Holiday Shoe Shopping

So I'm still working on my holiday shopping. I've been a little bit more organized this year, but I've always been a procrastinator so at this point I've just accepted the fact that I'll always be doing Christmas shopping at the last minute. Thank goodness for online shopping and express shipping!

Today I'm shopping for shoes for my brother on Zappos.com. This is dangerous because Zappos happens to be one of my favorite shopping sites.  So shopping for him is taking twice as long because I keep getting distracted looking at stuff for myself. But I'm trying to focus.  He really likes Ecco shoes, but he's a student right now so he doesn't exactly have a huge shoe budget, so I thought that might make a nice gift. Now I'm just trying to decide exactly what to get. There are a lot of great men's styles to choose from.

Something like this is a good every day, versatile option that I think he would get a lot of use out of:

Or I could go with something more sporty from the Ecco Performance line:

Decisions, decisions.  And while I'm at it, it can't hurt to look at the women's shoes, right?  I love these Ecco boots:

It's so much easier to justify adding a little gift for myself when I'm ordering from Zappos - they have a great return policy and customer service, and shipping is always free.  And they're actually guaranteeing free shipping and delivery in time for Christmas for orders placed as late as the morning of the 23rd.  It's a procrastinator's dream! I think my holiday shopping just got easier.

Early Holiday Shopping (For Once)

When it comes to holiday shopping, I have always been a big procrastinator. I'm always the one paying an arm and a leg for express shipping to get stuff on time, and I consider it a triumph if I'm not at the mall on Christmas Eve. (December 23rd is totally acceptable though.) I'll admit that part of me enjoys the last minute chaos, but every year I have a hurried and frustrated moment when I promise myself that next year I'll start my shopping earlier.

Okay, so usually I don't keep that promise to myself, but this year I'm giving it a try. My dad is really hard to shop for, so I'm starting with him. I'm thinking of getting him a new watch this year. Watches aren't the most unique gift ever, so I've been looking online to see if I can find some options that are distinctive. (And of course a good value would be nice too.) I've been using Become.com because it's great for comparison shopping. I think my front-runner right now is this Nixon The Quatro watch:

Of course I got distracted in the middle of my watch shopping and started looking at jewelry. After a few minutes I forced myself to at least stop looking at stuff for myself and get back to the early holiday shopping mission.  My mom has tons of jewelry, so anytime that I decide to buy her some I know that I have to find something different and unique for her.

I'm not normally into floral jewelry but there's something that I like about these flower hoop earrings:

I also like these gold leaf teardrops. I think black and gold is a really sophisticated combination:

I'm also looking at charms - my best friend's daughter has a charm bracelet and she loves getting new charms.    Since jewelry with keys on it is so trendy now, I'm thinking this cute little charm might work:

See? I'm totally making progress. I'm sure that I'll still be at the mall on December 23rd, but by doing some of my research and shopping ahead of time, at least it'll be a less stressful and more festive experience.