Using a bicycle for trips around town is the ultimate in environmentally friendly transportation; so promote the use of their bike by giving this easy to use and install cargo trailer. Although this trailer says its made for the eGo Cycle (electric bicycle) it looks like it will fit any bicycle with at least 20′ wheels (most do). This bicycle cargo trailer features a low profile for better visibility or lights and reflectors, can attach in a snap, and can carry up to 100 lbs of additional weight. When not in use this trailer folds up flat for maximum storage efficiency.

$169

Gaiam also offers gift certificates so recipients can find their own perfect present.

Taged as: eco friendly, gadgets, gift idea, green gift idea, under $200

Posted by Sean in Alternative Energy, Holiday Green Gift Guide, Outdoors, Misc
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Any glass of eggnog looks better on these limited edition recycled record coasters. They’re made from actual vintage records from the likes of Bing Crosby and Lawrence Welk, and just like them, these coasters won’t be around for long. Start a holiday tradition and bring the recycled record coasters out with the advent calendar. 6 coasters per set.

$18

Uncommon Goods also offers gift certificates in case you can’t decide on the best present.

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Posted by Lauren in Holiday, Holiday Green Gift Guide, Household, Misc
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Mable’s is excited to announce the newest addition to mables.com: several pages of online coupon codes.

Our coupon page updates itself automatically with new coupon codes, discounts, and special offers, so bookmark it and check back often to get the best deals from your favorite stores. A permanent link to the online shopping coupons will be located in the top of the sidebar.

Want more ways to find what you are looking for? Try browsing by tag to help narrow down that special gift or unique item you’ve been looking for. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed to get the latest gift ideas and deals delivered right to your news reader.

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Posted by Sean in Misc
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How many times have you or someone you know gotten a traffic ticket due to one of those traffic-enforcing cameras? Now, thanks to, PhotoBlocker Spray you can avoid those tickets with one easy application.

For much less than a traffic ticket, you can now fight back against traffic light camera robots that turn you in to the authorities. The PhotoBlocker spray goes on your license plate and looks invisible to the naked eye, but creates trouble for those pesky cameras. Once covered in this exclusive formula your license plate becomes overexposed in the picture due to the massive reflection caused by the flash of the camera.

This spray has been covered by most if not all popular television news stations and many newspapers, and it’s 100% legal. This would make a funny, yet extremely useful gift for anyone whose had the pleasure of getting a ticket from one of these traffic cameras. PhotoBlocker also sells simple clear covers for your license plate that do the same as their spray.

The website says that this works due to the high intensity of the flash the traffic-enforcing cameras use, but I wonder how regular flashes/camera prevail. Say for instance I was walking home from school and someone tried to kidnap me, but failed and as they drove off in their van I snapped a picture with my camera phone. Would the license number show up on my camera phone if they used the spray? What about at night with a flash? How long will this continue to be legal?
If celebrities were to wear big rain coats and covered them in PhotoBlocker spray would they be invisible to the paparazzi? Does anyone have answers or estimates to these questions?

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Posted by Sean in Unique, Misc
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Did you miss your chance to get 15% on the last O-Day Sale? Well this is your lucky weekend because Overstock’s got a sweet deal at 12% off everything plus only $1 shipping. But you better hurry because the deal ends 10/23/06 @ 2 PM EST.

Just in case you miss this O-Day sale this weekend they are also offering 10% off on all orders made by 10-31-06. But you don’t get the awesome $1 shipping deal you could get if you buy something this weekend.

For those of you who will be ordering the big stuff, we’ve got a special deal for you. Take $15 off any order over $125. This deal also expires 10-31-06.

Helpful hint: If your purchase total is over $125 but under $150 then use the $15 off deal. But if your purchase total is over $150 then I’d suggest the 10% off deal as you will get a bigger discount.
Math:
(10% of $125 = $12.50) $15 off is better than 10% off
(10% of $160 = $16.00) 10% off is better than $15 off

Taged as: coupon, Overstock.com

Posted by Sean in Misc
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Remember the post we did on the Halloween Countdown? Well we took it a step further and have been working hard behind the scenes to bring everyone 365 Days of Halloween fun. That’s right Mable’s now has a new sister site named 365 Halloween and it’s chock-full of awesomeness.

“This website is made for anyone who wishes that Halloween was longer than just one little day. Whether you spend a week or a whole year celebrating Halloween, this website is dedicated to you. Our aim is to fill a void that exists online for interesting, entertaining, and quality Halloween content.“

It’s now officially launched and has some great content categories like Halloween Costume Ideas, Halloween Decor Ideas, Halloween Recipes with Pictures, and Halloween Event Trip Reports. (The trip reports are going to be my favorite part, but since the haunted attraction season is just beginning, it’s a bit barren right now)

We’ve already got some great content like how to make a bleedy cake, mummy dogs, a contest winning homemade mummy costume, clay skulls similar to the ones from Disney’s Haunted Mansion Holiday, a rare Jerri Blank costume, and more exclusive content. We are encourage you to submit your own Halloween articles & photos to help spread the Halloween love.

So if you are a fellow year-round Halloweenie or just wish Halloween was more than one day then you’ve got a new blog to subscribe to over at www.365Halloween.com.

Taged as: blog, Halloween, spooky, website

Posted by Lauren in Misc
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We just got word of a huge sale over at Overstock.com from September 18-21. Get 15% off anything you order! They call it their O-Day Sale, but we just call it awesome. Overstock has some pretty good prices already, but taking another 15% is where the real deal is at.

