Frugal Friday

First of all, really? REALLY? No takers on the giveaway? I have stats on this thing and know I have readers, but no one wanted to enter? Oh well, just add it back to the inventory.

Second, a fashion blogger I follow, Lauren form Walking in Memphis in High Heals has a post up with some of her favorite pics from Newport News and Spiegel.

I had COMPLETELY forgotten about these two places, super cute stuff and reasonable prices. Go checkout her post and see the goodies she found.

Hope you all have a good weekend, we're still digging ourselves out of the snow. I sure hope it warms up and melts away on it own today.

Snow day round 2, he loves to fall down in it :)

 

Monday, Monday & a GIVEAWAY!

Weekend was super busy. We went out of town to attend my niece's SECOND birthday. Feels like yesterday I got the call that she had decided to make her entrance into the world.

I worked half a day on Friday and then headed off to get my stitches out and face Dr. Galzier for the first time since all my ridiculous emails and phone calls. 

He was totally cool about it and told me he was impressed with my photo skills. Um, thanks. I'm good at slefies, what can I say?!

Stitches came out and all looked good despite my worrying and thinking that it was all going wrong. 

I then drove to pick the hubs up from snowboarding. He left early Friday morning for a day trip with a buddy. Tough life he lives ;) 

I got lost and drove about an hour out of the way. But still got there before they were finished and got to soak in some of the VA beauty on the backboards as I was lost.

And then we drove the rest of the 3 hours together to Abingdon, VA. We got stuck in the parking lot of I-81 due to an accident. We made the best of it and played Heads Up. I'm pretty much awesome at giving clues, not so much guessing and he's just the opposite. Great team so long as we don't have to change roles. 

The great thing was that Mr. Mister went with my in-laws so at lest we didn't have a screaming toddler in the car with us on the drive out there. 

He did have a great time at the party on Saturday. Loved all the toys she got, but really LOVED the Mini Mouse shopping cart. He pushed that thing around for a solid hour. And then took a great nap, score! 

All the photos of him are blurry. He never stops moving.

The best part of making the trip out there is to see the two of them play together. Here they are 'resting' and trying to swindle their way out of nap time.

I also finished the shoe organization project in the closet. I picked up more supplies but got the wrong shelf. Can you spot the difference? I can, every time I walk in the closet. It bugs the heck out of me. Oh well, at least it's done.

I thought I'd be announcing the giveaway winner, but no one but me (I did one for a test) entered, what the heck? So lets try this again. Giveaway below, I'll keep it open all week until Thursday at midnight and announce the winner Friday!

I'm also changing the prize, the Two Broke Girls necklaces seem to the most popular so far, so I'll give one away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Frugal Friday & a Giveaway

I'm cheating and using my store grand-opening I wrote about yesterday as my Frugal Friday post.

BUT not to disappoint you, I'm tossing in a GIVEAWAY!!!

So remember when I wrote this Frugal Friday post back in November and gave you some options to find look-a-likes of the Kendra Scott Harlow Statement Necklace???

Well it's your lucky day because I carry one and you can now win it! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter!

The Betty. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sparkle and Shine

I should wait and post this for Frugal Friday, but I can't keep a secret... I've got big news you guys! I FINALLY figured out what I want to do when I grow up.

People always say find your passion and then go for it. Well, unless they have started paying for shopping and watching smut reality TV, I'm not too sure how I'd make a living doing what I love. 

At least that's what I thought until it hit me. I love to shop. I love a good bargain. I love me some jewelry. And BAM - I'll open up an online jewelry store with amazing jewelry for the frugal and fabulous.

I've been working on this for months now, and am excited to show you guys my store: Edith Marie Jewelry

Basically I've tracked down some amazing deals from wholesalers and am passing along the good prices. Fabulous jewelry all! I have all the items in inventory and ship them out as soon as your order comes in. No waiting weeks for it! 

Here's a sampling of a few of my favorites:

$7.50!

$8.99!

$4.50!

$8.99 and comes in 3 colors!

$8.50 and comes in 2 colors!

LOVE these! $4.99 and 6 colors!

Little more at $15.99 BUT its beautiful and worth it! 

$4.50 and 2 colors!

But who am I kidding, I love everything on the site so go check it all out. I'm also adding stuff almost daily so be sure to follow the store on Facebook and Instagram to keep an eye on new arrivals.

Wondering about the name? So I had lots of ideas. Most were super cheesy and involved the words like bobbles, sparkle, shine, jewelry box, etc. But then I thought about some of the most successful stores and brands and they are simply names.

So, it is named after the two women in my life that I've been told I get my love of gaudy jewelry from: my great grandmother and grandmother on my dad's side. Those ladies had some jewelry and knew how to wear it!

So come on all my jewelry addicts, go check it out. And, you know I love a good coupon code, so just for you all, use the code MILF for an extra 20% off!

Shoes for days and a RUN!

Three-day weekends are the best. The best. 

I took advantage of the extra day by not doing a single thing all weekend and then took on a big organizational project Monday. 

