Victoria "Sustainable, Creative, Enlightened Living" E.'s Profile

COMING SOON! Opening set for June 2008 - new review will be posted after opening party.

Filing as a business owner for the first time put me on-edge, but Jeanine DiGiacomo did a seamless job of explaining the process, informing of the information that she needed and efficient ways to keep track of expenses and income. In a week's time, my return was prepared, sent to me via PDF to review, and filed. The whole process was straight-forward, open, and I was consistently kept in the loop. The best compliment I can give is that I will be hiring her services next year for my 2007 return; quite gladly I might add.

After my iffy experience at the Papyrus in the mall (see previous review), the woman at the register mentioned a Japanese stationary store up a few floors. Still needing calligraphy pens, my best friend and I made haste to find this place. One look at the name and the window for MaiDo and we knew we were in the right place. Instantly, I was distracted by their beautiful display of folded cranes and fancy papers on the left wall. Once I was able to pry myself away from there (after plotting to come back and by some of the paper to use as wall art), I found their writing utensil selection to be phenomenal (despite the fact that I couldn't read any of the packaging).

Besides the folding papers and writing utensils, there was also a good selection of pastel paints and paper construction glues and utensils. Once school is back in session, I'm sure you will find a lot of kids here doing their supply shopping!

I would have been happy to give the store a five just for their selection, but the folks at the counter didn't offer to help us once, let alone they didn't seem very interested in helping us once we did start the checkout process (-1 star).

Sometimes, I think I am far too nice of a friend. My best friend recently moved from CT to SF. In the past month, he has become quite smitten with a fellow online friend that we share - the two of them are beyond cute when they chat. Being the uber-sappy romantic that he is, he wanted to write her a calligraphy letter and mail it to her. Of course, to do that, you need the right supplies, and since he is still pulling himself out of debt from school loans (and what he already owes me), I offered to pay for the paper, wax seal ... etc.

The first place I thought of was, of course, Papyrus. While their card selection is consistently better than your neighborhood Hallmark, their actual stationary paper selection was pretty lacking. Even despite this, we were able to find some 100% cotton Crane & Co that did the trick. Their selection of calligraphy pens was nearly non-existent and the only wax they had for wax seals had glitter in it ... a bit tacky, but we went for it.

The lady ringing us up wasn't all that overtly friendly either - she seemed quite distraction by God knows what.

This was the first, and hopefully, last time that my boyfriend and I had to go to this EB Games location. Notably, the guy that we dealt with was pretty friendly and the transaction was smooth and quick. The downside about this location is its relatively small Nintendo DS selection, as well as it being located in the heart of tourist central.

Ah, Cole Hardware; I've heard so many good things about this chain that I have lost count. Since I happened to be heading to the neighborhood (to stop at Pharmaca), and I had been putting off that badly needed trip to the hardware store for my new apartment, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to check out the "infamous" Cole SF.

The checkout people seemed a bit distant, but when my boyfriend and I were needing to ask questions about step stool prices and vacuum cleaner choices, the folks on the floor were more than happy to help. I also had an extra set of keys made, and the guy who did them was beyond quick (the keys also work very well). I would have loved to give the whole place five stars, especially for their eco-options throughout the store, but the unwelcoming cash register folks blew it.

My experience here was pretty short and sweet - my boyfriend and I had just come from Cold Hardware down the street. Someone there said there was a pet shop on the block, and we very much needed to get Monster a new scratching post. When we walked in, the woman who was on duty was feeding a snack to a customer's dog and didn't really offer us much in the way of help. Thankfully, the scratching posts were pretty well visible and my boyfriend took the liberty of getting one down himself. Checkout was easy and quick, but the whole process still seemed a bit lacking in person attention.

Yes, this location is small, but they had a damn good selection crammed into this space. I'm sorry to hear that so many others had unpleasant experiences, but myself, my boyfriend, and my best friend all headed here on Sunday to do our weekly grocery shopping and enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. We found everything that we needed and then some. One of the most common complaints that I read on here was issues with rude checkout folks. Maybe I got blessed or something, but our checkout girl was pretty nice and the bag boy was friendly as well.

While I am a big big BIG fan of Rainbow Grocery, my new apartment is closer to this Whole Foods and I'll likely be going here for my weekly shopping from now on.

Note: I plan on perusing their select clothing section during my next trip; from what I saw so far, a number of brands were ones that I knew and of great quality.

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday, and what better way to treat yourself than by buying some fantastic goodies from Aveda!? Well, ok, there are oodles of other fun things to do, but this one was my choice for a few different reasons. 1) My boyfriend was running out of his favorite Aveda shampoo and 2) I got two coupons from their Pure Privilege points program, one for a free custom perfume and another for double points on my purchase.

I don't hang out in the Marina much because I don't know the neighborhood, but the area this location is in seems pretty swank with a good variety of stores. Finding parking wasn't very hard at all and affordable. The store itself is smaller than most that I have been to, but their selection was great and the customer service woman was more than helpful. Honestly, I was a bit hesitant to head to a location in the Marina because I was worried folks would be rude or arrogant, but I've got nothing but good things to say about my experience.

Organic, fair-trade, and delicious vegetarian options are all over their menu. Great location and lots of space inside to sit back, chat, or get some extra work done online. Their internet connection is nice and strong throughout the whole location - my first choice for logging on away from home.