Not so Behind Afterall

Each year, I try very very hard to be organized.  I start shopping early.  I make lists.  I craft things ahead of time And what does it get me?  A whole lotta stress and trips to the mall 2 days before Christmas.  This year was pretty much the same.  I started in the beginning of November and thought for sure I had things under control.  Until earlier this week, when I sat down and made a list and had a minor panic attack at all that still needed to happen.

However, it turns out my list making capabilities have improved.  Well, my ability to stick to the list has improved, I suppose.  Because thanks to my trusty list and a whole day of errands, I'm not as behind as my freak out led me to believe.  I'm actually pretty ahead of where I usually am.  I'm sticking to a new philosophy - buy stuff when you see it instead of thinking about it.  Chances are if you think about it, you'll still decide to buy it but then you'll need to go back to the store at a later date to purchase whatever it is.  Then they might not have it and you're back to square one.  Just buy it when you see it.  It's a great philosophy - one I highly recommend.

Yay for super productive Saturdays because, thanks to them, I can enjoy the best part of the Christmas season - everything else, outside of shopping!

Thankful Five

1. I'm most thankful in my life for these 2 and this amazing dinner we shared yesterday for Thanksgiving.  Really, I have no idea what I'd do without them - love them to pieces!

2. I'm thankful for a black Friday spent with the same family and a great friend finding all sorts of super awesome deals and fighting the ridiculous crowds together. I gotta say I didn't get many Christmas gifts, but my wardrobe is looking much better after today!

3. I'm thankful for the words Spoiler Alert. These 2 simple words have helped me to successfully avoid all spoilers from the Gilmore Girls which I've been dying to watch since it as dropped at 3 am this morning.  However, Black Friday fun was calling instead.  That doesn't mean that I won't be finding myself in front of Netflix at the very first opportunity tomorrow!  Can't wait!!

4. I'm thankful for the leftovers of yesterday's amazing meal that provided an absolutely fabulous turkey and dressing sandwich at the outlets today.  One of my most favorite meals of the year - leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches on Black Friday.  Dressing is by far the best food part of this week!  So delicious!

5. I'm thankful for nice warm jammies and a nice warm, comfy bed.  Because seriously dude, I shopped til I dropped... : )

Some Fall Days

Some fall days start with a yummy breakfast.

Some fall days continue on with a country store open house outing solely to stock up on snow heads.

Some fall days include the Utz factory outlet to stock up on Cheese Balls and Chocolate Covered Pretzels.

Some fall days require you to do the insane - like trying out the brand new outlets in Clarksburg, MD with the other 500,00 people that also thought it was a good idea.

Some fall days allow you to purchase a new winter coat for $39,99 but worry you that you may get cursed by the gods since you didn't inform the cashier that the price was supposed to be twice that cost.

Some fall days let you hang with your family and your friends all day.

And some fall days end with a trip to Target and some Starbucks hot tea.

Pre-Yard Sale Thoughts

In all my years, I've never once done the yard sale thing.  I've seen them - my neighborhood had a community yard sale every year for pretty much my entire life - but we never sold anything or bought anything.  It just wasn't something we did.  Nothing against yard sales, but I'd rather go real shopping then having to work to find the good stuff.

So that makes it a bit off for me to be gathering up my belongings to try to sell them this weekend at a friend's community yard sale.  I've been planning to participate for months, yet I never really knew what that meant.  I just know that there's so much stuff and I want all that stuff out of my house.  Also, if I can make money off of selling my stuff I can buy more stuff - mostly books.

This is the whole explanation for why there are currently 5 crates of books and 1 crate of cds littering up my living room, my car and my friend's car.  There are even more books taking up space in my dad's car - but those are his.  I'm just the broker.  In this my first yard sale experience, I've learned a few things.  One of which being the fact that as much fun as it is to think about selling and making money, it's super not fun to decide what to get rid of.  It's painstaking.  One moment, I'm blase and throwing every single book I didn't like in a box.  And the next, I'm silently taking books out of the box because one day I will finally get around to wanting to read "The Help" and maybe I shouldn't really sell it at this time.

Then there's the matter of cost.  How in the heck do you decide what to price books or cd's? I've spent a fortune, and some are still in perfect condition.  But no one wants to spend that much at a yard sale on one book.  But then again, if you make it a steal, you'll need to sell tons to make money.  This is not a fun prospect for a math-hater like me.