I have so many shoes. I didn't even realize how many I had until yesterday. They are tucked away all over the place an piles up in the floor in our bedroom, the living room and by the front door. 

I decided to try and get them organized and all in one place so we bought the Rubbermaid shoe racks to go in our closet. It's only half way done, but I love it and so far, 20 pairs are now up and organized.

These are mostly shoes I don't wear that often and will need a step stool when I want to get one down. 

Ta-da:

Also, I came out of my running retirement to run for Meg and I couldn't be more honored. It's one of those tragic stories that tugs at your heart strings. I tear up every time I see a new #megsmiles post. I just can't shake it.

Frugal Friday

I am a jewelry junkie like no other. No other. 

I love that it fits no matter what size you are or how many cupcakes you ate at the office luncheon. 

It can often be a conversation starter and a way to show your style. It quickly dresses up an outfit and makes it look like you have your shit together. 

I have so much jewelry. It's embarrassing. I'm even working on turning my love of all things sparkly and shinny into a business, more on that later. 

But for now, we are going to talk about one of my favorite places to buy jewelry. Burlington Coat Factory! 

I know, not the first place you'd think of but they carry some amazing stuff and it's all ridiculously cheap. Earrings are usually around $5 and necklaces are $8-10.

I went yesterday at lunch and took a few photos of what they have right now so here's some eye candy for you... 

They also cary a good bit online, but then you have to pay for shipping unless you spend more than $75, and that's a lot of jewelry! 

Hey, it's me again

So basically I've become the crazy high-maintenance patient all doctors hope they don't get. I have called and/or emailed my dentist no less than 6 times in 3-days. I bet someone is regretting, 'here's my contact info, call or email me if you need anything at all."

He's been totally cool about it, but I KNOW he's rolling his eyes when he sees my number or email come up.

Ya'll I send emails with photos attached of what the new problem is. Straight crazy. Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of a tooth in your mouth?! Hard, but thanks to all my inquiries, I'd say I have perfected it. 

I've tried to coat my craziness with humor, but I think it's lost on him. For example, I signed one email something like, "Your high-maintenance patient, Amber" and no reference back to it in his email. None at all. 

And my last email was, "Hi, me again. Few more questions, go figure. " To which he called me. He's probably all, "Oh gez, let me call this crazy so my email ding stops going off on my phone."

But whatever, I can be a little crazy. You pulled a tooth out of my mouth and some of my stitches came out. How am I suppose to not freak out!? 

In other news, I've decided to start talking about weight loss again. Yay. Here's the deal, real talk: I have not run in over a month. The last time I ran was the BCS Half Marathon. I took retirement seriously. A little too much. Now I feel like an out-of-shape-lethargic mess. 

So let's face it, I need to get this body moving agian and plan to run 2 miles a day, 5 days a week. I also want to add weight training. I'd like to do this 3 times a week. The big goal is to join the 5 a.m. club the days the Hubs is home in the mornings and hit the gym for a good hour-long workout. 

And most importantly, I'm giving the clean eating thing a try. I know myself, I wont be 100% clean, but I'm shooting for 80% 

So here are my stats as of this morning-

Weight - 160.2 

Pant size - A comfortable 10. Not too tight and def not loose. 

Here we go!  

Sometimes bitches need stitches

OMG. Where to even start. I had my big dental appointment on Friday. It went fine, better then fine, really well actually. I was just super emotional about it all. Scared. Sad. Freaked the eff out.

Um, why do I look like I'm going in for surgery?!

I mean, I lost a freaking tooth and now have cadaver bone fragments in my jaw for a bone graph. Kind of creepy, right? The science behind it all is amazing, but come on, I've got dead person bone in my mouth!

I decided to save a few hundred dollars and make the trip up to Richmond to the VCU dental college. Amazing. So glad I did. And, they take insurance!

I'm seeing a resident, Dr. Glazier so he's already technically a dentist and is just getting the last of his hours in so he can go start his own practice.

Did you know they are in school FOREVER. Like SEVEN+ years. Granted part of that is because he's a specialist, smart guy, that's where the money is. Sorry ladies, he's married.

I kind of felt like I was on Gray's Anatomy a la dental hospital edition. It's obviously a teaching environment so I had observers and he talked through everything for their benefit and quizzed them on stuff.

AND, while I was sitting there getting numbed up, I overheard them talking about some school drama. Apparently someone needed some time off and one the professors was being a d-bag about it. Granted, not too professional, but I loved it.

The facility itself was also quite impressive. They have state of the art equipment, all the new stuff for them to learn on. When I go back to get my stitches out, I get a 3-D x-ray of my mouth. How cool is that?

I also really like that they were all young in their careers and still think this stuff is fun and cool. They aren't all bogged down with running a practice and sick and tired of doing their job. My doctor even called me on Saturday to see how I was doing. Say what!?

The other benefit is that the dental instructor comes by and double checks all the work along the way. It gave me great peace of mind that everything was done correctly and looked good.

Half a smile and a swollen face. I was numb for HOURS. 

The end result from Friday's appointment.

Something is missing. And ek, my neck. Double gross on this pic. 

So it's not that bad, you can barely tell when I smile. Thank the good lord! 

