A few years ago at Blogher ’09 I splurged and bought my first-ever “not department store” purse at the Coach store in Chicago’s WaterTower Place on Michigan Avenue. I bought a beautiful, classic black Coach handbag that I still love carrying even though it’s a couple of seasons old. At the time it was the most expensive item I had ever purchased for myself and upon buying it I experienced the requisite heart palpitations that many women get who aren’t used to buying nice things for themselves.

Fast forward two years and now it’s not so hard to do nice things for myself although it still takes a lot of inner convincing.

After buying that black handbag from Coach I always receive nice, little goodies in the mail from them like really great discount cards to buy new handbags. The latest discount card will save me $100 off the purchase of a new handbag. What a smart marketing move. Now, how can I pass that up?

My favorite Coach collection is the Kristin collection. I absolutely adore it! I haven’t purchased anything special for myself in quite sometime. I think it’s time to revisit the Coach store and buy something snazzy from their Kristin spring collection. What do you think?

On the Net: www.coach.com

This past summer right after Blogher I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Sears’ HQ right outside of Chicago to learn about the Kenmore brand. I really didn’t know much about Kenmore other than what I had heard from other mom bloggers. Yes, that’s pretty much how I hear everything these days — from my fellow mom bloggers!  Kenmore certainly wasn’t a brand that immediately popped to my mind when I thought about appliances.

I learned during my visit to Sears that Kenmore had not only re-branded, but they had also launched a line of small kitchen appliances. Recently I received the Kenmore Elite 12-Cup Coffee Grinder and Brewer to review. As an ardent coffee drinker how couldn’t I oblige?

I have been using this coffee maker for a few weeks and I can confidently say it is not only a great coffee grinder, it also brews delicious coffee.

There are a few features of this coffee maker that I absolutely love most. First, I love that it is stainless steel. I also love that the grinder is on top of the coffee maker making it extremely easy for me to grind beans and make coffee. It frees up space on my countertop because I don’t have to use two separate appliances. Additionally you can set the time you would like your coffee to begin brewing in the morning and it will automatically start. I think I love that the most. Now, I just have to remember to set it at night.

The Kenmore Elite 12-Cup Coffee Grinder and Brewer retails for $119.00. You can find it in Sears stores nationwide and online.