Lastly, it's the thing no one in their right mind but me thinks about.  How does one display the items you're planning to sell in a visually pleasing way?  Does one use boxes or tables or does one make a lovely sign announcing what one's selling?  Or does one just drop it all in a cardboard box - since that's what everyone else is doing - and hope for the best?  It's a conundrum.  One which I haven't yet solved.  But seeing that the sale is in T-56 hours and counting, I really should get on that.

The Story of Story

Before my trip to NYC last weekend, I read a post on In a Creative Bubble about her trip to NYC.  She mentioned a super cool store called "Story."  As luck would have it, it was located in Chelsea which was where we were planning to be since our goal was to walk the High Line.  I definitely decided that I wanted to see it.

The cool thing about Story is that they don't sell the same things all the time.  It's called a curated shop.  Every few weeks they decide on a theme, and then all the items in the store change to fit the theme. When In a Creative Bubble was there, the theme was "The F Word" so everything in the store started with the letter F - Fun, Friends, Film, etc.  When we were there the theme was "Remember When" and all the items in the store were from the 80s and 90s with some back to school thrown in for good measure.

I loved it!  It was so cleverly decorated and just such a fun space.  I didn't buy anything, but there were tons of things I could have.  I'm not sure if the whole idea is even profitable or feasible, but it's definitely cool.  And I can almost guarantee the hipsters just love it.  

Deja Vu All Over Again...

As I was simultaneously finishing up my Supernatural Con album and my mom's last page of the birthday album, this evening, using new supplies I had just purchased, I realized that I've been to 4 craft stores since Friday night.  I do believe I might have a problem.  A few weeks ago I was blathering on about downsizing and using up the supplies I have, but this weekend I've apparently forgotten all about that mantra.

I'm sure - at least I hope it is - it's the same with other crafters.  The pretty of all the paper, and stamps, and albums, and embellishments is just too much for us.  Once we see it, we begin to imagine some lavish project for using it, which usually leads to the need for more supplies.  It's sort a cyclical process, you see. In fact that was most definitely the case this weekend.  I went to Hobby Lobby looking for an album.  They didn't have the one I wanted, but what they did have was page protectors for another sized album I was working on for a good price, so I bought them.  They also had super cute knee-highs for Halloween which I had forgotten I needed, so I bought them too.

Then we went to Michael's to find the original album, but they didn't have it either.  But they did have stickers on sale, so I bought them.  Then, it was a trip to a different Michael's on Saturday for the album as well - this time I stood my ground.  Actually, they didn't have the album but they had a super long line, so I didn't let my desires get the best of me.  Today it was AC Moore where they had the album - woohoo!  But since I finally got the album, I needed paper for it, and additional paper protectors.  Oh and alphabet stickers since they were on sale, and a scarf that I've been looking for for Halloween. 

See?  It's a slippery slope...

Best. Day. Ever.

I am a shopper.  I like to shop.  But I'm not that shopper that goes out everyday and plunks down hundreds of dollars on the perfect pair of shoes or the newest in purse fashion.  I pick my battles.  I tend to buy clothes only, and just make do with accessories I have.  And I live for sales.  I used to be terrible about buying everything I wanted the second I saw it.  Now I've learned that they will eventually go on sale and if they don't, there's always the outlets. Outlets are the best things ever!  However,  I never knew just how great until today.  I somehow managed to buy not 1, not 3, but 6 pairs of shorts.  That's 5 + 1 pairs of shorts, at the Loft Outlet for $2.88 per pair.  You heard that right.  Holy Moly!  

Shopping at the mall is great and all, but when you get a sale like that, you can't help but pledge your allegiance to outlets from now until kingdom come! 

Friday Five

1. Summer sale shopping with the Momma - Oh how I love the outlets!  And playing hooky to shop with my mom, pretty much makes a perfect Friday!

2. Aggio at Artifact - Best news I've heard all year!  I'm a huge fan of Bryan Voltaggio (see the not so stealthy stalking from Empori-yum last month) so having him finally open a restaurant a bit closer than Frederick was already pretty darn exciting.  But having him pop-up the restaurant before they open and getting a reservation is probably the coolest thing ever!

