Becoming a Lady Who Lunches..

Though my lunches are rapidly coming to an end.  Summer is almost over BOOOOOOOOO!

Because my mom is an aide at a school, we get to hang during the summers.  Monday I had to head out to Laguna Beach to pick up Andrew's new glasses ('cause that's how we roll - eye doctors on the beach!), so I invited my mom for a day at the beach.

We decided to hit up Crystal Cove in Newport/Laguna area.  There are times when I COULDN'T LOVE So Cal more, and today was one of those days!  The area down on the beach is so cute - there are a bunch of little 1920's cottages that you can rent and there is one restaurant- The Beachcomber.  The day was fab and delish!

Crisis of EPIC Proportions!

And the title doesn't exaggerate AT ALL.  A few days ago I posted a picture of my shoes.  I have like 60+ pairs, which means 60+ boxes they are in.  I buy them at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and they fit my shoes perfectly.  Every time I go, I buy a few more than I actually need.  Now, I guess I've bought a lot of shoes in the last year or two, because I was only had 3 more in stock pile (and I JUST bought 2 new pairs of shoes).  To Bed, Bath & Beyond I headed to buy more.  Now, from reading the title and knowing I'm sort of insane, I'm sure you can guess where I am going with this.

THEY CHANGED THE SHAPE OF THE BOXES.

Old box on the left....new one on the right.  They don't even stack together!

Old box on the right, new box on the left.

 aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

The change may seem minute for the untrained-crazy-person-eyes, but for me it's an emergency!  As I was telling this story to Andrew, his immediate reaction was "you're NOT buying all new boxes!"  He knows the crazy look in my eye.  I went to several BB&B desperately hoping that they would have a few old ones sitting around, but alas, they do not.  I told the guy that I guess I had to stop buying shoes.  He looked at me like I was insane and said "that seems a little drastic."  I could also start purging old ones.  arg. I just ordered some off of Amazon and am HOPING that they are the old style.  I guess this will curb the shoe buying, since I only have ONE precious box left.  I'm going to be VERY choosy.

*I realize that this is not that serious.......but rather just annoying.

Oops, I did it again....

I went shoe shopping.  There's not much else to do.  Now, shoe shopping does not sound like it would be that bad, UNTIL you see what already exists in my closet....

Ya, I know.

That is like a million pairs of shoes.  I literally have so many shoes that I couldn't make them all fit in the picture.  They wrap further..... Yikes.  Some of the shoes are up so high that I have to have Andrew get them down for me.  When you have shoes that are over 6 feet in the air (just to fit), you may have a problem.

BUT, shoes are totally my kryptonite.  These new ones were on SALE.  sale.  I can't pass that up.  Buy 1 get 1 half off. Come on!  No woman could walk past that!!!

Check them out, I would've felt bad leaving them behind.

I love Steve Madden wedges.  They are seriously crazy comfortable.

 

Good news is that it will give me something to do.....take pictures for the front of their new pretty little box AND to buy new boxes.  Yay for a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond! :)

Glisenn-G = Heck Ya!

I'm a shoe hound.  It's been well established.  At some point I should post a picture of my closet.  It's pretty much shoe heaven.  About 1/2 of these little lovely shoes are Steve Madden.  They're just so cute and so comfortable!!!!!!!

Right now I own Steve Madden Glistenn shoe in white, black with multi-colored flowers (my total fav!!!) & as of today, black sparkly!  I seriously couldn't be happier. yahooooo!!!!!

YAY for new shoes!!!!!

And, yes James, I realize that these look like hooker shoes.  But, get over it.  I know you read this and I know you mock my shoes.  I LOOOOOVE them.  Stop reading my blog and go have fun in Italy.

Just Another Reason to Love JCrew!

THE JCREW OUTLETS!

Last weekend Ander and I headed out to Vegas.  We went to the Premium Outlet Mall just off of the strip.  Now, I am not usually an outlet mall sort of girl.  I honestly feel bad for the clothes since they have to live in big piles with gross bargain shoppers sifting through them all day.  I can't handle the mess and the crowds.  Wow, that makes me sound both a little bit crazy and snooty.  But, whatever, it's totally true.  This time, though, I braved the JCrew outlet since I love JCrew dresses SO much and Ander loves their jeans.

