Time to Retire

I'm picky when it comes to purses. I have a hard time finding purses I absolutely LOVE that aren't hundreds of dollars. I'm really good at falling in love with purses, but its usually quickly crushed by shock once I turn over the price tag. I don't like expensive things. Okay, I like expensive things, but I don't like paying for expensive things, nor do I believe that those expensive things justifiably cost what their staggering price tags scream they do.

Back to the point- once upon a time I was in the market for a purse. I searched high and low and couldn't find anything I was satisfied with. My purse at the time had suffered a severe handle fracture and therefore I was in dire need of something to carry around all my chapstick and receipts and gum wrappers in (STAT!) so I decided to find a "go between" (read: a-cheapie-$6-purse-from-Ross-that-I-embellished-with-silk-flowers-I-made-into-pins-to-hide-its-plainess-so-I-had-something-to-cart-around-my-belongings-in-until-I-found-something-I-loved).

It has been 10 months and I still have my go between. Now I need a go between for my go between. I've been doing some projects for my apartment and am apparently just living up to my klutzy tendencies because I got some of the paint I was using onto my purse's flower pins. That, and the fact that the petals are starting to fray and they're looking kinda dingy anyway. *Sigh*

I guess it's time to start the purse hunt again. Wish me luck.

P.S.

I also need to start looking for a new everyday coat... I just discovered a strikingly similar smudge of blue on the elbow of my current one. At least for this I have until it's winter time again.

P.P.S.

Which by the way the weather's been lately means next week.

Helpful Hint

If you just so happen to be dressing up some plain old picture frames by gluing wooden decorations to them, and your adhesive of choice just so happens to be Gorilla Glue, and when gluing said wooden things you happen to get Gorilla glue on your fingers do not continue your project thinking you'll just wash up later. In addition, do not proceed to paint the aforementioned picture frames while the Gorilla glue is still lingering (and yes, drying) onto your poor little fingers, black paint and all.

Unfortunately, just about any home remedy you can think of at this point will be in vain. You are now stuck with black paint smudges glued to your fingers until your skin cells decide to cycle out. And yes, it will still be just as bad the next morning while you are frantically scrubbing trying to improve them before work. Shoulda washed your hands at the first sign of contact, genius.

Please learn from my mistakes. I think I'm going to invest in some disposable gloves...

(PS- wearing your brand new, silk, J Crew shirt while carrying out this project is probably not advisable either. Thankfully, that was one casualty averted.)

I Glove You

As mentioned before, I love a good deal. I can't help it. I don't just like inexpensive things-I like expensive things that I can get for way cheaper than normal.

Exhibit A: 100% leather gloves with 100% silk lining
Lord and Taylor brand
Beautiful dark pink
Retail price: $100
My price? Oh yeah, $19.99.
I've been wanting some nice leather gloves for these cold seasons upon us and I happened to stop by Ross and found these beauties. Can you love a glove? Because I think I do...

I also bought these soft, plum purple gloves, Fossil brand, retail $35, which I got for $5. Because you can't wear pink leather gloves with a hoodie right? I can justify anything...

Another reason I love these gloves (both pairs) is because they are longer so I won't have any exposed wrists to suffer the cold. I hate being cold. So I love that idea.

Also, if you'll take a gander with me at Exhibit B:

Eco friendly
Real bamboo handles
Soft, supple, cruelty free bristles
Oh and don't forget the generously portioned 4 free sample jars of mineral based face powder you can get with any purchase

I bought 5 brushes, my grand total after shipping, etc: $28.59. Uhm, have any of you out there shopped for make-up brushes? They is dang expensive. So the fact that I got 5 lovely brushes for the price of one in any normal shop is enough to tickle my budget-minded fancy. LOVE these. What's even better about the price? I was fully prepared to pay the $33 (before tax) for these brushes but for some reason (not one that I'm complaing for mind you) the total showed a "Discount" line that took off almost $9 of that price! I hadn't entered a promo code or anything. They apparently just sensed how wonderful I was and wanted to honor me with a discount... or so I can keep telling myself.

Some might be skeptical, buying make-up brushes so cheap, but I have been using brushes by eco tools which you can buy at target, ulta, and online at just about at any beauty store, and I love them. They've held up really well and stayed super soft and applied evenly- I love them. They range from $4-$10 and when I first got them I was sure they'd be cheap and I'd just have to end up getting newer ones soon so they were my temporary stand in until I found better ones. But I never did. Mostly because the price tags on any others quickly deterred me, but also because they seemed pretty on par with my eco tools. Maybe these don't compare to high-end brushes- I couldn't tell ya, I've never used anything else- but they sure have worked great for me.

