Pre-Fall Retail Therapy

Angry Husband took Angry Toddler to hang out with him on Saturday. My mom was coming over to watch Angry Toddler. So we (mom and I) decided to hit the local outdoor mall. We ate lunch at Red Robin. I completely freaked out because they now have a list of their menu items with the actual calories on the tables. Luckily, I was already eating a small salad.

I then took my mom into Anthropologie. I don't think she has ever been in there. We both found many things that we liked. I tried on two dresses, and a skirt. They were all fabulous. I ended up getting the skirt because it was more practical, and well, umm cheaper. But I have to share these items with you.

The Slice-Of-Lime Dress. You can't tell but the inside lining is pink. This is a perfect classic dress. They didn't have my size. I "could" order it online. Still trying to justify the price though. Adorable on though. And the bow, perfection!

The Storm-of Shapes-Dress, was a great brown dress. It actually had pockets on it. I usually go for an a-line style, but this actually looked decent on me. I had a great 1960's theme to it. I really don't know how practical it is for me, though. I think the dress above would be a little more practical.

The Trompe L'Oeil Stitchery Skirt was the only thing that I walked away with from Anthropologie. It's a classic a-line and there are so many colors in it. There are so many outfit combinations that I can make with this skirt. I think I might wear it to our first Junior League Meeting this month.

Oh, and one of my favorite places, Harvey's Seatbeltbags had a discount code this past month. Of course, I waited till the last minute on Monday the 31st, to decide. I ordered this wallet, the Patchwork Clutch. It is currently sold out, but they are going to send me one when they are available at the end of the month.
I can't wait to find more goodies for the Fall. Although, Fall shopping is really hard to do when it's 100 degrees outside. I need to buy some things for Angry Toddler too. I don't think he will want to try on pants and long sleeve shirts right now.

P.S. All of my photos were borrowed from Anthropologie and Harvey's sites.

SHOW US YOUR LIFE-Wedding Dresses

This week on Kelly’s Korner, we are talking about wedding dresses. I got married in 1998, so the wedding dress fashion has changed drastically since then.

I only went to one store for my dress, Jessica McClintock. It was located in our local mall. I picked out around ten dresses and headed towards the dressing room. I had issues then because I had huge boobs. This was about three years before I decided to have a breast reduction. I had to go for a much larger size to accommodate “the twins”, which really limited my awesome dress potential.

I tried on lace, satin, you name it. But if anyone know me, they know that I like to be a little bit different. I picked a fabulous dress with a plain a-line design and marabou feathers surrounding the collar area. I even found some shoes with marabou feathers to match the dress. How fabulous is that! Our “wedding” was in December and this was actually being marketed as a “winter formal” style dress. Even better. I think we paid $250 for it. If I had to do it all over again, I would still pick that dress. Although I might put one of those really cool colored sashes around the waist. I love those!

The shoes didn't last very long with me, as they hurt. I tossed them after the official photos and switched to some more comfortable shoes, my 10-hole white Doc Marten’s. My grandmother did not appreciate the Doc Marten’s, but hey, at least they weren’t flip flops. And they were something old, I had them forever. I actually still have those shoes.


So now you know the story of my wedding dress. Our wedding was on December 12, 1998. We got married at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They had only been open for about two months. We were one of the first weddings that they held, and the costs weren’t outrageous.

Oh, and I have to add this little tidbit....I like to say, “wedding” above. Because really we were already married. I know that some of my readers are friends and family, so this might be a first for them.

Yes, we actually got married on July 24, 1998. We went through the “drive-thru” wedding chapel in Las Vegas. We totally eloped. My mom knew about it, but no one else knew. I can’t remember the reason we actually eloped, but I think it had something to do with health insurance.

So, if you can do the math, today is my 11th Wedding Anniversary!!! Happy Anniversary Angry Husband.

I’m not even home to spend the day with him or do something special. Because I’m in Chicago at the BlogHer Conference. I will have to have a drink to celebrate. Ok, maybe I will have a few drinks.

Angry Julie on a Budget-Guest Poster ForTheMommas aka Shannon

I started my own little weekly topic last week, "Angry Julie on a Budget". I'm going to try and offer tips, guest posters, what I've learned, and some resources to my readers. This is my second post in this series.



So, Julie wants to be on a budget. I won't lie and say it will be easy, it is going to suck at first. She will resent the fact that she can't buy anything she wants. She may hate it. However, she will come to love her budget. I promise, I can see it now Budget Julie Everyday. I like it. You wanna join Angry Julie on her quest to be on a budget? Great, I think I can help.