We were successful, to put it mildly.  I don't think Andrew will need new jeans  for years.  I, of course, will need new dresses very soon, but that's just how I roll.

AND the best thing ever was that everything is cheaper (since it's an outlet) AND they were having a President's Day Sale, so everything was an additional 30-40% off!  AND THEN I remembered that they do a teacher discount (I forget this EVERYTIME I shop there usually), and they totally deducted it from my total.  SCORE!

I got 3 dresses - two of which I have been eyeing for MONTHS! - and 5 teachery/school type tops.  Each of those dresses started out at $98 - I know this since I own the dress on the right in yellow, royal blue, and black.  I realize that I have a problem.

Andrew got 4 pairs of jeans (he put one on as soon as we got back to the hotel, so it's missing from the picture) and 4 polo shirts.  Clearly we find a style and just go with it.  Andrew's jeans started out at $98 - Again I know this because he already owns 2 pair, but they discontinued the style.....but they were at the outlet.

The total was......drumroll please......

$423!  The magical receipt told me that I saved $324.94 and that made me VERY happy.  Want to know what made me even happier?  We had a $100 Discover gift card, so we only had to pay $323 out of pocket.  Just my 3 dresses would have cost that normally!

I actually really enjoyed shopping with Andrew too, it's not really something that we normally do together.  Most of the time I buy something and then bring it home only to have Andrew tell me that he doesn't like it.  It was nice to have him there as a consultant.  :)

Needless to  say, our cheap trip to Vegas died and we spent a little more than planned, BUT it will now be a "must see" on every future trip to Vegas!

Gas Prices!

I drive a Prius, so my gas station trips have been totally cut in half.  My grandpa said that it's going to cause me to not win the lottery (since I usually buy a ticket every time I get gas and now I'm going half as often!).    I got gas yesterday morning and was astounded!

$33.45 for 9.5 gallons????  Lunacy!

Since when does gas cost $3.50 a gallon?!?!?!?!?!?  Yikes!

Just Call Me the COUPON QUEEN!

So, I have a new obsession.  It grew out of mocking (as most of my life), and now I'm the mocked instead of the mock-ee.

TLC had a show called "Extreme Couponing" where a bunch of crazy (And I use the term crazy totally endearingly, as now I wish I was as cool as they were!) use coupons to get things for super cheap and/or free.  As James, Andrew and I were watching it, we mocked the fact that these people were seriously obsessed.  Then it became, "how did they do that?"  Then it became "I want to do that"  Then it became "I'm doing it!". 

Growing up, my family never used coupons.  So, as an adult, we never use coupons.  Not that saving money doesn't sound like a good idea.  I mean, the more I save at the grocery store, the more I can spend on shoes.  It's a win-win for everyone!  So, I decided to tackle this whole coupon world.  I am a total neat/organization freak, so I can't just collect coupons.  I have to ORGANIZE coupons!

Coupon Notebook 
Obsessive = yes
Nerdy = no
Awesome = yes

So, I have now made it a weekly thing.  Every Sunday I go through the newspaper and clip coupons.  It's more fun than anything else.  Twice I have gone to CVS and gotten a bag worth of stuff for free.  It's awesome.  Here's what I bought today:



I got all of this for $21.  While I realize that is not free, I did get A LOT for a little!  I got: 3 twelve packs of soda, 2 bottles of laundry degergent, 2 two liter bottles of soda, 3 boxes of granola bars, 2 tubes of toothpaste, 2 bottles of soda, 2 containers of floss, 2 Cadbury Eggs and 1 bottle of Aleve.  



Most of this is not stuff I needed at this moment, at when it is super cheap, I stock up.  That's what the nerds on the TV show did, and they are my coupon idols.

Andrew now refers to me as the "Coupon Queen"  You may start doing so also.

Ghett-o!

The mall next to my school is pretty ghetto. Makes sense as my school is pretty ghetto. Like pregnant teenagers and gang fights ghetto. No joke.

So, anyway, Westminster just took the ghetto factor to a WHOLE new level. Found this little gem in the bathroom at the mall today....

WTF? I was wondering where to put my Heroin needles after shooting up at the mall.