How much of a discount is 15% really? Good question. Let’s do some math. Let’s say you are a Star Wars fan and you want to purchase the newly released Star Wars Trilogy Limited Edition DVDs that contain both the original theatrical release (where Han shot first and Jabba is a human) and the digitally enhanced special edition (where the special effects are improved and the colors “pop”). The list price on these are $29.98 each DVD, so if you bought the trilogy it would cost you roughly $89.94 before shipping and taxes. Now let’s take into account Overstock.com’s already 40% off everyday price of $17.81 each. That brings it down to $53.43 for the set. Now let’s subtract the additional 15% off during the O-Day sale (valid 9/18/06 - 9/21/06). 15% of $53.43 is $8.01 so our new total is $45.42! That works out to be only $15.14 for each Limited Edition DVD! I think any Star Wars nerd would appreciate that low price for something they’ll undoubtedly watch over and over again.

Well what about shipping and taxes? Well depending on where you live determines whether you pay taxes or not, and if you are within the continental U.S. it looks like shipping is only $2.95.

Overstock sells things in just about every category you can think of like DVDs, sunglasses, cell phones, digital cameras, printers, bedding, rugs, sinks, craft supplies, shavers, dental care, trumpets, guitars, jewelry, furniture and more. So figure out what it is you want a mad discount on and get it at 15% off the already discounted price during the O-Day Sale starting 9/18/06 at 12:01pm and ending on 9/21/06 at 11:59pm.

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Posted by Sean in Misc
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September 1st is a beautiful day. Some welcome the great respite of Back to School or look forward to Fall or Labor Day partying, but for a select group of Halloweenies it means something else. As our friends at Ghost Droppings so eloquently said: “With the days of August now dead, we usher in the month of September. September is the month where hidden things begin to stir in their dark places. It is the month where Autumn more fully rears its head before the sun. It is a time where our Halloween activities become more focused and obsessive. September is that time before the month of months with the day of days, Halloween.”

In the US, Halloween is the 2nd most popular holiday, but around here it’s THE holiday. We wait anxiously all year for the chance to put together fantastic costumes, watch endless stretches of spooky movies, carve our Zombie Pumpkin stencils, go to haunted houses, see the new retail offerings, visit pumpkin patches, make freaky themed food, and generally just roll around in the cool, dark feeling of the season.

In this spirit, today kicks off our Halloween Countdown at the 365 Halloween blog. We will be blogging about Halloween topics everyday until October 31st. We’ve been working hard on our Halloween Costumes section at Mable’s, but have lots more spooky spirit left over. If you enjoy this deliciously dark “holiday of holidays”, be sure to subscribe to our Halloween RSS feed for a daily dose of the good stuff.

Taged as: blog, Halloween, spooky, website

Posted by Lauren in Halloween, Misc
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It’s back to school time and for a lot of people that means new clothes, school supplies, and of course books. Books are an essential item that can’t be overlooked or bought later in the school year, so it’s wise to get them now at a low price. In my experience it is best to buy the books used simply because of the cost. I’m not talking about used for the past 5 years kind of books. I’m talking about “used for one or two semesters and no longer needed by that student” quality. The best place I’ve found for used text books for school is Half.com. They have a huge selection, because it is user based, so you are buying from normal people like you and me instead of stores. (Also helps students get more money for their books than the pennies that their school bookstore would give them.) They also have an easy to navigate website and solid user rating system for buyer confidence which is very similar to eBay. In fact, you can basically visit both sites at the same time because half.com also displays eBay auctions at the bottom of each page. I love eBay, but that’s why I go to half.com first for books and movies.

I use the uber convenient “search by ISBN number” feature so that I get the exact book my classes require. There are lots of revisions out there and you need to make sure you get the right book for the right class. The banner above will take you right to their textbook superstore where you can easily type in the ISBN numbers of the books you need.

COUPON: Get an additional $5 off of a purchase of $50 or more. Simply use coupon code “SAVEBIGNOW”. Good only for new buyers. Offer expires September 29, 2006.

Taged as: books, coupon, eBay, half.com

Posted by Sean in Misc
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Because we’re good little nerds, the Mable’s Crew is constantly scanning the Interweb for new and interesting things of note. In our quest to find products, services, and companies to spotlight, we also naturally come across a great many rad blogs. We were as shocked as you. Other websites… with blogs… that are feature interesting goodies? No way. So without further ado, here are some of the product related blogs that make our hearts pitter patter…

With it’s sarcastic take on pop culture, My So-Called Strife has become a daily read for us. It’s reminiscent of X-Entertainment (a simile I take seriously, for XE is amazing), and features huge product collages and reviews that obviously took a bit of time to create. Kirkkitsch blogs every weekday, which adds up to a lot of excellent content. His sidebar, despite recently being the topic of a little Internet drama, is also jam-packed with linkworthy sites and well chosen banners. His Cafe Press store features “kitschariffic” vintage images, some with sassy, snicker-inducing text. OK, I’m done gushing now.

Home Tone is actually part of a huge network of blog sites, but like it’s name indicates, this particular blog focuses on our homes. They update frequently with ideas and products that help turn a house into a “personal heaven”, and their categories are expansive and well divided. They also have a sidebar that begs mentioning, as it’s equally useful.

A good weekly visit site is Strange New Products, which presents the “weirdest, funniest, stupidest, and ingenious new products entering the marketplace”. Not unlike a car crash, it draws you in, despite the often asinine nature of the products being featured. SNP is also part of a large network of quality sites, with Orange County Memories being our favorite. (Hey, we’re Southern California natives, too.)

If you’ve got an interesting blog (with a shopping, product, pop-culture, or other quasi-related topic) that you’d like us to check out, give us a holler (our contact info is on the right) and we’d love to check it out.

Taged as: retro, vintage, website

Posted by Lauren in Misc
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