What Has Blue Done For Me Lately?

About a week ago, I got in a snit about the blue stuff I've ordered recently that has been backordered. Here's the update ...

After I canceled my camera order with RitzCamera.com and placed it instead with 17th Street Photo through Amazon, I received it within a week. And when I emailed them asking for tracking information, they responded right away. Giant smoochy kudos to 17th Street Photo. And one more thing -- when I purchased the pink camera from Target originally, it came to $153 with tax. When I ordered the exact same camera through 17th Street Photo, I paid $118.00, no tax or shipping, so I saved $35. I adore my little blue Nikon Coolpix S3000 ...

Now, about the blue casserole dish I ordered through CSNStores.com. Once I got over the disappointment of not getting the Le Creuset dish that I wanted (because I was not willing to wait until December or later to get it), I worked with a truly wonderful customer service agent named Aubrey at CSNStores, who helped me change my order to the Emile Henry casserole dishes instead. They also arrived within a week. The total on the order was $71.90 and I had a $60 gift card (that I won through One Crazy Cookie), so I paid $11.90.

These dishes are gorgeous -- heavy and beautifully made.

And even though they're not Le Creuset, they're handmade in France. Check out the stamp on the bottom of the dish ...

There is French on the labels -- poterie culinaire -- which makes me feel like a better cook and I haven't even used them yet. Magnifique!

And best of all, I've been contacted by CSNStores.com to offer a giveaway. Stay tuned, because as soon as I receive the details on how this works, you will have the chance to receive your own lovely things, blue or not, from CSNStores.

The Color Blue Sucks!

Why, oh why, is my favorite color blue? And why is it so hard to get the things I want in blue? I wear a lot of blue and I pretty much live in denim so I like navy blue shoes: navy blue heels, navy blue sandals, navy blue wedges, navy blue flip flops. But I have very few in my closet because they're so hard to find. Always there are lots of black and brown and even burgundy shoes available, but forget navy blue.

If I ever wanted to do something completely asinine, like open another retail store, I would call it Blue Shoes and that's all I would carry.

Of course, it would be the size of a small closet since there would be very little merchandise in it.

Because blue shoes are so ridiculously hard to find!

I've never bought shoes on the Internet. I have to try shoes on, see how they feel, walk around in them, think about it, look in the weird tilted shoe mirror. So I have to go into brick & mortar stores to shoe shop which really cuts down on the options for navy blue shoes.

I recently got a new camera. At the last minute, we decided to buy a Nikon S3000 the night before we left on vacation last month. I got it at Target and all they had was pink which I wasn't at all thrilled about. The sales guy said take it, try it, return it if you change your mind.

This is not normally something I do. I am fundamentally against returning merchandise unless there's something wrong with it. I rarely buy anything I don't want so why would I return it? I have friends who will buy racks of clothes and then return them the next day. I don't get it. If you don't want it, don't buy it in the first place. I've always been pretty sure of what I want so indecisiveness drives me nuts. When we had our stationery store and I'd sit for hours and hours with brides going through invitation books and they couldn't narrow it down to their top 50 that they liked, it was torture. True, honest-to-God torture!

So off we went on vacation with the little pink Nikon. I took well over 800 pictures and it is a great camera. I just couldn't get past the pink. Of course, I wanted a blue one. I returned the pink camera to Target and ordered a blue one online through RitzCamera.com. A few days later, I checked on it and found out it was on backorder. For 3 weeks I tried to find out when they expected to receive the blue cameras. I called, emailed and did the live chat with customer service reps. Nope, nada, nothin'!

All I want is my freakin' blue camera!

I did another online search and found them through Amazon at a store called 17th Street Photo in New York. When I placed my order, the screen showed 4 blue cameras in stock. We shall see ...

For a while now I have wanted a pretty cobalt blue LeCreuset casserole dish. I buzzed around town a few months ago looking for one and they're $65.00. Since I didn't really need it, just wanted it, I couldn't justify spending that kind of money on bakeware. Then in September, I won a $60.00 gift card to CSNStores.com through a wonderful blog that features the best recipes, One Crazy Cookie. Talk about excited! I could just see my coveted casserole dish filled with bubbling lasagna or chewy brownies. Yum!

When I placed the order, I was told Le Creuset was a special order and would take a month. *sigh* Okay. But when I checked on it after 5 weeks, I was told it was backordered until at least the middle of December, which is yet another 8 weeks or so. For crying out loud, people! How hard is it to get a blue casserole dish?

So I cried blue tears of despair and changed my order to an azur blue Emile Henry casserole dish and the price was such that I was able to sneak in an additional smaller casserole dish to match. These dishes are supposed to ship this week. We shall see ...

I wish I liked another color as well. I just don't. Now all this backordered, unavailable, impossible to find blue stuff has me feeling decidedly blue!