I go back in two weeks to get stitches out and he checks on the bone graph. If all is good I heal for another 1.5 months and then, then the implant goes in. Ek. 

So the moral to this story: floss your teeth! And, if you do ever need a root canal, you might want to just skip ahead to this. Apparently, MOST root canals eventually fail and you end up in this situation. 

Frugal Friday

So today we're going to talk about Kmart. You still have one open where you live? If you don't, you can still shop online.

Well we do have one open and I stop by from time to time for a visit. That Jaclyn Smith surprises me from time to time with some really cute stuff. So here's a run down of a few things I've found lately.

Love this rain jacket. Love. Super cute and I'm obsessed with leopard accents and the lining is leopard! $27.99 right now!

I found this shirt for $13.49 and then noticed they had an entire outfit put together with it, super impressed with you Kmart!

Fell in love with the leather trip on this dress. It on sale for $10.79!

And I think these boots are cute. Would look adorable with some skinny jeans or boyfriend jeans.

And I secretly love these. Probably wouldn't have the guts to wear them, but hey, they're only $19.99.

These on the other hand, I will rock. Super cute with dresses and skirts. Love them especially for $19.99.

Look around online and if you spend $50, free shipping! Also, check our RetailMeNot for some other discount codes. I found one for $5 off $45 or more but be careful, sometimes using the code takes out your free shipping.  

Happy discount shopping!

The power of Pinterest and a bad haircut

So after I logged on to blogger after a week of being sick, I was all, "What? The statistics must be broken. 200 viewers earlier this week?"

I did some investigative work thanks to the more detailed statistic report and sure enough, real visitors. All coming from Pinterest to my post about breastfeeding. Holly shit. Kind of blew my mind.

Funny how you start a blog, but don't really think people are reading it. I mean, I know people are reading it, but not that many. Crazy! I just hope my tips are helping and glad I decided to hit publish on that bad boy.

Everyone have a good weekend? We took Mr. Mister to get his first haircut. I wanted to go to a fun kids place. First, because I thought they'd do a good job, they specialize in this stuff.  And second, so I could get cute photos of him sitting in a truck or something and an official first haircut certificate. Well, we got 2 out of three of those. And lets just say a good haircut wasn't one of them.



He was perfect. Didn't cry, didn't move a lot. Let me hold is head still so she could get close to the ears. We walked out of there with half a haircut and too much hair missing above one of his ears. The hubs and I were so dumbfounded we didn't know what to say. Um, thanks for the horrible haircut, here's $25 and glad we drove 20 minutes out of our way for this!

Sorry kid, builds character. Or something like that. 

We got 5 minutes down the road and the hubs grew more and more mad about it. Shock was wearing off. So he called them and said something along the lines of, "Hi, we were just in and sorry I didn't say anything before we left, but I just feel like his haircut looks like something I could have done at home. Can I bring him back and have someone fix it, or do I need to take him somewhere else."

Of course they said to bring him back, so we u-turned it and headed back. I'm not a confrontational persona and this made me SO uncomfortable. But, I sucked it up, his hair really did look baaad.

A different lady fixed it, the original lady retreated to the back until we were gone. We weren't jerks about it and all in all, it was worth going back. He does look pretty darn cute with his business man haircut.

Here we go again, round 2...

And the end product:

I'm alive, sort of.

I got kidnapped by the flu and a sinus infection. I have not been sick in ages. It sucks. Sucks.

Basically, I'm sick. And it hurts!

But, I'm on the mend and thought I'd catch you all up on our holiday season. We had a great trip to visit the hubby's family. My mom went with us so we had a blended family Christmas. It was great to have both his parents and my mom there to enjoy Christmas with Mr. Mister. 

But first, before we left for the trip, we enjoyed craft time. 

Finished product. 

The ornaments were such a success and I had a good 1:1 ratio going (1 good one for 1 bad one), that I decided to up the game and do reindeer feet. Boom, reindeer card factory.

Child labor laws? Not in our house! 

 We hit the road Saturday and drove 6+ hours across the state with 3 adults, a toddler and 5lb dog. It was a long day, but all in all, everyone did well. The dog might have won the award for best behaved.

It was great being with the extended family so these two could spend their days playing.

I also enjoyed some good cooking like it was my job. Everything has at least a stick of butter in it. A least. But it's soooo good.

I found Grandma's secret ingredient.

Hubby and I played Santa's helper. Well technically it was a gift from my mom, so Nana's helper. That thing was kind of a B to put together. Beware of the supplemental instructions.

But it was worth it, because he LOVED it. 

They may have both loved it. Time to learn how to share. 

Good thing there were a bazillion other gifts to distract them both.

AND then Santa came the next morning. More toys, oh, yay!

Over to the other great grandmas for Christmas fun.  More toys.

We had to come back Christmas day. Hubby had to work the next day. And we came home to more toys... oh yay.

And now our living room looks like this. But that's ok. We'll find a home for it all some where. He is most certainly loved.

  

All in all it was a great trip and a great holiday season. Hope you all enjoyed yours as well and were able to spend it with love ones.