3. Literary Hotspots of London - Even more reasons to love London, as if I needed any more...

4. Agents of SHIELD renewed - Yes, you can call me a geek, I know this already.  But I'm willing to watch whatever Joss Whedon creates, and after a few really slow months, it's gotten pretty darn great in the last few weeks.  I was so worried that would be it.  Thank goodness it won't be!  Yay!

5. A Spring evening at the park with a certain 5 year old niece of mine - Gotta love this weather!  And mostly gotta love how stinking cute she can be!

Friday Five

1. Billy Joel singing with Jimmy Fallon: These are 2 of my favorite famous people, and while the first part is a slight bit awkward (I'm not sure Billy gets Jimmy's fanboying), the song itself is awesome in every way.  Also, while I don't sing and would probably have no use for it whatsoever, and while I'm not even sure I know what "looping" actually is, I'm almost tempted to buy the darn app on iTunes just to attempt fun things like this.

              

2. I'm probably a bit late to the party on this since I think scrapbook bloggers have been extolling its virtues for at least the last few years, but Simon Says Stamp, is probably the best-stocked scrapbook online store I've ever visited.  I spent about an hour on the site today alone, and I'm pretty sure I could have added no less than 100 super-cool things to my cart.  Unfortunately, their shipping charges are astronomical, so I'm waiting to find a big-ticket item to make paying $8 worth it.  I'm just not a fan of paying $8 to ship a 3" unmounted rubber stamp that's only $4 to begin with.

3. A few years ago there was a show on ABC called Eli Stone.  At the time, I thought it was brilliant (especially in conjunction with Pushing Daisies and Life).  Unfortunately it tanked after 2 seasons (just like Pushing Daisies and Life) because of that god awful writers strike. Well, seeing as Maryland has become a hot bed of all sorts of crazy unseasonable weather that granted me a snow day on Monday (3 days before Spring officially started I might add) I chose to use the day for evil instead of good.  That is, I lounged on the couch like a slug and pulled out a DVD set I hadn't watched in a while - Eli Stone!  I had forgotten just how good the writing and acting and point was.  I'm currently loving Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary, but nothing compares to his possible prophet, George Michael hallucinating, San Francisco lawyer, with a killer American accent I might add (he's usually a posh Brit) who's using the aneurysm in his head for good instead of evil.  Yes, when I put it like that, it sounds ridiculous, but it's sweet and funny and has a great soundtrack and I only wish it could have stayed on air longer than it did!

           

Oh and there's Victor Garber too.  How can you not love Victor Garber?  He's literally a god among men : )

4. Coming from someone who's only personal experiences with owning a pet were 3 goldfish - 1 suicidal and the other 2 just plain old belly-up, I don't really buy into the whole everyone needs a pet thinking.  Don't get me wrong, I love most furry animals and will melt at the sight of a puppy.  I just don't want one waking me up at 3 am by barking at imaginary cats. But these pics are so darn cute, I can almost jump on the puppy-wagon.

5. Shopping for Spring....finally!  As I mentioned above, Maryland weather has been feeling a bit schizophrenic this year.  Now, even though we're calling for even more snow next week sometime, all the spring colors and styles are out in the stores. I can't tell you how good it felt to walk into Loft and Talbot's and buy capris and cotton tees in all sorts of bright colors instead of pants and sweaters in all sorts of grays.  Go away winter!  We're just not that into you...

Friday Five

1. Christmas shopping with the bestie and actually getting things accomplished.  Yes I had coupons, and lists and objectives coming out the wazoo, but I managed to use all the coupons, check off 95% of the lists, and meet most of the objectives.  Aside from the rain, and the people and the cold and the lines, it was a great evening. 

2. Contrary to my stress levels at this particular moment, I'm actually in love with all the crazy craft projects I have planned as gifts.  I'm hoping they turn out as cute as they did on Pinterest and all the recipients love them as much as I do.

3. Coworkers who have ganged up on me and decided that it's time for me to join Match.com.  While I'm terrified of what they might do left to their own devices, I'm actually liking the idea of not doing it all alone.  Socially inept me could use all the help I can get.

4. Having the Christmas tree up and finished.  I love, love, love sitting by the light of a Christmas tree in December.  There's something so calming and so wintery about it.  And, even if I do say so myself, the tree looks quite dashing this year : )

5. Christmas books: It kinda goes without saying, but I'm a bit of a reader and there's nothing better than getting a new stack of Christmas books to read in the month of December.  I've already knocked out "Christmas Bliss" by Mary Kay Andrews and started "Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe" by Jenny Colgan this week.  Next up is "Immoveable Feast - Christmas in Paris" hopefully followed  by the other 2 I have on my Christmas list.  Nothing puts me in the spirit more than curling up next to the tree light with a big cup of hot chocolate and a great book - that is of course if I ever have any time between the decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking and crafting...

