DaytonDailyNews.com

This year, shop until the eyelids drop or your computer stops

DAYTON, Ohio — The holiday shopping season is here, and it's primed to be in high-velocity manic mode beginning Friday.

This year, no different than any other, you want your gifts to be good — great, if you can swing it — but often as the years go by that goal can become more and more challenging to reach.

That paired with the anxiety that holiday shopping in general brings can sometimes seem too much to bear.

This year, try something different. Relax.

That's right, relax. Instead of fighting crowds and battling traffic, put your feet up and take a virtual shopping trip.

We've assembled the most original, entertaining online gift ideas and cool e-shopping stops we could come up with so that this year's holiday can be signed, sealed and delivered all without leaving the comfort of your home — or pajamas — should you wish it.

So prepare your list, check it twice and find them something that they'll flip for with our online shopping guide. Who knows, you'll probably find a little something for yourself along the way.

LOOKING FOR IDEAS?

Read a few shopping blogs ... The right Weblog can be a treasure trove of ideas, tirelessly scouring the Internet so you don't have to. Our advice — use it to your advantage and treat these as your own personal shoppers. Here are a few of our favorites:

Crib Candy: It's just what it sounds like: Cool stuff for your home. This blog is the best one-stop shop for home stuff that I've found thus far and trust me, I've looked. www.cribcandy.com

Mighty Goods: This runs the gamut of stuff from cheap to expensive, his to hers, house to car to kids. It has more ideas than you'll probably ever need. Be sure to check out the budget gift guide with gift picks for under $30 at mightygoods.com/features/holiday-budget-gift-guide.

Outblush: A blog for fashion, home, beauty and life, this bills itself as "a blog for girls who love to shop" and that's just what it is. www.outblush.com

Love It a Lot: Updated daily, this blog is self-explanatory — things that have captured the hearts and minds of these bloggers. Items and categories run the gamut, but there's almost always something interesting here that will lead you to something else, which will lead you to something else and so on. www.loveitalot.com

Mister Product: This is one for the guys. Whether it's a Numark USB Turntable ($127 at www.amazon.com) or the R2-D2 Mimobot (one of several "Star Wars" USB flash drives from lab.mimoco.com, $59.95 for 1MB storage), the Mister Product shopping blog will offer up some suggestions you probably hadn't thought of. www.misterproduct.com

Great Green Goods: A shopping blog that will remind you at every turn that there are cool eco-friendly and/or recycled options available to you should you or a loved one have that on the wish list. We especially liked the cassette tape wallet ($39 from www.designboom.com). www.greatgreengoods.com

ONLINE GIFT GUIDES

This is a great place to start if you're looking to gather up some ideas and do some of your own searching. Google "holiday gift guide" and the category of whatever it is that you're looking for (e.g., fashion, games, motorcycle) and you're apt to find what you're looking for, although you'll probably have to do a little digging to get there. Here are a couple of indie chic gift guides to give you an idea of what you may want to be looking for — www.indiecollective.net/giftguide/cover.php or indielove.biz/giftguide.

SHOPPING SITES

Now that you've had a chance to surf around for a while, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get down to the nitty gritty hard work of deciding on something specific. The more funky, fresh, fun and whimsical the site, the easier shopping time passes. When most folks consider online shopping, Amazon.com and other well-known online retailers come to mind, but this year consider places you haven't already explored. Uncommon Goods (www.uncommongoods.com) is an e-store site that has, well, uncommon goods. If it's holiday hostess gifts on the cheap (a High Heel Cake Server for $15) or high-end art (a reclaimed license plate map for $3,900 by artist Aaron Foster) you're looking for, chances are you can find it here. Ditto for the Museum of Modern Art store (www.momastore.org), which always seems to have a nice number of items on sale. If you're on a roll after those, here are a few other stores worth checking out: www.patinastores.com, fredflare.com, www.spoonsisters.com and www.delight.com.

MADE WITH TLC

Buying handmade is cool for so many reasons — care, quality, originality — and a Web site by the name of Etsy (www.etsy.com) is the first place to go. "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade" is the motto, which pretty much sums it up. Etsy is an online marketplace with more than 100,000 sellers from across the world, and there's plenty of great things to be found. This is one that can take time to sift through, but it almost always pays off.

Elsewares (elsewares.com/commerce/index.php) is another indie art and design site — albeit not nearly as big as Etsy — offering handcrafted options. Be sure to check out the selection of recycled and eco-friendly gifts. And while you're looking, gather up ideas from these sites for things you might be able to make as stocking stuffers. You'll get plenty of ideas while you merrily click through pages so set a goal of finding one project you'd like to do and make it happen. If not this year, when?