I too used to be like Angry Julie. However, I am a reformed shopaholic turned frugalista. I went from buying the high end brands to shopping at Goodwill. (don't turn you nose up. you can get some really great things at Goodwill. Did you know that Target donates everything it doesn't sell to Goodwill!) I request free samples and use coupons (lots and lots of coupons). I stockpile and shop at yard sales, yep I am the crazy coupon lady.

So, maybe you won't be as drastic as me, maybe you just need to save a few dollars per month. Maybe you are piling on credit card debt and need a complete lifestlye change. Regardless of what your budgeting goals are, there are a three great ways to start saving money!

1. Get Real with Yourself - You need to get honest with yourself (umm hmm Julie, you have to count every Monster you buy). You can't know how much you need to save if you don't know what you're spending. You need to have your expenses and income accounted for and I mean ALL. You can check out Mint.com- it is an online program that you can use to manage your budget. It will send you alerts and emails telling you how bad you are and that you went over your budget. Nothing like getting remprimanded by a computer program.

2. Cut out the fat in your budget - I am not talking about the ice cream, I am talking about the things you just spend money on because you can. This doesn't have to be all or nothing. (well unless you can't pay your bills, then it has to be all). Make a list of the items that you can live without.(Julie can live without the Monsters.) Start by cutting out the easiet thing to give up. Try cutting out one new every other week, until you have cut out the excess spending in your budget. Try to find less expensive alternatives if you cannot cut these things out all together.

3. Save Money on the Things you Have to Buy - You can start with using coupons. Make a list of the top 25 things (outside of produce and meat) that you buy. I guarantee you, unless you have a very specialized diet, you will find that atleast 8-10 things that you can find coupons for. Many coupons can now be found online. Visit Hot Coupon World and check out their coupon database. You type in the food item that you are looking to purchase - if a coupon is available, it will show up there. Start by simply using the database for things you are going to buy. Check out this post for information about general couponing. Also, bookmark this page for the best printable coupons

When you get a comfortable with coupons, match coupons to grocery store sales - Visit BeCentsableand find the grocery stores you shop at. This site provides you with a list of blogs that provide coupon matchups. This list includes grocery stores all over the country, so your store is like to be there. Remember, never buy something because you have a coupon for it.

So I know Julie can do it if I did and you can too. For many more money saving tips and ideas, visit my blog at www.forthemommas.com (yes, that was a pathetic, shameless plug)

Some Recent Purchases

I've been doing some shopping this week. Cause you know that I'm a shopper.

On Friday, I went to the Nordstrom Half-Yearly Sale with my mom. We go to all of Nordstrom's sales. I love shopping for shoes there. A girl can't have too many pairs of shoes, right?

These are the shoes that I got:

Fergie's Guno in Black. I'm going to take these to BlogHer, so watch out for me walking around in these fabulous shoes. They make me very tall. I'm not usually a heels type of person. My mom made me walk all around the shoe department before we purchased them.


and these, Ed Hardy tie dye low rise shoes. I love my Ed Hardy slip-ons. They are a staple of my daily wardrobe. This will be my third pair of Ed Hardy shoes. I'm not too keen on their flashy clothing, but I do like their accessories.


I also got some black cargo pants and a Lucky jeans top. Nordstrom is my favorite department store. I can always find something there to buy.

Today, I went to Border's Books to get some new reading material. My reading well has been very dry lately. I go to the bookstore about once a week and never seen to find anything to buy. That's probably why I've spent some much time on the Internet. I also subscribe to like 20 magazines.

I got the following books. These should keep me busy for at least a week. Seriously, not joking. I read fast.

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

Oh, and I got some new running socks too, plus a Nike tank top. I wore the tank top for my race today. Stay tuned for my race report!

Will these make me look fat?

We are having a fund raising event (formal event) for the Junior League soon. One of my friends from the JL sent me a link to these jeans. This was her comment in the e-mail.

"Should I get these for the Spring Fundraiser? I figure I could wear them with a sequins top? Sara"

I'm not sure what I would wear with them, though. I imagine one of those bikini-clad girls at the car shows wearing them now. Oh car show people, you totally know what I'm talking about.

I think my muffin top would spill out the top, or well, perhaps the sides. I should have waited to post this tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

What would you wear with these jeans?

Link to Jeans!

How Not to Provide Customer Service

Tuesday morning, I headed to South Coast Plaza, a local mall. They hate it when you call it a mall, but it's a mall. Not the plaza, etc. Apparently to be considered a mall, it has to have a food court, whatever.

