Ever notice how many times we all say these cliche phrases?

“It’s a win-win situation”

“Where’s the call to action?”

“At the end of the day, what the customer wants is important”

“Let’s go over the game plan”

“I want to hit the ground running with this project”

“Rather than discuss this now, let’s take it offline”

I don’t know where we get these phrases! But every office around the country is full of people who use them. I don’t believe all “buzzwords” are bad. Sometimes you do want to streamline or optimize a process. I guess we could just say make the process more efficient or faster or better. For some reason when you say streamline little stars go around the word and make it more exciting.

We’ve seen some “buzzword bingo” cards floating around the internet  and we decided to create one of our own- full of phrases we love at Shoplet.com Here’s our recommendations for rules:

1. Print this card
2. Bring it your meeting, preferably hidden  under a bunch of papers so you look important
3. Bring a pen or pencil to mark it. You can even write in cursive over it so it looks like you are jotting notes rather than crossing off boxes
4. If you get bingo, we don’t advise that you yell it. We want you to keep your job. Just poke the guy next to you and point to it. Try to make him laugh and get in trouble instead of you.

You can download the bingo card here on Flickr. Enjoy!

P.s. If you start getting a lot of bingos, you may or may not  be sitting in a meeting at Shoplet.com headquarters.

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I have a hard time sitting through this video because this guy has some pretty bold facial expressions and the way he says AMAZING makes me feel funny. Putting that aside, who know that receipt paper did this? I’ve been looking around my desk to see if I could find some to test this myself.  For all those accountants out there, here’s what to do when you’re bored:

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No this isn’t the first time Shoplet.com has appeared on facebook.  About a year ago we launched “The Green Office” App, which helps you to purchase green office supplies on Facebook.This year we decided to relaunch our presence on facebook, with a whole new look and a whole new mission. We want to hear from you. We want to be friends with you which means listening to your suggestions/ideas, looking at the cool office supplies you find, and getting to know you better in general! If you’d like to join us on facebook, access our company page HERE We hope to see you soon!

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Nikes are pretty “in” I would say right now. I see lots of hipster kids walking around with tight pants and giant nikes all the time. Nike is really quite the genius brand, the way they weaseled their way into the skater/hipster crowd. Anyways, I saw this post these sweet paper kicks on this site yesterday and I just had to pass them on. Designer David Browning, an illustrator attending UWE in Bristol, has so many paper creations! I couldn’t believe it. Now that you’ve seen his shoes, check out his cool boxes.

I saved my favorite for last. Pop Up Books!

If you feel inspired, stock up on Color Paper at Shoplet.com.

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I promise no more plugs for Sharpie! (after this post) If you think I get paid to blog about Sharpies, you’re wrong. I wish that sanford cut me an extra check for the devotion  I have to the Sharpie brand but I really do toot their horn without pay. Anyways, to share a little personal information, I’m actually getting married next month and right now I’m waist deep in stuffing, addressing, and sending invitations. Who knew there were so many guidelines for sending invitations??

Here’s the one that’s important. Hand written addresses on the envelopes are a must- they aren’t even optional.  I’ve been told it’s almost offensive to even consider printing off labels and slapping them on. I’ve been lightly thinking about which pens we should use to address the envelopes and then I came across the perfect product : Sharpie Calligraphy Pens.

I always expected anything with the word “calligraphy” in the product name would be way out of my price range. These are only 6 bucks! I went to Sharpie’s website to see if they had any tutorials on the product and sure enough, I was not disappointed.  They provided a PDF  that will help you practice writing Old English Letters!  Click to Download it

This weekend I will be addressing a million invitations and I’ll keep you updated as to how great I feel about the pen after using it extensively (all I’ve done so far is to scribble some cursive on a piece of scratch paper.) Have you tried it? Have any tips you can share? Thanks and have a great weekend!

**UPDATE**

Over the weekend I used my pack of Sharpie Calligraphy pens to address around 300 invitations. Overall, it was a good experience. I used the brown marker at first which really did look like a cheap crayola marker on the label and was somewhat difficult to write with. I actually switched half way through to a fountain pen which was easier to write with but thinner than i wanted. Eventually  I decided to try the markers again and I LOVED the black one. It looked less like a marker and had a deeper, richer color. If you need to address invitations or formal envelopes, just get the single black Sharpie calligraphy marker and you’ll be set! (I actually liked the blue one too, the color was just a little too bright for our invites.)

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