Friday

Yesterday was fun! Mike was off so we were able to spend time together! We went to Rock Island and picked up a foosball table he found on craigslist! The man cave is one step closer to being complete!

Let me just say right now, I'm terrrrible at foosball. It was so frustrating that I made Mike play one-handed and he still beat me!! Good thing he has a sense of humor and lets me be a brat and make up rules! One of my favorites "If you are beating me 5-0 you have to get me another beer!" Yes I am a brat. ;)

New leather chair - whoever said cats don't like leather is wrong!

We made the onion burgers last night! Very good. I accidentally put an entire pack of onion soup mix in instead of half (oopsies!) but it wasn't too salty and ended up being ok. Instead of 8 sliders I made 4 burgers because I couldn't find slider buns. If you decide to make it and go this route you may consider more meat! I don't know how I always forget Mike likes a lot of meat! The burgers were a little small and needed a bigger piece of cheese stuffed inside. I sauteed one onion instead of two because it just looked like so much after cutting up one - but I would do two. Those babies really cook down! Mike said the recipe was a keeper so we'll try it again and tweak it a bit!

Today Mike is installing the surround sound in the basement and we have some more pictures to hang otherwise we are going to go out and have fun! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Did she just say spa-tastic?

Yesterday I met up with my friend Jessica for happy hour! After we wined and dined ;) we did a little shopping! No big purchases, but I did buy a candle on sale @ Banana Republic! Strange place to be buying candles, I know, but BR was (is?) having a sale with an extra 50% off all sale items!

The candle was not packaged as pretty as this as it was the last one in the store, but who really needs a fancy candle box anyway? Not when it's a gift from me, to me, that's for sure!

In case you find yourself at BR, the scent is Golden Orchard and it's divinely therapeutically spa-tastic! That's right. Spa-tastic!

Original price: $16.99

Sale price: $9.99

My price: $4.99 + tax!

Do you Groupon?

I feel like everyone out there subscribes to Groupon by now, but just the other day I was talking to a close family friend (Heyyy Enny!) and she didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

So. Groupon = daily emailed coupons on things in your town! I personally have not purchased a groupon, but awhile back there was a Gap one and I sure wish I had (for $25 get $50 worth of apparel)! Sometimes the daily deal is in a part of town that I don't really want to go to/ not convenient, or on some random thing, but there is definitely a good variety (food, spa, clothing, sky diving, dance lessons...) of deals!

Also. My in-laws told me about Living Social and its awesomeness. Apparently Living Social has a bigger variety of local restaurants and they don't limit the number of coupons you can purchase. One example of a deal they got was for $10 get $25 worth of food and drink at a local restaurant. Kind of a good deal, folks!

Just this weekend I signed up for Living Social! There are many other daily deal places out there, but right now 2 is probably enough for me!

Maybe someday I will buy a coupon and reap the benefit of this inventive way for people to spend money in hard economic times!

Charming Charlie

Are you familiar with the crazy accessory store Charming Charlie?? It is the most intense explosion of organized insanity in accessory land! I'm not kidding!! I've been in two different stores - Tuscaloosa, AL and Cincinnati, OH (the store just opened in Deerfield Towne Center!) and if you are a fan of cute accessories for a decent price (or even if you are curious and just want to be overwhelmed by many, many options!), checking out this store is a must!! I just made a purchase today, so I have no clue what the long term quality is like, and the rings may turn your finger green? dunno.. All I know is I've never been to a store with a better selection and variety of all things accessories (and they have clothes too!!).

So why is this store so intense? Well, it's ginormous but organized by color! Being the methodological person that I am (thanks for those genes, Dad!) I like to approach a store with a plan - and it's tricky at this store because despite the color coding, the store is filled with many round display areas and it's easy to get distracted!! And because many items come in duplicate colors, it's possible that you don't notice the perfect bracelet until you find it in orange, and think "gee I wonder if this comes in blue?" so back to the blue section you go!!

Unfortunately at this time you are unable to shop online, so head to your nearest store and take a look-see!

This is what I purchased:



$5.97



$7.97



$12.97

So I was very excited to find the above bracelet. I've seen and heard so much about the Pandora style bracelets and seen many look-a-likes (Brighton, Biagi, Troll Beads, Chamilia, Donatella etc), but the price range is still WAY out of my budget no matter who makes the beads (you're lucky on average to spend less than $25 a bead! just one!! jeepers!!) Anyway, to find this similar style bracelet (even though I couldn't pick out my own beads like at the other places, which I admit is part of the appeal) for $12.97 I was pretty excited!

Looking forward to watching Grey's Anatomy tonight and cleaning up during commercials because THE HUSBAND comes home tomorrow (we think. and hope. and pray.)!

Kohl's steal!

So excited!! The other day I got a $10 off Kohl's coupon in the mail! I looked through the clothes and accessories and wasn't all that impressed (check out this confusing item! Greear - reminds me of shopping with you and finding that confusing top! haha! not so sure about this one either!) so I checked out the home decor and found a steal! I got the smaller pumpkin (actually a good size - 7inches)- it was originally $16.99, on sale for 40% off, and then with my coupon it was a whopping $0.20! YAY!!!

Cuteness!

Can you tell I'm loving fall? :)