Shopped Then Dropped

No summer vacation (which is perfectly ok with me since there will be a fall vacation very soon) means I took the opportunity to take a day here and there to enjoy the beautiful weather everyone else was enjoying while on vacation.  Today, thankfully was one of those days.  Not having to work on a Monday is one of those special treats and I adore these days to pieces.  Today's non-working Monday was spent shopping, bonding, eating, enjoying, loving, then dropping.

In other words, a pretty perfect way to spend a Monday.  Now if I could just add a non-working Tuesday to my agenda I'd be all set...

Down the Ocean, Hon!

 

Girl Time with the Momma.  Cracker Barrel.  Outlet Shopping.  Super bargains.  Beach time.  Calm Seas.  Sun and sand.  Boog's BBQ.  Thrasher's French Fries.  Dumsers Ice Cream. 

Yep, a pretty perfect summer day! 

Sunday Shopping

The Reston Town Center in Reston VA, just may be my new most favorite place to shop in about the whole world (well the greater MD/VA area anyway...).  Anthropologie, Sephora, Ann Taylor, Francesca's, LouLou, and about a dozen restaurants, on top of the Arts and Crafts show.  What's not to love!?

Friday Five

1. Love!

 

 

2. Shopping is fairly enjoyable all the time, in my opinion.  But when you go to the mall on the lookout for a specific piece of clothing and you find exactly what you were looking for (and some stuff you weren't looking for...), in exactly the correct size, AND the whole darn store is on sale, it makes it even more enjoyable.  Scratch that, it makes it downright awesome!  Let's just say, great progress was made on the needing a new wardrobe front...

 

3. The dream trip to England is (slooooowly, much too slowly for my liking) approaching so we've started booking hotels.  Since Stratford-upon-Avon is a much smaller area than London, and seeing as Richard II sold out, we thought it wise to book that room first.  We decided on the Legacy Falcon Hotel. Very Stratford-y if I do say so myself.  And the best part is that it's right across the street from Shakespeare's school and right down a small alleyway is the Swan at the RSC where we'll be seeing the show. Woohoo! Maybe this trip-planning is going to be easier than I thought!

 

 4. Polka Dots, my new fashion obsession.  I've bought no less than 4 garments covered in these little happy dots this week.  It's slightly excessive however, they seem to be "in" this year and since I'm not often "in" I'm just going to go with it!

 

 



5. In this week's TV category, I know I've said this before but it bears mentioning again: Broadchurch happens to be the best show on television right now that is not on television right now (our television anyway).  It's taken London by storm based on articles I've read outlining the many suspects in the search for Who killed Danny Latimer?  There are even bets being placed at Ladbrokes.  It's slightly crazy.  The worst part is that it's not on in the States yet. For that you need to find it online or wait until BBC America (who gloriously bought the rights to it from ITV) runs it months from now but by that time, I'm sure the cat will be out of the bag.  With only 2 episodes left, I'm no closer to who the killer is than I was in Week 1 but that's the best part! 

Spring Saturday

Today ~ I enjoyed a fabulous Easter breakfast playing Easter bunny for my niece. 

Today ~ I spent a full day shopping with my mom and purchasing all too many accessories.  I know I've said my research has shown that they are the new black but I could really use some clothes to wear with them.  I'm not sure jewelry only counts as a new trend.  Though, the mother daughter shopping time was quite fun!

Today ~ I heard that Billie Piper and David Tennant would be back for the 50th anniversary of Who this year...Woohoo!

Today ~ I attempted to get my dad interested in Doctor Who to no avail. I fear he may think I'm even geekier than he had thought.

Today ~ I spent close to 20 minutes lost about 5 minutes from where I've lived my entire life.

Today ~ I traveled back and forth to far too many garden stores searching for Easter flowers for the family.  I know the weather stunk this year, but seriously?!  Where are all the pretty hanging baskets?!

All in all, a fairly fabulous stress-free, spring day before Easter. After all the dreariness of the last few weeks, I think spring has finally decided to make its presence known and I couldn't be happier!