Enter for a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree in NYC!

With spring in full swing, we've been pining over the cute dresses popping up all over Kaboodle. To celebrate the warmer weather, we've partnered with Marie Claire to give you the opportunity to show off your favorite spring dress and have a chance to win a trip for 2 to New York and a $1,000 shopping spree!

How it works: To enter the contest, simply upload a photo of yourself in a spring dress. Eight weekly favorites will be featured on the contest homepage and in our blog. One lucky grand prize winner will win a $1,000 shopping spree in NYC. See official rules.

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Sweater dresses are another one of those things that never really go horribly out of style but rather fade in and out of popularity.  Right now, they're sort of everywhere.  I guess once leggings made a comeback it was only a matter of time until you started seeing long sweaters over leggings, right?  Ah, how it reminds me of the 5th grade.  But I digress...   This blue lambswool sweater dress is really cute.  It's part of Gap's limited edition "European Collection."  I especially like the fuller sleeves.  I think I'd probably wear it with slim jeans, though, and not tights.  Available in sizes XS-XL for $78.

Love it?  Don't?  Let us know in the comments.

In honor of today's rain (yay!!), I thought I'd present a few of the snazzy rainy day items Kaboodlers have added to the site.

This might be the nicest-looking umbrella I've ever seen.  Fashioned in the style of a parasol, it is available in several color combinations.  You can choose between red, greed, black, white, and pink fabric and seven different handle colors, including clear crystal.  Around $100.

This umbrella is also pretty cool.  It comes with its own built-in stand, allowing you to easily stand up your wet umbrella instead of having to prop it against a corner or lay it down somewhere, making everything else wet.  Ingenious.  It's available in black or white for $60.

The original Hunter wellington boots are worn by everyone from Kate Moss to Queen Elizabeth II.  Everyone could use a pair of wellies.  Shopbop now carries them in ten different colors, from pink to black.  My personal favorite are the original green ones you see above.  $98.

Tell us what you think in the comments!

Halloween is fast approaching.  If you're anything like me, you have all these good ideas for costumes at the beginning of October but by the time Halloween rolls around, you've not done anything about any of them and then you have nothing to dress up as.  But, for those who plan better than I and want to go all out for Halloween, I present the Chewbacca "Collector's Edition" costume.  According to the costume website, it is, "The most realistic Chewbacca costume outside of the movies!"  Awesome.  Now, this will set you back $450 (down from $700, it seems) and so you might have to dress up as Chewbacca every year for the rest of your life, but you have to admit it's pretty cool.  It comes in a one-size and an extra-large version.

Let us know what you think in the comments and be sure to check out all the great Halloween costume lists on Kaboodle.
 

Every couple of years or so plaid makes a "comeback."  Honestly, I don't think it's that plaid ever goes anywhere, it just finds itself on the trendy side every few years.  From all the plaid stuff I've seen pop up on Kaboodle over the past couple weeks, I think it's safe to say plaid is being looked upon favorably again this year.  If you like plaid, here are a few items you might want to consider this fall.

This plaid coat from Delia's is made of a wool-acrylic blend and retails for $98.50 and comes in sizes XS-XL.

This satchel handbag, available from Fred Flare, is currently on sale for a mere $26.99.  It comes in the green you see above and red.  It's  made from a wool blend with vinyl trim, making it good for those who don't want to carry leather.

Everyone, even those of us out here in California, could use a pair of rainboots.  These ones have been jazzed up a bit with a cute brown and pink plaid print.  Available for $16.

Are you a fan of plaid?  Let us know in the comments.

By this point I think everyone knows Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola has a winery here in California.  But, what you perhaps didn't know is that his winery produces a sparkling wine named after his daughter, Oscar-winning writer/director Sofia Coppola.  The strangest/coolest thing about this sparkling wine - it comes in cans.  According to the Coppola website, these little cans of wine are, "for the impromptu, impetuous, live-passionately-for-the-moment kind of person.  The kind who lives like there is no tomorrow!"  My goodness!  That sounds great.  $15 for a pack of four cans or $3.75 each.