I was going there to purchase some baskets at Pottery Barn Kids. My son's dresser has a spot under it for baskets. I was excited to organize some of his crap toys. I'm tired of tripping over Hot Wheels. I arrived at So. Coast about 10am when everything was just opening. I headed into American Eagle Outfitters because Pottery Barn Kids hadn't quite opened yet. As I entered the store I was bombarded by employees. Within five minutes, I got these speech from four different people, "Our special today is you buy one t-shirt and you get the second one for $10". Ok, thanks. I was the only one in the store. Obviously the employees could see who greeted me. I've worked retail, I know how it works. As soon as a customer walks in, you greet them. You don't stalk them, follow them around, or harass them. It makes a customer want to run out of the store. And that is what I did. I saw some things I liked, but hells to the no was I going to purchase something from them. I now know why most of my friends shop online. My sizing is so inconsistent so I hesitate from shopping online.

Today, I was at the Irvine Spectrum. I had just left my awesome 24Lift class at 24 Hour Fitness. I stopped in a new store there called "Buckle". I've heard some of my online forum peeps talk about it, so I thought I would check it out. I've been looking for some capris and they had some great styles. I'm trying to avoid that mom-jeans look. There were two sales people working at the time. They offered their assistance. They asked if there was a particular style I was looking for, and that was it. I told them that I had an extremely short inseam and that I had issues with capris looking like high water pants. They were able to assist me with the perfect fit. I tried on two different styles. I thought that the second pair made me look a little wider. They agreed that the first pair was much better. I literally fell over and applauded them for not harassing me. They were laughing.

My point is, I know times are tough. The economy sucks. People are being more conservative with their money. Consumers are shopping less. But if you harass and stalk your customers, they are not going to make purchases.

Oh and I got the baskets at Pottery Barn Kids. They work perfectly for all the junk that Angry Toddler has acquired.

Went Shopping This Week

I haven't been shopping with my mom since early December. I was trying to be good and I really didn't need anything. I'm trying to be a little more practical, and a little less dependent on my mom's funds..

We went to Macy's and I got some Nike running gear on sale. I got two shirts at 50% off after the sale price and a coupon. One of the shirts matches a pair of Nike Tempo shorts that I already have.

We then went to Nordstrom. This is my favorite department store in the mall. I got some more Nike Tempo shorts in bright pink and bright blue, plus this fabulous jacket. I needed, ok wanted a sleeker jacket to put on after running and/or going to the gym.



After walking around the mall, I decided to step into J Crew. I haven't been inside J Crew since my early college days. To be honest, I was a little too chunky to wear J Crew. J Crew is the land of all things preppy. Of course, I came across these fabulous critter wedge flip flops.


and my mom found these in her size:



I tried on this tee while there also. It was soo soft and very cute on. But I couldn't justify the price. I knew that I could find a tee just as soft at Gap or somewhere else.



I finished off my shopping by looking at Gucci. I found this purse and instantly fell in love. It's the perfect size for me now. I've eliminated alot of stuff from my purse and I really don't need a big purse anymore. This one was the perfect size. It's called the D Gold Hobo Large....swoon I'm in love! I had one of those I can look, but don't touch moments. Ok, maybe I put my wallet in it, to see if it fit..it did.



Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring a Gucci?

Free Shipping Day

Today is Free Shipping Day!!!

Check out this list of online merchants participating in it. There are lots of them. Including Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids, who never do this!

Participating Merchants

Discounts During This Holiday Shopping Season

With the way the economy is right now, we are all out there looking for the best deal possible. I know that I am. A co-worker recently asked me about buying a TV for his bedroom. I forwarded the e-mail to Angry Husband, who is in the TV biz. Angry Husband then responded back with several models that he suggested. I put the model numbers into Google and did a search for the best prices. After all my Google-ing, I found that Amazon had the best price every time, by a few hundred dollars.

I use a couple of different sites when looking for deals. I thought that I would share them with you!

Fishing for Deals

Slick Deals

Retail Me Not

Oh, and don't forget to sign-up for e-bates for money back. At the end of every quarter, you get the money deposited into your Paypal account. They also have discount codes listed on the site!

Just click on this LINK, and sign up now for e-bates!

Sale at Tote and Tee

Amy, from Tote and Tee, sent me a little Tweet on Twitter that she's having a sale on her site. She's got these great Naughty and Nice tees on sale. I love Angry Toddler's tee. You can see the cute pictures of him in it, I took these a couple of weeks ago!

Amy is offering these Naughty and Nice tees for $15. They are regularly priced at $24. She has all sizes in stock. If she runs out of a size, she will give an immediate refund. She will also ship them out ASAP. You can also order these ahead and use them for next Christmas' pictures too!