I have a feeling these brushes from everyday minerals will be just as good as my eco tools. I'm excited to try their make-up too. Its pretty reasonably priced and if I like my free samples, I might just come back to try some more!

Anyway, have a lovely day all and I hope everyone is making the most of this autumn season. I personally plan to be scared out of my wits at things popping out of a cornfield at me all night, among other activities planned for the coming up weeks.

Frugally yours,
Julie

Long Time

I haven't blogged in a while, for more than a month actually, and I have a whole list of things just begging to be blogged about! I have been training a new receptionist at work and so I haven't had a computer during the day to blog on (not that I blog at work...), but now I have a few spare moments so I am going to record some of the things on my list.

First of all, Bradford and I had a lot of fun with our Fall o'Festivities. We went to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point with his sister and brother-in-law, and had a lot of fun there. The corn maze itself was kind of lame... but the company and food was fun. That same night, before the corn maze, we celebrated our 2-year anniversary. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and Cold Stone. That's where we went on the date we decided to become official. Insert "Awws" here. :)

Bradford's sister, Amanda, also put together a really fun evening for the adults in the family. It was a full on pirate themed murder mystery dinner. Complete with costumes and crazy accents. Bradford was a British Lieutenant and I was an African witch doctor. Because of our budgets I decided I would hone my creative skills and make our costumes myself. For mine I bought some clearanced fabric at the fabric store and made myself a robe and skirt. I probably should have used a pattern but the patterns cost more than my materials did so I decided to just wing it. Surprisingly, it turned out looking ok. The hood was the only part that didn't turn out exactly how I would have liked but I guess that's what I get for not using a pattern. Then I bought a cheap skeleton from a discount store, disassembled him, and strung him into a necklace with a few plastic spiders here and there. I then used a scarf for my head dress. Bradford's costume turned out even better than I'd hoped. He had some BYU men's chorus jackets that the previous tenant had left in his closet so I took one of them to use for his naval officer outfit. I took off the men's chorus badge, sewed some gold trimming across the buttons, and I made the shoulder fringe things with two sponges painted gold and gold trim hot glued around the edges. Then I sewed them onto the shoulder pads in the jacket. I bought a foam sword from Wal-mart for 2 dollars and painted the handle gold (it was blue). Then I sewed a sash out of some red fabric and a ruffly collar thing out of some white fabric. I made his hat out of a dollar store straw hat that I sewed up on the sides and added some gold trim around the edges. Lastly, I used the khaki pants he wore for our Halloween costumes last year (he was Colonel Mustard for a Clue party my friends threw), and I cut them off and added some blue ribbon to the bottoms to tie on the sides. And he wore tights... I tried to find knee-highs but to no avail. He didn't seem to mind them. I'm not sure what that means... ;) Overall I only spent about $40-$50 all together. Here is a picture of us in our costumes my roommate took for us. Doesn't Bradford look dashing?

Another thing on my list of festivities that we did was drive up the canyon to see the leaves. It was such a refreshing afternoon. We grabbed a pizza and headed up for a relaxing drive and some good conversation. We topped off the night with some hot chocolate. Here are a couple pictures we took up at the canyon. It was a little chilly, hence my rudolph nose. And yes, I kiss boys. Well, just one actually.

Bradford and I also went to the pumpkin patch and then carved some jack-o-lanterns. I love going to the pumpkin patch. I don't know why exactly, but I love it. My pumpkin is the sad/scared one. Its supposed to be scared but it looks kinda sad instead. I wanted to do a scared jack-o-lantern because jack-o-lanterns are usually scary, not scared, so I thought it would be some good irony. My pumpkin was particularly fibrous. I had a hard time carving it because the fibers kept peeling away. It was interesting and made the whole pumpkin carving even more challenging. Anyway, we carved them the night before Halloween and then on Halloween we watched a bunch of scary movies and ate a bunch of candy. A few days ago we smashed our pumpkins and took a video of them.

Here is Bradford at the pumpkin patch, cutting the vine to one of the lucky pumpkins that gets to come home with us:

And here are our finished jack-o-lanterns. I wanted to carve the little gourd but that thing was hard as rock. I couldn't have made a single notch in it without at least losing a finger.

Here is a picture of my pumpkin after he had been smashed. Poor thing.