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Pancake Meow is a line of jewelry, mainly charms and rings, made in the shape of various desserts and other tasty treats.  They are also, believe it or not, scented.  The stack-o-pancakes ring above will smell like pancake syrup.  The cinnamon roll charm below (which, almost amazingly, looks so much like an actual cinnamon roll) should smell like a cinnamon roll.  The scents will generally last a few months before fading.  You can also order your items unscented, if you like.  Very cute.  I think I might have to order a donut.  I love donuts.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

So, in the interest of continuing to feature wacky soap here in the blog, I give you this wonderfully wacky corndog and fries soap.  Oh, yes.  Not only is this soap shaped like a corndog and french fries, it's scented like cotton candy.  Most excellent.  Stock up now and it'll remind you of trips to boardwalk all winter long.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Just what every home needs - a bowl made out of melted plastic army men (from the Battle of Waterloo, no less).  The War Bowl, from designer collaboration mosleymeetswilcox, is made of half French and half British soldiers.  I'm not entirely sure what you can put in a bowl like this (fruit, perhaps) but I suppose it's intended more as a conversation piece than a functional bowl.  In any event, it is pretty nifty.  It's available for $229.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I'm not exactly sure why I like this giant popcorn trolley.  The more I think about it, I think it has something to do with my love of The Price is Right.  Stay with me here...  Growing up, summer vacations and sick days were all about watching Bob Barker and The Price is Right at 10am.  At some point in the week there was bound to be a showcase where someone had a chance to win a bunch of movies, a big screen TV, a DVD player (or, back in my day, a VCR) and, if they were lucky, Bob would throw in the jumbo popcorn maker, just like the one above.  If you had one of these, it'd be like you had your very own movie theatre in your house.  Well, my friends, no need to bid on this thing and try to win it, you can order it for yourself.  For $340 you can get your very own game show-worthy deluxe popcorn machine.  Unless one has a home theatre (MTV Cribs style) I'm not entirely sure where this would go in the home, but just think of the smell of freshly popped popcorn filling the house.  And remember the price for the next time you're watching The Price is Right.  You'll totally be able to win the Showcase Showdown with this bit of information. 

The USB Greenhouse is just what it sounds like - a greenhouse that plugs into a USB drive, where you can then monitor its growth rate.  The included software also gives you a calendar and watering reminders.  The starter pack includes the mini-greenhouse, with light, a USB 4' cable, artificial soil, and a pack of marigold seeds (though any seeds you provide will do).  The USB Greenhouse retails for $50 and seems like a great way to perk up a boring cubicle.

Love it?  Let us know what you think in the comments?

Are you on Facebook? If so, check out the new Kaboodle application for Facebook. The team here has been working hard on this for the last few weeks and just launched it a couple of days ago. You can install it here.

See if you and your friends are wishing for the same things… show off your fab Fall fashion finds or your favorite gadgets. Choose from thousands of products in categories like Gadgets, Handbags and Halloween. You can also add items with your Add to Kaboodle button or through Kaboodle search.

Note: if you are already a Kaboodler, you can show off your existing lists on your Facebook profile. Right after you install the app (on the page where you can add items to a list), you’ll see a link on the upper-right hand corner of the page saying “Already a Kaboodler?” Click that to link to your Kaboodle profile.

Thanks to everyone who has written in asking us to create this …we hope you like it! As you know, we love feedback, so please let us know what you think!

If you need an external hard drive, you might as well get one that looks snazzy, right?  The over-the-top appearance of this gold hard drive from LaCie is too much for me to resist.  It's all shiny and wavy and gold.  It also has a storage capacity of 500GB, works with both Mac and PC, and is plug-and-play and driver-free.  It retails for $189.  LaCie is currently accepting pre-orders with an expected ship date of sometime in October.

