It's that time of year again

Are you ready for the holidays? I'm not. I totally thought I had all this time to prepare. I've been thinking about presents and cards and baking for weeks now. I just haven't made any concrete plans. I kept telling myself that I have tons of time and that I can do it all later. I don't know why. For some reason I just didn't want to be eager beaver about Christmas this year. Now I'm rushing to get things done. I just really didn't realize that Christmas is next week already. I think part of me just doesn't want to deal with the holidays this year. I was already pretty disappointed about the holidays this year since a lot of my extended family won't be around this year and then Max passed away which makes it even worse. Anyways, I'm almost done making my cards and I'm doing most of my baking next week. I had wanted to bake lots of stuff this year, but now I'm scaling back on my baking plans. Partly because I don't have time and partly to save money. :(

I am done with my present buying! It helped that I'm not giving out as many presents this year. A lot of my friends and I have decided to just do Secret Santa or White Elephant gift exchanges this year. We are all feeling the crunch of the economy this year. I did get some great deals on the presents I did buy. December is a great time for sample sales. This weekend I went to a bunch of them and scored big time. The best sale of them all was the Stila Warehouse sale.

Most of what I bought were presents. I only got a few items for myself. I regret that now though. Everything was such a good deal that I should have gotten more for myself. Oh well. There is always next time! Here is what I got:

Blanc Palette

Retail $32, Sale Price $10

Red Carpet Look

Retail $40, Sale $15

Chocolate Palette

Retail $40, Sale $15

Two Lip Glazes 

Retail Price $22, Sale Price $5

The Perfect Face Kit

Retail $45, Sale $20

The Stila Stars

Retail $55, Sale $25

Bronzer

Retail $28, Sale $7

Total retail price of all items comes out to $284. Actual price paid was $102. Plus there was no tax so that's even more savings! Woo hoo! I wish all shopping was like this.

It's getting hot in herre

It's like it's summer outside. The sun has come out and the air conditioning has been turned on. You know what that means? A trip to the mall. I'm in need of some new tank tops and short sleeved clothes. I picked up a few tops at Nordstrom and Forever 21. This was my first big shopping trip in awhile. I wanted to buy so much stuff. I forgot how much fun shopping can be! My bank account, however, does not agree. More than half of my new clothing is for work though. That makes me feel a little bit better about my purchases. This shopping trip is definitely helping me get out of my weird funk.

Happy early birthday to me

I scored a pair of Lanvin ballet flats at the Barney's sale this weekend. The boy actually bought them for me as part of my birthday gift. They were quite the splurge. I also got a Top Shop top. The boy picked up a pair of shoes. I was hoping to find some boots. No such luck. I only saw two pairs of boots in my size. Both pairs were just eh. I didn't spend much time browsing the racks of clothes at the sale. By the time we got there, I had a horrible headache and just wasn't in the mood. There are many things that can cause me to not be in the mood. Headaches. Uncomfortable clothing and/or shoes. Crowds. All three non-shopping mood causing factors were present on Saturday.

Before heading home, we ate at Bossa Nova over on Pico and swung by Beard Papa's for some yummy cream puffs.

Here is a rundown of my Sunday

• Slept in. Missed church - oops!
• Walked the dog. Had breakfast then gave the dog a much needed bath.
  
• After everyone was clean, the boy, the dog and I all fell asleep on the bed. Can we say lazy?
• Woke up from aforementioned nap and did homework while the boy watched basketball and played xbox.
• Had dinner with the boy and his parents before driving back home to San Diego.

Currently

• Wishing it wasn't Sunday night and that I didn't have to work tomorrow
  

going to see Barney

No, not that Barney. A better barney. On my way to Santa Monica to check out the semi-annual Barney's warehouse sale (oh, and to see the boy too). I'll let you know how it is.

Gotta love on-line shopping

This year, I did some of my Christmas shopping online. I like to do this for a few reasons:

1. I don't have to fight the crowds
2. I can shop whenver I like and in my pajamas no less!
3. Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy things online than in the stores.

Whenever I buy stuff on-line I always do some research first. I will look for coupon codes and I also use Mr. Rebates. I LOVE Mr. Rebates. With this website, you can get a certain percent cash back on your purchases at various online stores such as Nordstrom, Sephora, and even the itunes store. Granted, sometimes the cashback is only 1% of your purchase, but this adds up. Especially if you are going to make these purchases anyways, you might as well use Mr. Rebates. This past Christmas I got back a total of $46.75! How can you not love that?

ps
I'll blog about my Christmas festivities within the next few days. My camera is broken, so I have to try and get some pics from my cousins.