You can also use the code SANTA, which will take 20% off your entire order. She has lots of cute things under $10. Unfunately, she won't be able to ship out any custom tees until after Christmas. But she can ship out Naughty and Nice tees or other small goods, asap!

Boden: End of Season Sale

I've been shopping at Boden for about 2 years now. It's a great company based out of the UK that makes quality clothing.

Their end of season sale started today. The prices are up to 60% off. There are some great deals!

You can also shop their preview site for Spring 2009. Everything will be shipped in January. You won't be charged until them either. Plus, they are giving 10% off with free shipping and returns.

The Housewife's Holiday Gift Guide

I've been trying to read some new blogs lately. I found some great new ones. I will be talking about them in the next couple of days. I just wanted to share a great site, The Housewife's Holiday Gift Guide, from the author of Musings of a Housewife. She's got some great items on her guide. You can even add her button to your blog to be entered in a contest to win some great prizes.

Treadmills and Toys

I had the repair company come out today to look at my treadmill. The repairman told me that the rear roller, walking belt, and computer board need to be replaced on it. Apparently, this is a come issue with this particular Precor model. I had to pay $110 for the diagnosis. Ugh... So I called Precor and asked them about this "upgrade". The Precor representative advised me that they (Precor) will pay for the parts and labor issue for this issue. So I call the treadmill repair company back. They tell me, that yes, Precor, will cover the labor, but not for the initial consultation.

Ya, ok that makes sense. I pay $110 for a consultation, to diagnose a common issue with this particular issue. So ridiculous. Luckily, it will only cost me $100 to get it up and running.

I then received my Amazon order. I must have not been paying attention when I placed my order the other day. I ordered (2) of one of my items. So I have to mail back this huge box, at an additional cost to me, for an item that had free shipping originally.

Black Friday

We have a week and two days until the Biggest Shopping Day of the year. I usually go shopping with my mom. The funny this is, we usually don't buy Christmas gifts that day. We end up buying random things, that are good buys.

Angry Husband does not know whether he has to work or not. I think Angry Toddler is going to Stacey's drop off program, Friday morning, at her "The Little Gym". I think that it's awesome that Stacey is offering a program for parent's to be able to go shopping without dragging the little ones along.

I've been looking on this site, to check out the ads for Black Friday. I signed up for e-mail updates last year. Every time a new ad is posted, I get an alert. There are some really good deals out there, especially if you are looking for a TV.

Catalog Spam

The retail companies are really pushing hard this Holiday Season. I received several catalogs today in the mail. Angry Toddler loves looking at the toy catalogs. He can look at them for hours.

I can't believe all of these came today!

Dean & Deluca
Exposures
Garnet Hill
Target Toys
Walmart Toys

Wordless Wednesday

Angry Toddler on the couch after shopping on Saturday.

Nike "Tempo" Track Shorts

With all my running lately, I've purchased some workout clothes. I thought I would share some running shorts that I feel in love with. They are the Nike "Tempo" Track shorts. Usually I have to wear compression shorts under my running shorts. I have "bigger" thighs. If I don't wear compression shorts, I spent 1/2 my run pulling my shorts out of my thighs.




I have worn these shorts a couple of times and I'm in love. They are cut perfectly. They don't ride up and I don't have to pull them out of my thighs. They are decently priced too. They average around $28.

Halloween at Williams-Sonoma

I get snazzy e-mails from Williams-Sonoma probably every day. They like to spam like Pottery Barn. Gee, I wonder, they are from the same parent company. I unsubscribed from Pottery Barn's e-mails a couple of months ago.

These have these items featured for Halloween. They look yummy. I don't know though. I worry about the freshness of the items. Has anyone ever bought their pre-made goodies from online or through their catalog.

I love Williams-Sonoma though. I would buy more stuff from there, but I don't cook enough, I mean cook. I couldn't justify all the great stuff.

The Gem Collection

Last week, I talked about Harvey's Seatbeltbags. Which I LOVE. Today, I got an e-mail from Harvey's about their Gem Collection. I thought I would share their new collection with all my Blog readers.

The colors and styles are beautiful. I might just have to get one of these.

Gymboree Moms

It's Gymbucks Redemption Time!!!

It is really supposed to start tomorrow. But they started a day early. You can redeem them online right now or even go into the store and use them.

My mom works at Gymboree and she just called me. She told me to let everyone know that they started early.

I think she must be bored at work.

I think my mom is on the up-swing of her bi-polarness. She started asking about what to buy Angry Toddler. A few days ago, her world was crumbling cause of the stock market. Today, she is buying Angry Toddler clothes.

Go figure!