them so much.
Ack! May 10?!? I thought I had a week more than that!
Flowers. I looked up a local flower farmer in my mom’s area and they are doing contactless deliveries of lovely, fresh flowers.
I just want to tell you, reading you talking about your orders is just absolute perfect mood reading for when I’m up in the middle of the night because of the baby/insomnia/anxiety/making my own grocery orders. ABSOLUTE PERFECT READING.
I love this! I just ordered some of that honeysuckle soap for myself too after I saw you post about the Lilac. They were out of refill sizes of what I normally buy (milk and honey scent) so I hope I like it!
I also LOVE to buy care packages like this. Our BFFs moved out of state a couple years ago, and the wife moved by herself first. Target made it so easy to send towels! and hand soap! and Clorox wipes (those were the days!) But also fun new hair ties! And a cute pair of socks! Just things to help her new home feel like home. Recently her mom died so I sent her and her spouse some chocolate and lip balm and hand cream and Jiffy Pop and such. Just comfort things. more socks, probably, I forget. Target makes this SO EASY and almost as fun as shopping for such things in the store.
Target does beauty boxes?! Who knew?
I placed my first Target delivery today – it appears that is the only way I can procure the (second favorite) leave in conditioner – the first favorite cannot be found for love or money.
I love this post simply because I’ve been stressing about mother’s day – and now I have a new approach to it. Thank you!
Popping (heh) in to say that our family finds microwave kettle corn delightful. A slightly different strength (?) than the popped bagged kind, but it is its very own kind of delicious. I hope you like it too!
My sister and her husband both have the virus — the husband worse than my sister — and I overnighted her a box of homemade bread, bagels, and brownies. All our love expressed through carbs.
Mother’s Day, ack! I’ll probably get my mom something to read but I’d better order now.
My coworkerfriend had a birthday last week and we’d been home from work almost 6 weeks at that point… I sent her a box of donuts on grubhub because she is a big donut fan and she was very surprised and pleased. Your package looks delightful!
I’d be delirious with excitement to receive such a gift. Delirious! I’d need fanning and smelling salts. Good work, Swistle! Very kind.
I find it very satisfying to hear about your supply orders, and the birthday gift version is even better!
Yesterday I had a birthday gift delivered by a local (to the recipient) farm store: contactless delivery of donuts and beer.
I was thinking deliveries might take a while and so I ordered and sent my mum her gift already. Imagine my surprise to hear it has arrived early! She is easy to shop for though – she’s been painting a little lately, sent some art supplies :)
OH MY GOD do I love this idea! I love it so much! We don’t have Target here but I might try Shopper’s online to see if I can do something similar. HOW FUN IS THIS. I love it.