Now, if the shiny gold isn't for you, perhaps the Lego-inspired hard drive is more your style.  It comes in 320GB and 500GB capacities, retails for $140-170, and comes in red, white, and blue, easily stackable bricks.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

How awesome are these dishes?   From Japan–Kyouei Design comes the Topography Plates.  Now you can eat from a valley created by shiny bone china mountains.  I think the greatest fun and impact from these dishes would come from setting up a really snazzy tableau to play up the topographical nature of the dishes.  Still, as you can see in the photo of just the dish, it's fairly striking on its own.  They are available for $90 each today from Charles & Marie.  Pretty expensive, but really cool.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Flowerboxes are really cool.  They come in cardboard, ceramic, wood, and aluminium versions and give you the ability to display plant life in your home in a rather different way.  The square, four-plant version above is 10x10".  They come with special watering equipment and simply need to be removed from the wall (the watering frequency is dependent on the types of plans, of course) and rehung.  Flowerboxes also come in one and three-plant versions.  Unfortunately, at present it appears as though Flowerbox's website only accepts Canadian orders.  They retail for around $17-40, USD.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the coolest.  The Thumb Thing Book Holder is a little piece of plastic that slips over your thumb and helps you keep your book open more easily.  I suspect this would be especially good for teachers who have to stand and instruct, book in hand.  It comes in four sizes, for children's and adults' thumbs alike, and retails for all of $2.95.

Let me introduce Brian.  Brian the Brain.  Brian the Brain is a robot encyclopedia from Britannica.  Not only is it full of Britannica's encyclopedia knowledge, it's also a dictionary, clock and calendar.  It can also store telephone numbers and hook up to a phone line, "allowing Brian to become a child's personal operator that dials the phone numbers of friends and family in response to verbal commands."  He also has an mp3 player jack so you can play music through it.  Brian the Brain uses voice recognition technology to respond to verbal prompts and he can, "[ask] questions concerning [your] child's likes and dislikes, using the child's responses to personalize conversations and to tell jokes."  Awesome!  I'm not a child but I totally want my very own Brian the Brain!  He retails for $120 and comes with a three-month subscription to Britannica Online, Student Edition.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to check out this super secret spy-worthy thumb drive.  The Ironkey was developed for the United States military and contains a hardware encryption chip that makes the data inaccessible without a password.  The chips within the Ironkey are immune to physical hacking since the chips are coated in a protective epoxy.  And, here's the best part, after ten incorrect password attempts, the encryption chip self-destructs!  Unfortunately, it doesn't start smoking and go up in tiny flames, television spy-style, but that's still pretty darn cool.  The Ironkey is available in 1, 2 and 4 gigabyte capacities and retails for $78.99 - $148.99.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Everybody loves a discount, right?  Well, we've recently added some new items to our Deals and Discounts page...

Remember these little guys I blogged about way back in June?  Well, you're in luck because Dynamism is offering Kaboodlers $10 off on each Walkie Bit ordered now through September 28th. 

This lovely cameo ring from Plastic Land is 10% off through September 28th. 

These adorable sleepy panda salt and pepper shakers are 20% off at ModCloth now through September 28th.

Head on over to our Deals and Discounts page to get the required codes and all the necessary information to get these, and other, items with our exclusive Kaboodle discounts.  Woo-hoo!

What started out as me using the word as a goof has turned into one of the most frequently used words in my vocabulary.  I know it's not exactly cool, a grown woman constantly using the word "dude," but there it is.  I mean, what can I say, I'm a born-and-raised Californian.  That's why I love this nameplate necklace from jewelry company White Trash Charms.  It comes in both gold and silver plate and retails for $80-110.

White Trash Charms has a wide array of silly jewelry.  Another favorite of mine is the Ronnie James Dio-inspired "devil horns" hand symbol necklace.  Show everyone you're a real rocker by sporting this.  It comes in a small and large version, in both sterling silver and 14 karat gold and sells for $75 (for the small silver version) and up. 

There's also this little gnome necklace.  Now, what can I say about him other than he's adorable.  Everyone loves a gnome, right?  He's available on an 18" or 20" chain and retails for $60.

See more items added to Kaboodle from White Trash Charms and let us know what you think in the comments.