There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos, CupcakesTakeTheCake…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there. And more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.

If you’re an online shopping junkie like me, you probably have tons of links stored in your favorites, saved to your desktop, or emailed to yourself of things you want to buy. Not the most organized shopping method; it gets so cluttered you’re left without that great sequins blazer you wanted because you couldn’t remember where you stored the link. And you do so much online perusing (it’s OK, we get bored during class, too) you can’t even track it down in your browsing history. R.I.P., sequins blazer.

Need a better plan of shopping attack?

Let me introduce you to the best thing that has ever happened to online shopping: Kaboodle. It is like your personal shopping assistant, keeping you organized and making sure you get the best deal on everything you’re searching for. Read More »

So many sites. Why are all of them porn?

There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos, CupcakesTakeTheCake…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there. And more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.

I love buying gifts for all my friends and family during this time of year, but I hate the stress it puts on my bank account.  The holidays are almost here, and I’ve already spent too much, yet I’m still nowhere near finished with my shopping.  With so many people left to buy for, I have to be careful about how much I spend, so I’m looking for the best deals I can get my hands on.

Luckily, I’ve recently discovered a great website: Coupon Cabin. It’s a ridiculously huge online collection of both printable coupons and coupon codes. A statistic on the site boasts that “the average Coupon Cabin shopper spends 80 seconds on the site and saves $19 per order”–that’s some serious moolah! It’s seriously the best coupon/deals site I’ve found, and it’s super user-friendly and easy to use. Read More »

You know that really annoying friend of yours who feels the incessant need to point out that they were the first to know about a now really popular band? Every. single. time. it comes on the radio?

As annoying as they are, there is something exciting about the knowing of a new band, new clothing brand, great sale, awesome book or recipe, and sharing it with the ones you love. And by ones you love, I mean the ones you go back and forth with right here on the CollegeCandy message boards.

So here’s the deal: every week, we will feature 3 things that YOU think other CollegeCandy readers just have to know about. Anything at all. Nothing is off limits.

This week we’ve got a hot band (that you can officially tell your friends you’ve “been listening to since blah, blah, BLAH”), a great service that’s all about you, and another awesome site that will change your life. Get ready to brag to your friends, ladies, because you are in. the. know.

The Jakes.
I think we all need to send a big “Thanks, Alex!” for writing in to The Know and bringing these 5 pieces of double whammy eye/ear candy into our lives. One listen of their song Cough Syrup and I was hooked. And that says a lot from the girl who usually has to listen to a song 3 or 4 times to really like it. (And those songs are usually by bands like BSB and Destiny’s Child.) And with the first beat of  their jam, Texas Tea, I was already walking with more swagger in my step, more shasay in my bootay, as I walked down the street. True story. Read More »

Being a poor college student sucks…except when other people notice and begin to cater directly to us and our needs. Like the student rate at the movie theater, or Apple’s sweet discount for college students.

Now take the excitement you feel when you get your movie ticket for $10 instead of $12 (wooohoooo!) and multiply that by the thousands of discounts you can get by joining my new favorite discount site just for students, StudentRate.com.

Did you pee your pants yet? (I’m sure they can get you a deal on some new ones!)

This fab new site allows college students to take full advantage of their school ID – all from the coziness of their own dorm rooms.  Even better? The user-friendly layout lets us search deals by category, location, “What’s Hot,” and by browsing keywords to see what pops up.  Of course, the site is free to join (what’s the point in saving money if you have to pay to do so?), so there’s really no reason NOT to take advantage.

Here are some of the best money-savers that I came across in my latest visit to the site: Read More »

Don’t you ever get tired of not knowing how to do the crap that other people know how to do? Your computer cable breaks and you resign to just buy a new one because you don’t know how to fix it. You see girls wearing cute t-shirts that have been cut into elaborate halters, but you just buy the generic version of the shirt at the store because you have no idea how to turn so much fabric into something so little.

For all of you out there who have ever wanted to do all of that crap that other people know how to do, your prayers have just been answered:

Instructables is here to save your life.

This site is one of the coolest sites ever (second only to CollegeCandy…) and I can hardly begin to explain all of the reasons why. Ok, so I will try. Here goes: they walk you through the instructions of how to do just about everything.

Literally, everything! No more asking guys to help with “guy” things or calling up your sister to teach you how to get your hair doing that perfect balance between chic and messy.

The Instructables people break their projects down for you by category. Once you decide between Art, Craft, Food, Games, Green, Home, Kids, Life, Music, Offbeat, Outdoors, Pets, Ride, Science, Sports, and Tech, they send you on your way to DIY heaven.

Step by step. Project by project. It doesn’t get any better than that.

The next time you have a project in mind, but just don’t know how the eff to do it, I can guarantee you Instructables will. And they’ll show you, too.

A while back, a friend called me and broke some news to me that has changed my life completely.

Cassie: Girrrrrrrrrlllllll, don’t hate me, but I gotta tell you about a website.

Me: Why would I hate you for telling me about a website? Is it porn?

Cassie: It’s craft porn.

