Top 10 Affordable & Lovable Mothers’ Day Picks

Here are Ownza’s top ten Mother’s Day picks, compiled by our urban, tech friendly mommy.

1) Nine West Laptop Sleeve. Moms need to protect their gear, while being stylish.

Nine West Laptop Sleeve

2) Christopher Elbow Mother’s Day Collection Chocolates. Seriously. Skip the blasé mall chocolates and get her something unique and beautiful!

Christopher Elbow Mother’s Day Collection Chocolates

3) Skullcandy disturbing-the-peace, blue pipe speaker. Let’s get real. Sometimes Mom needs to get her rock on away from the kids. Compatible with all your apple gear.

4) New York Times Wine Sampler. A subscription to wines from around the world? I would LOVE this.

The New York Times Wine Club

5) monbento: Lunch Boxes for Grown-Ups. Moms are crazy busy. Help her keep healthy with easy lunches!

monbento: Lunch Boxes for Grown-Ups

6) The Pomegranate Vintage Necklace is for evening or daywear. Beautiful on any skin tone.

Pop of Pomegranate Vintage Necklace

7) If you see Mom napping, do not wake her. This Whiteboard Eye Mask is a handy reminder.

Whiteboard Eye Mask

8) When settling down with the iPad, Mom should not have to mess with the wifi. This easy-on-the-eyes Whole Home Router kills dead wifi zones.

Whole Home Router

9) New styles always please. Try a breezy, chic summer tote from Kate Spade.

Kate Spade Fabric Purses

10) It’s true. Moms need permission to relax. Give it to her in the form of the L’Occitane Almond Ritual.

L’Occitane Almond Ritual

Ownza does Earth Day

In honor of this little green (and blue) planet of ours, we thought we’d share some top picks for Earth Day.

1. Nothing says Earth Day like a living, breathing tree. We recommend you go Bonsai like Mr. Miyagi, and what could be easier than ordering one on Amazon!

2. When you’re done getting your hands dirty trimming your little tree, wash up with some Nature’s Gate organic hand soap:

3. Don’t let things get unruly on Earth Day–go mow your lawn! But make sure your trimmer is electric, like this great mower from Greenworks:

4. We love flowers! But they die. And on Earth day, we celebrate life! (and the world naked bike ride). So go get yourself the flower that keeps giving! Until you kill it. For the orchid is a fickle beast:

5. We don’t love the Earth this much, but some of you Ownz’ers apparently do: make your own backyard compost heap, with the help of these creepy crawlers. According to Amazon (what don’t they sell!?), these worms are just like Mikey: “They’ll eat almost anything organic:”

ShopSquad is getting a new name!

At its heart, ShopSquad is all about connecting with your friends around the stuff you own and want. We’ve come up with a new name to reflect that. Say hello to Ownza!

The name will change very soon. But all the great things you love about ShopSquad will be the same.  Same community. Same platform. And of course killer discounts from the same top brands.

Check out our new logo, and let us know what you think!

Game On!

Ever wonder just how on-point your trendsetting skills are? On ShopSquad, you score points when others own or want stuff you added first. For every 10 points you earn, you bump yourself up 1 level.

We redid our leaderboard, so now you can see exactly where you stand compared to the cool kids. You can (obsessively) monitor your own ranking, jump to the top 10, or filter by friends.

Get on it, and flex your awesome-spotting skills here. Is your stuff looking a little lonely? Loop in your friends here.

Social Archaeology: the stuff we own

Every day, ShopSquad users add the quirky/educational/essential products that make their lives easier. We crawled through the thousands of owns posted, and we summarized our findings in this nifty infographic below. Some of our discoveries might surprise you:

Curious?  Join the party at ShopSquad here.

Putting the “nom” in Monday: David’s Cookies giveaway

Cookies are truly the most versatile dessert; more agile than cakes and pies, less fussy than cupcakes, less melty than ice cream. For our latest giveaway, we’re dropping incredible gooey gourmet goodness on you, courtesy of David’s Cookies.

feel your resolve crumbling, like so many delicious, buttery... crumbs.

Every time you ShopTag David’s Cookies this week and share the links via Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, you’ll be entered to win a 1-lb tin of chewy, fresh-baked delights. Flavors include chocolate chunk, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, macadamia white chip, cherry white chip, and double chocolate chunk. Fifteen lucky ShopSquad advisors will be snacking sweet in September, and the five winners with the most ShopTag clicks get a special surprise!

Contest runs Monday, Aug. 29 through Friday, Sept. 2, noon PST.

Step 1. Visit David’s Cookies. Ogle their selection. Delicately wipe drool from keyboard.

Step 2. ShopTag your favorite dessert on the site.

Step 3. Share your ShopTag via Twitter, Facebook, your blog, etc., proclaiming your love of sugary delights. Don’t know what to write? No problem! Here are some prompts off the top of our heads:

If I could only have one cookie flavor the rest of my life…

The absolute best drink to pair with cookies is…

If I had to choose between a raft made of cookies and a sweater made of cookies…

Rinse and repeat as often as you’d like. Happy cookie-spotting! And as a bonus, here’s a video mashup of Cookie Monster singing Tom Waits:

 

 

ShopSquid: 5 cuddly curiosities in homage to the dancing squid video

If you haven’t seen the dancing squid video that has recently gripped the digestive organs of diners everywhere, we’ll summarize: there’s squid, freshly prepared, in a bowl. The person behind the camera pours soy sauce on the animal, which proceeds to twitch and flap its tentacles about post-mortem, dancing like a translucent emissary of Satan.

We’ll leave the debate on whether this constitutes animal cruelty to other Internet provocateurs, since the ShopSquad team consists of 50% vegetarians and 90% tetchy buttholes who laugh at misery. Instead, we’ve rounded up the most gut-bustingly awesome squid-related accessories around, whether you prefer your swimmy seabeasts dead and deep-fried or releasing the Kraken at a beach near you.

ModCloth Squid Pro Quo earrings: deck out your earlobes in inky, adorable terror.

CafePress Travel Mug: Cocktails, Casablanca, and cephalopods? Consider us thoroughly romanced.

Busted Tees Free Hugs Shirt – Chilly rage or adorable misunderstanding? The squid’s black grimace yields no easy answers.

ThinkGeek Cuttlefish Babydoll Tee – Random fact: when we were little, we thought these creatures were named cuddlefish, conjuring images of furry, aquatic embraces. Picture our disappointment when we were confronted by the broad, bumpy, mollusc-y, distinctly uncuddle-able reality. We haven’t been this disappointed by misleading names since The Banger Sisters.

BONUS: Octopus Round!

ShanaLogic Octo Plushie Pink – your mouth says, “I protest the twee anthropomorphism of the Octopoda order,” but your heart says, “yessssssssss.”

As always, you can get ace shopping advice, underwater or landlubbing, at ShopSquad.