And this is the pumpkin smashing video:

Another thing we did that was on my list of things to do this fall was to buy some fall clothes. Bradford actually came with me believe it or not and didn't get sick of shopping until hours later. I'm so proud of him. ;) We went up to Park City to do our shopping at the outlet mall up there. I love going up to Park City. It always feels like a vacation. It was a lot of fun and we found a lot of stuff for some really good deals. I bought a long light jacket, nine west brand, that was orginally $200 but I got it for $30, and I bought some new black dress pants for work and a black ruffly-ish blouse, brown flats, a silk blouse, and another blouse at the Banana Republic outlet for a steal. Then I got a sweater and a new black cardigan at the Gap outlet and I can't remember what else... maybe that was it. I also got a new umbrella later back in Orem at Target. We went to dinner after our spree and drove back home. It was really a lot of fun. Bradford enjoyed it at least as much as I did too.

All in all, it has been a great month since I last wrote. I anticipate the next month to be just as good. Hopefully though, it won't be that long before I blog again...

Its in the Air

I am SO excited for Fall this year!!! Granted, Utah falls aren't quite as vibrant or long as those back in KY, among other places, but it will be wonderful all the same. No matter how soon the time runs out from now until the snow starts falling, I will cram as much autumn into my days as I can handle.

I love fall clothes, the weather, the BYU football games, the smells, the food, and of course those begging-to-be-stepped-on-ultra-crunchy leaves! I am going to make sure that this is an Autumn of enjoyment, taking advantage of all the fun, festivities, and beautiful nature that can be had.

I can hardly wait to go fall clothes shopping. New shoes, sweaters, jackets, jeans... I'm tickled at the very anticipation of it! Bradford will definitely humor me because I'm pretty sure he will also benefit from the fruits of my sprees. Sometimes its more fun shopping for him than it is for myself.

I'm starting a fund for our Fall O'Festivities, as Bradford fittingly christened it, so that we can be sure to go to the pumpkin patch to pick out our lucky pumpkin friends for this year, and also so that we have plenty of resources to attend all the fun things like farmers' stands, haunted houses, haunted forests, haunted corn mazes, haunted toilets, whatever! I get so ridiculously into those, no matter how unbelieveable, I push all logic aside so I can get thrououghly scared at every cliche chainsaw man and scary clown face (don't have to try too much be truly scared of those ones...). What fun is a haunted anything if you aren't going to let yourself be scared? Bradford can testify that I truly do denounce any reasoning that would allow me to walk through one of those without much clinging and shrieking. Not to mention the heap of entertainment for him as a product of that behavior...

And food! Thanks to the most recent Better Homes and Gardens magizine that was just bestowed to the doctors' office I work in, via the friendly postman, I have oodles of mouth-watering recipes and treats to try out. From pumpkin curry soup, spice-rubbed chicken to savory plum salad and chocolate cherry bread pudding... I think I will easily become a fan of the feasts of fall. Also, what fall is complete without several caramel popcorn balls and jugs of hot apple cider?! Come one, come all, I WILL be in the kitchen this season.

I hope that there are lots of fun parties and things going on... wait, this is Provo, land of the Cougars and home to BYU, of COURSE there will be parties, campus parties, community parties, ward parties, and hopefully a few parties by friends. Heck I may throw one myself if I feel ambitious enough. Now... what should Bradford and I dress up as if we need costumes? Hmm, that'll give me something to mull over.

Decorations! I want to do something fun in my apartment... maybe a fun squash arrangement or some fall leaves... There will definitely be scents of cinnamon and other delectable autumny smells to be had. Ooo! An autumn wreath on our door! Brilliant...

One of the canyons out here has what they call "The Alpine Loop." You go up one canyon and "loop" around the mountain and come out another canyon an along the way there are tons of aspen trees. They are gorgeous when they change color. They usually change pretty quickly though so you have to get up there at just the right time when they are at their most vibrant. I'm sure Bradford would love to go up with me and look at them and take some pictures. I also want to find a yard that needs to be raked so I can play in a pile of leaves. I loved it as a kid and and positive I would still find some kind of joy in it now.

With the days getting crisper, and whiffs of autumn in the air, Fall is going to be here before you can say Jack Robinson! So do something exciting to enjoy this wonderful season! Shower the kiddos with handfuls of candy come the 31st of October, try a fun recipe, sit outside and enjoy a beautiful afternoon with a good book. Let me know of plans you have so I can borrow your ideas and add them to my list.

Happy Fall everyone!!!