Christmas bells are ringing

I did some more Christmas shopping today. I was out for four hours today - whew! AND I only got presents for 2 people. AND I'm not even done shopping for these two people. Here's what I got:

Carry on luggage for the boy, except in black. We're going to Vegas this weekend so I'll be giving it to him tomorrow. He's been wanting a new carry-on luggage with the spinner wheels for awhile now. I was in Macy's and saw it on sale so I scooped it up for him.



I bought a bunch of orange ginger products at the Bath and Body Works outlet for my friend H, the same friend that I blogged about before (asks for a specific item and then makes me return it later). I got hand lotion, body wash, shampoo and conditioner. I'm going to put it all in a little basket and give her money. She said she wanted a nice hair dryer, but I'm just going to give her the money and she can buy it herself. Last year she asked for a hair straightener. I bought her one, she tried it and she didn't like it so she asked me to return it and just give her the cash. This year I don't want to have to deal with the hassle if she wants to return the hair dryer.

There were A LOT of people at the mall today. Even at 10 am it was crowded, which surprised me. The next chance I have to go shopping is Thursday. Wish me luck!

Weekend Wrap-up

My weekend was a mix up of boring and fun. Here it goes.

Friday:
Came home from work. Cooked bistro style short ribs with a recipe from Tyler Florence of the Food Network. It was my first time making it. I really liked it. It's definately something I'll be making again. After dinner, I took my accounting final. I take the class online and I have to say, accounting is really hard to learn on your own. I did better on the final than I thought I had expected, so that was nice. I ended up getting a B in the class. Yay me!

Saturday:
Woke up and then ran errands in the morning. I went to Ralphs to buy some groceries, Kohl's to make use of the 15% friends and family coupon, and then to the bank. The boy and his family came down Saturday evening. They came down in their van to help some family members move some items. I decided to cook dinner for them since the boy is always telling them how I cook all the time and that I cook well. Plus, they always take me out to eat and I thought this would be a nice way to return the favor. I'm always a little afraid to cook for people the first time. What if they don't like my food? Then I'd feel bad because they might feel obligated to finish the food on their plate even though they may potentially hate it. Because of this fear of mine of cooking for people for the first time, I wanted to cook something that I've made for lots of people and that they have all liked. I decided to cook lasagna and banana pudding, both made completely from scratch and both have been enjoyed by many people in the past. Guaranteed winner, right? Wrong. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and even had seconds . . . except for the boys mom. She had her one piece of lasagna on her plate forever. Everyone was already on their second piece and she still had most of her first piece on her plate and she would put the tiniest piece of food on her fork when she would eat it. The only thing she said about dinner was that the salad was good. The salad that came from a bag! I was a little disappointed and a little bit embarassed that she didn't like it. Then I served my home made pudding and she had one bite and that was it. Again, everyone else had 2 servings each. I really don't understand why his mom didn't like my cooking. She doesn't cook so they eat all of their meals out. Mostly they eat at places like Sizzler, Burger King, Coco's, Olive Garden, etc. Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about those places, but they aren't the best most flavorful places in the world. I figured, if she loves Coco's so much, my food had to at least be as good as that.

Sunday:
Sunday was a very estrogen charged day - MUCH better than Saturday. Woke up early and got my hair cut and highlighted. I love my hair the day I get it cut because my stylist does such a great job of cutting it and blows out my hair for me. Every time I get my hair cut, I get a compliment on it. At least one person, if not more, will come up to me and say what a great hair cut I have. I'm not trying to be vain or anything. I take none of the credit for how good my hair looks. That all goes to Trevor, my stylist. I can never make my hair look that good on my own so they day I get it cut is my best hair day. Went to lunch at a nearby thai place with my sister and my friend H. Then we went on a shopping marathon. We went to Nordstrom rack and Off Fifth. We were on our way to Fashion Valley mall and made a quick pit stop at Coffee Bean to refuel then it was time for more shopping. We all went back to my place to eat left-over lasagna and watched a movie on On Demand. Lucky for me, I have Monday off too. I'll blog about that tonight or tomorrow.

Argh!!!!!!

I just went got back from Bed Bath and Beyond. The charging station I was planning on buying the boy is nowhere to be found. I wanted to buy it in store so that I could use the 20% off one item coupon (yes, I'm that cheap - a couple of dollars here and there makes a difference). Since I couldn't find it in the store I figured I'd buy it online, but its out of stock! Now what do I do?