Me: Craft porn?! What’s the url?

Cassie: www.etsy.com You’ll never get off of it. You’re gonna be hooked. But you’re gonna love it.

Two months later, I still can’t get off of etsy.com. It’s kind of like ebay, but there’s way cooler sh*t and no lame bidding. Artists and craft-sters from around the world put their hand-crafted items on etsy with a price. If you like something, you buy it.

Yes, it sounds like the same-old shopping website, but it is so much cooler. The stuff on there is home-made and all kinds of awesome.

From tote bags made from seat belts to mushroom shaped salt and pepper shakers, etsy is seriously everything a craft-lover could ever dream of. It’s like going to Arts & Craft fairs from around the world without getting off your lazy ass.

It is the perfect one-stop-online-shop for all of your gifting needs: everything is unique, lots of the stuff is super cheap (those mushroom shaped salt and pepper shakers were on there for 5 bucks!), and you get to discover new talent from around the world.

If you love the idea of personal and crafty gifts, but you’re too lazy or talentless to make your own, definitely scope out etsy. You are going to love me it!

Finals week drained me of a lot – my last pint of Cherry Garcia, my final cup of Folger’s, my sanity – plus the extra cash I had stashed in my wallet all semester. Cash that was supposed to help buy gifts for well, everybody, on my holiday gift list.

But it’s the holidays and sometimes magical things happen. So I’d like to extend a big THANK YOU! to the Holiday gods for sending this little gem my way: SwapStyle.com. It reminds me of my junior high days when my BFFs would bring over extra clothes for me to model and “borrow.” We all knew that “borrowing,” however, actually meant my friend would never see her A&F tee again. And she was cool with it, because she only brought it over because it made her look fat.

Yeah, so it’s just like that only on a much larger scale. Thanks to the information superhighway you can “borrow” clothes from women from all over the globe! That means you’re not limited to extra large, ratty Mickey Mouse T’s and super-flare Mudd Jeans from your somewhat-frumpy best friend’s wardrobe. Instead you can “borrow” Coach bags, Forever 21 dresses and MAC eyeshadows.

Plus, clothes-swapping is super environmentally friendly (you are reusing other people’s things instead of wasting new materials!) and the site is easy to use. Did I mention it’ s free to sign up?

Check it out here.

If I had to name one thing I love about this time of year it would not be the Gingerbread Latte, it would not be the “holiday spirit,” and it would definitely not be the ridiculous scene at the mall.

It most definitely it ugly Christmas sweaters.

Seriously, I die. They are like the mullets of holiday season: everyone knows that people make fun of them, but they never go away. Why? Is there a secret love of sequins I didn’t know about? I think it’s because I am always such a good girl every year and someone upstairs knows exactly how to repay me.

I know I am not alone in my love for overly adorned sweatervests, mostly because there were 3 other Ugly Sweater Pub Crawls happening on the very same day I took mine (see photo below). And because I saw a whole slew of them in the window at Talbots. And, the best reason of all, because someone created this amazingly awesome website where you can make your very own Christmas sweater!

Score! This is even better than finding those gems at the Salvation Army… and it doesn’t smell nearly as musty. The possibilities are endless! Choose your style (crewneck, sweatervest, or cardigan) and then throw as much Christmas crap as you can on there! Sure, it looks a little overdone, but I am pretty sure I saw this exact sweater at the thrift store when I was shopping. Read More »

Like most normal humans between the ages of 12 and 70, I love The Office. And, like most American women between the ages of 6 and 800, I love shopping. And clothes. And pretty things of all sorts. Put all these delightful things together, and you have my new favorite blog of all time!

Well, it’s not new, but it’s new to me, and I am totes obsessed with it. This magical blog? Things I Bought That I Love written by none other than Kelly from The Office, Mindy Kaling.

And yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. Its tagline: “A place to discuss things we’ve bought that are frivolous and fun.” From sour candies to adorable flat (thank you!) shoes, it’s literally anything lovely and mentionable that has crossed Mindy’s path.

Not only does she have awesome, interesting taste, she is also (hello!) a comedy writer, so the whole thing is just one big ball of adorable hilarious-ness. I love that I can read it and hear the words coming straight out of Kelly’s be-lipglossed mouth. But even the flaky, flippy, Kelly-esque tone she sometimes employs can’t mask the fact that she’s hella (shut up, I’m from the West Coast) smart. Her writing is sharp, and her suggestions are not only cutesy and fashionable, they’re actually realistic and useful! Like, you could use them in your real life. For real.

My recent favorite? Her suggestion for Hue by Tracy Reese tights which came about when she came across the “I love dresses, but hate when my knees get frostbite” dilemma we all face from time to time. Thanks, Mindy!

The only downside? Oh right, turns out Mindy is also an actor and writer for a hit television show, so sometimes she can’t post as much as I’d like. But when she does, it is so worth waiting for. She’s clever, she’s candid, and best of all, she cracks me the eff up. Keep on keepin on, Kaling!

[Photo courtesy of www.fanpop.com]