My mom died two years ago this month. It’s hard to take in and easy to believe at the same time. The main reason her death feels distant, oddly enough, is because it’s been a long time – months – since I’ve had to deal with any of the stressful paperwork related to her estate. […]

Giorgio Armani Weekend Saffiano Leather Top Handle Bag I confess, I bought a really expensive, really beautiful purse, the kind of handbag I never thought I’d own, the essence of a Shopping for Happiness purchase, and I didn’t write about it. At first I didn’t write because I was more excited about the other thing I’d bought […]

It’s been a great summer for Shopping for Happiness. I mean, I’ve personally had a great summer (though between work, family trips and weekends dedicated to buying a dog, I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like). But my blog had a good summer too, catching the eye of several journalists who thought its messages about [&he

My glorious guides: Heidi and Deja There we were, dripping in diamonds. There must have been 100 tiny diamonds on each of my gold earrings, and another 150 on the matching bar necklace. My sister-in-law Heidi took the luxury even further, showcasing a movie-star-worthy ring with a giant rare pink diamond surrounded by smaller gems, […]

It’s a Shopping for Happiness first! This week, someone stopped me on the sidewalk to tell me she loved my outfit. This has never happened to me before, but I wasn’t entirely shocked – because the planets aligned, I hit the sweet spot, my number came up on the lottery. In other words, I found […]

Yesssss! I am now the proud owner of a knife that looks like a watermelon and is designed to…cut watermelon!  That is all. (Addendum: I figure I should share details because I know you will want a watermelon knife of your own. It’s Kuhn Rikon and has a matching red sheath. This knife will make you […]

This happy party moment was made possible by outsourcing.  “I’m just not the kind of person who spends money on that.” When it comes to spending, we all have some kind of baseline for what we think is normal. And when we see someone spending in a way that doesn’t fit our “normal,” it can […]

This past winter, when I was already starting to suspect that spending money on experiences would be more rewarding than buying new clothes, I spent my Shopping for Happiness money for the month on a future trip: an airline ticket to Venice. I couldn’t believe it was really going to happen– but last month, the day […]

If you click over to my “I bought this” page, I’ve put up some pictures of my Shopping for Happiness purchases for March. Clothes will come and go but by far the best thing I bought was my ticket to the surprise Piano and a Microphone show Prince performed in Toronto on Good Friday, April […]

Apparently money really can buy happiness – if you spend it in a way that matches your personality. That’s the conclusion of a new study out of Cambridge University (in cooperation with a bank) that paired up subjects’ personality and happiness tests with their bank transaction records. The findings weren’t too surprising:  “People gene