Plenty of independent shopping sites are out there offering handcrafted items. On a recent trip to Louisville, Ky., I discovered Black Dog Candles (www.blackdogcandles.com) — a new favorite handmade item of the moment. Each 9-ounce jar retails for $14, which may seem high, but not when you factor in the sublime scents the soy-based candles come in and the remarkable distance the aroma travels. A dollar of each candle sold is donated to a no-kill shelter in Louisville, and they've just started a recycle program for Black Dog candle jars that have burned for the last time. The recycling will leave you feeling warm and green like the holidays.

Bolsa Bonita (www.bolsabonita.com) is another handmade site I discovered that offers cute bags with a retro feel. The choices of Satchel bags for $85 is highly entertaining (shark, squirrel, octopus, He-Man!?). The site says that some new styles including diaper and laptop bags will be coming soon. If you click under splurge, you'll get a page of one-of-a-kind fabric art silk totes that are quite lovely if you have $135 to $225 in the budget for one.

NO LUCK YET? REALLY???

If you still haven't found something, it may be time to narrow the search with some specific shopping categories. Here are a few that may come in handy:

Travelers: Oh, the places you'll go with the Flight One site (flight001.com/store/index.htm?SID) that attempts to anticipate and satisfy the modern traveler's every need. The retro graphics on the site have a '70s Pan Am feel and make the shopping adventure visually satisfying, while the massive number of items to choose from can make finding a gift successful, which is also very satisfying.

Kiddies: Looking for smart toys that haven't sapped all the fun out of play time? Look no further — if you have a little one to buy for you may want to start with Fat Brain Toys (www.fatbraintoys.com). Check out the Dado Cubes ($24.95) that won 2007's Top Toy of the Year Award from Creative Child Magazine (www.creativechildonline.com).

Techies: LED lights for your kitchen faucet? A Wi-Fi Detector T-shirt? A cubicle alarm system? Yes, yes and yes. If you have a geek in your life and don't know about the Think Geek site yet (www.thinkgeek.com), you can thank me later.

Homies: If you didn't get enough ideas from Crib Candy (is that even possible?), there are a couple of other good home sites we'd point you to. The first is 2Jane Co. (www.2jane.com), a site that looks for exceptional independent designers so you don't have to. Some of it's pricey, but you never know where you might find that perfect present. Unica Home (www.unicahome.com) is another home site worth pointing your browser toward if you're still coming up empty-handed.

OF-THE-MONTH CLUBS

Wine, tea, plants, cigars, coffee, cheese, beer (mmmm beer ... www.beermonthclub.com/join-gift.htm), candles, fruit — there's a monthly gift club out there for just about anything you're looking for. This could be the way to go for that someone who has everything. Be sure to comparison shop for both value and variety for whatever it is you seek. One that recently caught our eye is www.filmmovement.com — a film-of-the-month club for independent and foreign films. Sure you could always go with a Netflix subscription, but this is a little different and perfect for the serious cinemaphile plus it helps support the independent film industry, which your movie lover would certainly approve of.

REMEMBER YOUR DEADLINES

You know if you procrastinate, and if you do, it's important to be even more clear that you understand going in if the seller will be able to ship it to you in time when you're running late. Different online stores will often give different drop-dead shipping dates to make it in time for the holiday. Keep in mind that the USPS says the last ground date to deliver by Dec. 25 is Dec. 15 and the last express date is Dec. 22. So if you're going the online shopping route, the earlier in December you finish up, the better. And don't say we didn't warn you. For more on military mail and international mailing guidelines for the holidays, go to www.usps.com/holiday/mailing-holiday-

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BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY

Many folks are wary of using a credit card online. Not me. I love it, and I don't mind using a credit card because I always have the option of disputing charges for items that were never ordered or never received or never actually charged — which has only happened to me once in my many years of charging. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

A couple of things to think about as you check out a potential site: Does it offer secure transactions? Is there a toll-free customer support line and does it actually work? How quickly are in-stock orders shipped? Does the site offer any shipping deals for orders over a certain dollar amount? Will the site provide you with a refund if you are not satisfied with the order? When does that option expire?

Get all of the details ironed out in advance — the total price, shipping costs, delivery time and return policy — and be sure to keep a record of the purchase in case you need it later.

You may not be a member of AARP, but whatever your age you should check out the excellent online shopping safety checklist they've put together — www.aarp.org/money/wise_consumer/smartshopping/a2002-10-03-WiseConsumerCybershopping.html. It's really a great resource for making sure you have the best experience possible.

Alexis Larsen writes for the Dayton Daily News.